Chipotle’s Woes Could Happen to Any of Us

A couple of years ago I met with a Chipotle Director to show him the Inspector app of that time.  My hope going into the meeting was that he would have been so blown away that he would have walked us into the VP of Ops office.  

He didn’t, full disclaimer, he wasn’t officially speaking on behalf of Chipotle when he decided not to bring it to his bosses, we were just two guys having dinner. 

The reason I’m even recounting this to you was his reasoning for not wanting to bring it to his bosses.  In his opinion, the culture at Chipotle was not about checklists. Chipotle’s culture is based on the belief that if you hire the right people, train and empower them than you don’t need checklists.   

I agree with their philosophy on hiring great people and would argue that checklists are vital to all industries but especially to the restaurant industry. 

Checklists provide focus, and when checklists are completed thoughtfully and followed-up on, they drive safety and consistency in operations.   

Chipotle’s CEO officially apologized this week and said that the controls they are putting place are going to make them the safest place to eat in the country.  Here is a link to a Slate Article Chipotle is So, So Sorry for Sickening all Those Students. 

The last paragraph of the article states that Chipotle is planning on more audits, which is a good thing.   

The only way to ensure that you are running safe operations is through consistent daily checklists and inspections of your locations by your employees.   

I would like to give you, for free, our 4 Daily Must-Do Steps to Safer Restaurants white paper.  It details a model of for the kind of self-inspection program you should consider implementing in your restaurants.   

Get your copy of the 4 Daily Must-Do Steps to Safer Restaurants by clicking on the link.   

If you are interested in starting a daily self-inspection program in your restaurants in 2016, you should know that there is still time.  We can get OpsAnalitica implemented in most chains within 1 business day.   

Click on the schedule a demo link to see the platform in action or if you have any questions give me a call or send me an email any time.

Tommy Yionoulis

I've been in the restaurant industry for most of my adult life. I have a BSBA from University of Denver Hotel Restaurant school and an MBA from the same. When I wasn't working in restaurants I was either doing stand-up comedy, for 10 years, or large enterprise software consulting. I'm currently the Managing Director of OpsAnalitica and our Inspector platform was originally conceived when I worked for one of the largest sandwich franchisors in the country. You can reach out to me through LinkedIn.

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