Winning the Chain Restaurant Game

Few success stories so thoroughly embody the twentieth-century American dream as those of restaurant chains such as McDonald's, KFC, Pizza Hut, Wendy's, Little Caesar's, and Taco Bell. But besides the true grit demonstrated by entrepreneurial heros like McDonald's Ray Kroc and Wendy's Dave Thomas, what does it take to build and maintain a successful restaurant or retail chain? Find out in this first book to give a broad, long-term perspective on one of the nation's leading growth industries and to offer crucial lessons for all entrepreneurs, no matter what the business. Winning the Chain Restaurant Game, by award-winning authors and noted foodservice industry experts Charles Bernstein and Ron Paul, documents the critical success factors required for one of the toughest, most competitive industries. Highlighting the winning styles of more than a hundred chain executives, their triumphs, trials, disappointments, and turnarounds, this fascinating and instructive book identifies the eight strategic links that lead to victory in the chain restaurant business. With surgical precision, Bernstein and Paul explore such key factors as leadership, motivation, bulk purchasing, marketing, identity, consistency, and expansion. But they place focus ahead of everything and conclude that the entrepreneurial passion of an executive who deeply believes in his concept is the ultimate catalyst for success. Small- to medium-size chains are going public at a dizzying pace and there are enormous financial opportunities for savvy restaurant owners. Winning the Chain Restaurant Game arms operators with the vital know-how needed to win the game.