Taco Bell's Success

Taco Bell's Success

Did Taco Bell’s success result from a top down or bottom-up

approach to change? What situations drove this change, and what

leadership approach did John Martin use? What was the old (previous)

leadership style and what was its limitation?

• Taco Bell’s success resulted from a top down approach to change.

Along with the new organizational structure came the job position of

Market Manager. Management added this new position to send a strong

signal that they wanted different behavior. They wanted people to be

broader managers, good at managing P & L, to be decisive and to take

ownership. The Market Managers had a lot of responsibility because

management had pushed down a large deal of decision making.

• One of the situations that spurred this change is the notion of

self sufficiency or the fact that a restaurant can operate by itself.

John Martin knew this had to be done because there were 1500 Taco Bell

restaurants and it is too much extra work to have to constantly

monitor all of them. Management realized that they needed new

production techniques to serve customers more efficiently. They also

knew that they need new training and development methods to be more

competitive and to have more uniformity in the products they were

serving. Management also knew that they needed to install Operational

Information Systems in all of the restaurants in order to keep up with

their competitors. These are just a few of the many factors that drove

the change of Taco Bell.

• John Martin introduced the democratic style of leadership to the

Taco Bell chain. John Martin acted as a leader who involved his

employees in the decision making process and delegated a great deal of

authority to lower level positions. In addition, Martin encouraged

participation in deciding work methods and goals and used feedback to

coach his employees.

• The laissez-faire style of leadership that had been previously

used at the Taco Bell restaurants. This means that the leader gave his

employees a great deal of freedom to make decisions and to decide on

work methods. The limitation of this method was that employees had too

much freedom and were not working to their full potential. In

addition, this method failed because all of the restaurants were

operating differently which hurt the organization as a whole.

2) Was change increment...

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...ustry.”

• RM had “reports on food cost, labor cost, inventory, perishable

items and period to date costs, all with variances” due to the ATCO

system.

• “Pods were part of the company’s strategy for reaching a ‘point

of distribution’ to Market Manager span of 60 to 1. Executives

believed that 30 to 1 (restaurants to MM) was within reach. If each

restaurant added a pod, 60 to 1 would be achieved.”

9/10) Visit a Taco Bell virtual and/or electronic-provide an up to

date outlook based on Structure, Technology, and People as a framework

for your response.

• The structure of the store has changed since the “old-ways.” It

used to be the food-preparers had their backs to the customer. Now the

food-preparation station is perpendicular to the customers

• Customers can now see how the workers are making their items.

• The cooking of the food is behind that preparation station.

• The cash registers are now computers. They are touch-screen

monitors for the employee to enter in the order. The order is then

sent to the preparation station where it is placed in queue. The

restaurant manager is visible. The RM is doing something, either

making food or taking orders.