Short YouTube transcript of Donald Burns presenting the ‘3P’ framework — People, Product, Process — as the central principle for restaurant success. Burns argues that fixing menu and food cost (product) and addressing hiring/practice issues (people, process) matters more than marketing; he urges owners to convert ‘shoulds’ into actionable ‘musts.’
The 3P framework changed the course of my life and also changed the trajectory of my restaurant. The 3P framework works. If you follow the framework, it's always people, product, process. This 3P framework is the key to unlocking success. If your marketing sucks, it's not really you need more marketing. You want to fix your menu first. And to have a highly profitable menu, you got to know your food cost. Same thing. When people say, I can't hire good people, just can't find anybody, I'll say, is it really there's no one out there, or is it that really no one wants to work for you? There's things we know that we're not doing that we know we should do. And I say, restaurant owners are famous for shoulding. You got to stop shooting on yourself. You got to turn that into a must.
If your restaurant only works because you work 80 hours a week, it doesn't work.
