Whether running a restaurant or a boutique coffee chain, successfully scaling a multi-unit hospitality business means investing in managers today to ensure effective leadership tomorrow, says Christopher Muller, Ph.D, author of The Leader of Managers
Research shows the single biggest variable in the success of a restaurant unit is the general manager. The closer you can get a general manager to a five-year tenure, the more profitable the restaurant will become.
Having interviewed many managers in my time, I’ve realised that the key to keeping a general manager for five years is having a well-trained district manager – the leader of managers. A restaurant is a highly structured organisation – it’s like a machine. You start it in the morning, you turn it off in the evening, and it basically carries out the same functions every day, even though customers present tremendous variability.
