Some women are circumventing the glass ceiling in foodservice by starting their own businesses as franchisees. Eva Gutierrez and her husband, Sergio Gutierrez Sr., became Subway franchisees five years ago. Last month, they became owners of a Taco Del Mar unit in this city's downtown. Being a franchisee requires plenty of hard work and long hours up front, but the payoff is more control over your time and schedule, says Eva Gutierrez, the mother of a 4-year-old girl and 9-year-old boy.
Click on Title to Read Full Story.
Wednesday, April 26, 2006
U.S. Appetite for Fast Food Grows
Despite criticism of fast-food by consumer advocacy groups and news stories warning about an obesity epidemic, quick-service restaurant usage is up significantly, according to a national study of 2,400 quick-service restaurant users interviewed in 2005.
Read full story >
Read full story >
Tuesday, April 25, 2006
Incremental Raises and Bonuses Suck!
Man, what is a week without a Seth posting? Here is the idea on bonuses I've been peddling for - wow - decades!
Taking a page from the Nissan Playbook!
Carlos Ghosn is world famous. In Japan, he's rockstar famous. He's most famous, of course, for the amazing turnaround of Nissan. That's a very a big thing. But to Carlos Ghosn, the little things are also crucial. In The Ghosn Factor, for example, Miguel Rivas-Micoud recounts how Ghosn made a special effort to painstakingly learn the proper way to use Japanese chopsticks, all while the pressures of the business challenges he faced were building. Says Rivas-Micoud:
http://presentationzen.blogs.com/presentationzen/2006/04/carlos_ghosn_th.html
http://presentationzen.blogs.com/presentationzen/2006/04/carlos_ghosn_th.html
Monday, April 24, 2006
Moving Up The Wisdom Ladder
If you're an aggregator "harnessing collective intelligence", what are you aggregating? If it's data and information, you're competing with just about everything--Google searches, reference docs both online and printed, the majority of tech books and articles, etc. But if you're aggregating up the hierarchy through knowledge, and especially understanding and wisdom, you're adding huge value to someone's life.
Click here to read the posting in "Creating Passionate Users"
Click here to read the posting in "Creating Passionate Users"
Saturday, April 22, 2006
Leading Ideas: Decisiveness Generates Momentum
"The percentage of mistakes in quick decisions is no greater than in long-drawn-out vacillation, and the effect of decisiveness itself 'makes things go' and creates confidence." -- Anne O'Hare McCormick (1882-1954), First woman to win a Pulitzer prize for journalism
Consider This:
Contrary to popular belief, your decisions don't drive your long term success - your decisiveness does. Said another way, when you reach a crossroads on any issue, the act of choosing creates power, not the choice itself. The issue is momentum. No matter what you choose, when you commit boldly with conviction, you create momentum. When you hesitate you don't. And success is built on momentum.
One of the most common breeding grounds for indecision is to-do lists. One of my clients had over 100 items on his when we first met. He wanted me to help him create systems to get them all done. I told him the most powerful system I know is the 3 D's - Do it, Delegate it, or Delete it. We carved up his list and actually deleted 75% of it in about 30 minutes (including some items that had been on there for 2 years!) The process was painful for him, but ultimately very freeing. "It was cathartic," he later admitted. "Actually making the choice NOT to do all those things took a huge weight off my shoulders and allowed me to focus on things that were truly important."
Try This:
1. Get a copy of your to-do list
2. Be decisive about each item - are you going to Do it, Delegate it, or Delete it
3. Write out steps and a timeline for things you need to do.
4. Do it
5. Recognize that the more decisive you are, the easier the process gets.
http://blog.fastcompany.com/archives/2006/04/18/leading_ideas_decisiveness_generates_momentum.html
Consider This:
Contrary to popular belief, your decisions don't drive your long term success - your decisiveness does. Said another way, when you reach a crossroads on any issue, the act of choosing creates power, not the choice itself. The issue is momentum. No matter what you choose, when you commit boldly with conviction, you create momentum. When you hesitate you don't. And success is built on momentum.
One of the most common breeding grounds for indecision is to-do lists. One of my clients had over 100 items on his when we first met. He wanted me to help him create systems to get them all done. I told him the most powerful system I know is the 3 D's - Do it, Delegate it, or Delete it. We carved up his list and actually deleted 75% of it in about 30 minutes (including some items that had been on there for 2 years!) The process was painful for him, but ultimately very freeing. "It was cathartic," he later admitted. "Actually making the choice NOT to do all those things took a huge weight off my shoulders and allowed me to focus on things that were truly important."
Try This:
1. Get a copy of your to-do list
2. Be decisive about each item - are you going to Do it, Delegate it, or Delete it
3. Write out steps and a timeline for things you need to do.
4. Do it
5. Recognize that the more decisive you are, the easier the process gets.
http://blog.fastcompany.com/archives/2006/04/18/leading_ideas_decisiveness_generates_momentum.html
Wednesday, April 19, 2006
Women's World!
Posted by Tom Peters
Be sure to catch the Economist, 15 April. Leader, page 14. "Forget China, India and the Internet: Economic Growth Is Driven by Women." (Headline.) "Even today in the modern, developed world, surveys show that parents still prefer to have a boy rather than a girl. One longstanding reason boys have been seen as a greater blessing has been that they are expected to become better economic providers for their parents' old age. Yet it is time for parents to think again. Girls may now be a better investment." "Girls get better grades in school than boys, and in most developed countries more women than men go to university. Women will thus be better equipped for the new jobs of the 21st century, in which brains count a lot more than brawn. ... And women are more likely to provide sound advice on investing their parents' nest egg: surveys show that women consistently achieve higher financial returns than men do. Furthermore, the increase in female employment in the rich world has been the main driving force of growth in the last couple of decades. Those women have contributed more to global GDP growth than have either new technology or the new giants, India and China."
Continuing on page 73: "A Guide to Womenomics: The Future of the World Economy Lies Increasingly in Female Hands." (Headline.) More stats: Around the globe since 1980, women have filled "two new jobs for every one taken by a man." "Women are becoming more important in the global marketplace not just as workers, but also as consumers, entrepreneurs, managers and investors." Re consumption, Goldman Sachs in Tokyo has developed an index of 115 companies poised to benefit from women's increased purchasing power; over the past decade the value of shares in "Goldman's basket has risen by 96%, against the Tokyo stockmarket's rise of 13%." A couple of final assertions: (1) It is now agreed that "the single best investment that can be made in the developing world" is educating girls. (2) Also, surprisingly, nations with the highest female laborforce participation rates, such as Sweden and the U.S., have the highest fertility rates; and those with the lowest participation rates, such as Italy and Germany, have the lowest fertility rates.
Quite a story, eh?
Be sure to catch the Economist, 15 April. Leader, page 14. "Forget China, India and the Internet: Economic Growth Is Driven by Women." (Headline.) "Even today in the modern, developed world, surveys show that parents still prefer to have a boy rather than a girl. One longstanding reason boys have been seen as a greater blessing has been that they are expected to become better economic providers for their parents' old age. Yet it is time for parents to think again. Girls may now be a better investment." "Girls get better grades in school than boys, and in most developed countries more women than men go to university. Women will thus be better equipped for the new jobs of the 21st century, in which brains count a lot more than brawn. ... And women are more likely to provide sound advice on investing their parents' nest egg: surveys show that women consistently achieve higher financial returns than men do. Furthermore, the increase in female employment in the rich world has been the main driving force of growth in the last couple of decades. Those women have contributed more to global GDP growth than have either new technology or the new giants, India and China."
Continuing on page 73: "A Guide to Womenomics: The Future of the World Economy Lies Increasingly in Female Hands." (Headline.) More stats: Around the globe since 1980, women have filled "two new jobs for every one taken by a man." "Women are becoming more important in the global marketplace not just as workers, but also as consumers, entrepreneurs, managers and investors." Re consumption, Goldman Sachs in Tokyo has developed an index of 115 companies poised to benefit from women's increased purchasing power; over the past decade the value of shares in "Goldman's basket has risen by 96%, against the Tokyo stockmarket's rise of 13%." A couple of final assertions: (1) It is now agreed that "the single best investment that can be made in the developing world" is educating girls. (2) Also, surprisingly, nations with the highest female laborforce participation rates, such as Sweden and the U.S., have the highest fertility rates; and those with the lowest participation rates, such as Italy and Germany, have the lowest fertility rates.
Quite a story, eh?
One for the Women!
One of the biggest demographics you need to think about getting geared up for starting..oh..yesterday!
According to a new survey conducted by Mirassou Winery with the National Association of Women Business Owners (NAWBO) -- 90 percent of women conduct business over a meal at least once each month and 84 percent personally taste and approve the wine that is ordered for the table.
According to a new survey conducted by Mirassou Winery with the National Association of Women Business Owners (NAWBO) -- 90 percent of women conduct business over a meal at least once each month and 84 percent personally taste and approve the wine that is ordered for the table.
Tuesday, April 18, 2006
In this case, practice doesn't make perfect!
I was reading one of the better e-newsletters I subscribe to, on the topic of a “restaurant’s life cycle” and how after the opening the greatest challenge is to attain consistency by reducing all repetitive job processes to checklists and procedures. I could not disagree more.
You must do those things BEFORE THE OPENING! This is bad planning plain and simple and not a very good use of limited pre-opening resources. If followed, this will not only place your operation at risk, but will needlessly increase your costs due to inefficiencies, low productivity, chaos and bad guest experiences!
Just because some openings look like clown school does not mean it has to be that way for everyone. The whole point of the New Store Opening planning stage is to get these processes and procedures down, then train staff to execute them so that your service and production models are able to create that “wow” you need to grab momentum. Trying to do this after the opening amounts to nothing more than having two sets of operating rules for your staff – one before opening, and another “real” set of rules afterward. Which means that now you have to retrain your whole staff! As well as force them to “forget” the old habits – which will linger and cause disruption of your new procedures and processes and slow down any chance you have at being able to maintain any momentum coming out of your opening.
After executing nearly 20 very successful new store openings over 24+ years, it still amazes me how little planning is attempted let alone actually done when it comes to some of the most important items that will mean the difference between success and failure. This does not have to be rocket surgery either! But you will have to devote time and resources to it. Remember, success has to be managed – and this involves planning for it - because failure can happen all by itself.
You must do those things BEFORE THE OPENING! This is bad planning plain and simple and not a very good use of limited pre-opening resources. If followed, this will not only place your operation at risk, but will needlessly increase your costs due to inefficiencies, low productivity, chaos and bad guest experiences!
Just because some openings look like clown school does not mean it has to be that way for everyone. The whole point of the New Store Opening planning stage is to get these processes and procedures down, then train staff to execute them so that your service and production models are able to create that “wow” you need to grab momentum. Trying to do this after the opening amounts to nothing more than having two sets of operating rules for your staff – one before opening, and another “real” set of rules afterward. Which means that now you have to retrain your whole staff! As well as force them to “forget” the old habits – which will linger and cause disruption of your new procedures and processes and slow down any chance you have at being able to maintain any momentum coming out of your opening.
After executing nearly 20 very successful new store openings over 24+ years, it still amazes me how little planning is attempted let alone actually done when it comes to some of the most important items that will mean the difference between success and failure. This does not have to be rocket surgery either! But you will have to devote time and resources to it. Remember, success has to be managed – and this involves planning for it - because failure can happen all by itself.
Why Angry People Suck, And Why Happy People Rule!
As if we had any doubt about this too, here now finally is the science!
http://headrush.typepad.com/creating_passionate_users/2006/04/angrynegative_p.html
http://headrush.typepad.com/creating_passionate_users/2006/04/angrynegative_p.html
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