Biography of Alan Stillman - Essay Example

 Biography of Alan Stillman Alan Stillman was born in the year 1936, in New York. Alan’s original passion was music and this was characterized by joining a school of art and music in Manhattan. The passion in music was, however, short-lived and discontinued due to voice change. This resulted too expulsion from the school. Alan then joined Bucknell University where a Finance Majors was pursued. During the period, a role in Reserve Officer Training Corps was actively pursued. Alan served as a commissioned officer during college years. It was at that moment of Alan’s life that an opportunity arose to go to Germany. In Germany, Stillman enjoyed free weekends and a thirty days’ vacation. It was Alan’s two year stay in Germany that triggered interest in food and culture. Induction to food and culture occurred merely as an accident for the 21 year old. Back at home, Alan Stillman was still a bachelor and earned a living as a perfume salesman. The neighbored hood thronged of stewardesses, fashion models, secretaries, and other single people. From where Alan lived, 63rd street between First and York, there was quick access to the bridge at 59th street making it convenient to exit New York. The crowd of single people used to hang out in cocktail parties, which had to be organized during the week. The parties were full of life, and people would bounce from one to the next. There lacked a public place for people between the age of twenty three and thirty seven. This means there was no social place for the youth. The only public place existing at the time was the old P.J Clarke’s which a men beer-drinking pub, then. It was characterized by scarcity of women as many New York bars of the time. In the neighborhood, there was an old First avenue bar called ‘The Good Tavern.’ Stillman used to stop by and have a chat with the bartender on how the place could be improved to create a meeting point for the people around. The bartender asked why Stillman could not make the changeovers. Alan did not hesitate about the offer and borrowed five thousand Dollars from the mother with which the tavern changed possession on a short lease. This was in 1965. The renovations done to the premises included hanging Tiffany lamps and pouring sawdust on the floor. The outlook was transformed by painting and waitresses clothed in stripped soccer shirts of red and white. At the time, Alan knew nothing about restaurants or the food industry and was merely depending on a hunch. The acquisition tallied with the invention of the pregnancy prevention pill. This was characterized by a massive sex revolution. Through the opening of the first TGI Friday outlet, Alan directly contributed to the establishment of the first singles bar. The original intention of TGI Friday’s was to provide people with a neighbor friendly bar where they could grab a hamburger or French fries. Through Alan’s innovation, the joint started serving burgers on toasted English muffin in an effort to create an in-house atmosphere. The results were tremendous. Alan had underestimated the influence serving food would have. In an effort to lure ladies, the joint began giving out burgers for free during end month. The argument was that many girls pay could not sustain them over the whole month. The joint quickly grew in popularity prompting hiring of security guards in only three months of operation. Increased hordes of customers meant a significant restructuring for the joint. The foods had to be changed to adjust to menus that were quick to prepare. The second TGI Friday’s location was in Tennessee. A lad from Memphis approached Alan with the intention of buying a franchise. At the moment, Alan understood little about franchises. The counterpart offered to help with the idea with a fifty/fifty ownership stance. With the success of the second outlet, more people partnered with Alan resulting in about six outlets, in the country. This was a rapid growth of the enterprise. Soon, interested parties who possessed more capital than Alan approached with an intention of setting up similar franchises in Dallas. The Dallas partner was Scoggin and Henrion. The Dallas premises was twice the size of the original TGI Friday’s and raked in an annual figure of $2,000,000. A shift in Stillman’s business took place in the year 1971. The economy was experiencing a downtrend. People from all sorts of places were chasing Alan around trying to buy the interest. A prospective customer offered one million dollars, which Alan took gladly. During the time, the money was enough to secure a comfortable retirement. After selling out, Alan married. Diversity and innovation was triggered during leisure travelling around Europe. Alan realized observed that there were outlets in France which only offered French cuisine and French wine. The only comparison back home was American steakhouses. Smith and Wollensky came to birth as an imitation of the French brasseries offering steak and California wine. This was in 1977. During the setup of Smith and Wollensky, Alan conducted extensive research into other steakhouses operations to establish a competitive edge. The result was that the menu was extensive, and more varieties of wine were available. The negative influence of media took form during this period after a review by the ‘New York Times’ painted the establishment the wrong way. The restaurant placed an advert in the ‘Times’ which took the space of three full pages in an attempt to counter the negative image. The advert had impressive response after running for just three days. Though Mimi Sheraton gave the restaurant not a single star during the review, customers were profoundly moved. It took much longer than expected for Alan to expand the new business. The partners did not want to expand with their business and, therefore, Alan had to accumulate resources to buy rights from them. ‘Smith and Wollensky’ was established as an urban restaurant. This was to facilitate competition with other prominent establishments. The initial partners at Smith and Wollensky were former college pals Benson and Kalman. The name was forged through the efforts of Alan and Benson. The process involved looking up names in the phone directory. Through experience gained in the industry, in 1980, Stillman opened another steakhouse in Manhattan called the Post house. In 1984, Stillman expanded yet again setting up Manhattan Ocean club. This was after a gap analysis. During this period, the strategy had to change to target the young generation. Initially, Stillman maintained the stance that it was easy to set up eating places for people of similar age group. With the experience gathered in business, it was time to target the young generation or else risk missing the chance of a lifetime. Alan was a brilliant forecaster and always got priorities right. Alan attributes the success of the business to innovativeness and research. Before food from the menu could be sold, Alan becomes the first customer. Stillman prides himself with taste in the selection of the silverware for use in the restaurants. The establishment sells in-house developed desserts. The key competencies lay in the ability to have an exterior look peculiar from everybody else. The original TGI Friday’s closed down in 1994 paving way for the establishment of a British pub. Alan cuts a niche in the field of marketing and restaurants. The man who is full of innovation promotes the restaurant business in ways that awe customers and other businesspeople alike. In one incident, Stillman ordered a whole tanker of wine to pour wine from in celebration of the National Wine Week. In 2007, after a rigorous bidding, Smith and Wollensky changed ownership to Nick Valenti amidst $100,000,000 settlement. The deal also saw Stillman buy Park Avenue Café back, as well as, maintaining managerial role at Smith and Wollensky holdings in New York. Stillman is a family man and has a wife, Donna, with whom they have a son, Michael. The couple lives in New York on East 57th street. Michael grew up with a clear understanding of how a clientele is maintained. Michael took a course in contemporary painting and African-American political theory. Soon, Michael leant the father's business and was actively concerned in the setting up of Smith and Wollensky restaurants in Dallas, Houston, and Boston. Together, the duo of the father and son founded the Fourth wall restaurants. Business appears as a talent or in born strength, in the life of the Stillmans. This is well illustrated by the success in business regardless of poor knowledge in the area and occurring contrary to the courses taken up in school. The only thing that stands out for sure is that passion to succeed as well as knowledge and perhaps, adventure create a recipe for success in a business environment. Stillman has also interests in real estate and possesses an expansive property which held the value of &65,000,000 in the year 2006. Bibliography Bucknell University. (2008). Alan Stillman. Retrieved November 30, 2011, from www.bucknell.edu: http://www.bucknell.edu City file inc. (2011). City File New York. Retrieved November 30, 2011, from cityfile.com: http://cityfile.com Fourth Wall Restaurants. (2011). Fourth Wall Restaurants. Retrieved November 30, 2011, from fourthwallrestaurants.com: http://fourthwallrestaurants.com Frumkin, P. (1996, February). Business library. Retrieved November 30, 2011, from findarticles.com: http://findarticles.com Nicola. (2010, November 15). A Cocktail Party In The Street: An Interview With Alan Stillman. Edible Geography. Sr., G. A. (2011, August 7). A Critic From The South. Retrieved November 30, 2011, from acriticfromthesouth.blogspot.com: http://acriticfromthesouth.blogspot.com Read More