Hard Rock Cafe Case Study

On June 14, 1971 the first Hard Rock Café opened its doors in London, England. The small pub soon became a popular attraction with its rock ‘n’ roll memorabilia. It is now located in 40 different countries with 121 restaurants. To have become such a success, management has carefully applied the 10 decisions of operation management.

First, in order to provide the best experience for customers, human resources, carefully chooses the staff it hires for their passion of music and their desire to serve. Hard Rock Café carefully trains and develops their crew to excite the customers and provide entertainment. The enthusiasm of the entire staff as they engage the customers is one of the reasons people keep going back. Scheduling the large staff of bartenders, kitchen and wait staff, hostesses, and retail clerks is done based off of tracking sales. When planning the schedule, they look at the prior year’s sales and the trends for the last couple of weeks. They will also take into consideration any events that may be planned in the area during the time frame.

The collection of over 60,000 pieces of rock ‘n’ roll memorabilia is a major draw for the customers. Inventory Management has the responsibility of cataloguing the entire inventory in all the cafes. They have developed a system that tells them exactly what is in each café, where it is in the café, and what the story is behind each item. Maintenance of the inventory is done every 5-7 years when the memorabilia is taken out of a café and refurbished. The café is then restocked with new items. The layout strategy of each café includes the careful placement of items so that the display is attractive but also allows for easy circulation for the consumer and exposes them to merchandise available for purchase. The kitchens are designed efficiently for easy food preparation.

Even though customers come to see the famous collections, they are also there to enjoy the food. Before a meal is placed on the menu, product design will test the meal, analyze the cost of each ingredient versus labor requirements, and survey the customers. Quality evaluates the food and service regularly by surveying the customers on their satisfaction on a scale of 1-7. If the food or service does not rank a 7, it is considered a failure. Supply management assists in product design and managing quality by only ordering from qualified suppliers that have proven that they have needed ingredients and that they deliver on time.

To make sure that customers are attracted to the Hard Rock Café, management has developed a smart location strategy. Before deciding on a location, they will carefully research a market and look for an exact location. They will also study the timing to make sure that the economy will support a new café in that area. Once a café is opened, it is watched carefully and process and capacity design will modify the menu, inventory, and layout