Page 203 - Harnessing the Management Secrets of Disney in Your Company

184 The Disney Way

system will likely soon be in place to allow for guest notification of avail-
able seating via cell phones.
Many other restaurant chains also have great concepts, but often
when they go public, they weaken under the stress and pressures of Wall
Street. There’s a great temptation to grow too quickly, thereby increasing
the risk of ending up in a death spiral trying to salvage success by cutting
food quality and increasing prices.
Not so with The Cheesecake Factory. “Our niche is nearly impossible
to describe and impossible to duplicate,” says Peter D’Amelio, president
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and COO of the restaurant division. No one has yet duplicated this suc-
cessful core concept, with the exception of The Cheesecake Factory itself.
Few companies can clone themselves with any success, but The Cheesecake
Factory launched a second brand in 1999, the lavish European-style Grand
Lux Cafe. Grand Lux’s first-year sales topped $18 million, nearly twice the
impressive per-restaurant average of the company’s flagship concept. David
and his team creatively and carefully plan Grand Lux locations in the same
market areas as existing Cheesecake Factory restaurants, and they coexist
beautifully.
“When you sit down and do your planning each year, you think about
balance. I’m a producer and it’s a juggling act. How much do you give to
the creative side and how much do you give to the business. I ask myself,
‘Is this going to be feasible?’ If you don’t hit it, you’ll either lose the project
or it will be a lousy project. As restaurateurs grow, they often look inside at
the numbers and stop looking outside at the customers, the competition,
staying fresh,” David commented.
David has never deviated from his plan—methodical and controlled
growth with no money spent on advertising in any market to date. The
Cheesecake Factory is one of the most profitable restaurants in the upscale
casual dining market. “They’ve evolved with this highly complex menu com-
bined with a highly efficient kitchen,” says Denis Lombardi of Technomic
Inc., a food-service consulting firm. “They’re somewhat intimidating to the
industry.” From all accounts, few entrepreneurs can match David Overton’s
patience, fortitude, commitment, and passion to stick with it and end up
on top.