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We brought a magician to the Propel Summer Party in September. He did things we can’t explain.

Some operators are a bit like that. They always seem to know which site is slipping, which lines are losing money, where the labour is going. It looks like instinct, but often it isn’t. It's just data they can actually see, early enough to do something about it.

A magician never tells you how it's done. We will, below I have given three examples of how the best operators do it.

ONE

You know the operator who always seems to have next week sorted. The number of covers, right people on, right amount of stock in.

It might look like instinct from the outside but they are actually forecasting from last year's same week, plus this month's trend, plus the weather. Instead of just copying last week's rota forward and hoping. Any operator can do this; it’s joined-up data.
Operational excellence usually comes down to best practice and attention to detail, driven by data.

TWO

Some operators' gross profit never seems to slip, even when supplier prices jump. Magic?

No, just attention to detail.

Their recipes are costed to ingredient level and re-costed the moment a supplier price moves, with variance flagged by site, so the margin can't leak quietly for three months before anyone notices. They see the drip the day it starts.

THREE

The best operators flag a struggling site's problem before it ever reaches the month-end P&L. It looks like a sixth sense, but it's actually labour against sales by daypart, read weekly rather than monthly. A month-end surprise is four weeks too late; they simply look more regularly.

And here's the real trick. You're already making decisions on whatever data you happen to have. What costs you is the data you're not capturing at all.
Operational excellence usually comes down to best practice and attention to detail, driven by data.
It really all comes down to joined up data.
If you want a conversation about joining your data up, get in touch.