The Demand
This week, name the one piece of strategic product work that has been deferred longest — the menu engineering review, the facility update, the systems upgrade, the concept evolution everyone agrees is necessary. [Temporal Discounting] funds the loud 86 list over the abstract audit every time, and [Present Bias] keeps that work perpetually pushed to next quarter. Put a date on your calendar this week for that review — not contingent on whether the building feels like it needs one — because the future operator inheriting the deferred debt is you.
The Work
The strategic product work that has been deferred longest, and for how many quarters:
What keeps winning against it every time it comes up — name the louder, more immediate task:
Rate how much product decay is currently hidden and undramatic versus visible and urgent, 1-5:
Who inherits this deferred work if it stays deferred another year — name them honestly:
The scheduled, non-negotiable date this week you will put on the calendar for this review:
What you will refuse to let bump that date once it is scheduled:
44 years. 200+ independent operators coached. 34 restaurants opened from scratch.
I work with restaurant operators who know something is wrong and are ready to find out what it actually is — and with leaders who are ready to build something that lasts.
The complete framework is in my new book: The Operator’s Playbook
Call or text: +1-817-797-2929 Email: Jeffrey@JeffreySummers.com
