Strategic plan development and implementation

¶ … Strategic Plan

To implement the strategy plan begins with a mission and a vision, but eventually a broad strategy must be finalized. For Heavy Henry's Hogs, the strategy includes the following critical tactics -- hiring and training, menu design, restaurant design and the development of the marketing plan. Hiring and training is an essential element that will facilitate the other objectives of the restaurant. The vision for Heavy's demands that the members of the staff operate at a high level at all times, in terms of both their spirit and their execution. They must be great people on a personal level because that will be reflected in their commitment to customer service and they must be able to work quickly without making mistakes. The front-of-house and back-of-house units must be able to work seamlessly together to provide an exceptional customer experience. This will require not only sourcing people with experience in the industry, but with experience at a high level. Conceptually, the vision for hiring is akin to a sports franchise where other restaurants in the area are like college or minor league teams. They provide the fundamental experience, but Heavy's takes the best talent from those other restaurants, the most experienced staff, and then adds extensive training of its own to bring the staff to the highest level possible. The training element will include emphasis on the corporate culture, the expectations of both management and the customers and training on specific operational issues unique to Heavy Henry's.

Menu design is critical for any restaurant. The food concept must be unique and interesting to consumers, but it must also be feasible to execute for the staff. Food costs are a critical issue and the kitchen staff needs to understand how their actions impact the bottom line in a restaurant. Even in a high-end restaurant like Heavy's, it is essential that dishes come at multiple price points and that dishes with a high ingredient cost be innovative and exciting enough that high prices can be charged. Fortunately, the menu strategy is the most fun part of putting together any restaurant. The wine and beverage strategy will be based on a vision of what percentage of revenues are going to come from this category, as will the strategy for desserts. In keeping with the balanced scorecard approach, the latter two strategies will have an impact in other areas, including staffing (for example, hiring of sommeliers and pastry chefs) and the customer experience.

Restaurant design is an essential part of the dining experience as well, and as with menu planning is a fun aspect of the business that nonetheless must be taken seriously. There are cost issues at play, and the design will impact on a number of operational issues including the experience of the diner and the way that the staff conducts operations. An example of a design decision would be the placement of the barbeque pit -- to what degree to customers see and smell the process of making barbeque? An analysis of wind patterns on site is required because the aroma should carry to passers-by as best as possible, thus the pit and vents need to be well-situated.

The marketing plan is critical as well. Heavy Henry's Hogs is built around the concept of a destination restaurant, so word-of-mouth is expected, but there are a number of tactics that go into building word of mouth. The launch strategy will have a number of tactics, including promotions, building the celebrity level of the chef, and the strategy for entering and winning barbeque contests nationwide. The strategy should also incorporate the different advertising that will be done to promote these successes and introduce the restaurant to a broad area. The marketing strategy is critical because poorly conceived marketing can cost a lot of money, fail to reach the target market or both. A successful strategy will reach the target market for little money. Minimizing startup costs is important.

All of these tactics have measures that can be used. The first measure is the number of awards that the barbeque wins in the six months leading up to the launch. The summer festival season is the best time to collect awards, and the number of awards -- and their prestige -- is an important metric. Other measures are more conventional. The average experience in the industry of the staff members is going to be another measure used. While there is room for good rookies on the team, Heavy Henry's is relying on top industry talent to deliver an exceptional experience and this is going to be correlated with experience. The third key measure that will be used is the total pre-launch cost. All of the strategies and tactics outlined here can vary significantly in cost. A target objective cost that is acceptable to the principles will be set and this budget will be the benchmark against which the launch costs are measured.