EOC Week3: Culinary Survivors

El Sombrero on Main Street and Bob Taylor’s Ranch House are only two of the struggling businesses found within the Las Vegas valley. It’s true businesses these days face a more difficult time of being successful because of the current economic status of the country and especially Nevada. The hospitality industry in particular has taken a real beating and considering that this is the primary industry found within the Las Vegas area, being an employer and a business owner is as stressful and difficult as being a job hunter. Some managers and business owners handle this process better than others. Jose Aragon from El Sombrero is one that could use some help in understanding the current market and how to adapt in it in order to be successful. One reason could be because he is looking to retire so his heart is not in it as much as it should be. Internally, human resources must be seen as linked to an organization’s business strategy, and must be involved in the business planning process to ensure that the organization has the right people in the right roles at the right time. (Managing Hospitality Human Resources, p. 88) He probably hasn’t done much business planning so he may be missing an opportunity to enhance his business by finding a manager that will care about the job and potentially alleviate Aragon of his responsibilities of the restaurant in the long term. This is also true of Jeff Special at the Ranch House. Another thing that would help Aragon with his decision to retire is a management succession plan. A management succession plan form quantifies the information in a management succession or replacement chart. Hospitality operations that use such charts can plan thoroughly for management turnover rather than simply guess about availability and future management staffing needs. (Managing Hospitality Human Resources, p. 95) There are also small businesses within Las Vegas that has embraced the changing of the marketplace and are doing well within it. The Bootlegger Bistro is one that has done this. They have grown and changed in order to be modern by incorporating nutritionists within the work environment. This is answering the demands of the target market that healthier dining options need to be available. The key to trend analysis is selecting the single factor that most accurately predicts demand. This factor should relate directly to the nature of the business. (Managing Hospitality Human Resources, p. 90) Metro Pizza is an area restaurant that has boomed and is very optimistic about the status of the business. In order to adapt to customer demands and know exactly what should be done to keep a leg up on their competition, they have implemented very good practices of trend analysis by having focus groups with their customers.