Investment Overview, Business Proposal Example

Introduction

A billionaire is looking to start his next new venture, the development of a new restaurant concept. This paper provides the response on two of the key questions raised.

Employment of Key Personnel

The restaurant will need to engage the following key personnel:  Head Chef, Restaurant Manager, General Manager, Financial Controller and a Personnel / Office Manager (Brown, D.R. 2007)

Head Chef – The key to any successful restaurant is having a creative and innovative chef that inspires and captures the client’s imagination in terms of fine dining concepts.  Often this is based upon specialist cuisine that reflects the atmosphere of the restaurant.  The ability to match food to excellent wine pairings.

Restaurant Manager – Management of the full service offering in the restaurant. Includes control of the bar staff and waitresses / waiters. Ensures the customer’s quality expectations are met and the restaurant provides the customer with the finest dining experience possible.  Will also cover Health and Safety, Environmental Management and creation of the right atmosphere.

General Manager – Essentially the boss of the entire establishment and will be responsible for the smooth running of all functions in the restaurant. Must be a team player but one who inspires others and leads by example. A firm decision maker.

Financial Controller – Maintains financial discipline over the restaurant and responsible for maintaining the accounting records of the business. Works closely with the General Manager.

| Personnel / Office Manager – Runs the back office component of the business and reports to the Financial Controller.  Responsible for Employee record maintenance, payroll, staff training and management of the back office. (Alonzo, R.S. 2007)

Training of Key Personnel

The identified key personnel will have the following training profile.

Head Chef | Customer Service, Leadership training, Financial control, Procurement Restaurant Manager | Customer Service, Leadership training, Catering Courses, Health & Safety Financial Controller | Leadership training, Management skills, Management Accounting General Manager | Executive Leadership, Team Building, Managing Change, HR Management HR Office Manager | Leadership training, HR Management, Payroll, Computing skills, Office Management. The training would be hybridized between that of internal training programmes and that of external development courses.

Within the context of management training it is important to note that Verma makes a distinction between  managers and leaders, and that just because one is a manager, doesn’t necessarily mean they are a leader. Verma suggests that the aforementioned traits are an innate part of a one’s personality.  For those who do not possess these skills, there is no reason to believe that they will not make an effective manager.  The aforementioned traits can all be developed through proper training. Training is, in fact, an essential element to success as a manager; there are other skills that Verma suggests a manager must learn in order to be effective.  These are: conceptual, social, diplomacy, communication, and organizational/administrative skills (Verma, 1993).

Based on the above-mentioned traits, Verma describes other methods of looking at essential leadership qualities. These qualities can be viewed as behavioral and not related to traits, for example tasks and relationships involving team member support, contingent/situational characteristics of a leader and the team members, combined with the team structure, attribution, and charisma, creating a common vision, opportunity creation, and promotion of team-members’ desire for self-direction. Verma uses the acronym LEAD to summarize four key attributes a manager should possess: Listen, Encourage, Act, and Deliver. Building on his high level overview, we have taken the principles of leadership that correlate to each trait and put in parenthesis whether the leader’s behaviour is task oriented (TO) or relationship oriented (RO) or both.

References

Alonzo, R. S. (2007). The Upstart Guide to Owning and Managing a Restaurant. New York: Kaplan Publishing.

Brown, D. R. (2007). The Restaurant Manager’s Handbook: How to Set Up, Operate, and Manage a rstaurant. Ocala, Florida: Atlantic Publishing Group.

Verma, V. (1993). Managing the Project Team (3 ed.). New York: Project Management Institute (PMI).