Here's how you can navigate strategic business decisions as an executive in the culinary field.

Knowing your market, competitors, who they are and what they do is essential to being able to understand how your menu / product will fit into the competitive set. While artist vision is very important to any menu, dish or food creative, know whether there is a market for it is fundamentally vital to its success and survival. A lot of new menu ideas that are going to market don't spend enough time looking closely at the competitive market and analyzing every single thing that their competitors that are putting out there and understanding the one unique menu item, environment stimulus or service experience that is bringing customers to them. Learn to love and appreciate what your competitors are bringing to the market, do not fear it.

Listen to the guest, listen to your front-line employees. Ask questions, don’t be afraid of feedback. The loudest in the room may be the most irritating but every once in a while you get a diamond in the rough. Listen to that voice, they are passionate and want to succeed as much as you do. “Mr/s. Manager", or “Mr/s. Executive Director" isn’t boots on the ground and is usually a 'yes' person. Screw them, do right by the guest, do right by the culinary vision and you will succeed.

Understanding your target audience market is essential for any business. Restaurants are not different. Once you have establish your target audience and study their needs and preferences you develop your offerings. Is there where you analyze your competitors with their strengths and area of opportunities. This way you can differentiate your self from others while becoming a solution for a need of your target audience which will result in profit. It's important to develop a brand identity and be careful with which trends to follow. That way your business does not become a temporary trend but create repeated customers.

Navigating strategic business decisions in Hospitality Industry- - Strategic and improvised SOPs and protocols need to be imposed and implemented occasionally to keep the operation moving and to stay ahead of the curve. - Proper and handsome analysis of the market is mandatory, one needs to dive deep into the preferences and liking of the target Guests, age, demography and location of the venue. - Innovative menus are the critical star players of the efficient operation. Classical traditional menus should be fusion with innovative touch. - Budgeting including food cost, labour cost, and other variable and non variable expenses with cash flow should be in control to get a proper management in Finance. - Staffs are considered.

Innovative menu development is NOT driven by creative genius, but rather boredom of the same offering created over and over again. It is very important to move any innovation to the future while at the same time respecting the stories and methods of the past. The true innovation and creation is found through these stories, and the personal side of your version of the story is what will make the test unique and ultimately successful. True food creative innovation means developing recipes and cooking food that you know and understand and projecting your personality into it, the taste look and feel of the dish will shine through, and morph into your own brand.

Menu innovation as a culinary executive involves creating new dishes, refreshing existing offerings, and aligning the menu with current culinary trends, customer preferences, and business goals. This process is critical to keeping the dining experience exciting, attracting new customers, and retaining loyal ones.

While being creative and innovative is going to take your product into different realm's, at the end of the day we work in a business like any other where every dollar we spend we need to get three back in return. Know how your business works, the numbers behind your menu, costs, payroll and expenses, being sure of how the menu sales mix works and what you need to achieve just to break even is vital to survival. Once all of the math is achieved, making sure that your customers are happy, and spending money to bring them to you and helping them return becomes yet another vital expense. When everything is up and running, we must then look at continued ways to be more efficient, create savings and operate with the margin on our side.

My mantra to many of my clients is to be proactive not reactive. Plan and budget changes first, don’t just change due the sake of change. If you are planning some spending, focus on spending that will improve the bottom line. Nobody cares if you have copper toilet paper holders, but restaurant owners waste this type of money all the time. Spend your money where it truly impacts guest experience in some way and it will then impact your bottom line

Financial management as a culinary executive involves optimizing costs, maximizing revenue, and ensuring profitability while maintaining high standards in culinary offerings.

Spending and investing in associate capital is the best investment while at the same time one of the most risky moves you will ever make. Your team is only ever as successful as the care, effort and trust you place in them. The correct recruitment, selection, training, and providing them with a caring and safe work environment will pay you back with loyalty, hard work, commitment, and a love for your business of which there is no value. Good employers place great enthesis on the capital of staff development, it does not always provide the ROI that is should, but without it no business can succeed, thrive or attain the reputation it deserves not matter how good the menu or impressive the restaurant.

Investing in your employees is the single greatest investment you can make. They are the ones on the frontlines, they dictate the tone with the guests, and often times have a better knowledge of the customer's want's and needs than the management team. In the hospitality industry high turnover is somewhat of an expectation. Have the mindset of developing people, and talent, and not just ensuring the can check of the orientation list. As much as we strive for culinary excellence we should have a reputation of developing people and supporting them in their growth, even if that simply makes them a better candidate for a job outside of your kitchen.

Staff development as a culinary executive is essential for maintaining a skilled and motivated team, which directly impacts the quality of service and overall success of the culinary operation.

Engage and build good relationships with staff, vendors and customers. Get involved and get connected with communities, and businesses,

Our platform helps with staff education and supplier engagement. So I totally agree with you!! Being interrupted by suppliers every day that you've never met can be difficult for bar managers. Educating your staff on new and old recipes moving forward can be difficult and keeping staff happy and engaged are even more difficult. We hope we can help in these aspects. Please reach out and connect if we aren't already.

Customer's are the food critics now. Through social media they can send out their thoughts and experiences whether negative or positive via social media. We have a chance to to expand our marketing team to 100's if not 1000's of potential customers. Engaging with the customer to use social media when in our restaurants or facilities only increases our digital presence. On our side of the coin, we can show the customer what it truly take to deliver a great product. From the time the lights go up and the food trucks deliver, to the server dropping off and saying "enjoy!" Social media allows us to control the narrative with our kitchens!

Customer engagement is a critical focus for a culinary executive, aiming to enhance the dining experience, build loyalty, and drive repeat business. Effective customer engagement involves creating meaningful interactions, gathering and acting on feedback, and fostering a strong connection between the restaurant and its patrons.

I feel like if there was more shared information from farms, ranches, suppliers and producers it would improve the best practices for sustainable solutions. For example: where do they source their meats from, which pesticides and what's the supply chain or chain of custody and please prove it. If you're a liquor company do you support local farms that provide living wages etc. I believe this shared and proven information would be very useful in deciding which products you want to provide for your customers.

Training is something we should all be passionate about. Developing talent is so crucial in the culinary industry. We see people from all walks of life and all types of backgrounds come through our doors. As much as you want your company to have a reputation for culinary excellence, why not have the same expectation in terms of developing people. Training takes time and resources and we very much need to account for that. However we need to account for being apart of someone's journey and striving to give them the skills to move up the ladder or if they leave we contributed to their success. There can be no losing that way!