Written for and distributed at the Marketing Executives Group, Chicago, May 19, 2011; Published in Restaurant Marketing Group's MEG Consumer Talk Lane Cardwell President, P.F. Chang’s China Bistro I have had a lot of beginnings lately. In the past two years I have doubled the number of restaurant companies that I have worked for in the past 32 years. I was recently the CEO of Boston Market, and have just joined P.F. Chang’s China Bistro as its president. My other two restaurant companies, going back 30 years, were S & A Restaurant Corp. (Steak and Ale, Bennigan’s) and Brinker International. It gives you a different perspective on our industry when you start fresh with a company after so many years in the business. Let’s call it “nuanced naivety”. You are naïve about the way that the new company that you have joined does business; however, you understand the nuances of the way that business is...
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