Page 249 - Harnessing the Management Secrets of Disney in Your Company

230 The Disney Way

about the portions, which are large enough to share or save for another day
or two. According to David, the concept promotes “sharing and tasting dif-
ferent things.” And with such a vast array of menu choices, customers could
order something different every day for well over half a year! No one else in
the industry can claim this level of fare, or stand as an anchor with the likes
of Nordstrom’s and Macy’s in upscale suburban malls of America.

Do

Over the years, David Overton discovered that his likes closely match those
of his customers. He never worries that people won’t like the food. Anyone
who can’t find something they like on The Cheesecake Factory menu must
be from another planet. Remaining true to its motto, the restaurant offers
“something for everyone.” Nevertheless, every Cheesecake Factory item must
pass the Overton test. Others may have a hand in creating and tasting, but
in the end the final approval for menu items is up to its founder and chief
perfectionist. As Peter D’Amelio said, “We deal with the two most volatile
things in the world, people and food, and they both need constant atten-
tion.” They get this and more at The Cheesecake Factory.
Yet even if you have the “perfect palate” of David Overton, the restaurant
business is still a manufacturing plant. The challenge is to reproduce menu
items on the spot each and every time, by hand, not by machine. And David
believes that every repeat guest knows what his or her favorite item should
taste like. David explains to his employees, “If they tell you it’s not the same as
the last time, don’t tell them you think it is the same. They know better than
you.” David is the number one role model in the organization for listening to
the customers and doing whatever it takes to please them.
It’s a toss-up who are more finicky—the diners or their servers. David
had a keen sense of the market early on, and was determined to recruit the
best people in the industry and hold on to them. Nowadays, The Cheesecake
Factory has such prestige that people flock to the doors to get an interview.
The company’s comprehensive training programs for managers are enticing
to job candidates. Managers, general managers, and executive kitchen man-
agers can earn over $100,000 a year, double the industry average, and work
for a company that adds icing to the compensation cake almost every year.
For example, the CakeStake program rewards salaried employees with stock
options amounting to between 8 and 12 percent of their base pay—if the
company achieves 95 percent of its profitability goal. This is all part of “cheese-
caking” per David Overton. In his most serious tone, David told us, “It’s not