When you look at a Checkers Drive-In Restaurant, you might see abuilding that’s smaller than most of its competitors. Rick Silvasees a competitive advantage. A potential franchisee won’t needthe same capital outlay to open a new Checkers as he or she wouldfor a McDonald’s, and that’s something that Silva says is a competitive advantage for him. Silva, the president and CEO ofCheckers Drive-In Restaurants Inc., which also operates storesunder the Rally’s name, is constantly studying his customers andfranchisees. “We look at those two tiers and say, ‘How do we differentiate ourselves from the competition?” Silva says. “‘How dowe set ourselves apart from the competition in those two areas?’That goes to where our core equities are — where are we reallygood at?” For instance, the drive-through restaurant chain, whichposted systemwide sales of approximately $650 million in 2007and employs 18,000 people, offers seasoned fries that the competition doesn’t. While on the surface, something like seasoningmight seem insignificant, Silva sees it as a core advantage his company has over the competition.
Identifying those advantages and then leveraging them in yourfavor are the keys to creating a vision and driving it throughout theorganization.
“When you talk about a vision, you’ve got to understand thatfirst,” he says. “Sometimes people jump ahead and say, ‘OK, whatis my vision for the company?’ If it’s not ground in who you are,how you compete and what your core equities are, then it’s a nice,intellectual, maybe even emotional experience, but it won’t yieldyou much benefit.”
