The portfolio activity for this chapter is Developing Your Planning Skills. Read the following highlight about Darden Restaurants, and answer the questions that follow Darden Restaurants Inc., which operates chains such as Red Lobster, Olive Garden, and Bahama Breeze, is one of the largest casual dining restaurant companies in the world. Darden is exploring potential opportunities for growth, and you have been hired to develop a new restaurant concept for the company. Executives at Darden are particularly interested in concepts that are consistent with the companys mission, which is To nourish and delight everyone we serve. Darden has committed the funds necessary to test your new concept restaurant in an area around your school. If the new concept works well in your area Darden may seek to expand the concept in a larger geographical area. Your mission involves establishing a plan to introduce this new concept restaurant. After deciding on your new concept restaurant, Darden wants you to work through the first five steps of the planning process: (1) state organizational objectives; (2) list alternative ways of reaching objectives; (3) develop premises on which to base each alternative; (4) choose the best alternative for reaching objectives; and (5) develop plans to pursue the chosen alternative.

1. Briefly describe the most important characteristics of your new concept for Darden. 2. Develop three organizational objectives for your new restaurant. 3. Choose one of the three objectives to explore in more detail. List three alternative ways to reach this objective. 4. Develop premises to evaluate each of these three alternatives. 5. Based on these premises, choose the alternative that is most likely to reach the objective. 6. As you think about this alternative, list the significant steps needed to implement this alternative