Bubba Gump’s Employee Retention Strategy
The United States is nation dependent on restaurant industry, over the past 60 years the allocation of the family food dollar toward restaurants has grown from 25% in 1955 to 47% in 2012. Bubba Gump, a young restaurant company (founded in 1996), leveraged a brand based on the Forrest Gump movie (1994). Scott Barnett, President and CEO knew his brand would gain immediate recognition. In the highly competitive hospitality industry all restaurants are looking for the competitive advantage, capturing as much of the food dollar expense. In 2001, Mr. Barnett fully understood that most new brands must differentiate themselves from similar concepts by quality food, excellent customer service and consistency across all units. (Case study: Bubba Gump Shrimp Co. 2007) He facilitated a program centered on a “culture of care and concern for people”. It the late 1990’s, Bubba Gump was facing a management retention issue and was positioned for aggressive growth. The combination did not align. We will diagnose and provide an aligning strategy for reducing management and employee turnover, as well, specify career paths for management, empowering Bubba Gump Growth.
Organizational Fit and Culture of Excellence
“Culture can become a “secret weapon” that makes extraordinary things happen” (Katzenbach, J. n.d)’s In recognition of a talent retention problem, (Late 1990’s) Bubba Gump Shrimp set out to two goal’s, 1). Improving unit level management retention and 2) Increasing same store sales. (Aamondt, M. 2012) The tasks to achieve these two goals required a change for the status quo, create a culture all employees could embrace, reinvent the hiring process to attract the right individuals and empower the teams to succeed.
Culture Importance Research. A restaurant industry study in 2000 stated that employers were the reason for turnover.
Stephen Boos has worked in the food service industry for over 30 years. He started as a bus person and subsequently trained as a chef’s apprentice. Steve’s mother believed that a college education was something that everyone should receive. She felt that a college degree was a good investment in Steve’s future. In 1976 at his mother’s insistence, Boos moved to Northeastern Ohio to attend Kent State University where he earned a bachelor’s degree in business administration. After graduation, Steve began working for East Park Restaurant as a line cook. Using his education as a foundation, Steve made a point to learn everything he could about running a restaurant, from cutting meat to the bi-weekly food and beverage orders. His versatility, keen business sense, and ability to control costs resulted in Steve’s promotion to General Manager, as role he has held since 1995.
Dillard’s is an excellent example of what can go wrong when a management model from yesteryear is applied to modern day advancement and technologies. They are not growing with consumer desires or employee needs, and they are becoming an outdated brand. Instead of stressing satisfaction rates, they stress the bottom line profits. While this formula has made the company successful and allowed national growth at the turn of the century, it is also dropping employee morale, which is known to drive down customer attraction and satisfaction rates.
The reason this topic was chosen was because the Martins chain as well as the Ukrops chain had specific characteristics/ symbols that could be used to define each chain. The concepts that the Martins takeover exemplified were prime examples of the topics we discussed in class. In class, we discussed the organizational culture and how it affects an organization. The Martins takeover is an excellent example of the ways organizational culture affects an organization. In this case, the Ukrops dominant culture just couldn’t compete with Martins. Even though Ukrops had an outstanding positive culture, this is one example of how the national culture had a tremendous effect on the local culture within the Ukrops chain. When the Ukrops managers thought about how their organization was being affected globally, they made the conscientious decision to sell to Martins. Because organizations depend heavily on foreign markets, the managers of Ukrops decided that Martins would be a much better fit to the community.
Each organization big or small has its own values, ways of doing things and assumption that it operates in. The principles and ethics that exist in each of these companies are the baseline through which the company operates its affairs. This is what can be called as that organization’s culture. The culture in existence has an impact on the productivity, effectiveness and efficiency (Keyton, 2011). The basis of setting the most appropriate culture of a company is not only to move or increase the profitability but also to make the stakeholders happy and satisfied. One aspect of that is the employee or the human resource the firm who put their expertise in the firm and add a bit of creativity and innovativeness to move the products. Chick-Fil-A operates in a competitive industry thus it requires all the stakeholders.
The Taco Bell and KFC “micro brand” known as ZAK Family Foods is successful for three important reasons: a concept of family, a passion for progress, and a dedication to social responsibility. These three elements have evolved organically from the brand’s very beginnings. In 1979, Jerry Zakaras, now CEO and Franchisee of ZAK Family Foods, began his journey to support his family as a Restaurant General Manager for a Pizza Hut in Plattsmouth, Nebraska. His cooperation with those working with him in the restaurant expressed itself in a way that was very familiar; it was the restaurant family. His value for family was what motivated him to explore the restaurant world, and it was what opened the doors to his business success.
In order for any restaurant to keep up, they have to be willing to learn and implement instead of sitting back and expecting repeat customers for a location with menu options that never change to accommodate its customers. When a restaurant thinks bigger, acts quicker, and moves faster they are more likely to stay ahead of their competition. Sanjiv Rasdan (2016), Senior VP of operations for Applebee’s USA, points out three key opportunities that he believes are key to this strategy: food, experience and environment, and keeping ahead with
This case study was about the president of Bubba Gump Shrimp Company, a restaurant chain specializing in seafood, whose practice structure and secret to success was to have and maintain minimal management turnover. In fact, his focus on turnover was so successful that he did not have a general manager leave for 3 years, and he has decreased management turnover from 36% to 16% in 2 years. The motivation of an organization’s employees significantly affects it success. Additionally, employee turnover, absenteeism, and tardiness weaken employee productivity.
Triandis, H., & Wasti, S. (2008). Culture. In D. Stone, & E. Stone-Romeo, The influence of culture on human resource management processes and practices (pp. 1-24). Psychology Press
Chapter sixteen in our textbook highlights the benefits of organizational culture and what it can do for any company with a strong culture perspective. In fact chapter sixteen-three(a) speaks widely on how a strong culture perspective shapes any organization up well enough to perform better than any of its competitors who do not balance any organizational culture. If not mistaken after viewing SAS institute case they are well on track with facilitating a high performance organization culture. First, SAS institute motivate all employees to become goal alignment in their field of work. This is where they all share the common goal to get their work done. In one of the excerpts taken away from this case, an employee- friendly benefits summary expresses the statement “If you treat employees as if they make a difference to the company, they will make a difference to the company.” “SAS Institute’s founders set out to create the kind of workplace where employees would enjoy spending time. And even though the workforce continues to grow year after year, it’s still the kind of place where people enjoy working.” Clearly highlighted from this statement that SAS Institute is mainly ran off of a fit perspective. Which argues that a culture is only as good as it fits the industry. Allowing a good blueprint or set up will
As we learn from the case study, the Lincoln Electric Company is the largest global manufacturer of machines for welding, which are used in all kinds of construction projects. This means that the company has a large global presence and many employees, so its culture affects thousands of its workers. Even though it is now 2014, the company still has a large market share and very satisfied employees, so clearly the culture leaves employees satisfied and motivates them to work hard for the company.
This article is about Harrah’s Entertainment; one of the largest casino entertainments made a decision to move away from being a product based company to a strategic marketing company geared towards customer satisfaction by implementing a customer focused rewards program. Bill Harrah, the founder of the company established the company’s reputation on the premise of pride of the employees working for “the best in the business” while given more attention to the condition of the properties. However, when Gary Loveman joined the company as the new Chief operating officer, he made a move towards customer service. Gary Loveman hired Marilyn Winn, the head of Human Resources, to change how the company engaged in people development. Winn came up with a strategic plan to develop Harrah’s human capital. As a result, Winn is faced with the difficult task of improving employee motivation and job satisfaction in a rough economy after 9/11, which changed our nation forever. Although, the company gained market share it did not quite meet the company’s projected level.
Brinker is seen as one of the most influential chain builders in food service history. He believes that winners attract winners. He shows confidence in himself and has successfully led several companies in a highly competitive industry in which most fail. He surrounds himself with people who believe in themselves and are successful. He feels success is contagious. Brinker has developed a followership at Brinker International of effective followers. Effective followers are the most valuable to a leader and an organization because of the contributions they have. These followers practice self-management and self-responsibility which means they can be relied on hence the protégé Ron McDougall who took the reins as leader when Brinker retired, as well as, aligning McDougall’s predecessors. All believe what Brinker developed at Brinker International, a culture driven by integrity, teamwork, passion, and an unwavering commitment to making sure each and every guest has an excellent dining experience. He also helped promote an ethical organizational culture where people respect one another and work collaboratively in seeking to provide excellent meals and service. Effective followers are also committed to both the organization and a purpose, principle, or person outside themselves. They invest in their own competence and professionalism and focus their energy for maximum impact.
Organizational culture is the key to organizational excellence and leadership is a function to create and manage culture (Chen 1992). Organizational researchers have become more aware of the importance of understanding and enhancing the cultural life of the institution. "This study is one of a group of companies with high-performance in North America, interest in organizational culture is an important element in organizational success. Tesluk et al (1997). Looking at the" soft "of the organization, the researchers claim that" the organizational culture may be suitable for a means to explore and understanding of life at work, and make them more humane and more pronounced (Tesluk et al, 1997), and the graves (1986) also stressed the importance of corporate culture, and the need for research strategies and methods of investigating the various elements and processes of the organizational culture. He argued the culture that meets the basic needs of belonging and security in an attempt to describe this gathering that culture is "the only thing that distinguishes one company from another gives them coherence and self-confidence and rationalises the lives of those who work for it. Standard that may seem random, is to enhance the life to be different, and safe to be similar, and culture is a concept that provides the means to achieve this compromise (p. 157).
It brought organisational culture to the performance of a company, which has become a critical topic in management department. In addition to organisational culture, organisations need to be aware and prepared for changes in the expanding workforce as business grows. Companies are faced with maximizing benefits as well as profits while minimizing negative factors that come from those changes. There is no one answer to the issue, but some of the guidelines are clear. Awareness of organisational culture, teamwork, individual performance, external environment adaptation, leadership, and measurement of organisational culture are key factors that lead a company to perform better.
As the marketing consultant for a hospitality management company, it is often my responsibility to define target markets for various restaurants and hotels. In fact, I have been tasked with creating a fictional hospitality operation, to utilize as an illustration to define a marketing strategy and target market. In addition, I must identify and analyze the product life cycle of an organization that has been in business for a minimum of twenty-five years.