Guest

What is your role and like what does it entail? What does it look like? &gt;&gt; So right now, I work with operations on the, it's called the menu readiness team. So we work with everything food. To summarize in one sentence, we basically take those crazy awesome ideas that talk about things of and we get it to a point that 7,000 restaurants can execute. &gt;&gt; Wow. &gt;&gt; Consistently and successfully. My dad taught me very early, needs versus wants. And anytime I wanted somethings, we need money. So I wanted to get job, figured fast food was the easiest. I figured I just walked into my local Taco Bell down the street, did that, got the job and I fell in love with it. I heard this one quote when I was younger. It's hard work beats talent when talent doesn't work hard. I'm a firm believer in that. Like I worked really hard and I truly believe like anybody else who's willing to work hard will be able to do whatever they want. 

Team Member

Understand the difference between what you need and what you want: you have to prioritize your needs, but it’s also important that you figure out a way to do the things you want to do. And if you don’t know what you want, take as many different classes as you can and try to find that spark. Keep taking steps forward, and more doors will open.

I’m on the Food Ops Team, so I work with everything food. We have a three-step process—discover, design, and deliver—and operations gets brought along for the whole ride. After a crazy menu item (like the quesalupa) is “discovered,” we act as the voice of reason to make sure our restaurants can realistically execute these items using their back-of-house hardware. We do a lot of testing to make sure the item’s soundproof, then once we feel it’s ready, we send it out to our restaurants.

Brent Harkins

About Brent

Brent Harkins

About Brent

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