Day 005 - 04 Jul 94 - Page 74
1 A. The pressure on the region is do what they and their
restaurants said they were going to initially.
2
Q. But they are answerable to the company?
3 A. Excuse me?
4 Q. They are answerable to the company, each region?
A. They are answerable for what they said they are going
5 to do.
6 Q. But does not the company or their supervisor or whatever
looking at their figures have something to say if they do
7 not set their objectives high enough?
A. They are reviewed and the process reviewing them is
8 rather long and protracted, hence starting probably August
time this year, August/September/October, so that there is
9 a three-month period to go through it and analyse. Of
course they will have some input, but in the end they will
10 reach an agreement on what has to happen. If someone does
not agree, there is a process to go through and say "I do
11 not agree with this, this is too much, this is too
little." There is a very precise discussion process that
12 one can go through.
13 MR. MORRIS: Are there any labour controlled guidelines from
the higher level than the region, for example, the
14 national level to the regions, in what each region must
achieve in terms of labour control?
15 A. No. You have got it turned around the wrong way. It
starts at the bottom and builds up; not at the top
16 building down. It would be impossible for me to say to
529 stores: You all achieve 15 per cent labour. They
17 cannot do it. The regional managers know they cannot do
it, because they are all different. You go out there
18 saying: "I want this sort of service standard, this sort
of cleanliness standard. Here are your obligations
19 environmentally locally with your deliveries. Here is
your busines, a big one; here is your business, a small
20 one. What is your best guess at what you can do?"
21 Q. What about sales targets?
A. In sales target terms we have a history in -- we have
22 a history in about 470 restaurants that have age of over a
year. We have some knowledge of what they did last year.
23 That becomes a great spring board for the future: Can you
do more? Can you do less? Have you been impacted by a
24 new opening? We take and put our very best minds together
to try and determine what are we going to do in terms of
25 growing forward and doing better.
26 Q. But you are saying that the pressure, are you not, on the
company does not come from the higher levels, but comes
27 from the lower levels; but here we have established, have
we not -----
28 A. Our pressure on them is to do what they said they were
going to do; not to do more; not to do less. When I go do
29 to my board of directors and I say here, "Is the financial
plan we are going to deliver in 1994", it is the sum of
30 many parts added together. I basically say: This is what
you can expect from us. My pressure is to get them to do
