Making it fun

AT THE THIRTY–EIGHTH Annual Multi‑Unit Foodserver Operators Conference held a few years ago in Los Angeles, the theme was “People: The Single Point of Difference.” Most of the fourteen hundred attendees were chain restaurant operators and executives. The ballroom at the Century Plaza Hotel was filled with men and women in expensive suits, a well‑to‑do group whose members looked as though they hadn’t grilled a burger or mopped a floor in a while. The conference workshops had names like “Dual Branding: Case Studies from the Field” and “Segment Marketing: The Right Message for the Right Market” and “In Line and on Target: The Changing Dimensions of Site Selection.” Awards were given for the best radio and television ads. Restaurants were inducted into the Fine Dining Hall of Fame. Chains competed to be named Operator of the Year. Foodservice companies filled a nearby exhibition space with their latest products: dips, toppings, condiments, high‑tech ovens, the latest in pest control. The leading topic of conversation at the scheduled workshops, in the hallways and hotel bars, was how to find inexpensive workers in an American economy where unemployment had fallen to a twenty‑four‑year low.

James C. Doherty, the publisher of Nation’s Restaurant News at the time, gave a speech urging the restaurant industry to move away from relying on a low‑wage workforce with high levels of turnover and to promote instead the kind of labor policies that would create long‑term careers in foodservice. How can workers look to this industry for a career, he asked, when it pays them the minimum wage and provides them no health benefits? Doherty’s suggestions received polite applause.

The keynote speech was given by David Novak, the president of Tricon Global Restaurants. His company operates more restaurants than any other company in the world – 30,000 Pizza Huts, Taco Bells, and KFCs. A former advertising executive with a boyish face and the earnest delivery style of a motivational speaker, Novak charmed the crowd. He talked about the sort of recognition his company tried to give its employees, the pep talks, the prizes, the special awards of plastic chili peppers and rubber chickens. He believed the best way to motivate people is to have fun. “Cynics need to be in some other industry,” he said. Employee awards created a sense of pride and esteem, they showed that management was watching, and they did not cost a lot of money. “We want to be a great company for the people who make it great,” Novak announced. Other speakers talked about teamwork, empowering workers, and making it “fun.”

During the President’s Panel, the real sentiments of the assembled restaurant operators and executives became clear. Norman Brinker – a legend in the industry, the founder of Bennigan’s and Steak and Ale, the current owner of Chili’s, a major donor to the Republican Party – spoke to the conference in language that was simple, direct, and free of platitudes. “I see the possibility of unions,” he warned. The thought “chilled” him. He asked everyone in the audience to give more money to the industry’s key lobbying groups. “And [Senator] Kennedy’s pushing hard on a $7.25 minimum wage,” he continued. “That’ll be fun, won’t it? I love the idea of that. I sure do – strike me dead!” As the crowd laughed and roared and applauded Brinker’s call to arms against unions and the government, the talk about teamwork fell into the proper perspective.