Note: This Program is presently on "Hold" MEMORANDUM From: Bill Marvin To: Subscribers Who Plan to Still Be in Business Five Years From Now Re: Your 100,000-Mile Tune-Up
How Long Do You Expect Your Car to Last? The majority of today’s cars can run efficiently for 250,000 miles or more. Yet most of them are rusting away in salvage yards long before that. Why? Because they were not properly cared-for. Their final owners bought gas, changed the oil and washed them ... but eventually they started taking the cars for granted. Performance gradually declined. When the inevitable problems finally got serious enough to notice, the repairs were just too costly and the cars had little or no resale value. They were little better than junk. What Does It Take to Keep a Car On the Road Three Times Longer? Experts say that the key is good gas, regular maintenance and the willingness to invest in keeping the car tuned up ... even when it seems to be running OK. Keeping A Restaurant Performing at Its Peak Is No Different Just as your car needs a major tune-up from time to time, your restaurant periodically needs some detailed diagnostic attention to continue to perform to its full potential. When a concept has enjoyed success in the market over time, it is easy to start taking it for granted. The concept gradually – almost invisibly – gets stale. Let it go too long and the repairs become too costly. The Market Will Notice the Damage Long Before You Will What you thought was a short-term drop in sales "suddenly" turns out to be a long-term down trend. Combine this with an influx of newer, fresher competitors and perhaps an aging customer base, and you start to grasp the wisdom – indeed, the necessity – of bringing your classic beauty "into the shop" for a regular overhaul and tune-up. You must identify and correct any problems that could cause long term damage ... especially those whose symptoms may be invisible to you. (As an aside to this analogy, many cars are traded in two years. Why? Because people get bored and want a shiny new ride. It’s the same way they think of restaurants. To stay profitable, you can never afford to let yourself be thought of as "last year’s model.") A 100,000-Mile Tune-Up For Your Restaurant The "We" in all this is me, Bill Marvin, your friendly neighborhood Restaurant Doctor and Phyllis Ann Marshall, owner of FoodPower, a highly-respected restaurant consulting firm in Southern California. If you have attended any of the previous prior Super Summits, you already know that Phyllis Ann is a no-nonsense woman with a passion for food and a gift for knowing how to present it profitably to the marketplace. (If you aren’t familiar with Phyllis Ann, just listen to the interview below, a chat we had for my Management Insight Series a few years ago. If what you hear doesn’t make you want to get a lot more serious about what you are doing and how you are doing it ... perhaps you aren't ready for this program yet.) We will be gathering in Charleston, South Carolina on a date still to be determined. Charleston is a great "Restaurant Town," home to some of the most innovative independent restaurants in the country. They cover a wide range of operating styles and yet have managed to promote a common theme in distinctively different ways. They have done it so well, in fact, that they have effectively kept national chains out of the market. Charleston will be a living lab for us. Why Get a 100,000-Mile Tune-Up? Here are Three Very Good Reasons... Plus One Gigantic, Compelling One: Reason #1: We Have Enough Time To Go Deeply Into the Important Issues The first Super Summits brought together presentations from some of the leading experts in the industry. Their information was cutting-edge, very high level and the response was universally very positive ... but the feedback was that it was just too much, too fast. People wanted more time to get into the details ... and more "quiet time" to absorb a concept before being hit with the next one. So last year I changed the format to two presenters for two days on one focused subject area. It was so well-received that we had to offer a second session ... and the program has become a separate annual event called the CEO Foundation Program, part of the Project to Create the Effortless Organization. So I am using that same model again. This program will have a narrow focus and goes deeply into the material. I also extended the program to 2½ days to give more time for discussion, questions, research and reflection. In other words, everything is set up to be sure there is enough time for you to fully understand the principles we are getting at and come to a fresh realization – on your own terms – of how you can apply those principles to improve your own unique situation. Your 100,000-Mile Tune-Up is a series of discussions about Really Big Things, not "mechanics" like the font size to use on menus. It is about transformation, not incremental change. About the overall quality of your business and your business life, not just increasing sales. About how to RE-CAPTURE the passion. About protecting your investment and achieving your long term hopes and goals. It is about things to do; about practical strategies; about behaviors, about "doing it." It is about real world examples, not theory. You get an inside look at how operators just like you have salvaged boring businesses ... and learn how you can RE-INVENT – or just REFRESH – your place to get another strong 100,000 miles from the concept. Reason #2: The Format is Unique and Extremely Productive, Allowing You To Be an Active Participant, Not Just a Spectator This is not Phyllis Ann and me speaking at you for hours on end. Instead, we make a brief presentation – maybe 30 minutes – on a topic, then invite a Q&A discussion to explore what it means and how to apply it. Then we move to another topic, another discussion, and so on. Think of Us As a Couple of Master Mechanics Teaching You How To Do a Complete Tune-up Our role is that of facilitators, coaches, guides, provocateurs and challengers of the status quo. We don’t pretend to have all the answers ... but we sure know the questions that will force you to think hard in some directions you haven’t gone before. Even better. To help your learning process, we have some extensive pre-work for you to do. There are several practical exercises during the two-and-a-half days. Repeatedly, you and your study group actually go out into the market, collect ideas on a particular subject area and share the results of your research with the group. Every meal is effectively a lab exercise. There are also Hot Seats where we offer some very detailed consulting advice for a few people with especially interesting business situations. Even the physical environment is pleasant, different, and conducive to the easy exchange of ideas. Have you ever watched the Actor’s Studio programs on A&E? If so, picture something like that. Probably 80% of this program is totally unscripted. We are working without a net, but the most productive ideas and revelations often happen as the group wanders through divergent, spontaneous subject areas. Lightening strikes from unplanned discussions. Reason #3: The Networking Value is Extreme Attendance is limited to 50 people, no more. So you are working with a group of your peers, each successful in their own right. The format we envision enables you to tap the collective wisdom of the group to enhance and refine your own thinking. Because the group size is controlled, you can meet and interact with most everyone ... but you will mostly work closely with a small group of like-minded owners and managers whose operations or areas of interest are similar to your own. You coach each other, challenge each other, teach each other and generally take full advantage of all the talent in the room. As part of the pre-work, we collect a profile of each person and their operation. This info is distributed in advance so you know more about who is coming and can seek out individuals you have specific reason to meet. This avoids the time it takes to have everyone introduce themselves (50 people x 3 minutes = 1500 minutes = 2½ hours!), helps set up the various workgroups and promotes networking during and after the event. Reason #4: "THE EYE" When you leave, you will have a fresh vision for your restaurant, one that builds on your strengths and past successes and that will position your operation to attract new markets (and RE-CAPTURE old ones) for years to come. You will understand what needs to be done to get those results, you will have a clear plan of how to actually pull it off ... and you will have an outlook that lets you RE-DISCOVER your passion for the business But most important, you will have a mechanic’s eye for tinkering. You will know how and when to make minor adjustments to the operation as the years pass to keep your classic beauty purring like a kitten ... and running like a cheetah. You will have "THE EYE." "THE EYE" is your ability to do your own tune-ups. It is learning to view any restaurant – including your own – with objectivity. It is knowing what to look for and being able to recognize ... not only what you like and don’t like, but WHY you feel that way. It is knowing how the things you see could be improved or adapted to enhance your own operation. "THE EYE" is a wise perspective that comes from your own insights and "ah-ha" moments. It allows you to RE-ORIENT your awareness to a deeper level. It is the difference between trying to remember a few good marketing tricks and learning to think like a marketer. It is also the difference between knowing what you are doing ... and just knowing how to do it. Getting "THE EYE" is priceless. That’s really why you should come: to get "THE EYE." Who Should Be There? Who Should Stay Home? The Super Summit in general ... and Your 100,000-Mile Tune-Up in particular ... is not an event for everyone. Here is a quick idea of who we think should attend and who should not. DON’T COME if you have a lot of personal ego invested in what you are doing now. We expect the group to be brutally honest in assessing each other's strengths and weaknesses and we want people who can take it. BE THERE if you are generally pleased with what is happening in your place at the moment ... and you want to see how much better it can get. DON’T COME if you are easily rattled by change or are so frazzled that you are not currently taking care of the basics of the business. You do not need more balls in your juggle. BE THERE if you want next year to be pleasantly different from this year and are willing to break a few of your own "rules" to have that happen. DON’T COME if your sales have been growing at a faster rate every year. BE THERE if your rate of growth is starting to flatten out. DON’T COME if you (or your restaurant) have been in business less than three years. You have more basic things to learn right now and your restaurant has yet to prove itself. BE THERE if you have been in business longer than five years and have not yet made any major adjustments to the operating style. DEFINITELY BE THERE if your restaurant has been in business ten years or more ... particularly if you plan to be in business for another ten years! DON’T COME if your operation is on its last legs, if you are almost out of money or if you are looking to the Super Summit as your last hope to save the dream. It is already too late. BE THERE if you want to avoid ever finding yourself in the situation I just described. Why It Is Important To Act NOW You can wait, if you wish, until I open registration to everybody. Wait until I can craft and distribute a long, full-blown sales letter with all the flowery BS about the nitty gritty of the format, the credentials of the faculty, all the reasons why we selected Charleston as the perfect site for this year’s Summit ... and so forth. You can wait until I put up the great website with stirring testimonials and video clips from past Super Summit attendees. You could wait until I have sorted out all the details of hotels, meeting space and the dozens of other specifics that go into a program like this. Or you can act immediately, save some money and lock in your position right now. I hope you will be decisive and take care of this today.
Bill Marvin
PS #1: If you are curious about some of the life-altering questions we’ll explore at Your 100,000-Mile Tune-Up, here is a brief sampling. Which of the answers might help tune up your concept in a way that is absolutely perfect? HOW DO YOU MAXIMIZE THE POWER OF YOUR BRAND? Consumers buy brands. In our experience, few operators really think in terms of their brand. Most don’t even have a clear idea of what they’ve got, what makes it work for them or how they are actually perceived in the marketplace. They have been successful, but not nearly as successful as they could be with a few simple "fixes" to correct incongruities, RE-ENERGIZE the concept and fully exploit the potential of their brand assets. HOW DO YOU INCREASE THE MAGNETISM OF YOUR MENU? For all the focus on marketing and building sales, the soul of the industry will always be in food and beverage. No discussion of how to RE-INVIGORATE your concept would be complete without examining the issues of menu and menu presentation ... and certainly not with Phyllis Ann in the room! We will certainly explore the role that menu plays in your ability to RENEW your market positioning ... and you will have the opportunity to actually "test drive" a number of menu ideas to see how they feel to you. HOW DO YOU EVOLVE WITHOUT LOSING YOUR CURRENT MARKETS? Many operators understand the need to reach out to new markets, but they are scared to risk losing their regulars by rocking the boat with changes. As a result they do nothing ... to the detriment of their long term profitability. This is particularly true in mature concepts whose older patrons are dying off and not being replaced by younger diners. Change is the only constant, of course, but done in a clumsy way, it can kill an operation. Wisely implemented, change can RE-POSITION and RE-VITALIZE your restaurant to attract a larger, more diverse market and assure steady sales growth into the future. HOW CAN YOU LOOK LIKE A CHAIN AND ACT LIKE AN INDEPENDENT? Diners are attracted to restaurants that are totally professional and well-organized. This is typically a description of a national chain, but we believe that consumers truly prefer the competent independent over the typical chain operation. The trick is how to RE-ESTABLISH your competitive advantage by eliminating any lingering traces of "Mom ‘n Pop-ness" in your operation while still keeping true to your own soul ... and you are the least likely person to be able to see what needs to be done. HOW DO YOU KNOW WHEN ITS TIME TO GET RID OF THE CAR? The real challenge for a mature concept (and especially for a mature operator) is exit strategy – how do you get out ... and get more of your money out ... when it is time to RETIRE (either yourself or the concept) and move on to the next adventure? For that matter, how do you tell when it is time to go? How do you go about it? What should you be doing ... or not doing ... and when? PS #2: It looks like we can actually summarize the idea behind Super Summit 2007 in a few words: Re-Invent, Re-Vitalize, Refresh, Re-Energize, Re-Position, Renew, Re-Establish, Re-Orient, Re-Discover, Re-Invigorate ... and Retire! Now THAT will make one awesome 100,000-Mile Tune-Up! PS #3: I hope you aren’t trying to choose between attending the Super Summit OR the CEO Foundation Program in July. If you must choose either/or, it suggests that you probably need them both ... and your ambivalence indicates that 1) you are not making the kind of money you should be, or 2) you don’t think you can be gone twice in a year and still have your restaurant run properly, or 3) you are not yet committed enough to make any real changes no matter which program you attend. These are all just symptoms of unconscious, self-imposed limitations in your thinking, something that our programs will address and help you eliminate. The two programs are, in fact, quite different. The CEO Foundation Program is designed to help you gain a fresh perspective on the human side of things. It teaches skills and principles that will allow you to eliminate stress and create a closer connection with the others in your life. It helps you understand what makes people tick in a way that lets you quickly see to the heart of every interpersonal issue you face. The CEO Foundation Program will help you create and sustain an organization that functions effortlessly and requires less of your personal time; one that also enjoys high staff morale, increased productivity, low turnover and a genuine sense of customer service. Your 100,000-Mile Tune-Up is a tightly focused program that will provide you with specific skills, ideas and plans to make your operation more competitive and let it draws from an ever-expanding market with an appeal that never dies. This will be a hands-on, practical program that will rekindle your passion for your work and reposition your restaurant for success over the long term. So one program is about you, the other is about your restaurant. The truly dedicated operator will attend both, understanding that the best plans in the world are useless without an organization that can implement them ... and that it is pointless to have a happy crew if they have nobody to serve. PS#4: I absolutely guarantee that we will NOT exceed the maximum limit of 50 people at this event. I am sticking to this to insure the quality of dialogue, the "up close and personal" experience we have in mind, and to insure that you have all the opportunity you want to participate. So I can only urge you again ... if you want to be a part of this, you’d better act immediately. SUPER SUMMIT 2007 DETAILS:
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