Topgrading

I had the opportunity to speak with Marlis Oliver earlier this week. Marlis is the Area Director of K & N Management in Austin, Texas; K & N Management owns four Rudy’s BBQ & Country Stores in the Austin area. Marlis has been instrumental in transforming K & N into a true Topgrading organization.

We often get asked the question, “Should we Topgrade our organizations from top to bottom?” Marlis would answer that question with a resounding, “Yes!” K & N not only does tandem Topgrading interviews for management candidates, they conduct Topgrading interviews on EVERYONE that joins the organization, including the people that clear the tables and clean the floors in their restaurants. They realized early on that their hourly employees are the ones that have the most contact with customers, making it imperative that they are A players.

The results have been astounding, proving to Marlis and the rest of K & N’s management team that all of the time spent selecting the right people and regularly monitoring their performance has been worthwhile. K & N currently owns four Rudy’s BBQ & Country store franchises; those four locations do more food volume than any other restaurant in Austin, their four locations perform better than other franchise locations…and last year they experienced double digit store growth!