Question

Hard Rock Cafe: Operations Management in Services

In its 48 years of existence, Hard Rock has grown from a modest London pub to a global power managing 163 restaurants, 23 hotels/casinos, and live music venues. This puts Hard Rock firmly in the service industry—a sector that employs over 75% of the people in the U.S. Hard Rock moved its world headquarters to Orlando, Florida, in 1988 and has expanded to more than 50 locations throughout the U.S., serving over 100,000 meals each day. Hard Rock chefs are modifying the menu from classic American— burgers and chicken wings—to include higher-end items such as stuffed veal chops and lobster tails. Just as taste in music changes over time, so does Hard Rock Cafe, with new menus, layouts, memorabilia, services, and strategies.

At Orlando’s Universal Studios, a traditional tourist destination, Hard Rock Cafe serves over 3,500 meals each day. The cafe employs about 400 people. Most are employed in the restaurant, but some work in the retail shop. Retail is now a standard and increasingly prominent feature in Hard Rock Cafes (since close to 48% of revenue comes from this source). Cafe employees include kitchen and wait staff, hostesses, and bartenders. Hard Rock employees are not only competent in their job skills but are also passionate about music and have engaging personalities. Cafe staff is scheduled down to 15-minute intervals to meet seasonal and daily demand changes in the tourist environment of Orlando. Surveys are done on a regular basis to evaluate quality of food and service at the cafe. Scores are rated on a 1-to-7 scale, and if the score is not a 7, the food or service is a failure.

Hard Rock is adding a new emphasis on live music and is redesigning its restaurants to accommodate the changing tastes. Since Eric Clapton hung his guitar on the wall to mark his favourite bar stool, Hard Rock has become the world’s leading collector and exhibitor of rock ‘n’ roll memorabilia, with changing exhibits at its cafes throughout the world. The collection includes 70,000 pieces, valued at $40 million. In keeping with the times, Hard Rock also maintains a Web site, www.hardrock.com, which receives more than 100,000 hits per week, and a weekly cable television program on VH1. Hard Rock’s brand recognition, at 92%, is one of the highest in the world.

           

Source: Adapted from J. Heizer, B. Render, and C. Munson (2020) Operations Management: Sustainability and Supply Chain Management, Global Edition, 13/E, Pearson

In every successful brand such as Hard Rock, there must be strong contributions and coordination among different functions to make an operation successfully runs smoothly. Many of the decisions made by operations managers are dependent on information from the other functions. At the same time, other functions cannot be carried out properly without information from operations. Referring case above, kindly answer the questions below:

How does Human Resources function contribute towards the success of Hard Rock operations?

Apply 5W1H writing strategy - Who, What, Where, When, Why, and How
explanation and give and example.

Answer 1

Ans

Human Resources (HR) function contribute towards the success of Hard Rock Cafe (HRC) operations in many ways. Hard Rock employees are hired not only for their knowledge of food but also taste in music and passion for service. Motivation of the staff is kept high by giving them work that they are passionate about. The Cafe has kept pace with the times with new menus, layouts, memorabilia, services, and strategies that HR plays a key role in formulation. The key aspects of HR in 5W1H format are:

• Who : Hard Rock employees are not only competent in their job skills but are also passionate about music and have engaging personalities.
• What: HRC is famous for Food, music, retail
• Where: Most are employed in the restaurant, but some work in the retail shop. Retail is now a standard and increasingly prominent feature in Hard Rock Cafes
• When: Cafe staff is scheduled down to 15-minute intervals to meet seasonal and daily demand changes in the tourist environment of Orlando
• Why, Hard Rock’s brand recognition, at 92%, is one of the highest in the world.
• How: Surveys are done on a regular basis to evaluate quality of food and service at the cafe. Scores are rated on a 1-to-7 scale, and if the score is not a 7, the food or service is a failure.Hard Rock is adding a new emphasis on live music and is redesigning its restaurants to accommodate the changing tastes.