Restaurant Leadership Conference

Dates set for RLC 2014

The Restaurant Leadership Conference will reconvene next year at the Westin Kierland Resort & Spa in Scottsdale, Arizona on March 30 through April 2.

The theme of the 2014 conference is Differentiation: The Fuel to Growth.

“We’ve just come off our biggest, most successful and highest-rated conference since we started the RLC in the 1990s, but I have no doubt we’re going to top it next year, given what we’re planning,” said RLC president David Jobe.

Leadership lessons from the battlefield

Restaurateurs who view the business as a battlefield might’ve uttered an “amen” at the end of the presentation from retired Gen. Barry McCaffrey, who wound up this year’s conference with an analysis of leadership during wartime.

The highly decorated four-star general and first-ever federal drug czar shared what he’d learned about leadership during what he described as “four decades of running an organization under constant pressure.”

He defined three types of leadership:

10 RLC ideas worth stealing

Reviewing our notes after the show, the editors of Restaurant Business spotted 10 ideas that any non-attendee of the RLC shouldn’t miss. We suspect that some would’ve been lost to attendees, too, because of the sheer volume of innovations that were aired during the event. Consider this your Cliff Notes for the keepers:

In the mind of marketing consultant Tom Feltenstein, branding is how your brand makes people feel about themselves. In a time when consumers can broadcast their opinions in multiple ways on social media, the CEO and founder of Power Marketing Academy espouses getting out in front of the consumer and creating a “remarkable” experience.

Of scaling mountains and running a business

Ever feel that running a restaurant is like climbing Mount Everest? Alison Levine says it is, and she would know. She’s an accomplished businesswoman as well as one of the few people who’s climbed the highest peaks on all seven continents. Then there are her treks across the North and South Poles.

Tech gets its time in the main-stage limelight

Restaurant leaders’ growing reliance on interactive technology catapulted the topic onto the main stage of the RLC for the first time this year.

A new playbook for kids’ health

Kids’ menus are proliferating, and many chains have started programs expressly to address childhood obesity. But it’s not clear how much of an impact they might have on the one-third of American children who are overweight, according to speakers who shared new insights during the RLC on promoting childhood health.

7-Eleven CEO talks change, not encroachment

The CEO of 7-Eleven could have boasted about the inroads his chain has made into a market that was once owned by attendees of the Restaurant Leadership Conference. Joe DePinto certainly had the sales numbers to support a little braggadocio: $2.7 billion from fresh food, $5 billion from beverages, 1 million cups of coffee, 100 million fountain drinks.

Understanding the gluten-free customer

Celiacs may have spurred demand for gluten-free menu options, but experts say that only 1 percent of the 44 million people estimated to be in the gluten-free audience have celiac disease. While some of these consumers may be gluten intolerant, research shows that about 29 percent simply perceive gluten-free as a healthier way to eat.

These statistics confirm a trend with staying power. “Gluten-free is not going away anytime soon,” dietician Michelle Dudash declared during a session at last week’s Restaurant Leadership Conference.

Other than selling burgers, the chains seem to have little in common. One is an established industry giant, battling the other global behemoths as it wages a constant struggle to stay fresh and relevant. The other is a brash upstart, unencumbered by the baggage of older concepts, even though nostalgia is a big part of its appeal. But as the executives of Burger King and Five Guys revealed during a session at the Restaurant Leadership Conference, their brands share a conscious commitment to style over substance in their marketing approaches.

Answers to the Obamacare pop quiz

Here are the definitions to the terms in our pop quiz:

In a matter of months, restaurateurs will need to notify employees of their new health insurance options under the Affordable Health Care act, officers of the National Restaurant Association alerted attendees of last week’s Restaurant Leadership Conference. In a short, focused presentation, CEO Dawn Sweeney and chairman Phil Hickey stressed that operators need to learn their obligations and options now to contend with one of the greatest challenges ever faced by the industry.

'Give me mas'

Taco Bell is on a tear to grow from a $7-billion brand to a $14-billion category killer in the next 10 years, CEO Greg Creed told the audience at the Restaurant Leadership Conference. To get there, Creed said in his keynote address, the chain is on a mission for mas—more locations (up to 2,000 new stores), more flavor, more heart, more value.

Restaurant Leadership Conference

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