Since its inception, MUFSO attendees have had the opportunity to listen to hundreds of the industry’s top leaders and mentors as they shared their thoughts about the restaurant industry and business in general. Much of what these speakers shared over the past half decade is just as pertinent to today’s operators as it was to those in 1959. The following quotations give some hint of the ideas that were expressed by participants at past events.
“The guns of politically motivated agendas have now turned on the foodservice industry. Under the guise of protecting the interests of the public, we are threatened by legislation, which will dramatically change the economics of our business and accelerate the often-talked-about industry shakeout.”—Herman Cain, president, Godfather’s Pizza, 1987
“The national priority of our business should be customer focus. We have to stop learning to process people and instead learn to serve them. Hospitality is the gift of friendship, and it has to begin with the people we hire. We have to manage for people, not profit. We have to manage, not from the back door, but from the front door.”—Mike Hurst, president, NRA, 1990
“Complex business, despite size and huge resources, can be exceedingly vulnerable to competition by a small, but highly concentrated single-market or single-technology business.”—Richard Goeglein, president and chief executive, Holiday Inn, 1983
“We have found that concern and interest for nutrition and additives as well as for cholesterol, sugar and salt—in short, the healthfulness of foods—have become increasingly important factors affecting how people eat and how they prepare their foods.”—Leonard Wood, executive vice president, Gallup Org., 1979
“If there’s anything we should try to do, it’s listen. If you listen carefully enough, the customer will tell you where you should go.”—Norman Brinker, chairman, Chili’s, 1987
“To our shame, we have even failed to recognize the potential of many of our new employees, be they management level or hourly personnel.”—John Teets, president and chief executive, Greyhound Food Management, 1980