Tag: Christopher Muller

Restaurant Organizations and the Power of the New Economy: A Pandemic, Labor Value and Lessons From the Past

By Dr. Christopher Muller What happens to the restaurant industry when the Pandemic ends, which history tells us, it will? The New Reality In the worst-case scenario, tens of thousands of newly opened foodie comets, or aging and struggling veterans, or flashy places with aspirational rent that was just a bit too high, or those busy […]

It’s 2020 and Restaurant Strategy Has Just Been Changed Forever: Convenience Seekers vs. Experience Seekers

By Christopher Muller The restaurant industry is undergoing a tectonic shift as 2020 begins. Traditional segmentation is evolving from the supply side of Full Service vs. Quick Service providers to the demand side of Experience Seeking vs. Convenience Seeking consumers. Restaurant executives and the companies they lead will need to pick one path or the […]

Restaurant Delivery: Are the “ODP” the Industry’s “OTA”? Part I

By Christopher Muller The entire restaurant industry, from the simplest quick service joint to the most complex fine dining jewel, is caught in a veritable frenzy of delivery.  It may be, unfortunately, a very risky path to travel for the uninitiated restaurant operation, but delivery is driving the investment community to a fever pitch. [1] […]

When is a Group a Chain, and a Chain a Brand?

  By Christopher Muller When is a Group a Chain, and a Chain a Brand? The subtle change in Boston’s “independent” restaurant market. Over the past four decades, in a slow but inexorable manner, a growing corporate imperative has replaced the independent restaurant in most markets. In greater Boston, possibly more than in many similar […]

“The Six Touchstones” A Model for Hospitality Students

By Christopher Muller and Michael Oshins Hospitality management education requires many different perspectives to be considered, given the broad array of pedagogies used throughout a four-year curriculum. With some planning—and, sometimes, with a bit of serendipity—simple ideas may resonate with students well beyond the time they spend in a classroom. In previous Boston Hospitality Review […]

Delivering Food to the Front Door: A New, Or Very Old, Convenience?

By: Christopher Muller, Ph.D. A century of commercial competitive conflict between the grocery (food at home or “FAH”) and restaurant (food away from home or “FAFH”) distribution channels is now being fought on an unexpected but previously contested battlefield: who will own the “convenience” of delivery in the consumer’s mind. Just one hundred years ago […]

A Conversation with Howard Schultz CEO of Starbucks

By Christopher Muller A conversation between Mr. Howard Schultz, CEO of Starbucks, and Dr. Christopher Muller during the September 2011 12th annual European Food Service Summit in Zurich, Switzerland (edited 2014). [Muller]: So we get to just have a conversation. Can we talk about Starbucks and social responsibility, the leadership of how you drive not […]