Name: Louis S. Grande Jr.
Title: vice president of information technology, Rare Hospitality International Inc., Atlanta
Birth date: Jan. 17, 1962
Place of birth/current residence: Ridgewood, N.J./Roswell, Ga.
Education: bachelor of business administration, computer information systems, Georgia State University, Atlanta
Career highlights: promoted to current post in December 2000, 11 months after joining Rare as executive director of information technology, or IT; previously worked as director of restaurant systems for AFC Enterprises Inc., as a senior IT consultant for IBM Consulting Group's retail industry division and as an IT consultant for Coopers & Lybrand's Management Consulting practice
Manages: 24 department employees and "leverages several strategic vendor partnerships" for additional resources
Reports to: Doug Benn, executive vice president of finance and chief financial officer
Family: wife, Lee Statom Grande, and children, Laura Ruth Grande and Louis Thomas Grande
Hobbies/activities: golf and music, including performances on guitar with a contemporary church praise band; rugby fan and former player
POS system: legacy Rare configuration is Radiant Systems' Aloha Table Service software running on Radiant and ParTech Inc. hardware
Primary unit-level, back-office application: legacy Rare application is MenuLink by Radiant Systems
Enterprise accounting and human resources management tools: Lawson ERP
IT mentor: Ed Brooks, former AFC Enterprises chief information officer, who "provided me with valuable insight and counsel regarding employee development and executive communication"
Louis S. "Lou" Grande Jr., who since 2000 has ridden shotgun over technology at Longhorn Steakhouse-parent Rare Hospitality International Inc. of Atlanta, is set to ride off into the sunset as a result of his company's fall 2007 acquisition by Darden Restaurants Inc.
The workforce consolidation and headquarters relocations that often accompany acquisitions in recent years have steered in new directions the career paths of many seasoned executives, such as Grande. He has spent months working to make as smooth as possible the transition of Rare IT functions from Atlanta to the Orlando, Fla., facilities and personnel of Darden, which added Rare's 299-unit Longhorn and 31-unit Capital Grille chains to a portfolio anchored by segment leaders Olive Garden and Red Lobster.
Most of Rare's enterprise IT systems, including human resources management, payroll, wide area network administration, computer operations and POS help desk, have either been transitioned to Orlando or will be within the next two months, Grande indicated. He recently spoke to Nation's Restaurant News about the transition and some of the projects, philosophies and practices that marked his tenure at Rare Hospitality.
What can you say about your team's work to hand off IT functions to Darden?
We have a lot of pride in what we built. We want to make sure that when it either gets transitioned to Orlando or shut down, that it is done right and that we can all walk away with a sense of, 'Hey, that was a good thing.' So everyone has been pretty singularly focused on that. As a matter of fact, no one on the Rare IT team left until the end of March, so there were six months of heads-down work for the entire team to assist the folks in Orlando with the transition. I feel good about how my folks responded.
Talk about some recently completed Rare IT projects.
Since the close of the acquisition by Darden on Sept. 28, 2007, Rare IT has been focused on supporting the transition. If you have never geographically relocated IT services and transitioned or integrated all aspects of technology while continuing to support 330-plus restaurants, without negatively impacting company operations, it is difficult to describe.
Are there any IT projects on the drawing board you can discuss?
Over the next 12 months, the team in Orlando will be focused on converting all the Longhorn and Capital Grille restaurants to Darden's POS, back-office and general business applications standard.
Name one of the IT initiatives on your watch that resulted in a significant return to Rare?
In 2004 we [brought in house] payroll processing, which resulted in a six-figure, annually recurring savings that literally paid for the project in less than three years. Through economies of scale, it became cost effective to invest in the people, processes and technology required to support internal payroll processing versus paying a third party a per-check [processing] fee. The only thing we didn't in-source, was the check printing. At that time we had some 18,000 employees, and we were probably doing 30,000-plus W-2s, plus 1099 [forms]. When you are paying a per-item fee for all of those [pieces], that [fee] number gets pretty big.
What was the biggest challenge tied to that project?
Making sure you got everybody's check right the very first time. Our measure of success [or goal] for that project was that nobody ever knew we switched payroll systems. We were able to achieve that.
Explain your philosophy about when and how to use technology?
Technology should be used when the business believes that the only way to compete or achieve business goals and commitments is through the use of technology. Every technology project must have an executive or senior director as a business sponsor to be successful, and without that level of sponsorship, a technology project is destined to fail.
How do you go about finding such business sponsors?
I'm a big proponent of IT governance through an executive steering committee. Basically, we use a structured process by which the executive steering committee is used for idea generation that is then supplemented and augmented by my own ideas, as well as the ideas of my peers and the team members of the IT department. At least on an annual basis, that list is reviewed by the steering committee and goes through a prioritization process.
What is important to remember when developing a strong team of IT professionals?
First of all, you have to establish trust and respect through open and honest communications. You can't ever be afraid to admit when you don't know an answer or admit when you make a mistake. You have to be open to differing opinions and debate and respectfully agree to disagree when that is the case. Second, you must give your folks the responsibility and authority to make decisions and take action. I firmly believe people don't want to be order takers; they want to be problem solvers. So you have to give them the tools they need and get out of the way. Third, you have to take time to celebrate victories – both professional and personal. You've got to make it fun. Finally, you have to coach and develop them by defining guidelines for growth and advancement, investing in training opportunities and providing one-on-one feedback, both formally, through the performance review process, and informally.
Anything else?
I'm very big on looking for opportunities to get people visibility. At the executive level, you have to promote what your people are doing and get them some visibility. That not only helps them, but it helps you and it helps the company.
Apart from general qualifications, are there other important considerations when hiring?
The other thing I look for is this: Do I think that this individual will be able to be successful in [our] culture? We were very matrix oriented [at Rare]. Everyone wore multiple hats. Some people don't work well in that sort of consulting model. When I interviewed people, I made sure that I was upfront about how we worked as a team.
What else was key to your personnel practices at Rare?
My hiring strategy was to bring someone in on a contract-to-hire basis. I'd have them work anywhere from three to six months — whatever they were comfortable with — with the opportunity at the end of that contract to convert that individual to an employee. [During] the eight years I've been here, I've probably contracted-to-hire some 20 people, and maybe two didn't work out that I can think of.
When is your last day at Rare and what's next?
July 1. I don't have my next career move figured out yet, but I love the foodservice industry. Regardless, wherever I land, I hope I continue to be blessed with great people, because I enjoyed building and leading a wonderful team of IT professionals at Rare, and, in the end, it's all about the people. I will miss them.
