Answer the questions from the case study below:

1. From your knowledge of restaurants, identify how each of the 10 OM strategy decisions is applied at Hard Rock Cafe. (300 w at least)
2. How would you determine the productivity of the kitchen staff and waitstaff at Hard Rock? (200 w at least)

3. Identify the strategy changes that have taken place at Hard Rock Cafe since its founding in 1971. (300 w at least)

4. As Hard Rock Cafe has changed its strategy, how has its responses to some of the 10 decisions of OM changed? (300 w at least)

the case study:

In its 45 years of existence, Hard Rock has grown from a mod- est London pub to a global power managing 150 cafes, 13 hotels/ casinos, and live music venues. This puts Hard Rock firmly in the service industrya sector that employs over 75% of the people in the U.S. Hard Rock moved its world headquarters to Orlando, Florida, in 1988 and has expanded to more than 40 locations throughout the U.S., serving over 100,000 meals each day. Hard Rock chefs are modifying the menu from classic American burgers and chicken wingsto include higher-end items such as stuffed veal chops and lobster tails. Just as taste in music changes over time, so does Hard Rock Cafe, with new menus, layouts, memorabilia, services, and strategies.

At Orlandos Universal Studios, a traditional tourist des- tination, Hard Rock Cafe serves over 3,500 meals each day. The cafe employs about 400 people. Most are employed in the restaurant, but some work in the retail shop. Retail is now a standard and increasingly prominent feature in Hard Rock Cafes (since close to 48% of revenue comes from this source).

Cafe employees include kitchen and waitstaff, hostesses, and bar- tenders. Hard Rock employees are not only competent in their job skills but are also passionate about music and have engag- ing personalities. Cafe staff is scheduled down to 15-minute intervals to meet seasonal and daily demand changes in the tourist environment of Orlando. Surveys are done on a regular basis to evaluate quality of food and service at the cafe. Scores are rated on a 1-to-7 scale, and if the score is not a 7, the food or service is a failure.

Hard Rock is adding a new emphasis on live music and is rede- signing its restaurants to accommodate the changing tastes. Since Eric Clapton hung his guitar on the wall to mark his favorite bar stool, Hard Rock has become the worlds leading collector and exhibitor of rock n roll memorabilia, with changing exhibits at its cafes throughout the world. The collection includes 70,000 pieces, valued at $40 million. In keeping with the times, Hard Rock also maintains a Web site, www.hardrock.com, which receives over 100,000 hits per week, and a weekly cable television

program on VH1. Hard Rocks brand recognition, at 92%, is one of the highest in the world.

Hard Rock brings the concept of the experience economy to its cafe operation. The strategy incorporates a unique experi- ence into its operations. This innovation is somewhat akin to mass customization in manufacturing. At Hard Rock, the experi- ence concept is to provide not only a custom meal from the menu but a dining event that includes a unique visual and sound experi- ence not duplicated anywhere else in the world. This strategy is succeeding. Other theme restaurants have come and gone while Hard Rock continues to grow. As Professor C. Markides of the London Business School says, The trick is not to play the game better than the competition, but to develop and play an altogether different game.* At Hard Rock, the different game is the experi- ence game.

From the opening of its first cafe in London in 1971, during the British rock music explosion, Hard Rock has been serving food and rock music with equal enthusiasm. Hard Rock Cafe has 40 U.S. locations, about a dozen in Europe, and the remainder scattered throughout the world, from Bangkok and Beijing to Beirut. New construction, leases, and investment in remodeling are long term; so a global strategy means special consideration of political risk, currency risk, and social norms in a context of a brand fit. Although Hard Rock is one of the most recognized brands in the world, this does not mean its cafe is a natural eve- rywhere. Special consideration must be given to the supply chain for the restaurant and its accompanying retail store. About 48% of a typical cafes sales are from merchandise.

The Hard Rock Cafe business model is well defined, but because of various risk factors and differences in business prac- tices and employment law, Hard Rock elects to franchise about half of its cafes. Social norms and preferences often suggest some tweaking of menus for local taste. For instance, Hard Rock focuses less on hamburgers and beef and more on fish and lobster in its British cafes.

Because 70% of Hard Rocks guests are tourists, recent years have found it expanding to destination cities. While this has been a winning strategy for decades, allowing the firm to grow from one London cafe to 145 facilities in 60 countries, it has made Hard Rock susceptible to economic fluctuations that hit the tour- ist business hardest. So Hard Rock is signing a long-term lease for a new location in Nottingham, England, to join recently opened cafes in Manchester and Birminghamcities that are not standard tourist destinations. At the same time, menus are being upgraded. Hopefully, repeat business from locals in these cities will smooth demand and make Hard Rock less dependent on tourists.

Hard Rock brings the concept of the experience economy to its cafe operation. The strategy incorporates a unique experi- ence into its operations. This innovation is somewhat akin to mass customization in manufacturing. At Hard Rock, the experi- ence concept is to provide not only a custom meal from the menu but a dining event that includes a unique visual and sound experi- ence not duplicated anywhere else in the world. This strategy is succeeding. Other theme restaurants have come and gone while Hard Rock continues to grow. As Professor C. Markides of the London Business School says, The trick is not to play the game better than the competition, but to develop and play an altogether different game.* At Hard Rock, the different game is the experi- ence game.

From the opening of its first cafe in London in 1971, during the British rock music explosion, Hard Rock has been serving food and rock music with equal enthusiasm. Hard Rock Cafe has 40 U.S. locations, about a dozen in Europe, and the remainder scattered throughout the world, from Bangkok and Beijing to Beirut. New construction, leases, and investment in remodeling are long term; so a global strategy means special consideration of political risk, currency risk, and social norms in a context of a brand fit. Although Hard Rock is one of the most recognized brands in the world, this does not mean its cafe is a natural eve- rywhere. Special consideration must be given to the supply chain for the restaurant and its accompanying retail store. About 48% of a typical cafes sales are from merchandise.

The Hard Rock Cafe business model is well defined, but because of various risk factors and differences in business prac- tices and employment law, Hard Rock elects to franchise about half of its cafes. Social norms and preferences often suggest some tweaking of menus for local taste. For instance, Hard Rock focuses less on hamburgers and beef and more on fish and lobster in its British cafes.

Because 70% of Hard Rocks guests are tourists, recent years have found it expanding to destination cities. While this has been a winning strategy for decades, allowing the firm to grow from one London cafe to 145 facilities in 60 countries, it has made Hard Rock susceptible to economic fluctuations that hit the tour- ist business hardest. So Hard Rock is signing a long-term lease for a new location in Nottingham, England, to join recently opened cafes in Manchester and Birminghamcities that are not standard tourist destinations. At the same time, menus are being upgraded. Hopefully, repeat business from locals in these cities will smooth demand and make Hard Rock less dependent on tourists.

At the Hard Rock Cafe, like many organizations, project manage- ment is a key planning tool. With Hard Rocks constant growth in hotels and cafes, remodeling of existing cafes, scheduling for Hard Rock Live concert and event venues, and planning the annual Rockfest, managers rely on project management techniques and software to maintain schedule and budget performance.

Without Microsoft Project, says Hard Rock Vice-President Chris Tomasso, there is no way to keep so many people on the same page. Tomasso is in charge of the Rockfest event, which is attended by well over 100,000 enthusiastic fans. The chal- lenge is pulling it off within a tight 9-month planning horizon. As the event approaches, Tomasso devotes greater energy to its

activities. For the first 3 months, Tomasso updates his Microsoft Project charts monthly. Then at the 6-month mark, he updates his progress weekly. At the 9-month mark, he checks and corrects his schedule twice a week.

Early in the project management process, Tomasso iden- tifies 10 major tasks (called level-2 activities in a work breakdown structure, or WBS): talent booking, ticketing, marketing/PR, online promotion, television, show production, travel, sponsorships, operations, and merchandising. Using a WBS, each of these is further divided into a series of subtasks. Table 3.8 identifies 26 of the major activities and subactivities, their immediate predecessors, and time estimates. Tomasso enters all these into the Microsoft Project software. Tomasso alters the Microsoft Project document and the time line as the

project progresses. Its okay to change it as long as you keep on track, he states.

The day of the rock concert itself is not the end of the project planning. Its nothing but surprises. A band not being able to get to the venue because of traffic jams is a surprise, but an antici- pated surprise. We had a helicopter on stand-by ready to fly the band in, says Tomasso.

On completion of Rockfest in July, Tomasso and his team have a 3-month reprieve before starting the project planning pro- cess again.