Rock Cafe Case Study Since

¶ … Rock Cafe Case Study

Since its founding in 1971, Hard Rock experienced a number of fluid and evolving changes.. The company started out as just a small London cafe, and now has 149 locations in 53 countries; hotels, casinos, live music venues, a rock museum, and an annual Rock concert. Hard Rock also makes a significant amount of their revenue, 48%, from retail merchandise. Hard Rock Cafe is the number one themed restaurant in the world, and is one of the most highly recognized brands. While the restaurant remains American-style cuisine, they have gone from solely burgers and chicken to also include high-end items like lobster tails and stuffed veal chops (www.hardrock.com).

Hard Rock applies operational management decisions and strategic concerns in various ways. Despite their decoration and niche in the entertainment experience their service and menu selection is key -- the food they produce is their primary product. Their consistency of focus on effort in that regard; sourcing from reputable firms, ensuring high quality standards in multiple locations, and incorporating a quality management process in all restaurants shows their commitment. For example, this team ensures that when creating a new menu item, Hard Rock only allows it to be on the permanent menu if it passes stringent customer feedback and if they are able to consistently get the ingredients in all their locations from qualified suppliers. This quality operations philosophy is built around the core notion that each step in their process must create a quality product (Heizer and Render, 2005, 2-7).

Hard Rock's motto is Love All, Serve All. This philosophy is not just a sign on the wall, but a part of the way Hard Rock manages its operations for consistency and quality. For example, in order to invigorate the restaurants and the position in the community, the Nashville, Tennessee Hard Rock took a few radical steps that both endeared them to the community and provided proof that operations management can take many forms in the new economy. The location closed its doors for three months to renovate and double their capacity, add new memorabilia, and improve equipment. During this time, many businesses would simply have laid off their employees and had them apply for unemployment. Instead, Hard Rock retained all 71 on the payroll, and assigned them community service during their regular work hours. Local non-profits are thrilled to have help, and this spreads goodwill throughout the community. This empowers each of the employees to "Pay it Forward" and understand the benefits of empathy and community service…. The perception is that this is a branded company name that puts its money where its motto is. In turn this inspires other businesses and corporations while retaining their greatest asset -- their employees: they will not need to reinvest in the time or expense of interviewing, hiring, and training new employees -- operationally a real coup (Crow, 2010, 44).

Part 11 - There are several reasons and techniques designed specifically to measure performance, in this case, with the kitchen and wait staff at the Hard Rock Cafes. Primarily, we measure for:

Program effectiveness

Decision making

Setting goals and objectives

Recognize good or great performance

Interceed in time with poor or negligible performance

To inform stakeholders

To hold x accountable for y

To control and allocate resources

To motivate and promote

To establish what is vital from what is important from what is interesting

To celebrate, learn, and move forward ("Measuring Performance," 2009).