Chapter 9
Make Your Elephant Fly—Plan
The way to get started is to quit talking and get started.
Walt Disney
Vision without a means of execution is like a plane without wings or Dumbo without his ears—it just won’t fly. No matter how deep a company’s resources are, progress of company projects greatly depends on the strength of execution, and proper execution requires thorough and detailed planning, a reality that Walt Disney understood completely.
No wand-waving or intonations of “abracadabra” preceded the building of Disney’s Magic Kingdom. The cartoons, movies, theme parks, and all the rest of the delights that took shape in Walt’s prolific imagination came into being through a precise process of planning that he employed from the very beginning of his career. Making a movie is a costly undertaking, but because animation is especially expensive and labor-intensive, Disney had to plan carefully to control costs and successfully execute his ideas. Out of necessity was born a nine-step process that takes a “blue sky” idea and turns it into reality.
Dumbo, the perennial animated favorite about the flying baby elephant, was itself a product of this rigorous Disney regimen. By putting process in creativity—in this case, using a straightforward script and story and resisting the temptation to experiment with expensive new technologies—Disney and his animators produced Dumbo in just one year. As one Disney executive has described it, the system says, in effect, “Within these boundaries you will create. This is the budget, these are the limitations. Make it work within this framework.”64
And work it has, as consistently successful and profitable flights of fancy from Dumbo to Aladdin attest. While our clients may not be staging magic carpet rides, we have seen diverse companies devise their own methods, both formal and informal, to ensure that a workable idea will actually come to fruition. In this chapter, we look at both the Disney “blue sky” process and the variations crafted by companies in a range of industries.
Carefully Managed Creativity, The Disney Way
There have always been two basic schools of thought on business creativity. The first insists that researchers and other in-house innovators be given the loosest rein possible, allowing new ideas and projects to develop on their own momentum with a maximum of independent decision making. The second approach demands that the reins be kept taut, that the generation of ideas be part of the corporate process, and like the other parts, that it be carefully managed.
Walt Disney was definitely of the second school. Although his famously forceful and controlling management style was largely attributable to his personality, there was also a practical consideration: the cost of making animated pictures. Makers of live-action films could shoot extra footage and then piece together their final product through artful cutting in the editing room, but animation costs were such that cartoon makers couldn’t even consider this whittle-down approach.
So to keep costs in check, Disney exercised extremely tight control of the creative process itself by instituting a rigorous, nine-step regimen for project management. Only by demanding that his people follow this standard procedure could he continue to turn dreams into tangible products, whether he was dealing with films, amusement parks, television shows, or any of the other Disney enterprises. In the Disney system, nothing was—or is—left to chance. Figure 9-1 illustrates the planning process.
In schematic form, the process looks like this:
Step 1—Blue sky
Ask “What if?” rather than “What?”
Learn to live for a time with the discomfort of not knowing, or not being in full control.
Take a trip through fantasyland; start with the story.
Figure 9-1. Planning guidelines
Step 2—Concept development
Develop research.
Evaluate alternatives.
Recommend an idea.
Step 3—Feasibility
Reconcile scope.
Prepare pro forma.
Step 4—Schematic
Finalize master plan.
Outline initial business processes.
Step 5—Design objectives
Finalize design details, equipment, and materials.
Develop implementation strategy and budget.
Step 6—Contract documents
Prepare contract documents.
Step 7—Production
Construct site infrastructure and develop work areas.
Produce show elements.
Install the show.
Step 9—Close out
Assemble final project documents.
Monitor performance.
Get sign-off letter from operations.
We like to add a Step 10: Celebrate a job well done!
Although managers at many companies fly by the seat of their pants, Disney executives follow these guidelines for aligning the company’s long-term vision with short-term execution. Not only is the company kept on track from project to project, but costs are cut and production is faster. Such strict adherence to a set of production standards and processes enables Disney to deliver consistently successful products and services.
The Process in Practice
New technology of every kind intrigued Walt Disney, but railroading held a special fascination for him. So when he could finally afford it, he built his own miniature train on his Holmby Hills estate. He spent hours driving it around, dreaming and planning. So when the time came to build Disneyland, it was only logical that Disney would be drawn to the idea of installing a monorail. Because Disney’s single-track vehicle was the first ever built in the United States, there weren’t any American engineers with the knowledge or training to construct it. So Disney turned to German engineers to help with the job.
When the monorail was completed at the end of six months, the Germans congratulated him on the amazing accomplishment. Walt Disney had finished in only half a year what had taken six or seven years to build in Germany. The Disneyland monorail represented planning and execution at its best.
Before planning or execution, of course, must come the vision. Without a vision, or “story,” as discussed in Chapter 2, there is nothing to plan. The first step, then, is the generation of new ideas, ideas designed to satisfy customer needs or solve customer problems. A team must be prepared to suggest, discuss, argue about, and try out any number of diverse ideas. If one or more ideas fail, no real harm is done. We remind the teams we work with that although Babe Ruth hit 714 home runs, he also struck out 1,330 times. So striking out a few times doesn’t stop someone from eventually setting a record.
Trying out ideas, perhaps putting parts of several ideas together to produce a prototype, helps develop an overall concept and determine whether or not it is workable. A prototype can be evaluated and market tested, and it can serve as the centerpiece around which the process is developed.
When Lee Iacocca came up with the idea of reintroducing convertibles into the Chrysler product line, he began by asking his engineers to make him a prototype. After some figuring, the engineers came back and told him they could do it, but it would take nine months. The exasperated Iacocca, wondering why a prototype of what he had in mind should take so long to make, responded in effect: “You just don’t understand. Go find a car and saw the top off the damn thing!” Within a few days, Iacocca had his convertible, which he then drove around Detroit, conducting his own version of a marketing study. People stopped and waved at him, shouted encouragement, or just turned and stared in wonder. Iacocca counted the stares, the shouts, and the waves that his prototype convertible elicited. After he had received a certain number of these responses, he decided that Chrysler should go ahead with a line of convertibles.
In some ways, the vision and idea-generation steps are among the simpler parts of the project-management process. Any number of people can sit around a corporate conference table and spin out a set of ideas and objectives for their company. The real difficulty is in determining how to go about reaching those goals.
Implementation of a project demands a carefully thought out structure that establishes specific guidelines, from the initial “blue sky” idea up to the final stages of completion. Certain milestones along the way must be specified, points at which management is appraised of overall progress. Those who work on a project need to know what is required at each step and how to measure their headway. Efficiency dictates that nothing be left to chance. Barring unforeseen acts of God, managers carefully plot every step on the chosen path.
We recognize that in today’s business climate, a forceful ruler patterned after Walt Disney might generate no small amount of enmity and have a harder time maintaining control, particularly if the company involved has a somewhat free-wheeling culture. And, in fact, a strong argument can be made for giving creative minds the maximum amount of freedom. But most companies find that an approach that falls somewhere between absolute control and complete freedom works best for them.
We recommend that each company design its own procedures for turning a dream into reality. Such a process works best if it grows naturally out of discussions among management and employees rather than being imposed from the outside. That way, it can more adequately reflect the company’s culture, history, traditions, and structure.
Many of our clients have successfully adopted rigorous processes similar to the Disney approach but tailored to manufacturing and service businesses. At one company, for example, the first phase is called the Idea.
In screening the Idea, the company initially asks:
What is the compelling customer benefit?
How is the Idea going to increase shareholder value?
Does it fit strategically into the organization?
What resources are required to move the Idea into the next phase?
Next comes the Concept phase. The questions asked at this stage include:
What is the market assessment?
Is the Concept technically feasible?
What is the business analysis?
What are the preliminary design specifications?
What plans and resources are required to move to the third phase?
The third stage is Conversion. Here the questions are:
What is the business case?
What critical process and product elements can we identify?
What is the plan of execution, and how can we make it happen?
What costs and benefits will be associated with the final phase?
And, as the company moves into the final Execution phase, it asks:
How do we release the product (if there is one)?
When is the process going to be implemented?
How do we get the product to the customer?
Do we have a feedback mechanism in place to gauge the success of the product?
With carefully determined guidelines and milestones, teams or departments can proceed on their own. Micromanagement is avoided because the company does not have to keep track of what everyone is doing every minute of the day. There is no need to ask how the project is going. Instead, management can safely trust that the team is keeping tabs on progress and that appropriate appraisals will be forthcoming at specified points along the way.
Project leaders understand, of course, that if problems arise that threaten deadlines or if some assistance is needed, management is there to help. Otherwise, the message from management should be, “You’re on your own until you’ve finished this phase of the project.” An interesting sidelight about Disney’s planning process is that many times a project may not receive the necessary funding to continue. In most companies, when this happens the team is viewed as a failure.
At Disney, they look at these projects as assets that may be dusted off and continued midstream as funding or technology becomes available. The story-line for the legendary movie The Little Mermaid, released in 1989, really began in the late 1930s with the amazing pastel and watercolor sketches of illustrator Kay Nielson. The Disney team recently pulled some pieces out of the studio archives and created the musical jewel that will soon be transformed with live characters for Broadway. The Little Mermaid was the last Disney animated feature to use hand-painted cells and analog technology. The animators received such inspiration from the Nielsen story sketches that they gave her a “visual development” credit on the film. The movie was hailed as the phoenix of big screen feature animation and was the first to spawn a TV series. The movie’s music earned the Academy Award for Best Score. Additionally, “Under the Sea” won the Academy Award for Best Song, the first Disney tune to win since “Zip-A-Dee-Doo-Dah” from Song of the South won in 1947.
A Planning Center Facilitates Communication
One of the most effective tools we’ve found for managing a project and bringing an idea to its successful fruition is a planning center, a room where all the various elements of an entire project and its progress can be assembled.
When The Walt Disney Company was still small—some 1,200 employees—management pinned rough drafts of drawings and story ideas to the walls of a planning room so that the exact status of a project could be quickly ascertained. Walt Disney didn’t care much for meetings or written reports. He preferred to wander into the planning center alone, usually late at night, and scan the walls for samples of work in progress. Comparing the visuals to the vision he held in his mind told him instantly whether a cartoon or feature film project was on the right track.
A similar type of planning center was established when we worked with a large South African company that had 54 plants throughout the country. The complex assignment involved installing a materials management system over a three-year period. The first step was to figure out how to manage the relevant mass of material. Borrowing from Pentagon jargon, a “war room” was set up that allowed the project team to keep abreast of what was going on and where. The room was approximately 25 feet by 35 feet, with 15-foot-high walls where information could be displayed. So as not to waste valuable space, the room was windowless.
On one wall were pinned the plans for the project, which enabled everyone to know at a glance when training would start, when the software would arrive, when the next general meeting was to take place. A special section of the planning wall was reserved for messages. This became the communications center. We have found that although people often ignore e-mail and telephone messages, somehow it’s harder to ignore a message when it’s printed on a card and openly displayed. Perhaps the public nature of such communication makes it more difficult to disregard.
Another wall of the center was dedicated to keeping everyone up to date on what other team members were working on and how far along their individual pieces of the project were. When a segment was completed, that fact was posted in a special section. Another place was set aside for anyone who had a problem. The project manager could walk in and see immediately what difficulties lay ahead, then take the appropriate action. If someone was having trouble getting accounting department approval of a costing method, for example, the manager could step in and move the process along.
Occasionally, people who are greatly attached to their computer system complain that all plans can be tracked online. “Why do we need a visual display?” they ask.
The whole point of a planning center is to allow people to see a holistic picture of the projects and activities throughout the organization. What’s more, when two or three people congregate in an area where the significant work of the company is visually displayed, often an impromptu meeting takes place. People communicate better face-to-face; and, as discussed in Chapter 5, MIT research supports this conclusion. The quality of communication improves markedly with proximity. Close contact encourages questions and discussion, which is the kind of interaction needed to move projects along.
The planning center proved to be a valuable tool for a team we know that ran a testing laboratory. Any team member could walk in and scan the wall for information on all of the company’s major projects and their stage of development. If the head of the testing lab noticed, for example, that one department was experimenting with a new product, he could be pretty certain that sooner or later his lab would be asked to perform certain tests. Previously, he probably would have received an unexpected call saying, “Hey, tomorrow I’m going to be sending you a part, and I need 47 tests done on it right away.”
The new information alerted the lab manager to find out approximately when the work might arrive so that he could schedule someone to be ready to do the testing. For the first time, the engineering and the lab staffs were working together in a meaningful and cooperative manner.
Unexpectedly, the planning center also turned into a morale builder. It brought employees together and gave them a sense of involvement in all aspects of the company’s processes. People began to feel that they had a voice in developments outside their own departments. Compartmentalization gradually disappeared.
Planning centers are useful when working on side issues within projects—or projects within projects. One client’s cross-functional team was charged with evaluating internal planning barriers and developing solutions that would promote buy-in from all stakeholders in the main project. The symptom, or “pain,” as we call it, were pretty clear from the start: Many people were angry about being left out of the planning and communication loops on a project that required their input in order to be successful.
The planning center is a practical approach for targeting the status of any one of the myriad pieces in a company process or for viewing the overall picture. The physical size of the center and the breadth of information displayed can vary, of course, according to specific needs. All that matters is that project leaders and participants have a way of keeping abreast of individual and overall goals, making specific progress toward those goals, and dealing with any problems or needs encountered at various stages of a project.
Another form of the planning center is embodied in the concept of colocating, which we discussed previously in conjunction with teaming (Chapter 5). When the Whirlpool technology team decided to co-locate people from around the world to work in its Evansville, Indiana, facility, a subteam was charged with coordinating the co-location activities. To facilitate small-group interaction, the subteam’s leader went to great lengths to create just the right environment.
This leader worked closely with two furniture suppliers to put together smaller functional areas within the total space allocated for the entire team.
He also installed an active noise system that effectively tripled the perceived distance between individual team members in terms of the privacy it created. In the case of this Whirlpool global team, the illusion of greater distance was particularly important because many of the team members had a difficult time adjusting to the open-room style. In addition, the multiple languages spoken by the participants made the system imperative. Since people tend to listen when others speak a different language, it would have been virtually impossible for group members to tune out one another’s conversations.
The effort involved in putting together the co-location space paid off for the Whirlpool team, which put together and executed a project that ended up surpassing everyone’s expectations. The ease of communication that both planning centers and co-locating promote goes a long way toward keeping a project on track and ensuring its ultimate success.
Taking the Holistic Approach
Thinking holistically is counterintuitive for those schooled in the principles of corporate Darwinism, where only the so-called fittest survive and where the law of the jungle guides most decision making. To overcome those blocks and to help people accustom themselves to the concept of the holistic company—where everyone works for the common good of the organization—we conduct an exercise called Broken Squares (See Scene 18 of The Disney Way Fieldbook: How to Implement Walt Disney’s Vision of Dream, Believe, Dare, Do in Your Own Company) in which clients sit in groups of five at separate tables. We hand each person an envelope with pieces of a puzzle. The goal is for all players to finish their puzzles; but to succeed, they have to trade pieces without saying a word.
This is not a competition, but as the game progresses, invariably some players begin to compete, hoard pieces, and strive to finish their own puzzles—and their group’s—before anyone else does. After the experience, the participants who have pitted themselves against one another begin to understand that success comes from not hoarding pieces, either individually or within a group. The fastest way to win—for all players to finish their puzzles—is for everyone to collaborate across “organizational” boundaries, in other words, to think and to act holistically.
As you set about using the tools described in this chapter to design your own planning procedures, we must add one word of caution. Don’t get so involved with making plans that they become the be-all and end-all. Some teams are so proud of the fine plans they craft that they forget about implementing them. They begin to look at the plan as their deliverable. Get in the habit of thinking execution immediately after you say the word planning.
One way to help you keep the process in perspective is through your system of rewards. Set it up so that idea generation is rewarded, to be sure, but save the biggest rewards and the largest celebration for the successful completion of the overall project. That way, employees will be encouraged to keep their eye on the ultimate goal.
That objective will be closer to your reach after you master the storyboarding technique that we will describe in the next chapter. Using it has helped our clients to conquer seemingly insoluble planning and communication problems. Once you learn how to storyboard, you will find it useful in solving a range of problems.
Questions to Ask
Do organizational boundaries inhibit your planning processes?
Do you have one or more planning centers in your organization where leaders and employees can work together on processes and projects?
Do you have a designated communications center where employees can post their project timelines and critical aspects of their projects?
Does your organization have a specific process for project implementation?
Do you encourage the development of prototypes to help develop an overall concept and determine whether or not it is workable?
Do you avoid micromanaging employees who are working on projects and champion their adherence to determining guidelines and milestones?
Do you celebrate specific milestones and the completion of projects?
Actions to Take
Develop a process for project implementation that is used throughout the company; provide training on the process and champion its use.
Create planning and communication centers for project and process activities.
Allow individuals and teams the flexibility to work on projects without management interference.
Set up cross-functional project teams on a routine basis.
Develop quick and inexpensive prototypes to test products, processes, or service ideas.
All the Right Stuff
We were really enlightened by the Global No-Frost team for a number of reasons. We often work in conservative situations where we cannot really experiment or try new approaches. This team gave us the chance to do just that, and in Jerry McColgin we found the ideal team leader. He understood his role.
Right from the start he announced that although he was the leader, hierarchy meant little to him. “I’m not going to sit in a closed office, and no one is forbidden to come in to see me. I want to hear from anyone who has a concern, a problem, or an issue.” As he says himself, “I tend to be a proactive, risk-taking, cheerleading, inspirational type. Facts and do-it-by-the-book are not my way of working.” His personal experiences working in amateur theatricals and on charity drives had also taught him how to lead groups of people. He realized early on that the team offered an extraordinarily high level of capacity, and he came to realize that his job was to harness these talents and to guide and direct them. He was not there to design a refrigerator; the engineers and designers could do that. In other words, Jerry understood that he was macromanaging the team, not micromanaging it. So long as the milestones were reached, he could preside and guide, leaving the details to his competent staff.
Very early on, at the first retreat, Jerry made a speech that was very influential in laying out the fundamentals of teamwork. Every individual at Whirlpool goes through an objective appraisal process that determines future raises and the size of the year-end bonus. The team would work by a different norm. Each member would be judged not on individual achievement but as part of a team, holistically. “I pointed to the marketing guy,” Jerry remembers, “and said, ‘You will only succeed if the manufacturing guy gets the equipment designed on time.’ To the purchasing guy, I said, ‘You will succeed only if the performance of the airflow system is up to par.’” Jerry’s message was that the success of the team depended on the sum of its parts—everyone working together at the highest level possible.
During the early retreat, the team began using storyboards to develop an entire 18-month plan so that people could see what had to be done and could negotiate their schedules. Someone said, “This is January and you expect me to get this done by April. I can’t do this unless engineering produces its blueprints for this part by mid-March. I’m dependent on them. How can I do this?” With these kinds of comments, we walked through the whole process and established everyone’s role and when they had to deliver a certain part of their output.
Our Featured Organization:
The Cheesecake Factory
A WELL-BAKED PLAN
The Cheesecake Factory chairman and CEO, David Overton, is a master dreamer and a meticulous craftsman. He is, piece by piece (no pun intended!), building an empire composed of restaurants that have become legendary for large, something-for-everyone menus that serve huge portions to vast numbers of people. After nearly three decades of business that began in Beverly Hills, California, the company has reached $1 billion in annual sales and 110 restaurants, including 103 Cheesecake Factory stores and seven Grand Lux Cafes. Oh, yes, and two Cheesecake Factory Express units inside DisneyQuest® indoor family entertainment centers (in Chicago, Illinois, and Orlando, Florida).
How does he do it? For starters, David Overton has hand-picked a “passionate, dedicated, hard-working group of people with good values and who put one foot in front of the other,” in David’s words.65 Those traits were the same as those of his entrepreneurial parents, Oscar and Evelyn, who started a small wholesale and retail bakery business in Detroit over 50 years ago. Having built a reputation for perfect cheesecake that could be made anywhere, and growing weary of Detroit, Evelyn and Oscar headed to Los Angeles in 1971 to start fresh. In California, everything seemed more difficult—even the professional ovens didn’t arrive for seven months, forcing Evelyn to use her own oven which held only four cakes at a time. The process of filling orders was often an all-day and all-night ordeal.
It wasn’t long before son David left San Francisco, where he had been living at the time, to lend his business acumen to his parents. David was troubled by the fact that the restaurants buying his mother’s cheesecakes didn’t appreciate them as he thought they should. He knew that people loved the cheesecake, but he also knew he must demonstrate to restaurateurs and prospective foodservice customers that having a great dessert program was a sure path to success.
David’s grand plan was to take “cheesecake” to the next level by opening the first The Cheesecake Factory restaurant on Beverly Drive in the heart of Beverly Hills. With nine investors willing to bet on David’s dream, the deal was locked in. Or so he thought. A new landlord had just recently purchased the property, which included four stores, and David had his eye on one of them. David was ready and eager to lease the 3,200 square foot space, but the landlord hesitated and asked, “What are you going to build here?” With nothing to show him, David told the landlord he was welcome to visit the factory, the bakery operations in North Hollywood, if he wished.
A few days later, David and his father were on their way to the factory in the bakery truck, after having made a sales call together. When they entered the building, David saw the landlord talking to his mother, Evelyn. He walked over to the baker to communicate an order, and then went over to greet the landlord, still not knowing if they had a deal. Happily, the landlord did agree to lease the space to The Cheesecake Factory for its new restaurant concept.
“Three or four years later,” David told us, “I was talking to him and he told me this story. Of course, I didn’t know this at the time. He said, ‘When I went down to your factory, I wasn’t planning to lease you the place because there was nothing I could see and I was very worried. But when I saw you go over to the baker and take care of business before you came over to me, I knew you would do a great job. That’s why I leased it to you.’”
The lesson is clear. “If you take care of business and are dedicated, you can do it,” said David.
On reputation alone, The Cheesecake Factory’s first restaurant opened with great fanfare in 1978. People stood in line for a table, and they are still standing in line 28 years later! “Our guests are the happiest in the world—Disney-style,” former executive vice president and company secretary Linda Candioty proudly told us prior to her retirement in 2002.66 Forget about getting a reservation, however, as the company does not accept them, based on a belief that it would be unacceptable if a guest’s requested dining time couldn’t be honored.
Without great people, David knows, it’s impossible to achieve great things. Early on, he found perhaps the best team member of his career—good friend, loyal baker, and first-class hostess, Linda Candioty. Linda worked in the original LA Cheesecake Factory bakery experimenting with recipes for mousse pies and fudge cakes alongside Evelyn Overton. Today, Linda’s famous Fudge Cake is still one of the chain’s most popular menu items.
David and Linda were a match made in “cheesecake heaven.” In the new restaurant, their roles were carefully planned: David took care of the business and Linda took care of the people. David was always testing and perfecting new menu items, and people continually raved about the quality and the choices he made. Linda was practicing the “Never a customer, always a guest” Disney credo even then. “Our guests choose us. They are in our home. They need to be comfortable.” says Linda. “If the coffee is cold or they don’t like it or they want another table, that’s what I’m here for. There’s never any other way to look at it in my mind.” For years to come, new staff learned Linda’s style of taking care of people, and although she is now retired, her legacy is valued to this day.
The Cheesecake Factory grew slowly, even though they had a huge hit on their hands and a formula that worked. He could have opened up new stores at any time in the first five years, but David’s plan was to make sure everything was in place before jumping to new sites. By 1988, The Cheesecake Factory was operating in only three locations, all in California. In 1994, David decided to test a market in far away Washington, D.C. on the advice of a good friend. Having done no formal market research and no advertising, David held his breath to see what would happen. Once again, people showed up in droves. In D.C., or in any other location for that matter, the company has never deviated from its policy of “no reservations,” much to the dismay of notable U.S. senators and distinguished executives who pleaded for the best tables and no waiting. “I told them we are very democratic at The Cheesecake Factory,” Linda said, “We seat our guests in the order they arrive.”
According to the masses that swarm to their doors from opening to closing, The Cheesecake Factory restaurant experience is worth the wait. This leading chain was one of the first to provide pagers for their guests, allowing them to shop or mingle while waiting for an open table. A new system will likely soon be in place to allow for guest notification of available seating via cell phones.
Many other restaurant chains also have great concepts, but often when they go public, they weaken under the stress and pressures of Wall Street. There’s a great temptation to grow too quickly, thereby increasing the risk of ending up in a death spiral trying to salvage success by cutting food quality and increasing prices.
Not so with The Cheesecake Factory. “Our niche is nearly impossible to describe and impossible to duplicate,” says Peter D’Amelio, president and COO of the restaurant division.67 No one has yet duplicated this successful core concept, with the exception of The Cheesecake Factory itself. Few companies can clone themselves with any success, but The Cheesecake Factory launched a second brand in 1999, the lavish European-style Grand Lux Cafe. Grand Lux’s first-year sales topped $18 million, nearly twice the impressive per-restaurant average of the company’s flagship concept. David and his team creatively and carefully plan Grand Lux locations in the same market areas as existing Cheesecake Factory restaurants, and they coexist beautifully.
“When you sit down and do your planning each year, you think about balance. I’m a producer and it’s a juggling act. How much do you give to the creative side and how much do you give to the business. I ask myself, ‘Is this going to be feasible?’ If you don’t hit it, you’ll either lose the project or it will be a lousy project. As restaurateurs grow, they often look inside at the numbers and stop looking outside at the customers, the competition, staying fresh,” David commented.
David has never deviated from his plan—methodical and controlled growth with no money spent on advertising in any market to date. The Cheesecake Factory is one of the most profitable restaurants in the upscale casual dining market. “They’ve evolved with this highly complex menu combined with a highly efficient kitchen,” says Denis Lombardi of Technomic Inc., a food-service consulting firm. “They’re somewhat intimidating to the industry.” From all accounts, few entrepreneurs can match David Overton’s patience, fortitude, commitment, and passion to stick with it and end up on top.