Engaging people

It’s a bright sunny morning, this in itself is not news but I thought that I would mention it.

I really enjoyed spending time with some of the key people in our restaurants yesterday (as far as I am concerned the key peps are the ones that serve our customers on a daily basis) listening to their concerns and hearing their thoughts on a variety of subjects. We are pretty close to having our 10 day training plans in place and we have a solid plan in place to ensure that the 40 or so people who will arrive from Sri Lanka have a great induction into our business.
Yesterday was significant as we started to move the conversation away from day to day niggles and discussed best selling items and why it’s important that we increase the contribution from our coffee and dessert sales (better margin and atv) and how the guys in the restaurants would achieve this. We talked about why I am mercilessly removing work which adds no value and by doing this giving the teams the chance to make a difference. We have a long way to go but I sense that yesterday was an important first step.