ARJUN:
Lane, you have so many super fans in the restaurant industry. Nancy Hampton, another restaurant industry rock star, describes you as, "One of the most knowledgeable and respected restaurant strategists of the last 20-plus years." I know you like to help concept leaders see the big picture, to facilitate continuous business development. You bring a big picture perspective to an industry of details. Why is that so important?
LANE:
The big picture is a lot like Google Maps. If you zoom in, you can see the neighborhood, streets and houses very clearly. Even the swimming pools. But you don't know where the streets lead. When you zoom out, you get a better perspective of the world around you and it helps make your decisions more relevant.
ARJUN:
Wow. And what about the importance of continuous business improvement? Why the emphasis on continuous?
LANE:
When I think of business improvement, I approach it from the guest perspective, not business efficiency. Everyone in the company is working on business efficiency. I focus on, "What are we doing to make the guest experience better than it was?" New concepts are constantly opening with the latest and greatest. If you're not moving your business in that direction, you're falling behind. This is true of any industry.
ARJUN:
Guest experience is a phrase every business or brand uses. So what's the difference between a memorable guest experience, and things that just don't hit the mark?
LANE:
What you're working toward, is trying to be something that people look forward to the next time. People get used to the experience they have and they come back to you, because they like what they have. But you're not the only restaurant they dine in. They're seeing new places open, new ways of doing things, new service styles and products. If you're not attuned to that and you're not participating in that, you'll lose people by becoming stale.
ARJUN:
So you need to stay attuned with all the changes, and participate, and influence that. Be the leading edge.
LANE:
At least be moving in that direction. Restaurant companies have a lot more tools to work with than a lot of other companies. Whether it's the product, the atmosphere, a service style, we have a lot of things we can respond with.
ARJUN:
Going back to your amazing career, could you pick one or two of your biggest success stories? More importantly, what's the secret behind those successes?
LANE:
The thing I'm proudest of is the renewal of the Boston Market concept in 2010. I always try to be a spark plug to the management team. The management team's the engine. At Boston Market, it was the best management team I have ever worked with. They had been together a long time, loved the concept and loved each other. But along the way, they had lost faith in their future. I was their seventh CEO, as I was told numerous times. It took nine months of digging, but once we figured out how to rejuvenate the brand, they knew exactly what to do at the end.
But this is where I learned a lot. As good as that management team was, it was the hourly employees that saved the company. Once we figured out what we wanted to do, we held a series of three-hour employee meetings across the country. We shared our detailed plans with 10,000 employees and told them that their hospitality was the key to the turnaround. No hospitality, no turnaround. We role played what that hospitality would look like. There were smiles, welcomes, a thank you and goodbyes that made it work. It proved something I've always known, but had never been so closely involved with. That's to never underestimate the power of the people on the front line, when you involve them in the solution.
ARJUN:
Never underestimate the power of the people on the front line. When I told a senior leader from Boston Market that I’d be interviewing you, he got very emotional. These were his exact words: "Just when every team member felt the company had stopped believing in them, Lane came in with the belief that every team member matters, can be a star and is worthy of respect." It's a very deep-level connection. So on a human level, how did you get to that, how did you reach that level?
LANE:
I think everybody does it differently. I try to create an environment that's risk-free for ideas. That was the whole goal with Boston Market, to come up with an idea that would change our trajectory from the path it was on toward one of success. Now the lower you can keep your own ego, the more room others have to grow around you. Many times people feel their bosses don't want their ideas. I'm not that kind of boss. I also tell people, "I'm new. You're not. Do not let me make a mistake with our business." Over time, people realize you mean it, and it was amazing how many times people would come up and tell me I was making a mistake. Along the way though, you come up with the answer.
ARJUN:
I hear about risk-free idea generation quite often in the business world, but the challenge is, how do you create it? You shared two things that are brilliant: keep your ego outside and create the feeling that by sharing ideas employees are preventing the management team from making mistakes and they’re grateful for that. I really love that.
Let’s look at all your success in the restaurant industry and take it beyond that industry. Are there any universal secrets you would love to share, that will work in any industry, anywhere?
LANE:
I believe the things that work in this industry also work in others. It's no different. You need to get the most out of people. First, by first believing in them. If you can’t do that, they shouldn't be there. Also, a lot of people have a lot of ideas, if they've been with the company for any period of time. They've just never been asked to share them. They'll share them with each other, along with what they think is going wrong with the company. But you need to get them to share that with you too. I was a big believer in regular communication to all employees, daily or at least weekly, telling them what we were doing, why we were doing it and what we hoped to accomplish with it. If it didn't work, I would tell them why it didn’t work and what we were going to try next. That way there’s always a feeling of involvement and participation.
ARJUN:
Let’s go back to what made Lane so successful. Is there one person or instance that inspired you the most?
LANE:
I was fortunate to have worked with Norman Brinker for 20 years. I joined Norman at Steak and Ale, and followed him over to Chili's, which became Brinker International. Whenever you have an interaction with Norman, you leave with more energy than you walked into the room with. He made you feel you were capable of doing anything. He'd be surprised if you didn't do great things. Norman never told you what to do. It took me a while to realize he wasn't forgetful, when he would ask me the same questions day after day. He was giving me a chance to correct my answer, and in doing that, he wasn’t telling me what to do, he was helping me learn how to think better. Norman always saw his role as developing leaders. It was the leader's job to run the business. Norman's job was to keep developing the leaders to run the business better.
It was like a doctor bringing in multi-vitamins. When Norman felt we were a little light on creativity, he brought in Mike Vance, who was the head of the Disney University and taught creative thinking. When Norman felt we were having trouble working together, because everybody wanted to be the boss, he brought in Steven Covey, who worked with us over a period of many years, teaching us the seven habits of highly effective people. When Norman felt we just weren't getting the basics of management correct, he brought in Peter Drucker, the Father of Modern Management. Norman thought big, but made people feel bigger. He was an amazing man and I don't think anyone has done more for the industry or for the leaders in it, than Norman Brinker did.
ARJUN:
Thank you for sharing these incredible lessons from Norman Brinker, an amazing mentor. First, leaving a meeting with a CEO or other leader with more energy instead of feeling beaten up is priceless. Secondly, being reminded of what your capabilities are, because many a time when we get beaten up in the corporate world, we start playing it safe.
But the third thing you mentioned really touched me, because it reminded me of my favorite boss in the corporate world, Blaine Hurst at Papa John's, Panera and Boston Market. In all those years, he never told me what to do. Even if I asked him what I should do, he would say, “You know the answer,” then smirk and say, "If I told you what to do, why do I need you?" That's the commonality between amazing leaders who are visionaries. The super leader’s job is always to find out what you would need tomorrow, like the multi-vitamins. I love that example.
LANE:
One of the things I learned very quickly from Norman was, just because you had a title, it didn't make your opinion any more valuable. Norman listened to everybody in the company. We used to hold off on some product rollouts, because John in accounting would go to Norman and say, "Hey, I heard we're doing this. I don't understand why, because..." Then Norman would come to us and say, "John is worried about this. What do you think?" If he didn't like the answer, we held off until we could answer John's answer correctly. Everybody had input in the company.
Norman was a big believer in knowing where you're going and then sharing it with everyone. He was a big believer in “first thing's first,” and making sure you focus on the things that matter. Norman believed in letting the business leaders run the business, and he created the environment that made it possible. He focused on health and exercise. He paid for corporate memberships for all employees at the aerobic center in Dallas. People would go at lunch and run, talk while they ran, and come back energized.
Norman also had a ranch, and he developed a challenge course, a rope course on it. We would bring all our managers there monthly and they would participate in that for several days. It was something that all people at Brinker had in common. But Norman also believed in hiring right. He was one of the first ones to use attitude testing, psychological testing, testing for intelligence. He was also a big believer in the fit of the team. Norman found over time, that certain personality types thrived in that kind of environment, but others didn’t, so he made sure to keep replicating the personality types that thrived, and even if it meant losing some qualified people, avoid those that may be problematic to the rest of the group.
ARJUN:
That’s a good transition to this next area. You've hired a lot of successful leaders who went on to become leaders in big organizations. What traits are important to you when you are hiring a future leader?
LANE:
One of the first things I look for is whether the person's a good communicator, and in that, can they speak clearly? Can they make themselves understood clearly? Are they honest in their communication? A lot of times, you can tell in an interview whether a person is honest about themselves. Do I think this person could be transparent with the rest of the organization as they lead them?
A second thing would be positive attitude. That’s something else I learned from Norman. It's hard to do positive things with negative people. Positive people create positive things and it gives you the ability to motivate and to inspire.
Then, is this the type of person who has the ability to delegate? Or are they going to be the type of person that's going to come in and tell everybody what to do and hope that they're right? When you have the ability to delegate, you're going to get a lot of trust out of your people and you'll get the most out of your team. I've always thought it was sadly humorous that people would try to tell other people what to do, when they had no idea how to do that person's job.
The last thing I ask myself is, is this a person I would like to work for? If I can't say yes to that, it's not a hire recommendation from me.
ARJUN:
Those are all great insights but that last one is brilliant. That reveals a true integrity issue which most people just don’t see.
In the business world, many a time, we face imminent failure and we worry that failure will define us. But some of us are fortunate to have been part of amazing teams, and when we look back, we did something different to turn a failure or near failure into a major win. Can you give me an example in your amazing career of an example like that and what you and your team did to turn failure into success?
LANE:
Your question made me think of one that I've never shared before and it's probably one of my favorite things to think back on. Ken Dennis was our head of marketing at Chili's. He was approached by Southwest Airlines, which wanted to introduce a partner pass, where you gave somebody a pass and they could fly with a full-paying passenger. Southwest’s idea was that they would let us distribute those through the restaurant. Ken's idea was, you buy an entrée and we'll give you a ticket to fly anywhere that Southwest flies, if you fly with someone who's paying. Amazing offer. Our only obligation was to put several million dollars worth of marketing behind it in the markets where it would be running, where Southwest was flying. We looked at the payback, and it was going to require over a 20% lift in sales in those markets just to break even.
Then as we got close to the time to kick it off, the Gulf War broke out. Now the government is on TV warning people, "Do not fly, unless it is absolutely necessary." They were worried about terrorist events. Every time you turned on the TV, "Do not fly. Do not fly." I said, "Ken, remind me again what it is we're promoting?" That’s right, a free airline ticket. Ken and I were convinced that the offer was compelling enough to be successful, but we needed Norman Brinker's approval. A lot of money was at stake.
So we called Norman in and gave him the presentation. We showed him the pros and the cons. We showed him the huge hurdle we had to achieve to break even, and we kept pointing out the risks with the government warnings. I pulled out a pair of dice and I said, "Norman, this seems like one of those times where you just have to roll the dice. Let's do it this way. You roll a seven, it's a go. Any other number, we'll take it off the table. Norman took those dice and rolled a seven. He said, "Let's go." Then I said, "Norman, you know those dice were loaded, don't you? They could only roll a seven.” He said, "Oh yeah. I knew that. I wanted to go anyway." So we did the promotion in a time of war and government warnings about not flying, and that year we exceeded our profit plan by 70%. All core permanent employees got 240% of their bonus and all officers got a Rolex watch. It taught me that sometimes you just have to roll the dice.
ARJUN:
That also took a lot of courage from both you and Ken, to commit to a decision. But I don’t want people to think you just rolled the dice and it happened. You had a plan on how to move forward, to make it happen, and that plan was implemented flawlessly.
LANE:
I appreciate that. We wouldn't have given Norman loaded dice, unless we were completely convinced that it had the chance to work. But you never know till you do it. We could have lost several million dollars at a time where that was a lot of money to the company, or we could have missed one of the biggest opportunities the company had ever had. We were fortunate to have the loaded dice lead us in the right direction.
ARJUN:
So how do you get to that point of total certainty? How do you know you're there?
LANE:
You never really do and that's the brilliance of what Norman created. We knew if we were wrong, we were just wrong. He wasn't going to fire us. He wasn't going to yell at us. He wasn't going to demote us. He had prepared us over many years to look at that type of situation and make that type of decision. But we wanted to be sure to bring him in on it, not just have it happen.
ARJUN:
In the restaurant field, especially now with changes coming at a much rapid pace, how do you help businesses and brands feel the pulse of guests constantly? How do you see the next big idea and not miss it, but at the same time, not jump at every micro trend?
LANE:
The thing that's helped me over time is, I eat at a lot of restaurants. Until the shutdown, I'd eat in about 600 restaurants a year. I do it for a number of reasons. One is to look for what evolutions are going on in the concepts I compete with. Another is to see what new concepts are emerging and whether there are enough of them to build in a collection, that it even might represent a new segment or a new style in the industry.
We're very fortunate that for a price of a meal, you're able to stay so close to the industry. One summer I worked for General Motors on the assembly line. On the first day on the job, they told us that every year GM bought every competitor's car, disassembled it down to the parts, and then reassembled it, so they would understand what they were competing with in the marketplace. They would spend tens of thousands of dollars per car to do that. We're lucky that for $15, $20, $25, we're doing the same thing. By doing that, you're able to engage in conversation with your team, and if your team is not doing that, pretty quickly they start doing it.
Most people in our industry tend to focus on the restaurants they run, and occasionally reach out and look at other competitors. I keep a list of restaurants by city, that I've read about or heard about. Then when I'm in that city, I'll already have a working list of where to go while I'm there. There may be eight or 10 or 12 on that list, along with who told me about it, or how I learned about it, or why I thought it was interesting enough to put on a list to visit. Sometimes I'll look at the list and I'll look at my travel schedule and realize I'm not going to be in that city for a long time, so then I'll go to that city for the specific reason of just looking at those restaurants.
ARJUN:
Translating that to any business, it's all about seeing what your competition is doing, to build a big picture at micro level, and it’s important to note that big ideas do not always come from your biggest competition. You need to have a process, to get an understanding of where the next trends are.
So here’s a loaded question. If you could take what you’ve learned in your career and go back in time to advise Lane when he was fresh out of college, what piece of advice would you give him? Would you tell him to stay in the restaurant industry? Or if the kid does not want to be in the restaurant industry, what other industry would you suggest?
LANE:
What I would tell myself, and what I tell others, is this: your first job will not be your last job. My first job was working in an industrial chemical company, answering questions from salespeople who called in. I worked there six months, then had an opportunity to join Braniff Airways in their training academy. I worked there three years, then started a retail and restaurant marketing research company. What I learned from that is, you were a lot better at that than I was. Then I joined Steak and Ale.
After I advise people that their first job will not be their last job, I also tell them to learn everything they can in every job they’re in. If you're not able to learn anything, leave. That's why you're there, especially in your first few jobs. Be open to unexpected opportunities, but don't change just for change sake. Ultimately, your goal and what you're working toward is to be asked to join a company, not to be asked to be hired. So along the way, you want to develop a kind of reputation, the kind of skill set, where the people you've worked with who go off into other companies say, "If we could just hire that person, we would be very successful", as opposed to you going to that company and saying, "Can I work here?"
ARJUN:
I have one last question. You’ve talked about process numerous times in this conversation. Any leader of the highest level has a process. I hope you’ll share yours with us. What’s the first thing you think of when you start your day, and what’s the last thing you think of when you’re winding down your workday.
LANE:
The first thing I think of when I wake up is, "What kind of world am I waking up into?" Things happen real-time, in all time zones. I'm involved with a company in Saudi Arabia. When it’s morning here, it's almost evening there. So what I do is, I spend the first hour of my day reading online news, the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, local papers in Dallas, all the industry publications. I check their daily alerts. Then I go through my emails. When I'm done, I try to decide, "Did I learn or see anything that makes me want to change my priorities for the day that I had set yesterday?" Maybe an emergency arose. Maybe something came up that is more important than what I thought I was going to work on. I like to start off informed and know what has happened. If nothing changes my plans, then I go through the day at hand.
The last thing I think about is, "Now that this day is over, did I actually accomplish something or was I merely busy?" If I'm honest with myself and say I was very busy but really didn’t get anything done, I try to correct that the next day. But I try to be very honest about, "What did I accomplish? What will it lead to?"
ARJUN:
That's brilliant. This was an incredible learning session on business leadership, seeing the big picture and empowering every member of the team to reach their true potential. My big take aways are number one, big picture in the business world, is like a Google Map. You need to zoom in and zoom out to see where each road is leading to. I just can't believe in all these years, you never have shared that one wisdom with me.
LANE:
I was waiting for the podcast.
ARJUN:
Glad you shared that today. It also hit home with me when you talked about creating a risk-free environment, which all of us aspire to do. It starts from one, lowering your ego, or keeping it outside and secondly, remind everyone that by sharing, they reduce the number of mistakes, or your mistakes. All these mean a lot coming from you, who has walked the talk every day in your amazing career. Thank you again.