The Operations Management Strategy Of Hard Rock Cafe Marketing Essay

As we know, Hard Rock is the number one themes restaurant in the world. The first Hard Rock Cafe opened its doors to the public on June 14, 1971, in London, England. Founded by Isaac Tigrett and Peter Morton, two enterprising and music-loving Americans. Although other theme restaurants have come and gone, Hard Rock Cafe is still going strong, with 129 restaurants in more than 40 countries, and new restaurants opening each year.

As an industry leader, its strategy has changed with the times. Hard Rock has migrated from a London restaurant modeled on a Tennessee cafe, to food with entertainment, to food with an experience. Restaurant-goers don’t just want a meal; increasingly, they want an experience, and Hard Rock’s operation strategy is designed to provide that experience. Orchestrating all of this becomes an operations management responsibility.

All ten major operations management decisions are required of operations managers are: Design of goods and services; Managing quality; Process and capacity design; Location strategy; Layout strategy; Human resources, job design, and work measurement; Supply-chain management; Inventory, material requirements planning, and JIT; Intermediate and short-term scheduling; Maintenance – can be significant in building that experience.

Let’s take a look at HARD ROCK CAFE’s service quality and product design, at Orlando’s Universal Studios, a traditional tourist destination, HARD ROCK CAFE serves over 3500 meals each day (Heizer, J & Render B (2008), Principles of Operations Management (8thed). Harlow: Pearson). In Hard Rock’s case, the food is the product, and its quality must top the charts. Operations personnel constantly review menus, and food research is ongoing. Hard Rock chef are modifying the menu from classic American – burgers and chicken wings – to include higher-end items such as stuffed veal chops and lobster tails (Heizer, J & Render B (2008), Principles of Operations Management (8thed). Harlow: Pearson). Quality surveys are done regularly. If food scores aren’t a seven on a one to seven scale of quality, it’s a failure. Establishing quality standards and controls to meet these standards is the key to a successful restaurant.

The HARD ROCK CAFE Company also had raised Competitive Advantage through the creation of a unique advantage over competitors. Mainly they focus on differentiation. It means they offer another services and products than other restaurants, which the customer perceives as adding value. Those features are very difficult to copy!

Quality Management

Hard Rock Cafe, an immensely successful restaurant and retail chain with locations throughout the world, follows religiously the service tenet of “double checking” to minimize errors. The tenet is: Be careful and don’t make a mistake in the first place. If a mistake does occur, correct it before it reaches the customer. Hard Rock Cafe Orlando implements double checking through two “extra” people in the kitchen. One is stationed inside the kitchen and the other at the kitchen counter. The inside person reviews everything that is going on, looking for signs of undercooked or overcooked meals, wilting lettuce, etc. The counter person, or “expediter,” checks each prepared plate against the order ticket before the plate is delivered to the table. While this system is an added expense, it has worked well for this restaurant which on a busy day will serve 6,000 meals to customers who may have waited in line for a table for an hour or more. (http://areas.kenan-flagler.unc.edu/Marketing/FacultyStaff). Quality is very important for Hard Rock Cafe, every single waiter/meal is important. At Hard Rock Cafe, operations managers are responsible for the quality of food, they not only design the meals, test the meals (recipes), analyze meals for the cost of ingredients, but also have to research food, supplier and surveys about food quality.

Process & Capacity Design

At Hard Rock Cafe operations managers arrange the efficient employee schedules. Hard Rock Cafe serves over 100,000 meals, such as: Starters; Sandwiches; Salads; Burgers; Sides; Entrees; Desserts; … The production process, from receiving, to cold storage, to grilling or baking or frying and a dozen other steps, is designed and maintained to yield a quality meal (Heizer, J & Render B (2008), Principles of Operations Management (8thed). Harlow: Pearson).

Location

Location is a major long-time decision, it can make or break business strategy. Location decision starts with a global view on Political Risk; Currency Risk; Social Norms; Brand Fit; Social Cost; Business Practices.

Finding the perfect location for each cafe is another operations management decision. The company systematically narrows the search from country to city and then precise street corner. It’s the job of Oliver Munday, Senior Director of Worldwide Café Development, to make the choice. Hard Rock has a tremendous brand. We’re a global brand. We’ve been around for thirty years. A part of the reason we’ve been around for such a long time, I like to think, is that we’ve taken a lot of care and attention in looking at the markets we should expand into, and it is a very critical pursuit because it really underwrites and underpins the future success of the Hard Rock brand. If I make a mistake, if I pick the wrong market, if I make a bad decision, that affects us all for a long time because these are major long-term commitments. Going into new markets and renting space and signing new leases for a ten to fifteen, sometimes longer period of time, so once that decision is made, it’s there forever virtually, and so we have to be very careful so it is an important, strategic exercise to make sure that on a global basis we’re looking at the right markets and we’re going into the right markets, and we’re also going in at the right time. (http://cdis.missouri.edu)

Layout Design

Another operations management decision is layout. Operations managers have to set-up the process for purchase, construction, remodeling existing site,and food protection as well. Operations managers must consider the kitchen flows for food preparation and restaurant and bar layout for maximum revenue. Every piece of the experience strategy including memorabilia, music, and visuals takes on a new significance. This means lighting, sound, screens, contemporary music, and circulation paths are designed to show off memorabilia and expose customers to merchandise for sale. The retail shops generate close to half the companies profit and are carefully integrated into restaurant layout, flow, and work stations.

Human Resources

HR is the conscious of the company and is a true “support center” for employees, serving with training programs and being the voice of them. With employees, seeking people who are passionate about music, love to serve, and convey the experience to visitors. To spread the spirit of rock ‘n roll by delivering an exceptional entertainment and dining experience.

According to Jim Knight, Manager of Corporate Training: When you start talking about a human resource department that really is a true support center for such a big, international company, you kind of have to realize that the cafes and the individuals that work within can probably stand on their own when we were much smaller, but I think there’s a role that human resources now plays to sort of be the conscience of the company and make sure that we’re doing the right thing by the people, so I don’t mind us being a voice for them, and doing what we can to help recruit, maintain, to truly train them, to develop them, to grow them. Anything that we can do to support the individuals-I think that’s really what human resources is all about. (http://cdis.missouri.edu)

Supply Chain Management

Hard Rock works with qualified suppliers to ensure fresh, quality meals. Menu item selection depends on supplying right amount of ingredients from qualified suppliers on time.

Inventory Management

Also takes on a different meaning at the Hard Rock Cafe. There is of course food and merchandise, but Hard Rock also has over forty million dollars invested in one of the world’s largest collections of rock-and-roll memorabilia inventory. Most of which is on the walls of its cafes around the world, mainly from Elvis, The Rolling Stones, Jimy Hendrix and The Beatles. The souvenirs are in one restaurant only a short period of time and then goes the next one in another city or country, to show tourists new souvenirs all the time.

Scheduling

Scheduling is another of the ten operations management decisions. With twenty-three departments and over six hundred people on the payroll, Hard Rock Orlando General Manager, Ken Hoffman, considers many factors when preparing work schedules. We look at sales. We look at sales for prior year, and see what kind of business we did during that week when we’re writing the schedule. We also take into consideration any events-community events-in the area, seasonality. We also take a look at trend for our trade for the past couple weeks, and then what we do from that is we come up with a sales forecast. The sales forecast is basically that nucleus that we write the schedule from. (http://cdis.missouri.edu)

Operations managers considers many factors when preparing work schedules like: Sales; Sales for priority, type of business: meal, merchandise etc.; Community events in the area; Seasonality; Sales trend in last couple of weeks and Sales forecast

Maintenance

Quality and control are key to success. Menu review; Surveys; Kitchen, bar, retail shop layout and equipment maintenance and Maintenance of memorabilia at Orlando.

The HARD ROCK CAFE is not only a network of restaurants. Those are as well hotels in some locations (Orlando, Las Vegas) and network of shops where tourists can buy souvenires with HARD ROCK CAFE special logo. Special because each shop has special collection with logo of HARD ROCK CAFE and the name of the city. The 48% of sale coming from merchandise. (www.hardrock.com)

THE HARD ROCK’s global operation management strategy successfully combines:

Music

International locations

Globally branding merchandise

The World Wide Web attention to each quest experience

Operations management is an important element in restaurant management, but at Hard Rock, it’s the key to providing their unique experience at each and every cafe.