Person of the Week

Richard Pulford, Chief Executive, Society of London Theatre

The Society's figures for London’s Theatreland were released last week. Compared with the same period last year, attendance figures are up 2.5% and box office receipts up 3.5%. In a positive statement, Richard said: "Today's figures are a real cause for celebration – not just for the theatre industry, but for the London economy generally. At a time of economic uncertainty, it's marvellous that people aren’t retreating into their shells. Instead they’re choosing to come together in our theatres to be entertained, challenged and uplifted."

Quote of the Week

"Dear customers, we are absolutely thrilled that you like us so much that you want to spend the day. But people gotta eat, and to eat they gotta sit."

Naidres café in Brooklyn NY who have banned the use of laptops between 11 a.m. and 2 p.m. weekdays and 10 a.m. and 3 p.m. weekends, unless the customer is eating and typing at the same time.

Facts of the week

Accessible fine dining a la Gordon Ramsay

"I didn’t want to see any menus laced with caviar. I wanted all that formal glam gone."

Gordon Ramsay has had his fair share of media coverage this year. In this article from the Wall Street Journal, we get an insight into the measures that he introduced in his restaurants in an effort to make them more accessible.

• Part of Ramsay's recovery plan has included revising wine lists to include more moderately priced options, encouraging chefs to use more economical ingredients, banning the use of out-of-season asparagus and using cheaper cuts of meat. In turn, these cuts have been reflected in menu prices.
• In New York has was $5,000 short of breaking even for May, after introducing measures in upmarket dining room including the removal of flowers from tables to save $4,000 per month.
• Whilst he is still planning international growth, this will now be driven by a licensing model for the use of his name, staff and menu-planning advice.
• Overall sales were up in May 5% compared to one year go with customers spending about 5% less on average.
• It is a matter-of-fact summary of Ramsay's story over the past year. Is it a reflection of the price the industry will pay as a result of this recession? Or is it a reminder of the price Ramsay has paid for over-expansion and over-hype?

Source: wsj.com

The workforce of the future

Is this an insight into the potential shape of tomorrow's job market?

Hamish McRae's opinion piece argues that there will be six main characteristics of the jobs market:

1. Much of the employment will be part-time, sometimes by choice and sometimes imposed on people.
2. Many of the new jobs will be taken by older people.
3. There will be a continuing increase in self-employment, with tele-working speeding this shift (around 70% of tele-workers are self-employed).
4. While some job growth will come from a cluster of high-tech manufacturing industries, most will be in private sector services.
5. Most of the net new jobs will require high skills.
6. The present trend for women doing better than men in the workforce looks likely to continue.

• Whilst this in itself gives pause for thought, and no doubt raises our own level of debate on the subject, McRae believes that the fragile nature of the economic recovery is still the greatest barrier. He points out that there are still no real signs of "coming back up to any significant extent."
• Growth, he concludes, has to resume and without this the jobs market will be in a lot of trouble.

Source: independent.co.uk

Article of the week

EP Condense is EP's weekly e-newsletter. But did you know that EP is also a bimonthly magazine available via subscription? Our Article of the Week provides a sample of what we have featured in past issues.

This week we feature a story from the EP archive. It is a management article entitled “Staying ahead of the pack with superior customer service.” Written by Robert F. Jenefsky, PhD, Ecole Hoteliere de Lausanne, the article considers the four building blocks of competitive advantage. As organisations looks to meet changing demand from customers and clients, what are the key drivers?