Ken Reimer has proven himself as a restaurant turnaround expert, having guided restaurants, such as Tony Roma’s, through tough times and into steady waters.
But this time around, he’s building a strong business from the get-go, one that doesn’t require his turnaround skills. As co-founder and CEO of the fast-casual restaurant chain Baker Bros American Deli, he’s positioned the chain for a solid future and posted revenue of $15.3 million in 2007, just nine years after its founding.
Smart Business spoke with Reimer about how to develop a strong vision for your business to increase its chances for success.
Q. How do you create a solid vision?
If we listen carefully to what the consumer wants — very carefully — and relate that to the economic implications and competitive circumstances, that’s the starting point. I want a product that works. All products aren’t bound to work now and for the long term.
We start with that, and that again goes back to the consumer and what qualities we have. There’s a lot of marketing stuff behind that but what qualities we have or should have that meet their demand.
Then I believe in having the highest quality product available in the sector, but not everybody needs to do that. You can be a low-price producer or be differentiated in a variety of ways. You say, ‘What do we have that really makes sense? What can we offer that’s useful to other people and that is attractive to them?’
Then, of course, how do we go about doing it? There’s a lot of pieces and puzzles on every side — operational, technically, marketing, finance, pricing and all of those issues. So I always start with the consumer and the product I’m talking about and how to meet the consumers’ demand for today and tomorrow, as well.
