Podcast appearances and mentions of alan hickey

JUICER is bringing dynamic pricing to the restaurant industry. Together with their customers who operate more than 4,000 restaurants across the globe, JUICER is applying machine learning algorithms to help restaurants optimize their digital menu pricing. Carl is also the co-author of “Delivering the Digital Restaurant,” a book that explores the world of off premise food and the massive disruption facing American restaurants through first-hand accounts of restaurateurs, food industry veterans, and start up entrepreneurs. Dynamic pricing in the restaurant industry can mean lowering prices to increase traffic during slow hours, increasing prices for specific menu items to reflect changes in ingredient costs, or increasing prices for all menu items during peak hours, peak days or peak seasons. The result is a pricing model that ensures the right time for each sales channel to optimize a restaurant's profitability and the guest experience. JUICER's focus – for now – is on off-premise dynamic pricing, where the adjustment of prices is easler. On-premise dynamic pricing is more difficult (because of menus with fixed, printed prices) but will be more likely in the future. QUOTES “What JUICER is trying to do is become a full-service solution. We take 12 months of transactional data, put that through our algorithm, come up with recommended prices based on different times of day, and then our team will implement those price changes.” (Carl) “Consumers today are already experiencing dynamic pricing on DoorDash and Uber Eats. The delivery prices will change. The challenge is, restaurants aren't getting any of the upside of that dynamism.” (Carl) “The challenge of dynamic pricing as a term can be somewhat divisive. What we're doing at JUICER is completely avoiding anything related to surge pricing. We're talking about relatively small changes in prices that don't cause a negative reaction. In many ways, the customer doesn't even notice many of the price changes.” (Carl) “There's only one Taylor Swift. In a marketplace, there are hundreds of other pizza places that you can go to.” (Carl) “The whole idea of delivering the digital restaurant is to help restaurants understand that they have to optimize their off-premise channel. It's far more than just turning yourself on DoorDash or Uber Eats and letting those channels run themselves.” (Carl) TRANSCRIPT 00:00.41 vigorbranding Everyone today I am joined by my new friend Carl Orsburn it's oars burn or born say with me everyone um, all joking aside Carl. Thanks for taking time out of your day and your week hang out with me while you say hello and for those that don't know you give a little bit of backstory. 00:17.53 Carl Orsbourn Thanks! Thanks! Jo really good to be here and glad we get to spend a few few minutes together today. Um yes, I'm Carl Osborne I'm the co co-founder at juicer a dynamic pricing company for restaurants. But so. A lot of people know me from my first book that I wrote with Meredith Sandland delivering the digital restaurant that book became a bit of a bests selller and really um, cemented I think my kind of presence in the industry and been out to talk about restaurant digitization before that I was over at kitchen united helping. Ghost kitchen world gets settled helped build out their operating model and before even that I was in the seas storell world I used to run ah a thousand unit um franchise business by the name of ampm a billion dollars worth of revenue about 400000000 of it was food but in a very different and somewhat more stagnated industry and so. But I moved over to the startup space I was really excited into talking about more innovative type themes and everything that we're probably going to get into today. 01:19.20 vigorbranding That's brilliant. So ah, admittedly I didn't know about your C-s store stint ah probably more than a stint but I will wax about that for a second I grew up with ampms and ah I thought. 01:29.58 Carl Orsbourn How well. 01:35.68 vigorbranding That apm was what you called convenience source like because I grew up with it so growing up it was go to the apm because where we just said ap like dropped off the m too much too many letters. Um, and so I think I was maybe like 18 or 19 before I realized that. 01:42.12 Carl Orsbourn Yep yep. 01:52.62 vigorbranding Oh no, that's actually a brand name. That's not what you call C stores that's or like convenience stores. So for me, it was synonymous like band-aid instead of ahesive strip. It was the same thing. Um, so that's kind of wonderful and I think there's a whole world that we could talk about with C stores. Maybe not. We'll see if we get to it. But. 01:55.66 Carl Orsbourn Wow, That's interesting. 02:10.81 vigorbranding You know there is a discussion to be had around sea store's encroachment into the ah fast food and in quick service space and some of them are are doing a fantastic job of it. But what I really want to dig into first and foremost is dynamic ricing because you of course are a proselytizer you you have an entire company talking about it. 02:18.87 Carl Orsbourn Dot com. 02:30.13 vigorbranding And I I Want to say I'm a naysayer I'm just highly skeptical and I think I really want to dig into. Let's talk about the good side of it. Um, so before we you know butt heads against why don't you for the listeners try to clearly define What is dynamic pricing in the restaurant industry. Clear up the misconceptions. 02:51.27 Carl Orsbourn Yeah, look. It's it's a really interesting subject and I think you're right? It is quite divisive. Um, it's quite divisive just as ah as a theme and so before I give you my version of a definition. Let me tell you what I think our vision is surprising because we we see enormous opportunity to. To bring pricing science to restaurants and that's that's way before anything we get into around price dynamism right? So pricing. Let we know is tremendously complex. It's ah, a discipline it requires expertise in data science. It requires access to lots of market data the ability to quantify how changes in price affect demand. And these are not disciplines I think it's fair to say that have historically been part of the restaurant industry I think it's fair to say that most restaurants price using a blunt instrument and if you on where they want to be perhaps positioned against relative to the competition and a desired you know gp so you know with with due to what we're excited to bring. Our experience on working on these problems and my co-founders are these clairvoyance Joseph because they herald from the travel and hotel industry where they've seen all this stuff play out and not a week goes by without them saying yes but we've seen this happen before let me tell you how this is going to play out and it's always funks. We we riff on it a bit so so restaurants now have this kind of opportunity to use these tools. Um because the industry is undergoing to see a change. You know how it interacts with diners or everything I've talked about in my books um and and restaurants are for intents and purposes now an e-commerce category. Um. 04:22.20 Carl Orsbourn Fact that menus are presented as pixels on a screen not printed pages gives us far more flexibility than in the past and so I think that insight that restaurants can capitalize on this change in consumer interaction is giving us a more sophisticated idea about how they can price and that's very much at the heart of our vision Producer. So. How does dynamic pricing fit into this framework. Well for me, it's It's just a fancy way to say we measure Consumer demand and use algorithms to match prices to demand at that point in time. 04:54.92 vigorbranding So I think so that makes sense so there's a prerequisite though right? like you said you're going to have to know what those outside influences are so you can affect the pricing in real-time and of course you need. Digital menu boards that are more than just a I'm going to make a joke but a fire stickk stuck in the back of a Tv screen. Um, which you know for the the do it yourself as I've seen that happen many times but essentially what ends up manifesting though is pricing that changes. 05:13.51 Carl Orsbourn A. 05:28.14 vigorbranding I wouldn't say in real time right? I mean it happens in real time, but it's not like it's not like a stock ticker like as I'm in line I'm watching the price fluctuate from $2 for a cheap hamburger to $25 because of the outside influences. Um what what rate? or um. 05:33.87 Carl Orsbourn All right. 05:45.23 vigorbranding But kind of fluctuation have you seen or do you anticipate with it like what are the updates. What are the refreshes is it daily is it hourly when we're talking about the fluctuations and in dynamic rising. 05:55.27 Carl Orsbourn Yeah, couple couple of things in answer to that because the first thing I'd say is we are focused on off-premise transactions first so you talk about this idea of standard in line and digital menu boards I think that is to come. But I think the industry has to move a little further down the line before we start to see that becoming a major area of focus when it comes to dynamic pricing probably for all the reasons as to why you you might be a bit of a skeptic on the subject right? because for me the opportunity exists today and off-premise because consumers today are already experiencing dynamic pricing. On da dash and uber breeds right? The delivery fees will change. You. You are empowering the customer to say if you want to pay an extra $3 I can get it to you within 20 minutes as opposed to the advertise 40 minutes the challenge is restaurants aren't getting any of the upside of that dynamism today. That's all going into the marketplaces and so. Something here about really just trying to recognize that. How do you actually find the best way to introduce something like this into a part of the industry that is already experiencing it. But you know for me consumers are ah more sophisticated than they often get credit for you know dynamic or demand-based pricing is. Built on the the well-understood intuition that products are more expensive when there's a high demand for a product right? Um, restaurants have been doing this for ages Joseph. You know if we at happy hour em menus right? There's any diner need clarification when a drink or appetizer is less expensive before six zero Pm of course not 07:13.10 vigorbranding Um, sure. 07:21.19 vigorbranding Ah, right. 07:23.19 Carl Orsbourn Know that the restaurant's less busy and they're going to try and drum up more demand for it. So I think it's trying to work alongside those forces and try to help restaurants actually support. What is their lowest Margin channel. 07:35.84 vigorbranding Yeah I mean so that's a great analogy or or a great example I should say um and you're right? The prices do fluctuate then I think the most restaurants are banking on can I keep them here past the happy Hour Marker. So I can start to realize my margin. And and I Also agree I think Dynamic dynamic pricing um could be really fantastic from the monetary spreadsheet level of restaurant brands I think where I start where my yellow flags I Only call them red flags because I'm super interested or else I would have I don't want to talk about it right? like I'm like I'm already set I'm ah pretty malleable on it. 08:06.70 Carl Orsbourn 7 08:11.29 vigorbranding But I think the challenges that we have to overcome is um, the the brand experience that's not me being a carpenter and only seeing nails. Um, and what I'm getting at is if we take other industries that have adopted dynamic pricing that everyone's familiar with like otas. Ah. You know, um in in the travel industry so online travel agents I think is what that stands for which is kind of silly. But um, you know so like Expedia and the aggregators and things like that and anyone that has tried to book a flight and is trying to look for different options and you realize oh my original flight just went up in price. 08:34.34 Carl Orsbourn Yeah. 08:50.16 Carl Orsbourn And. 08:50.66 vigorbranding Which is really funny and not cool at all. Um, that becomes a frustration point for me as a consumer the other layer not to pile it on but I'm going to is if if we use hotels. Let's say as the model. 09:08.32 vigorbranding The hotel still gets the benefit of managing the brand experience when the person walks through the door. We don't have that with delivery as restaurants. So yes, we do want to realize more money but I think one of the issues outside of the the fees and all the other gripes that we hear. 09:12.64 Carl Orsbourn And. 09:26.57 vigorbranding 1 of the issues with that third -party delivery mechanism is we have no control over how good or bad. The service is We're just a machine you gave us money I made your burger. That's all I can do. So we're actually losing the things that add value incrementally. To pricing. So for instance, mcdonald's hamburger versus ah shakeshack versus choose your gourmet burger brand whatever you know? Um, yeah, there's quality ingredients and things like that. But part of it is the touch right? It's the the way it's presented the way it's delivered. The. 09:53.16 Carl Orsbourn It. 10:04.86 vigorbranding The the smile or lack thereof hotels get that opportunity. You know. So if you decide that you're going to spend a little bit more money for a hotel and you walk in you get the greeting. You get the high. You know the white glove even though they're physically not there anymore but like the white Glove Bell hoppy experience for more money. But if you took all of that away. It really does become a commodity I Think that's my worry is commoditization of restaurant brands meaning brands don't really matter any longer. It's just quality of products and that's it I was a lot sorry. 10:33.72 Carl Orsbourn Ah, really one ah lot a lot in that a couple of things. Um, first of all, you mentioned like airlines and the number of price changes what we're finding right now is is at most 2 or 3 changes a day so just to give you an idea that we're not talking about. And I don't think it will ever get there quite honestly where you see that mid-transaction and that change of price because. 10:56.38 vigorbranding So so so hold on hold on and I'm sorry what I'm getting I just so we're clear like literally if I'm on delta.com sorry Delta I love you. But I hate you too. Um I search for flight from Atlanta to to Phoenix because we're talking about our rlc right now. Um. Boom. Okay, hey it's ah, $1200 a first class because you know how I roll um, but then I well maybe maybe I want to go at 11 a m instead of 8 am m okay I look at the price. No not so much I come back to my 8 a m boom. It's gone up. 11:29.29 Carl Orsbourn He's gone. Yeah yeah, and look I'll give you one even worse right? Um, what about when Katrina happened right? and everyone didn't have a home and they had to go into these hotels and the hotels at 40500% price increases right. 11:31.13 vigorbranding That's what I'm like yeah that's the the reference. 11:44.31 vigorbranding Oh yep, Yeah yeah, yep. 11:46.87 Carl Orsbourn That's where I mean Taylor Swift ticket master right? right? if we want to go to an even more recent example that that's where the challenge of dynamic pricing as a term becomes somewhat you know, divisive and and I think it's an understandably so there's another term that. Someone closer to our industry started to create and that's uber and they came up with the term search pricing right? which is kind of in in this whole space it what we're doing at juicer is completely avoiding anything to do with search pricing. The pizza will never be 400 % and what we do with our approach is that we. We asked the restaurant. What is the range that you would like to operate within and it might be minus ten to plus 15 but that means the price only ever moves in between those zones. So what we're talking about here are relatively small movements in price. Don't create that level of negative reaction and as I say in terms of the amount of price changes. Not not a huge plentiful amount so you don't get to that delta example that you're mentioning before so in many ways the customer doesn't really even notice a lot of these changes. In fact, when we start putting our pricing in place. We do a few things. 12:44.54 vigorbranding Um, is. 12:59.86 Carl Orsbourn Because guest sentiment is absolutely central to the way in which we approach this and so before we do any pricing. We do a scan of every single reference to the customer voice in that particular restaurant unit looking for words like expensive or too pricey and anything affiliated to value. And then we look at ratings and then we monitor that all the way through any pricing activity so that we can see if there has been a reaction in terms of the customer voice now you could say well that's fine for those that leave a review but many will just vote with their feet so we also of course monitor volumes and we do diff on diff analysis. And we have test locations and control locations to accommodate any macro changes in the environment to really try and give a clear identification of the uplift we're able to demonstrate and what we've been had to do so far. Joseph is. We've been out to see a lift of somewhere between five and seven percent of off-premise margins without any detrimental effect on traffic and without any detrimental effect on gas sentiment and I think the reason for that is twofold 1 is because of the micro changes. We discussed. You know it's not huge levels of changes. It's just trying to optimize in a certain small area at different times of day and then secondly. I think a lot of this is actually to do with what I mentioned at the start and that is just getting the base price in right helping restaurants really understand what is the willingness to pay for a certain item for a customer and the last thing I'll mention on this is I write for for nations restaurant news with Meredith um every month or two and. 14:22.30 vigorbranding Here here. 14:31.69 Carl Orsbourn We had an article last summer that came out around throttling and I think this is one of the the hidden diseases in off-premise right now because throttling is something where you're you know, closing your virtual doors to your customers because your kitchen can't cope with the amount of demand that they're facing. It's almost like. 14:44.57 vigorbranding Um, right? um. 14:48.27 Carl Orsbourn Ah, good problem to have right? and you've got so many orders coming in but you can't cope with them so you're going to focus on your higher margin channels and that's the logic of why a lot of technology companies have built throttle it but that is perhaps the first time a new guest is discovering your restaurant same as like having ah an abusive price by the way you know if they see a bad price on a menu. 15:01.70 vigorbranding Right. 15:07.91 Carl Orsbourn Like you go wow that place is expensive I'm not going to go there for date night on Saturday even if they're just thinking about a launch third -party experience on this particular occasion. So so for me here. The the point is is how do you create a situation where everyone is free. Having a benefit of dynamic pricing. How do you actually empower the guest so they feel that they have a choice you know if they really want to eat from your restaurant on a friday night at seven p m when your restaurant is at its busiest and they have to pay an extra fifty sixty cents for that item. As opposed to it being completely shut down and not available at all. What would you rather do and similarly if we can get to a world and I think we will get to this type of world where you then can incentivize and almost train the guest to be able to say well if you order a head or if you order up six zero p m on that friday night you can actually get it for a slightly cheaper price. 15:44.27 vigorbranding A. 16:01.14 Carl Orsbourn Isn't that actually empowering the guest isn't actually empowering the restaurant to keep their guest happier by letting them have their control. That's where I think we're going to have a better experience. Overall. 16:12.44 vigorbranding Yeah, yeah I don't I don't fully disagree at all like I again I think there's there's still impediments. Obviously we're not in a perfect world and and idealism is rarely ah realized um but you actually just did spark something in my head with with the ah the throttling and all that. 16:30.50 vigorbranding While we're thinking embarking on this dynamic pricing opportunity. We've already experienced dynamic timing as a good and bad thing. Ah by by the very nature of time and how busy a kitchen gets right? so. Um, what I mean by that is you use Friday night at seven P M bro try to get a pizza delivered. You know I mean like it's going to take you anywhere from 60 to 90 minutes sometimes depending on where you are and what city you're in and that's just happening by the very nature of traffic. So it's it's it's dynamic timing right? So I know if I want to get a good pizza for Friday night I probably should get that order in at five P M so that actually tracks and makes a lot of sense now I'll maybe contradict myself here because um, I'll contradict myself but I do see it from the restaurant's perspective fully. And I've seen it because you know being being ah on the marketing side I've always tried to include operations as a part of the conversation and have a voice at the table. It's important. Um, what I think people consumers I hate that word but I'll use it. Consumers don't realize is how much. 17:30.33 Carl Orsbourn And. 17:41.31 vigorbranding Money has been taken on the chin by restaurant brands like it takes a lot for them to decide to move their price. You know so they'll they'll absorb a lot of costs. They'll eat into their own profit margins to prevent even a fifteen cent increment so when you start talking about the percentages of like the 10 to 15% plus minus that makes a lot more sense than maybe ah, a pure dynamic pricing in real-time jump allah miss swift. 18:07.74 Carl Orsbourn So yeah, yeah, absolutely and look. There's there's only a certain amount of seats on a plane or in a a theater right? or in ah, an arena so it becomes um, a little bit of an easier science I suggest in that regard if that's something that you want to do but also. There's only one Taylor Swift on a marketplace. There are hundreds of other pizza placess that you can go to and so that's the challenge today and look you you mentioned something earlier on I'll put my author hat back on for a second if I may and and that is. 18:41.20 vigorbranding Um, yeah. 18:43.72 Carl Orsbourn You know the whole idea of delivering the digital restaurant and at some point I'll tell you about the new book. But the the whole idea of it is to help restaurants understand that they have to optimize their Off-premise Channel It's It's far more than just turning yourself on on door dash or uber eats and just let them let that kind of channel run itself and off you go. 19:00.32 vigorbranding Right. 19:03.85 Carl Orsbourn Don't think guests have said anything particularly good about the off-premise experience in recent times. In fact, I'd go as fast to say that the guest experience for off-premise today has never been worse because guests aren't getting their food in the time that it was promised the quality of the food isn't. 19:14.13 vigorbranding Right. 19:22.88 Carl Orsbourn As good as they perhaps would expect in an on-premise occasion and ultimately the biggest issue that's happening with off-premise today is the accuracy of whether the order was indeed fulfilled correctly is it the right items is it. You know as per the spec that they request it. So. 19:36.68 vigorbranding Um, right. 19:39.93 Carl Orsbourn You know there's this thing here to be able to say well most restaurants today are putting on a threshold increase onto their third -party prices and even the door dashes of this world are sending notes out to restaurants that are going beyond a certain threshold to say look if you keep doing this. We're going to reduce your presence on the platforms and reduce your appearance if you will. Which is ah another entire subject. We should. We can talk about but the point is is if that's happening then the guest is saying well I'm paying this much more and I'm given an inferior product as a result and I think all that's going to lead to is customers. They've become even more switched on. 20:11.63 vigorbranding Um. 20:17.92 Carl Orsbourn To be allowed to know which restaurants can they rely upon which ones are able to do this consistently which ones are actually changing their operating system to be able to make sure they do get a better experience and so price is a function of value but the experience all those table touches and things you were mentioned in your earlier question. Are very much still central to it and you know in in delivering the digital restaurant. We talked about how gig workers are for intents and purposes your new server. Do you remember that chap sir Joseph you know that that that one was all about when I was going out as a door dash driver myself and feeling terribly treated by the restaurants that I went into. 20:46.79 vigorbranding Um, yep, yep. 20:56.18 Carl Orsbourn You know? and maybe so maybe understandably so because I was taking tips away from their staff and things like that. But but but um, the point is is that if you embrace those drivers if you give them samples of your new items on the menu if you give them a free cup of coffee or allow them to use your restrooms. They are going to to more likely more likely. Not definitely but more likely. 20:58.22 vigorbranding Sure yeah. 21:16.13 Carl Orsbourn Be, a better proponent of your brand and give the guests that they're servicing on on your behalf a better experience and so there are little bits and pieces that need to happen in that regard to try and bring more elements of digital hospitality into off-premise. But ultimately. It's the operation. The operation needs to get Better. We been now to do things to a better quality on time and more accurately and all of that's going to play into whether customers see they get value from this or not. 21:43.82 vigorbranding Yeah, what? what was the brand I want to say it was chipotle but I don't want to ah missattribute this where they they created a whole delivery driver experience for them to wait and hang out. It's kind of was kind of a lounge I think it was in New York um 21:55.95 Carl Orsbourn Ah, Buka Depeo Buca Depeo had a bit of reference to this in in the news a few months ago. But I think there were a few that are starting to do it so it wouldn't surprise me that partly I doing it as well. 22:05.80 vigorbranding Yeah, yeah, it makes sense I'm surprised inspire brands hasn't done it either I mean they've invested so much in this innovation center here in Atlanta on the west side. Um there's definitely the space for it. Um I think that's something it makes a lot of sense. You have to start treating them as such but then I think that starts to. Makes some folks in the c-suite a little cringy considering the back and forth pendulum swing that we see with labor ownership and things like that like you you treat them too. Nice are you starting to blur the lines right? and you know we know how that goes. Um. 22:31.92 Carl Orsbourn Yeah, well But then you've got these first party logistics software platforms. You know like cartwheel that are out there that are allowing you now to try and figure out how you wish to service different diners. You know, perhaps your most loyal diners with your better drivers from your own fleet. So there are. There are ways and means by which you know technology is enabling you to give the best service to your most valuable customers. 22:51.10 vigorbranding Um. 22:56.96 vigorbranding Yeah I believe ah Romo is on the forefront of that as well. We had Alan Hickey on the show a little while ago. Um, proud Scotsman he's gonna hate me for that. No, he's he's definitely proud. He's the proudest scotsman there ever was. 23:02.68 Carl Orsbourn Um, yeah Irish my Irishman ah he'll hate that you. 23:11.23 vigorbranding I do this every every so often. Some of the episodes just see if Allen's listening um and you know when I'm when I'm in person and I do run into him I'll say it again. It's it's an ongoing joke. But yes, he is an irishman and he is wonderful. Gracious guest but they're doing great things. So um. 23:23.55 Carl Orsbourn So. 23:28.36 vigorbranding Thanks for digging in so much into this I feel like there's so much to still unpack and and I am really excited about where you're going with Juicer which is the company that you founded to essentially tackle this thing head on. Can you tell me a little bit about juicer before we shift gears and talk about the the new book and even the original book. 23:45.60 Carl Orsbourn So yeah, so so Juicer has been around for a year and a half my my co-founders as I mentioned earlier have come from the travel hospitality space. In fact, our technical co-founder Marco he he builds a company called Duetto which is one of the 2 remaining platforms that help hotels dynamically price. But the difference the difference I think between hotels and restaurants beyond what we've already discussed is that hotels have revenue managers as part of the team as part of the property team restaurants don't so what juice is trying to do is become a full service solution and so we take twelve months worth of data transactional data. Put that through our algorithm come up with recommended prices based on the different times of day as we've discussed and then our team will implement those price changes so we we get given that range we talked about maybe the minus ten to the plus 15% and that's it the restaurant hands us the keys and then we report back to them the revenue up if we've been out to generate. Yeah, sentiment analysis. The volume analysis and a way we go from there. It's as simple as that now it sounds simple but there's a lot of complexity behind the actual algorithm as you can imagine. But also there's this piece that um is a complexity that affects many restaurant technology companies and that is integrations. Very early on into my tenure I said to the team look if we have to wait to build integrations with every pos out there. This is going to be a very difficult thing to be able to implement and what we're trying to do is to try and help brashchnault see the upside of our approach so that their voice can go to their technology partners to help. 25:19.37 Carl Orsbourn Build the necessary integrations because we have teams in India in Mexico and in Brazil that are actually making these price changes manually today and that's that's like wow what what does that? you sure that's the right way of doing it. Well it is because that way we've got more assuredness that it's going to happen and b it demonstrates the uplift. And then also the restaurants are going to have the louder voice in helping the tech companies see why they need this as part of their technology platforms. It's also adopting I don't know whether you've heard this term before but headless commerce um salesforce I think introduced it. But for those of you are your listeners that haven't heard of that. It's it's all for instance, all intents and purposes. It's a bit like ah a Chrome plugin right? as opposed to being Chrome or another piece of technology to add into the tech stack. Um, it's actually said no we want to be almost like a white label solution that sits on top of your current technology providers that supports you when you are ready for dynamic pricing. 25:58.80 vigorbranding Um. 26:12.10 Carl Orsbourn And I think that's really really important for many technology leaders out there to consider because the problem today is that restaurants have got so many technology solutions to choose from. They've got some folks that are out there saying oh we do it all. We do all, we're an all in one solution which isn't true and the other are those that are very specialist in other regards and so it's very difficult for The average restaurant owner-erator who let's face it remember that they didn't get into this industry because they love technology. They love food. They love hospital hospitality. They love seeing the smiles in their guest faces. Those are the reasons they got into it and so technology is a necessary efor if you will to to support the the business and where it is today. And so therefore we're trying to make things easier I think by building the company in this regard it it also then means the procurement practice is also a little easier as well and been able to find the necessary clients. So we we we certainly go direct out to restaurants. But also we're building partnerships with the lights of oracle with it a checkmate and others. To try and have that automated nature so we don't actually have to have manual teams implemented it but the best thing about it. Is it just it helps restaurants have this pricing capability without affecting anyone on the ground and because it's just off-premise focus. It doesn't really create any distraction for them. 27:25.63 vigorbranding That's great. Yeah I mean I think the the future obviously would be um, some sort of on-prem Maybe maybe with less real-time you know, maybe it happens on the weekly or things like that. But it needs it needs to happen for the restaurants in order for restaurants to thrive. Um. 27:35.48 Carl Orsbourn Yeah. 27:42.54 vigorbranding I'm always going to be the ultimate defender of the people or at least the brand experience. You know So How do you make sure that it's delivered in a way that isn't going to negatively affect the Brand's experience but like like you have said and I've even attitudes like the brand experience is already under threat and there are a lot of negative experiences happening. Um. This probably isn't going to.. It's it's pales in comparison like if everything was perfect and you're dropping a dynamic pricing model. Um outside of the even the 15 or 10 then maybe there's a conversation but I'm actually more more interested on the technology side like what's going to be done with packaging and how how can. Our delivery vehicles be ah, fitted with cold and hot areas to to keep food as good as possible. Um packaging that holds in the heat without sweat things like that like it makes French fries Such a bummer man. 28:29.70 Carl Orsbourn Um. 28:36.27 Carl Orsbourn Um, well look in our first book. Um, one of the chaps is was called why pizza works and it was when there was a bunch of references in to think about the amount of science and innovation that's happened to the pizza box right? So from the 4 little vents around the edge. 28:41.67 vigorbranding Um, yeah. 28:48.55 vigorbranding Absolutely. 28:52.48 Carl Orsbourn That little thing you'll probably tell me Joseph if whatever the little thing is in the middle and then the little trade that it sits on you know all of those little components are to ensure that when a pizza arrives at your front door. It's in the best condition possible and so you're absolutely right. Packaging is very much. It's vital with your marketing hat on. 29:03.79 vigorbranding Um, that's right. 29:09.15 Carl Orsbourn There's a great third party. The first party conversion angle on the packaging but there's also a quality angle to it as well. 29:14.88 vigorbranding yeah yeah I think there's there's so much room for growth and this is one of those permanent pivots. So one of the other things that happened. Um so I've mentioned this so many times on the show and I apologize to listeners. But. Back in 2019 I had the opportunity to speak at the fed summit ah held by restaurant design development design magazine great group of people over there at Zumba group. Um, and I predicted a lot of things that are happening now not because I'm a genius but because I know how to read and what I didn't predict was the acceleration that would be brought on by. Pandemic. Um, what's great is a lot of the things that we're talking about now and a lot of things that you covered in the first book that you and Meredith Pennd haven't had a chance to read the second one? sorry um, have come to fruition and and we are. It's no longer this sluggish. Dip the toe. Maybe the second toe into the water we are full plunge into digital transformation and that is essentially the topic of your you and Meredith's work in general from all your thought leadership. So can you give maybe like a quick hit on the first book. 30:09.13 Carl Orsbourn And. 30:20.40 Carl Orsbourn Yep. 30:24.20 vigorbranding Why why? it's interesting. Why people should grab it and then I want to make sure you have enough time to talk about this second book because I didn't give meritdiff any time to talk about it and I still feel bad about it. 30:29.28 Carl Orsbourn Yeah, and absolutely well it is a sequel to delivering the digital restaurant your roadmap to the future of food that was the name of the first book and and that was written in the early days of the pandemic. You know we were into the outline. Think we spoke to a big publisher and they said yeah, we'll get this out but it'll be 2022 and we went ah this this is happening right now restaurants need this so we had to go through our hybrid publishing path. Um and we wrote it to help restaurants see the why behind digitization but being you know off-premise and. 30:53.21 vigorbranding Are. 31:03.45 Carl Orsbourn But consumers are hungry for better ways to engage with restaurants and then it wasn't the evil tech companies or vcs forcing the change to happen but it was the consumer that was driving this to happen and of course timing couldn't have been better for us in in writing and given that book out of that time. The book came ah international bestseller. It's. Just got the romanian restaurant association would you believe agreed to translate it into romanian so I wasn't thinking the first foreign language translation would be romanian. But thank you Romania but you know the the fact that at this time in 21 every restaurant became a ghost kitchen overnight. They were forced to embrace digitization to survive and. 31:25.43 vigorbranding Um, that's amazing. Yeah. 31:38.94 Carl Orsbourn It really was a spray and prayy type approach just to keep in business but the second book you know now we're in a different phase restaurants are spending somewhere between two and four percent of revenue on technology I'd hasten to guess that they're spend in about across 15 to 20 different pieces of technology. And those different pieces of technology are probably just not being used to their optimal capability and they're certainly not talking to each other these different technologies in a way that restaurants really want them to so so our new book is called delivering the digital restaurant the path to digital maturity. 32:03.20 vigorbranding Right. 32:13.64 Carl Orsbourn And it's with the pandemic in the rearview mirror. We we believe that restaurants are now in a place where they're trying to consolidate their focus. You know where they want to deploy their resources where they want to deploy concentrated efforts to build the the right foundations that support a digital transformation because we're still in it right? We're still in the trenches on transforming this industry digitally. 32:22.51 vigorbranding Um. 32:33.59 Carl Orsbourn And restaurants are I think are are now largely moving on from begrudgingly accepting off-premise channels where they were did now see them as a vital part of the restaurant growth agenda. But many restaurants have that kind of scattergun focus as I mentioned and so I think many now have ah. Got solutions technology solutions because there are so many of them scattered across the entire restaurant ecosystem and they're not really using them to their best potential and so the new book helps restaurants see this path. It explains in a linear fashion where rest structure focus and when and I hope it's going to help them find their place on this path and. And from that give them more confidence on where to focus. You know it's it's a different type of book to the first you'll remember the first it was quite. You know one hundred or so interviews with executives that we spoke to it was ah a little academic if you will very businessy this one's more of a playbook. It's got tips. It's got worksheets at the back of each chapter. So. The the reader can self-ass assess reflect consider the lessons in the context of their own restaurant and through it. Hopefully they can chart their path towards you know, greater maturity and it asks them to consider some serious questions of themselves and you know it leads towards um, a new restaurant category that we believe is emerging. Um, a category that we think is going to represent some of the highest levels of growth available in the industry but the the title of that chapter when we discuss that is called disrupt yourself and it's saying consider how consider how you need to optimize if you had a blank sheet of paper if you were starting your business fresh right now. What would you do and we we introduce this term of the. 34:04.45 Carl Orsbourn Digital native restaurant and the digital native brands and how that is a channel that is going to move more of the costs into food out of labor out of ah out of rent and that everything will be focused on digital and fully focused and off-premise occasions and we think that category. Much like fast casual before it will actually be very very exciting and then we also talk to the technologists much like we've been touching on today. You know anyone in restaurant tech will want to to read the book because if we're really going to help restaurants for each digital maturity. We have to find faster better ways to enable tech tech solutions to talk to each other. In a symbiotic way and or just build our technology operating systems differently. You know a bit like the app store if you go for a restaurant. Could you imagine that? um you know I'd ah um, I'd love to see a world Joseph where where 1 input affects a restaurant. 34:51.40 vigorbranding Um, yeah. 34:58.16 Carl Orsbourn And a symbiotic fashion affecting other functions. You know an interdependability of functionality that that drives better decision-making and and a smoother implementation of change that that today the the average restaurant Gm has to navigate these factors. You know, can you imagine? For example, where if a supplier cost increase comes through there that 1 simple data input change can then have an autonomous effect on recipes inventory management menu build menu optimization pricing training documentation and on and on you know, the example I was using on a podcast. The other day was I imagine you're in a restaurant and two li cooks call out tonight. The Gm has to deal with that today. 35:24.58 vigorbranding Um. 35:35.45 vigorbranding Um, yep. 35:36.80 Carl Orsbourn Like there's no piece of technology that's saying how do I sold for that. So imagine if that technology could then talk to opentable to restrict the amount of table reservations or talk to juicer and increase the off-prem prices a little bit more as opposed to just talking to 7 shifts and payroll systems. You know that's the way in which technology needs to evolve. 35:49.38 vigorbranding Right. 35:55.15 Carl Orsbourn So that we can help restaurants really optimize the experience not just for off-premise but for on-premise as well, right? So the book is quite practical in that regard I think seventy to eighty percent of restaurants are probably in the first 2 chapters where we talk about third -party optimization and converting them to first. But. As I've touched on you know it goes into a bit more of the futurist stuff as we get towards the end. 36:15.90 vigorbranding Yeah, that's pretty awesome. Ah, the first book was great read. Ah it is I definitely turn the pages yellow with my highlighter. Um I'm one of those I still read the physical book and still highlight things. Um, so I can only imagine the second one is going to be even better I wrote an article about. 36:22.37 Carl Orsbourn So. 36:33.89 vigorbranding Removing the word pivot I'd like to commend you for not using that word. Um, mainly because pivoting keeps you anchored with one foot and I think that's what you're talking about with disrupting yourself I think ah what ends up happening especially the larger you get is making those cataclysmic um shifts. 36:38.85 Carl Orsbourn Move. 36:51.35 vigorbranding Requires you to lift the foot. It can't be a pivot. Um, it has to be movement forward. It has to be a change of direction or a narrowing of focus or or a mix of both and so many leaders are just crippled by the fear of what that means of unsementing one of your feet in order to go because if you keep your foot planted. You really can only go so far before you've stretched too too thin and then you have a young more agile company that will easily surpass you or or at least have ah have a competitive edge in their agility to do so um and so I think it's such a fantastic time to be a part of this industry with everything that's happening. Um I will say that. You have nudged me closer to an advocate of ah at least? Yeah yeah, it's a few steps closer I would say it's equivalent to the number of steps closer that Meredith got me on the topic of gas ranges versus ah induction heat. 37:31.60 Carl Orsbourn Yeah I'll take you I'll take that for today. Ah. 37:47.91 vigorbranding Ranges that are digital. Um I will still fight to to the death over my gas range at home. But I really appreciate the insights and I know there's so much more I mean man I had so many things that I wanted to ask you but I also like to keep these around the 30 minute Mark so 37:48.13 Carl Orsbourn Ah. 37:54.51 Carl Orsbourn Yeah, yeah. 38:04.92 vigorbranding Ah, like I said to meredith. Maybe maybe we should just do the first ever 3 person podcast we have you and her on it. We can just really start to dig into some of these topicics together because I don't think this conversation stops today. 38:12.67 Carl Orsbourn And I'd love that now. I'd love that I mean we we set out to do this to help the industry and so hopefully our our 2 books do that and I think podcasts like your angels are very much part of that journey as well. So we're all in it together and I think the more we. We talk about these things the more we're going to help the industry move forward to. 38:31.87 vigorbranding Absolutely so I have 1 final question. It's the hardest 1 ever and then I'll get you to drop some plugs on where to buy the book and and where to find juicer. So first the the most difficult question in the world if you had 1 final meal. What would you eat. 38:47.51 Carl Orsbourn Um. 38:48.69 vigorbranding Ah, where would you eat it and why. 38:50.48 Carl Orsbourn Well this one kind of comes back to one of my favorite dining experiences of my life so far and in many ways. It's not so much about the food. The food was freshly caught fish but this was about I'd say half a mile three quarters of a mile. By a dragon boat off the shores of pouquette Thailand and I went out in this dragon boat and there's this floating pontoon which they've built and there are some tables on top of this flob at this pontoon and in the middle. There's a a hole where they give you a net and they say choose your dinner and you you put the net in you choose the fish. 39:26.55 vigorbranding Um, oh well. 39:29.83 Carl Orsbourn And then they cooked the fish and I remember sitting there with my wife and overlooking the the kind of Hills of pouette. The sun was setting. It was beautiful and um I think that goes to show about just how occasions and moments like that are just as important as the quality of the food as well. So I'd probably go with something like that. 39:47.82 vigorbranding Yeah I would not blame you that it that sounds amazing. Um, great answer, great answer. Um, where is the preferred place to pick up the books. 39:56.77 Carl Orsbourn Well you see this comes back to third party first party if you like third parties and the and the flexibility that comes with them Amazon of course has a Kindle version a hardback a paperback the the audio book is read by me. It's going to be out a month or so from now. So Amazon of course is the place to go to for that. Ah, but if you want to support first party then you can head to ww.thetheboommis side again wwdot delivering the digitalrest dot com and there you'll be able to get a copy of a book or if you'd like to get a case of books for your team or for clients then that's the place to get discounted copies in bulk as well. So. Deliveringthe digitalrest.com for first party and we also have our own podcast there that we put out every couple of weeks called the digital restaurant where we we just have ten fifteen minutes between Meredith and myself talking about 5 of the top articles affecting off-premise technology and restaurants and so that's another place where. Your podcast listeners to heads if they're interested. Okay. 40:51.32 vigorbranding I that's great guys. Go first party I know Amazon's convenient it's awesome but look it puts more money in alls pocket pockets when you go first party I should know I prefer people to go to my website to get my book. But yeah I understand conveniences oftentimes the winner. Um, and then juicer how can we connect with juicer. 41:09.78 Carl Orsbourn So great. Well with juicy you can obviously reach out to me on Linkedin but our website isjuicerpriccing.com and there you'd be able to fill out an inquiry I would love to chat to you with particularly focus right now on restaurant groups of 20 units or more. Um, but if you've got an off-premise business that's sizable I think we can help you so I'd love to hear from you. 41:30.39 vigorbranding Brilliant. Thanks so much for your insights again. Ah thirty forty minutes is just not enough time and we'll have to do this again very soon. 41:36.51 Carl Orsbourn Looking forward to Joseph. Thank you so much.

Joining the show today is Aaron Hoffman, Co-Founder & Head of Strategy at DeliverThat - a white label, last-mile delivery platform focused on catering delivery and setup. Aaron and I break down what a successful delivery operation looks like for your business: best practices, process changes, considerations for success and so much more. We will also dig deeper into the catering side of the restaurant business and how this can be a game changer if you not spending much time and effort to perfect that side of the business.You will get lots of great juicy nuggets from this show. Bon Appetit! Oh, and by the way, Alan Hickey…. I hear Aaron is a better golfer than you. Just sayin',..How To Contact MeWebsite: https://SkipKimpel.com (all archived shows and show notes will be posted here)Website: https://ConStrata.ioInstagram: https://instagram.com/skipkimpelTwitter: https://twitter.com/skipkimpelFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/skipkimpel1/LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/skipkimpelLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/constrata-consultingYou can also hear all these new episodes on the ConStrata website at ConStrata.ioEmail me at skip.kimpel@constrata.ioNext Week's ShowNext week, I have Nabeel from Lunchbox joining us to talk about the new AI Food Generator application they developed, and we go pretty deep into the AI in general. Nabeel is a well known industry expert that people look up to and it was a privilege to have him join me. Certainly, an episode you won't want to miss.

VROMO is the only delivery management software solution tailored to the restaurant and food industry. VROMO's foundation is its customizable and intuitive dispatch technology which allows customers to manage their deliveries and drivers seamlessly from a cloud-based system. When it comes to new clients, VROMO is honest about the cost of the product and whether the restaurant is big enough to realize a profit while using the service. If the ROI isn't there, the VROMO team will let the restaurant know that. Alan predicts that assisted-driving delivery vehicles are on the horizon but drone delivery is likely 10 years away. On a five year horizon, Alan predicts a rise in local delivery co-ops comprised of large groups of very small restaurants banding together to share delivery services. Quotes “Ultimately what we do is try to make delivery profitable. If an order is going out of the kitchen, there's a huge case for VROMO.” (Alan) “What the pandemic introduced is a speed in decision making that this industry hasn't seen in a long, long time. To the point of very little thinking and due diligence about what happens next. But that was okay. We were all in survival mode.” (Alan) “If you think about how much time a marketing department or an operational department puts into kitchen layouts, store layouts, the queue, the tills, the music that you hear when you walk in and now imagine trying to replicate that decision-making process with delivery. It just hasn't happened. At all. That's really what VROMO is trying to accelerate from a restaurant perspective.” (Alan) “(Restaurants) need to operate as slick digitally as Uber and Doordash and GrubHub. Not that they're competitors. The third-party marketplaces have a place. They have a part to play, but I have never heard someone say, ‘I really enjoyed my Doordash pizza that I ordered last night.' You say, ‘I really enjoyed my Blaze pizza that I ordered on Doordash.'” (Alan) “Restaurant brands are investing so much. I feel like it's an overcorrection. All digital, all off-prem, optimized for pick-up and delivery – and optimization should happen – but it feels like we're going too far the other way.” (Joseph) Transcript 00:00.00 vigorbranding Everyone today I am joined by my friend Alan Hickey he is the founder and chief commercial officer at a place called Romo which we are going to unpack in full detail on this episode Alan is a proud scotsman. Um. 00:13.91 Al Hickey Oh you did it Joseph straight off the back you did it. 00:18.32 vigorbranding Ah, if Kevin Bentley is listening. He will be laughing ah as well. Our friend Miles Garrett or a miles gift. Um, anyway, we'll we we'll stop talking about vegas because we're not supposed to um Alan say hello and give a little bit of backstory. 00:32.91 Al Hickey Ah, hello everybody at the least proud scotsman of all time but very proud irishman and so yeah and ah founder co co-founder actually of the original company. And with a guy called Sean Murray and then co-founder of Ramo I suppose with with Brian Hickey began life as a delivery fleet. So probably the least software founder you've ever had on your show and and so our life began delivering pias across Europe. Ah, Australia New Zealand built a product for our own use case and I suppose because we just not that there wasn't great product out. They're not good product for us and then the dirty word of business that is pivot. Ah. 01:24.29 vigorbranding And. 01:27.20 Al Hickey We did it in in late 2019 early sorry late 2018 early twenty nineteen harder more difficult more expensive more trauma out than we ever imagined. But here we are now you know a couple of years later not honestly not regretting a single day of any of the decisions we've made so it's been a. It's been awesome and and ultimately what we do is try to make delivery profitable. So if an order's going out of the kitchen if there's a use case for bramo be it own driv

In the latest episode of Hospitality Hangout podcast, Michael Schatzberg “The Restaurant Guy” and Jimmy Frischling “ The Finance Guy” were on the road at the Restaurant Leadership Conference in Arizona. Schatzberg and Frischling chat with Steve Heeley, chief executive officer at Pokéworks, Dirk Izzo, president and general manager at NCR Hospitality, Sterling Douglass, co-founder and chief executive officer at Chowly,Inc., and Alan Hickey, co-founder of VROMO. Heeley from Pokéworks stops by and talks about being back in person at the Restaurant Leadership Conference. He talks about technology innovation and technology consolidation. Pokéworks started in 2015 in New York City, the company started franchising in year two and has eight company stores, seventy franchised locations and is in twenty states plus Mexico. Fresh seafood sales have increased by sixty percent and Heeley says that Pokéworks has felt that momentum. He says, “I think people are eating more plant-based, more clean proteins, and you know seafood particularly, raw seafood is very clean protein and people are more conscious of their health but they also want to know where their food comes from.” Izzo has been running the restaurant business for the last two years at NCR Hospitality. He chats with Frischling and Schatzberg about servicing over one hundred thousand restaurants as well as NCR's Aloha restaurant POS system and their cloud-based solution product Silver. Izzo talks about being back at RLC, what's new in the hospitality space for NCR, and where the restaurant industry will be in two years. Chowly's co-founder and CEO, Sterling Douglass stops by to talk about what's new. Douglass says, “it's whatever is new that's helping restaurants adopt new technology, so you know we talked a lot about virtual restaurants at our last show, our partnerships with C3 helping restaurants get more brands and more concepts generating more dollars in their unutilized kitchen space.” Adding, “That's been awesome for us the last couple of months. We've been able to launch tons of new restaurants on this, and it's really helped a lot of these restaurants increase that monthly revenue five, ten, twenty, thirty thousand dollars a month which has been great.”Hickey, CCO and co-founder of VROMO, a software built to optimize delivery operations, talks about the conference and the adoption of technology. He also chats about what's new at VROMO saying, the big news is that VROMO has been working on building an ecosystem and an infrastructure that's going to support restaurants and they will be putting their software into restaurant delivery companies. To hear more from all of the guests that stopped by Hospitality Hangout at the Restaurant Leadership Conference check out this episode. Click here for more recovery and relief information for restaurant, hospitality and food service operators.This syndicated content is brought to you by Branded Strategic Hospitality.

In the latest episode of Hospitality Hangout podcast, Michael Schatzberg “The Restaurant Guy” and Jimmy Frischling “ The Finance Guy” were on the road at the Restaurant Leadership Conference in Arizona. Schatzberg and Frischling chat with Steve Heeley, chief executive officer at Pokéworks, Dirk Izzo, president and general manager at NCR Hospitality, Sterling Douglass, co-founder and chief executive officer at Chowly,Inc., and Alan Hickey, co-founder of VROMO. Heeley from Pokéworks stops by and talks about being back in person at the Restaurant Leadership Conference. He talks about technology innovation and technology consolidation. Pokéworks started in 2015 in New York City, the company started franchising in year two and has eight company stores, seventy franchised locations and is in twenty states plus Mexico. Fresh seafood sales have increased by sixty percent and Heeley says that Pokéworks has felt that momentum. He says, “I think people are eating more plant-based, more clean proteins, and you know seafood particularly, raw seafood is very clean protein and people are more conscious of their health but they also want to know where their food comes from.” Izzo has been running the restaurant business for the last two years at NCR Hospitality. He chats with Frischling and Schatzberg about servicing over one hundred thousand restaurants as well as NCR's Aloha restaurant POS system and their cloud-based solution product Silver. Izzo talks about being back at RLC, what's new in the hospitality space for NCR, and where the restaurant industry will be in two years. Chowly's co-founder and CEO, Sterling Douglass stops by to talk about what's new. Douglass says, “it's whatever is new that's helping restaurants adopt new technology, so you know we talked a lot about virtual restaurants at our last show, our partnerships with C3 helping restaurants get more brands and more concepts generating more dollars in their unutilized kitchen space.” Adding, “That's been awesome for us the last couple of months. We've been able to launch tons of new restaurants on this, and it's really helped a lot of these restaurants increase that monthly revenue five, ten, twenty, thirty thousand dollars a month which has been great.”Hickey, CCO and co-founder of VROMO, a software built to optimize delivery operations, talks about the conference and the adoption of technology. He also chats about what's new at VROMO saying, the big news is that VROMO has been working on building an ecosystem and an infrastructure that's going to support restaurants and they will be putting their software into restaurant delivery companies. To hear more from all of the guests that stopped by Hospitality Hangout at the Restaurant Leadership Conference check out this episode. Click here for more recovery and relief information for restaurant, hospitality and food service operators.This syndicated content is brought to you by Branded Strategic Hospitality.

Joe chats to callers Fran and Kayley and Employment law expert Alan Hickey who is Service and Operations Director at employment law consultancy Peninsula about whether you should lose your job if you refuse to take the vaccine and the location of the new centre for vaccination for Limerick See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

After the recent news about some nursing home workers turning down Covid vaccines and the CEO of Nursing Homes Ireland suggesting they would keep records of staff who have chosen not to receive the Covid-19 vaccination, we said that we were wondering what legal issues and challenges employers may face with employees who are not willing to be vaccinated. Service and Operations Director at employment law consultancy Peninsula, Alan Hickey, spoke with Fran on Tipp Today...

Coronavirus vaccine and anti-vaxxer advice by Alan Hickey, Services and Operations Director at Peninsula For many, the prospect of a COVID-19 vaccine is a welcome turn of events, especially if it could provide a way out of the pandemic crisis and the lifting of restrictions. There is significant interest in how the vaccine might be rolled out, and we are also now seeing some curiosity around whether or not employers could insist on staff taking a vaccine. As matters stand, our view is that employers would be on shaky ground if they seek to make vaccination a condition of employment. Irish citizens enjoy a broad set of personal rights that are protected by the Constitution. The decision to take a vaccine will ultimately be a personal one for the employee to make and in the absence of a specific law dealing with the COVID-19 vaccine, employers don’t appear to have any legal basis to adopt a mandatory vaccination policy. At present, the Irish authorities recommend various vaccination programmes, but none are compulsory. There is also no evidence to suggest that the government is going to implement a blanket instruction for every person in Ireland to have the vaccine. Whether employers would therefore be able to ban people who refuse to take the vaccine from coming into work could only be determined on a case by case basis. On the one hand, there may be some industry sectors that seek to implement a requirement for its staff to have the vaccine for particularly acute health and safety reasons. For example, operators in the caring sector, or the health service, will likely want to reduce the chances of a further COVID outbreak in their workplaces and see the vaccine as a critical method for doing this. However, there is no confirmation that any sector is currently considering this, and it does remain to be seen if this is an option that would be explored. In workplaces that do not involve caring for vulnerable people, such as offices or retail, it may be considerably more difficult to try and put in place such a restriction. There could be several reasons why employees do not want to take the vaccine; they may have been advised not to due to a pre-existing disability, or the prospect of taking it may be having a negative effect on their mental health. They may object to the vaccine due to their religious beliefs. If they are subjected to a sanction for refusing to take the vaccine, such as being told not to come into work or even being dismissed, the company may face a costly discrimination claim. It remains to be seen if and when a vaccine will become available, and it is anticipated that restrictions will need to stay in place for some time regardless. For now, employers should remain patient and see how the situation develops.

The Government has confirmed the decision to move the entire country to Level 5 on the Living with COVID-19 Plan for six weeks. The increased restrictions will come into effect at midnight on Wednesday 21st October to allow businesses and the wider public to prepare for what is a second full-scale lockdown. Moving to Level 5 will force many business owners to close their doors shortly after making great efforts to reopen. Under Level 5, only Essential Services and Essential Retail Outlets may remain open. Alan Hickey is Service and Operations Director at Peninsula Ireland and he spoke to Fran on Tipp Today.

This morning on Dublin Talks we spoke to Alan Hickey from Peninsula (one of Ireland's premier HR companies) about what parents are entitled to if their children are sent home from school with a suspected case of Covid19. We also found out what the situation is if someone you live with is identified as a close contact of a positive case of Coronavirus. Listen Back Here Now: [audio mp3="https://media.radiocms.net/uploads/2020/09/24111403/peninsula.mp3"][/audio] TUNE IN TO DUBLIN TALKS LIVE EVERY WEEKDAY MORNING FROM 10-12, ONLY ON 98FM!!!

Advice regarding proper redundancy procedures by Alan Hickey, Associate Director of Advisory at Peninsula Few businesses will avoid having to make redundancies at some point during their lifetime. But during the COVID-19 pandemic, they are sadly becoming more common as business owners are forced to let more employees go to cope with lower demand and the winding down of the Government supports like the Temporary Wage Subsidy Scheme. A redundancy situation can exist where a business, or part of it, is shut down completely or shut down in a particular location. It may also be an option if a business needs fewer employees with particular skills (i.e. a reduction in the size of the team or a restructure), or if work is to be done in a different manner and the existing employee is not sufficiently qualified or trained to perform that work. Redundancy is a technical area of employment law that exposes employers to various risks that could lead to costly discrimination and unfair dismissals claims. It is vital, therefore that businesses have a thorough understanding of the procedures involved. Various steps will need to be considered in any redundancy exercise. These are: careful initial planning and identification of the rationale for redundancy considering if there are alternatives to redundancies notification to the Minister of Employment Affairs and Social Protection if a collective redundancy situation exists statutory duties to consult and inform appropriate representatives of affected employees identifying the criteria to be used for selection along with the selection process individual consultation is recommended in the majority of cases ending the contract of employment through the proper use of notice or payment in lieu of notice calculation of statutory redundancy and any ex-gratia payments that will be due to any employees who are made redundant offering a right of appeal to anyone who is selected for redundancy With social distancing requirements still in place, some companies who are considering redundancies are exploring the option of consulting with employees virtually. Although this is an untested area, there appears to be nothing in the redundancy legislation that would prevent redundancy consultations taking place by video link. However, using video consultations should not distract employers from being careful to ensure that employees are fully appraised of the situation and properly consulted as part of a remote redundancy process. Holding consultancy meetings is crucial to ensure the fairness of the redundancy process isn’t later called into question by an employee who loses their job as part of a restructure. The fundamental guidance for employers is to ensure that any virtual consultation process complies with the principles of fair procedures to minimise the risk of a subsequent unfair dismissal claim. There are three different methods of online communications that employers may be inclined to explore – email, telephone or video link. The last option, using a video link, according to reports, is the best method of the three. Although it can be daunting to conduct a redundancy process this way, it is still the most personable of the remote options and can help to reduce the anxiety that may build up during the process for both parties. Face-to-face consultations will likely always be the go-to approach where possible; however, in the meantime, it is safe to assume that virtual redundancies might become more commonplace for the foreseeable future. Some employers may still be able to hold face-to-face consultations, as long as the proper social distancing measures are observed, and the environment where the consultation meetings are taking place complies with public health guidelines. The bottom line is that the pandemic has created a lot of grey areas, affecting our day to day lives as well as employers’ businesses. Still, grey areas will not excuse employers if they ...

In part three of this four part Coronavirus series of the Hospitality Hangout Podcast, Michael Schatzberg Schatzy “The Restaurant Rabbi” and Jimmy Frischling “The Finance Guy” chat with Alan Hickey, chief executive officer of Vromo, to explore insights and ideas around new ways of operating during the Coronavirus crisis. This syndicated content is brought to you by Branded Strategic Hospitality.

In part three of this four part Coronavirus series of the Hospitality Hangout Podcast, Michael Schatzberg Schatzy “The Restaurant Rabbi” and Jimmy Frischling “The Finance Guy” chat with Alan Hickey, chief executive officer of Vromo, to explore insights and ideas around new ways of operating during the Coronavirus crisis. This syndicated content is brought to you by Branded Strategic Hospitality.

This week on the podcast Alan Hickey Associate Director in Advisory & Litigation at expert HR and employment law firm Peninsula Ireland chats to Brid O'Connell CEO Guaranteed Irish about the impact of Covid 19 on the Irish business landscape.

This weekend all sporting eyes were on Avantcard Pairc Sean McDiarmada for the first National Football League game above the bottom division for 13 years. Cork were the visitors and we were there. We're also checking in on preseason plans with both Sligo Rovers and Longford Town. Leitrim gave a solid account of themselves against Tier 1 opposition in the form of Cork, who just last year qualified for the Super 8's in the All Ireland Championships. Despite a battling performance, it wasn't meant to be for the home side as the rebels ran out winners on a scoreline of 1-15 to 0-9. We catch up with Terry Hyland and our man of the match, goalkeeper Diarmuid McKiernan, after the game for their thoughts on how the 70 minutes went for Leitrim. After a quick fire early double from Aaron Hickey and Robbie Cunningham, Manor Rangers pulled off a remarkable comeback against fellow title challengers Cartron United when they found themselves 3-2 down in their game. Two goals from Alan Hickey and a last minute winner from Shane Walsh saw them claim the 5-3 victory. We also cast our eyes over the pre season preparations of both Sligo Rovers and Longford Town who both won their friendlies against Athlone and Finn Harps respectively over the weekend. I spoke to Leitrim's Niall Morahan and his assistant manager John Russell about the Bit O'Red's preparations for the new season while new Town manager Daire Doyle and skipper Dean Zambra run the rule over their season and the messy situation with the league structure and fixtures just weeks from the start of the competition.

This week on the Sports Round Up show Breifne is joined by Alan Hickey of Manorhamilton Rangers after their fantastic 5 goals first half on Sunday against Cliffoney Celtic. Manager James Keane and joint captain Robbie Casey talk about their U15 'B' County Championship victory with Leitrim Gaels over a determined St. Joseph's side on Sunday afternoon in Avantcard Pairc Sean Mac Diarmada. Alan Doherty and Paul Keaney of St. Mary's talk us through their U20 Championship clash with St. Manachan's who almost crept back into the game at the death after appearing to be well beaten earlier, six points in arrears, with ten minutes left in the game. St. Manachan's coach Ronan Gordon speaks about his sides experience, the challenge in fielding a team at this time of year and the benefit of the age grade in the development of club players.

In his weekly segment Richard discusses the latest tech news and tips plus answers listeners calls with Alan Hickey on FIVEaa

Jeremy Potter (PHT Adelaide branch manager) joins Alan Hickey on FIVEaa to talk all-inclusive holidays with Club Med, Europe touring, river cruising and more!

Phil Hoffmann joins Alan Hickey on FIVEaa with special guest Robert Kalemba from Scenic Luxury Cruises & Tours to talk about Scenic's world first luxury discovery yacht Scenic Eclipse, plus world cruising with Princess Cruises and more!

In his weekly segment Richard discusses the latest tech news with Alan Hickey on FIVEaa and answers listeners calls

In his weekly segment Richard discusses the latest tech news and tips with Alan Hickey on FIVEaa and answers listeners calls

Christa Kinnear joins Alan Hickey on FIVEaa with special guest Victoria Chigwidden from Celebrity Cruises to talk cruising in Modern Luxury with Celebrity, plus picturesque Portugal, European Christmas markets and more!

In his weekly segment Richard discusses the latest tech news and tips with Alan Hickey on FIVEaa

Peter Williams (CEO) joins Alan Hickey on FIVEaa with special guest Georgina Symonds from Travelmarvel with the latest on Europe River Cruising plus expo offers keep rolling on and more!

In his weekly segment Richard discusses the latest tech news and tips with Alan Hickey on FIVEaa and answers listeners calls and texts

Phil Hoffmann joins Alan Hickey on FIVEaa with special guest Kim Vaughan from Viking Cruises to talk popular cruises and unique designs of Viking ships, plus the upcoming Expo, Cruise Month and more!

In his weekly segment with Alan Hickey on FIVEaa , Richard discusses the latest tech news and answers listeners calls and texts

In his weekly segment Richard discusses the latest tech news and tips with Alan Hickey on FIVEaa and answers listeners calls

Peter Williams (CEO) joins Alan Hickey on FIVEaa with special guest Dan Kotzmann from Constellation Journeys to talk about an experience like no other - a journey around the world on a privately chartered plane - plus earlybird airfares, the upcoming PHT Expo and more!

Jon Blake gives his take on my segment from this week with Alan Hickey from FIVEaa

In his weekly segment Richard discusses the latest tech news and tips with Alan Hickey on FIVEaa

Richard discusses with Alan Hickey on FIVEaa the latest tech news and tips plus answers listeners calls and texts

Peter Williams (CEO) joins Alan Hickey on FIVEaa with special guest Anthony Patching from Back Roads Touring to talk small group touring, plus the upcoming Expo, earlybird airfares, Peter's Ashes trip and more!

In his weekly segment Richard discusses the latest tech news with Alan Hickey on FIVEaa and answers listeners calls and texts

In his weekly segment Richard discusses the latest tech news and tips with Alan Hickey on FIVEaa plus answers listeners calls and texts

Michelle Ashcroft (General Manager) joins Alan Hickey on FIVEaa with special guest Jordan VanderSchuit from On The Go Tours to talk about the unique style and destinations that On The Go are known for plus the Qantas Premium Sale, upcoming events and more!

In his weekly segment Richard discusses the latest tech news and tips with Alan Hickey on FIVEaa and answers listeners calls and texts

Jon Blake gives his take on this weeks segment with Alan Hickey on FIVEaa

Richard discusses the latest tech news and tips with Alan Hickey on FIVEaa and answers listeners calls and texts

Christa Kinnear joins Alan Hickey on FIVEaa with special guest Julian Insall from The Africa Safari Co to talk the highlights of Africa including Victoria Falls and the Great Migration, plus bucket list cruising and much more!

In his weekly segment Richard discusses the latest tech news and tips with Alan Hickey on FIVEaa plus and answers listeners calls and texts

Phil Hoffmann joins Alan Hickey on FIVEaa with special guest Victoria Chigwidden from Celebrity Cruises to talk Celebrity's biggest local season, plus new ships, relaxing in the Maldives and more!

Broadcasting LIVE from the Adelaide Railway Station for the FIVEaa Undie Drive, supporting Hutt St Centre and Catherine House. Premier Steven Marshall, Lord Mayor Sandy Verschoor, Automasters, Romeos Foodland, CEOs of Hutt St Centre and Catherine House, Blakey, Matt Pantelis, Tom Rehn, Steven Rowe, Alan Hickey, Michael Keelan, SAPOL/BOM, Jane Reilly and Behind Closed Doors See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

In his weekly segment on FIVEaa with Alan Hickey , Richard discusses the latest tech tips and answers listeners calls and texts

Michelle Mickan joins Alan Hickey on FIVEaa with special guests Jason Simpson from Trafalgar and Bas Bosschieter from Captain's Choice to talk upcoming destinations and experiences with Trafalgar, the exhilarating flight over Antarctica is back, plus Africa and much more!

In his weekly segment with Alan Hickey on FIVEaa , Richard discusses the latest tech news and tips plus answers listeners calls and texts

In his weekly segment Richard discusses the latest tech news and answers listeners calls and texts on FIVEaa with Alan Hickey

Phil Hoffmann joins Alan Hickey on FIVEaa with special guest Belle Osmic from Azamara Club Cruises to talk about the unique experiences on a cruise with Azamara, plus WW2 Battlefield Tours with Mat McLachlan, Phil's experience on the brand new Spectrum of the Seas ship and more!

In his weekly segment Richard discusses the latest tech news and answers listeners calls and texts with Alan Hickey on FIVEaa

In this episode we tell the story of the 2018 IBYE (Ireland's Best Young Entrepreneur) Final, which is run by the Local Enterprise Office Network (LEO) and funded by Enterprise Ireland. In the podcast Greg chats with Sheelagh Daly (Project Coordinator and Manager of LEO Wicklow), some of the finalists including Brendan Boland (Loci Orthapedics), Jessica Kavanagh (Olann), Conor Leyden (Trustap), Nicola Reddy (Celtic Adventures), Alan Hickey and Sean Murray (We Bringg), Kate Dempsey (Irish Mussel Seed Company), Conor O'Loughlin (Glofox) and Sean O'Sullivan, manager of the LEO South Cork office. We hear all about the journey the finalists have taken, their very varied stories, the supports and mentoring they have enjoyed and of course we need to hear who is crowned Ireland's Best Young Entrepreneur 2018!! The Entrepreneurship bug is catching....be careful         Enjoy the show!