Hey Donald. You stick to creating your empire, while BSing your base and screwing them over, and people like me will deal with Restaurants turning around. Comparing Afghanistan to a restaurant is ignorant and emphasizes your stupidity in areas you don’t have a clue to manage and should NEVER comment on.
I spent most of my culinary career turning bad restaurants around. I specialized in it and had about a 98% success rate at it. To do so, you have to realize certain "truths". First, to bring me in, they realized what they thought and what they did, DIDN'T work. They failed. They had destroyed their reputation and wanted to undo the damage they had seen done. Second. This didn’t happen in a two or three month period. It took years, and it would take years to rebuild, not months. I require a minimum of two years commitment to change. Third, while I will "listen" to what management "has done" and "what they think they have done" It is my decision on the direction, plan, and policy. You may have an idea of where you should go, and how you think you should get there, but if it worked, I wouldn't be here. So while I listen, don’t be surprised when I ignore you completely. Forth. No one is safe or secure. Just because you've "been there" 15 yrs. and know what it used to be like, doesn't mean you’re a positive. I'll listen. I'll take notes and do research. But it doesn't secure your job. From management to dishwasher; everything is up for "change". Fifth. While you rely on the customers you currently have, I don’t. You may lose them, when change begins. People resist change. They don’t want a new direction. They aren’t going to increase your sales and keep you open. So expect hardcore change. Like Obama, you have to give it a chance or nothing gets accomplished. Fighting every change fails your restaurant and your business. Change will start success, if allowed to begin. Obama began that, but Trump "wants it the way it used to be". "Used to be" ruined our reputation, damaged our standing, divided us into groups. Made us wonder if tomorrow was even possible anymore. And last but not least, change isn’t always about going backwards. It isn’t ignoring what works. It isn’t about "what used to work". Going down the path of change means keeping what works and improving on them. Changing what doesn’t work and maybe used to. Going different directions, while working to get those who disagree with you, to work "with" you instead of fighting your every move. I heard a Republican senator last year say "If Obama wanted it or asked for it, we were to be against it, no matter what it was". These are the ones I usually fire. Change must happen. It must move us forward. It must be positive. It must include everyone it effects. Most people except change and want it, if it makes your life or paycheck bigger.
Like Donald Trump, I've taken restaurants that did a hundred thousand a year, and turned them into multi-million dollar producers. Usually in a two year period.
Usually, the restaurants do well for a few years after I’m gone. They thrive on their new reputations and customers. Then the "Trump effect" take place. We don’t want it like it is now, we want "the good ole days" They hire people I fired. They do what failed them to begin with. They expect people to just "except" they’re going back. Then, like their reputation, the business fails, because you can never "go back to the way it was" without undoing what is "making it work for you now."
Obama was that troubleshooter I was in Restaurants. He changed our path, because it was failing. He gave us a new direction, a lot of us embraced. Our reputation improved. Our paychecks improved. We saw the vision, and became his "new" customers, happy to be a part of these changes. Then the old managers hired Trump. He works to undo all the things that have been accomplished and made thing begin to work again. He wants to go back to what DIDN'T work, because it was comfortable for some.
After turning one restaurant around completely, I was told'; really," We didn’t want it to change and grow. We like it like it was" So they undid what I accomplished. My way payed off their mortgage 5 yrs. early. It lets those donated 10s of thousands to their favorite Charities. It remodeled their building and put dozens to work. It brought new blood and families in. They had money for equipment and to appear in parades. It grew to what I remember it used to be, but by going a new direction and involving new people to get there. Now they have a new mortgage. Can barely get 25 people on a "good" night (we WERE doing 300 + covers 4 days a week and conventions) They almost "give" their food away to get customers. They hired the "old staff", the ones who kept it from growing, back and fired their new staff. They took it backwards. Completely. I have since been asked to consider taking it "again" I said no. Two places have asked, that I’ve said no to. They bought it, they own it. They didn’t like staying on course and "wanted the good old days back" They got what they wanted; at least till it began hurting them again. Then, they want help, again. I did what I was hired to do. When they took over, they had a successful restaurant to build on and grow. They didn’t like the change. They tried to undo it all, and didn’t understand why it didn’t work anymore, running it the old way. Trust is lost, reputations damaged. The businesses are in death thralls and NOW you see Change as needed? Trump is wanting to take us back "to the good ole days" To undo the positive changes and direction. He is relying on the old customers and staff. What didn't work before is somehow supposed to work now. He will increase our mortgage, lose the new customer base, destroy all the progress, and then ask for help to make it work “like it used to". When it doesn't, and cant, he will play the blame game. Blame the person who gave him an improved restaurant. Blame the other Restaurants. Blame his own crew and the other people’s crew. He will fail to see that going forward is good, and trying to "live in the past" can never work again. He'll fire everyone connected to the former manager, then blame him for his own failure to being able to go back in time. Though he took total charge of it, changed all the new items on the menu to the old ones, Segregated the new customer base for the old one, and staffed it with his own people who agree with his past thinking and wanting’s, it will always be "the last guys" fault that he can’t succeed. Trump is trashing the restaurant.
In my business, if the manger fails, you fired him. You continued to invite change and looked for things that worked to improve and expand on. If you want it to grow, you adapt, you grow, you learn, you invite change. You welcome new blood and embrace the policies that work. You encourage the best and brightest. You give everyone who works with you and for you a sense of worth and importance. You listen.
So when Trump says Afghanistan is like the Restaurant "21", he doesn’t have a clue. Listening to the waiters and bartenders and kitchen staff will only lead to compartmentalized segregation and division and your restaurant will fail. While their input is relevant, trying to let them design a business plan to improve and expand it will fail as it is only a small part of the whole. Management has the figures and numbers. They understand growth and costs. These effect the bottom line as much as attitude and tastes. If you chef can’t cook, all the change in the world won’t make his food any better. If your wait staff treats customers like crap, no amount of remodeling will make it suddenly better. The dishwasher may not clean the dishes well, so a new uniform and title, won’t make them suddenly clean.
You can "listen" to the guys on the ground, in Afghanistan, but policy is written from ALL available sources and after studying all options, not listening to a grunt, serving in a 12 mile area of a 10, 000 mile arena, who doesn't understand law and regulations and religious beliefs and treaty agreements. A marine who doesn't understand mountain warfare as he is in the desert arena. You listen. You study, you let experts decide for you, always reminding them you still have final say-so. You remain open and willing to change course for a better outcome. You NEVER limit your options to what the wait staff thinks. Most of the time they only understand their little, sphere of the larger picture. They don’t know the bar, or Kitchen or the management parts. To base information on her opinion alone, may make the wait staff better, but totally screw the bar or kitchen or management and destroy them completely. So while you have a great and happy wait staff, your restaurant fails and closes. So no one actually "wins". So do me a favor Donald. Shut the hell up about what you don't understand and should never comment on. To those of us that have done the work, and those that continue to do it, you sound ignorant, childish, and stupid and you make us wonder where you ever got your business wealth. It had to be a borrowed or inherited wealth as you have no understanding of real business. Quit trying to sound "smart", because you most assuredly aren't.