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First the good news: 1994 was considerably better than 1993 in terms of restaurant closings. The bad news: More than 3,100 restaurants bit the dust last year, and thousands more will cash it in this year.
So, how do you do endure the pressures that threaten to squeeze the life out of you? We jumped in the trenches to speak with steely survivors and discovered a common trait: a fearless resolve to take decisive action. Yet, their survival tactics were rarely dramatic and often involved a return to the basics. Therein lies the lesson: the further you stray from them the closer you get to extinction. Here are five fundamental strategies for avoiding doom:
* BROADEN APPEAL. Dick Rivera fixed up T.G.I. Friday's. Now he's repairing Longhorn Steaks, turning them into places even a woman could love.
* MOVE FAST OR DIE. When all else fails and your concept is getting buried, it's time for big changes like the ones made by Detroit's Keith Famie and Philadelphia's John Foy.
* CUSTOMERS FOR LIFE. In the quest to attract new customers, existing customers often go neglected and become former customers. Redirect your focus.
* ELIMINATE WASTE. When a stock begins to slide, someone has to trim costs and do the dirty work to boost earnings. At Spaghetti Warehouse that job now falls to Phil Ratner.
* KNOW THY CUSTOMER. What you think your customers want and what they actually want are often very different. Bridge the gap.
BROADEN YOUR APPEAL
"IT SOUNDS SO SIMPLE, DOESN'T IT?" SIGHS DICK RIVERA, recalling the solution to the problem of botched steak orders he tackled upon joining Longhorn Steaks early last year.
You'd think so. All the kitchens had to do, after all, was check their grills' thermostats for accuracy once in while. Yet they hadn't--and miscued cooking temperatures ruined a lot of red meat.
"It was simply a matter of taking a hard look at things you'd have thought we'd have taken for granted," says the 47-year-old chief executive of the publicly traded concern.
Blame the need for fixes on rapid expansion. The chain, founded in Atlanta in 1981, had swiftly grown from 22 units in 1990 (with sales of $38 million) to 56 units when the veteran...