Red Lobster 2013 Annual Report Download - page 19

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Recently, we have taken steps to ensure
that, in an ever-changing operating
environment, we continue to have a high
level of operational effectiveness. During
the first quarter of fiscal 2013, we transi-
tioned to a new operations leadership
structure outside our restaurants that
has our Senior Vice Presidents leading
fewer but larger geographic divisions.
While these leaders remain accountable
for competitively superior execution in our
restaurants today, with the changes we’ve
made they are also now able to spend more
time defining the operational changes,
innovations and standards required to
respond effectively to the elevated demands
we know our guests will have tomorrow.
What provides our Senior Vice Presidents
with more time to spend ensuring we win
tomorrow is the addition of a new leader-
ship position, the Managing Director.
Each of these leaders is responsible for
50 to 70 restaurants and is able to more
proactively provide timely coaching and
direction to our Directors of Operations,
who each lead 7 to 10 restaurants.
The management structure within our
restaurants has been refined as well.
There is now a full-time, dedicated Staffing
and Training Manager in each restaurant
who is focused solely on ensuring the
restaurant is fully staffed, employees
are effectively trained and schedules are
consistently aligned with the needs of the
business. This enables the restaurant’s
Culinary and Service Manager to focus
exclusively on ensuring we consistently
delight our guests with exceptional food
and attentive service that exceeds expec-
tations. We also created new full-time
hourly roles within each restaurant to help
the restaurant’s managers effectively
cover all shifts and that also provides
more formalized paths to management for
our highest-potential hourly employees.
We believe our enhanced operational
structures, combined with the talent
and experience levels of our restaurant
operations teams, positions us well
to elevate day-to-day operational excel-
lence in our restaurants, respond more
effectively to future guest demands and
build an even stronger talent bench for
the future.
Restaurant Support Center
Employees of our Restaurant Support
Center are focused on ensuring our
restaurant teams have what they need
to succeed every day.
Specialty Restaurant Group
The Specialty Restaurant Group
leverages Darden’s supply chain
expertise to procure the most basic
to the most sophisticated products.
Recently, we have
taken steps to ensure that,
in an ever-changing operating
environment, we continue to have
a high level of operational
effectiveness.
Darden Restaurants, Inc. 2013 Annual Report 15