Donald Burns reports from a Salon HNT conference in Spain where he spoke with restaurant owners from multiple countries (Argentina, Colombia, England, Germany, Italy, Dubai) and observed that, despite differences in location and currency, restaurants face the same core challenges—finding talent, rent, vendor deals, and marketing —which he frames as people problems.
So I'm here. I'm here in Spain and just got back from day one at this salon HNT conference I'll be speaking at tomorrow, and had some really, really amazing conversations with some people from all over the world, restaurant owners from Argentina, from Colombia, from England, from Germany, from Italy, from Dubai. And an amazing thing happened when we started putting the threads together. It doesn't matter where you are in the world, doesn't matter what kind of problems your restaurant has, doesn't matter what kind of currency you deal in. All business problems. All restaurants have the same problems. They all struggling with finding talent. They're all struggling with rent. They're all struggling with vendor deals. They're all struggling to make, you know, to market a little more efficiently. All business problems are people problems. And as soon as you come to realize.
If your restaurant only works because you work 80 hours a week, it doesn't work.
