Preparing Students for Competition Management Events

1
Preparing Students for Competition Management
Events

• National Restaurant Association

2
Management Competition Overview
3
Management Competition Overview

• Why Participate?
• Marketing your program
• Gain industry support
• Enhance student experience

4
Management Competition Overview

• Why Participate?
• Scholarship opportunities
• In 2009, 1.1 million were awarded to the top 5
  teams in both the management and culinary
  competitions at the National ProStart
  Invitational
• Networking for students and educators

5
Management Competition Overview

• The Management Competition is divided into four
  events written proposal, verbal presentation,
  visual display and critical thinking
• The events are weighted as follows
• 30 verbal presentation
• 30 critical thinking
• 25 written proposal
• 15 visual display

6
Management Competition Overview

• Each year, the NRA will release a description of
  the fictitious city the restaurant must be
  located in
• In response, students will develop
• Defined restaurant concept
• Menu
• Marketing launch

7
Management Competition Overview

• Team members
• Only current high school students enrolled in
  ProStart are eligible
• Teams will have a maximum of 4 students
• 1 alternate is allowed to be used in case of
  injury/illness
• Students may only compete for two years (may
  compete on both culinary and management over
  those two years)

8
Management Competition Overview

• Assistance
• Mentors and educators may only assist teams in
  preparing for the competition
• They may not prepare any of the materials
  themselves expertise is limited to acting as a
  sounding board and critiquing practice
  presentations
• The proposal should be a unique work each year,
  and should not be built off the prior years work

9
Written Proposal
10
Written Proposal

• Preparation
• When the competition rules are released by the
  NRA in the September prior to competition, it
  will include a description of a fictitious city,
  including
• Population
• Major attractions
• Prominent businesses
• Students will develop a written proposal for
  their restaurant concept, menu and marketing
  launch

11
Written Proposal

• Defined Restaurant Concept
• Restaurant concept description - basic
  information on the concept such as type of
  establishment, type of cuisine served, hours of
  operation, etc.
• Description of interior and décor designed to
  ensure students understand how the concept
  identity touches every aspect of the restaurant
• Interior diagram identify flow/features of the
  FOH (host stand, bus stations, etc.) and BOH
  (safety features, equipment to cook the items on
  the menu, etc.)
• Organizational chart measuring whether students
  have captured all the personnel essential to
  running the restaurant (from managers to
  janitorial staff)

12
Written Proposal

• Menu Development
• Descriptions of 9 menu items
• For 3 of the menu items, must include recipes and
  costing, using the culinary templates
• Can be done in conjunction with culinary team
• Teams must prepare and submit photos of the same
  3 items
• Teams must submit a sample of the menu
  presentation
• For example, drawing of menu board for
  quickservice, or sample menu design
• Teams are restricted to only 9 menu items there
  is a penalty if they submit more

13
Written Proposal

• Marketing Launch
• Teams will develop 2 marketing tactics to launch
  the restaurant
• Will include description, goal and budget
• One tactic will be determined by NRA each year
  and one will be at the teams discretion
• For example, all teams will prepare a newspaper
  ad or an email campaign
• Teams will submit a sample of their tactics
• Such as layout of ad, slogan for t-shirt, etc.
• Teams may only submit 2 tactics, there is a
  penalty for submitting more

14
Written Proposal

• Scoring
• Judges will be looking for creativity of the
  concept, how well the team thought through their
  concept, and how well they executed on the
  requirements
• The written proposal will be evaluated by verbal
  presentation judges
• The only exception is the recipe costing judge,
  who will judge only that portion of the
  competition (similar to culinary)
• Accounts for 25 of total management score

15
Verbal Presentation
16
Verbal Presentation

• Preparation
• Teams will prepare a 10-minute presentation based
  on their written proposal
• Teams should treat the judges like a panel of
  potential investors
• The presentation should pull out the relevant
  information that audience would be interested in
• To level the technology playing field, teams may
  only use PowerPoint and may not embed any bells
  and whistles (such as video, sound, etc.)
• May only use the no transition option for slide
  transitions
• May use a custom design template

17
Verbal Presentation

• Delivery
• Teams will have 10 minutes to present their
  concept, menu and marketing launch to a panel of
  judges
• There is a 1-point penalty per minute over the
  10-minute limit, with disqualification after 4
  minutes over
• Event organizers will have a visible clock to
  help teams keep track of their time
• Judges will then have 5 additional minutes to ask
  the team questions about their presentation
• Will help judges determine that the students have
  done all the work on the project

18
Verbal Presentation

• Delivery
• Each member of the team must have a substantial
  speaking role during the presentation
• 5-point penalty per student without a substantial
  speaking role
• Will use a projector and screen during the
  presentation
• Teams will check-in their presentation during
  registration on a CD or flash drive
• They will work off this copy on the event
  organizers computer
• The verbal presentation is open to the public

19
Verbal Presentation

• Scoring
• Judges will be looking for public speaking
  skills, how well the team works together and how
  well they pulled out the pertinent information
  from their written proposal
• Q A will focus solely on their presentation and
  proposal
• Accounts for 30 of total management score

20
Visual Display
21
Visual Display

• Preparation
• Teams will build a visual display that tells the
  story of their concept
• Must include relevant information (and samples)
  from the concept, menu and marketing
• To level the playing field, teams will be
  restricted in the size of their display and the
  material it may be constructed from
• All materials to support the display must be
  attached to the display board
• Attached materials cannot exceed dimensions of
  the display board, or hang over the edges
• Only exception is a display copy of the written
  proposal

22
Visual Display
23
Visual Display

• Delivery
• Teams may use the visual display during their
  verbal presentation
• After their verbal presentation, teams will set
  up their display in a common visual display area
• Teams will then spend 45 minutes at their display
  answering questions from attendees and judges

24
Visual Display

• Scoring
• Judges will be evaluating whether the visual
  display accurately and creatively conveys the
  concept
• 2 judges will evaluate the visual display
• Accounts for 15 of total management score

25
Critical Thinking
26
Critical Thinking

• Scenarios
• Teams will be evaluated on critical thinking
  skills (similar to current case study)
• A set of judges will present the teams with
  mini-scenarios from four categories, such as
  safety sanitation, customer relations, human
  resources staffing, marketing, menu development
  design, concept knowledge
• Categories to be determined each year by the SRA
  and NRA (announced at Orientation)
• all teams will be evaluated on the same four
  categories (but with unique scenarios)

27
Critical Thinking

• Delivery
• Scenarios will be presented while students are
  manning their visual display table
• Teams must work together to come up with
  solutions on the spot
• The answers must relate to their restaurant
  concept
• Critical thinking is open to the public

28
Critical Thinking

• Scoring
• Judges will be evaluating the teams
  understanding of management concepts, ability to
  problem solve, and teamwork
• 4 judges total
• Each judge will specialize in the type of
  question they ask (one judge per category), but
  all will evaluate each question
• Accounts for 30 of total management score

29
Case Study

• Workplace Safety
• How do teams address chemical and physical
  hazards?
• Do students follow the proper protocol to prevent
  or mitigate legal action?
• Is safety a component of every decision they
  make?
• Example We see that you have a line cook
  position - while the line cook is carrying your
  signature soup, he slips in a puddle of water by
  the dish area. What do you do?

30
Case Study

• Food Safety Sanitation
• Is there a HACCP plan in place?
• Do students follow the proper protocol to prevent
  or mitigate legal action?
• Is sanitation a component of every decision they
  make?
• Example While pulling out the beef for your
  signature ribeye, your prep cook notices that the
  walk-in seems a bit warm. What do you do?

31
Case Study

• Customer Relations
• Is the customer always first and foremost in the
  teams minds?
• Is the Rule of 10 taken into consideration when
  the team interacts with customers?
• Does the team follow up with guests?
• Example We see that mashed potatoes are the star
  item on your menu, how will you handle customer
  relations if your supplier does not deliver
  potatoes?

32
Case Study

• Human Resources Staffing
• Does any disciplinary action follow standard
  protocol and legal procedures?
• How are policies communicated to employees?
• How do students balance the need to properly
  staff the restaurant vs. cost efficiency?
• Do they look for creative solutions to staffing
  problems?
• Does cross-training factor into their solutions?
• Example You have a party booked in your kids
  party room, and your lead party server calls off
  what do you do?

33
Case Study

• Marketing
• Do teams consider the impact of all
  communications on sales, staffing and public
  perception?
• Is there a crisis communications plan in place?
• Is the whole organization a part of the marketing
  plan?
• Example In the coupon you printed in the
  newspaper, you forgot to put an expiration date.
  Two months later, a table tries to redeem it
  what do you do?

34
Case Study

• Menu Development and Design
• How do all parts of the menu work together?
• How does the menu design represent the concept
  and menu?
• How do the prices on the menu relate to each
  other?
• Example You dont sell as much of the filet as
  you anticipated on Friday night, what will you do
  with the extra filets?

35
Case Study

• Concept Knowledge
• How does a quickservice restaurant operate vs.
  fine dining?
• How does the location of the restaurant impact
  all other areas?
• Example Concept Knowledge Due to your location
  you serve a high volume during lunch.  However,
  dinner tickets are down.  What can you do to
  increase dinner volume?

36
Case Study

• Critical Thinking Tips
• Dont dissect what led to the current problems,
  address how you will solve them
• Instead of playing the blame game, deal with the
  situation as it is and put plans in place to
  prevent repeats
• Work as a team to solve the challenges
• If a teammate stumbles, jump in and help him/her
  out

37
Resources
38
Resources

• When the rules are released, we will provide
  resources to help teach and prepare for the
  management competition
• Map to curriculum
• Listing of online resources
• Samples
• Training presentations

39
Strategies for Success
40
Strategies for Success

• Know the Rules
• Make sure you and your students fully understand
  the rules
• Youve worked too hard to lose on a technicality
• National rules are released in late summer/early
  fall

41
Strategies for Success

• Teaching Techniques
• Apply textbook learning to real-life scenarios
• Have students help teach each other to increase
  their confidence in their knowledge

42
Strategies for Success

• The management competition is not just about
  knowledge, its also about teamwork!

43
Strategies for Success

• Team Members
• Build the team
• Team membership is competitive
• Team membership based on knowledge, skills, and
  fit not popularity
• Team building exercises
• Team identity
• Team participation in planning
• Team contribution to development/improvement

44
Strategies for Success

• Confidence
• Develop public speaking skills
• Have students practice presenting solutions to
  anyone who will listen, including other
  educators, school administrators, etc.

45
Strategies for Success

• Practice Scenarios
• Ask mentors to provide you with challenges they
  face on a daily basis and doomsday challenges
• Have students present mini-case studies on these
  challenges to the mentors for their feedback
• Industry people love to tell horror stories use
  it to your advantage!

46
Strategies for Success

• Practice Scenarios
• Use your own observations what have you
  witnessed happen in a restaurant?
• Industry publications
• Nations Restaurant News, etc.

47
Strategies for Success

• Practice is Crucial
• Schedule practices and study sessions
• Strictly enforce practice and study session
  schedules
• Have students interview for the team and treat
  it like a job

48
Strategies for Success

• Practice is Crucial
• Run effective, organized practices
• Simulates actual competition
• Stresses time limits
• Places pressure on team and individuals
• Builds team and individuals
• Provides exposure to external moderators and
  judges
• Provides opportunities to practice against other
  teams

49
Strategies for Success
Keys to Success

• 1 Obtain a mentor
• 2 Practice...PracticePractice
• 3 Be creative
• 4 Create an atmosphere of professionalism
• 5 Ask questions
• 6 Above all, have fun!

50
Good luck to you and your students!