Outback

Outback Outback Steakhouse, Inc. Fueling the Fast-Growth Company I. Facts of the Case: Outback is one of the biggest successes in corporate America. Despite Wall Street predictions of a downturn in Outback’s stock they have continued to improve. Outback’s three founders started the business predicting success to allow them more personal time. In 1988 the firm produced $2.7 million from two restaurants. By the end of 1994 they had $549 million in sales from 200 stores. The three founders all brought restaurant experience with them into the company. Chris Sulivan started out as a busboy. Bob Basham began as a dishwasher, and Tim Gannon was a chef’s assistant. All together their experience totaled 60 years in casual dining. After graduating college in the early 70’s Chris and Bob entered the executive role working at Bennigan’s. After that their first joint venture was a franchise of 17 Chili’s restaurants. In 1987 they decided to pursue their dream. Chris brought his strategic sense, Bob his strong skill in operations and real estate, and Tim his menu experience. They did their own research and decided to focus on steak, even with outback, quality, customer, restaurant, good, focus, suppliers, stock, management, company, attention, three, relationship, plan, keep, industry, food, experience, employee, dining, customers, corporate, chris, casual, bob, years, wall, wait, two, try, total, time, tim, they’ve, tables