On January 16, 2014, The Cheesecake Factory was named on FORTUNE's "100 Best Companies to Work for" list (FORTUNE, 2014). Of the 100 companies recognized on the list, the Cheesecake Factory and Kempton Hotels and Restaurants were the only two restaurants. Eateries, often plagued with transient staff and unhappy employees, are not often known as hotspots for superior organizational strategies, especially at the restaurant, retail, or storefront level. The Cheesecake Factory is able to maintain excellent business management through leadership from storeroom to boardroom utilizing vital strategies: positive culture building, making the work meaningful, setting clear expectations, demonstrating strong leadership, and utilizing successful branding and purposeful globalization.
Building Positive Culture.
The very first step to positive culture is finding the right people CEO David Overton's human resources team hires "friendly people from the start, people who understand and enjoy the service culture (Diaz, 2013)." Service culture, a word that perfectly sums up the end-goal of the hospitality industry, is the backbone of any customer funded enterprise. Employees who enter the profession with an eye towards providing excellent customer service and quality work for the company, give The Cheesecake Factory an advantage if they can be sniffed out and hired by human resources, and added to the company's existing cultural assets.
Service culture, the business of keeping every customer happy, all day every day isn't easy. Both customers and staff are subject to human emotions, illnesses, crabby days, PMS, fights, car accidents, and just plan meanness. It isn't enough to simply hire people who seem pleasant enough and hope for the best. Creating a cohesive culture of workers who work together harmoniously takes coordination, practice, and training.
The Cheesecake factory continues to build positive relationships with staff by setting them up for success.
