In a separate book, called "Reengineering the Corporation: A Manifesto for Business Revolution" contains a segment on Taco Bell. The book itself has plenty of sound practices and I enjoyed reading it. Regarding Taco Bell, the book says that in the pre-historic days of the 1980s, probably when Tony worked Taco Bell, the chain as a whole was not healthy and not as well off as the other larger chains. In an effort to improve the operational efficiency, the kitchens were downsized, and much of the cooking is now done off premises. The book goes on to say that although the physical building sizes of a Taco Bell has not increased over the decades, the amount of seating room has increased, in many cases doubled. The kitchens are reduced in size some to as little as 1/5 their original size. Etc. (I am paraphrasing the case study, as I do not have the book with me). So in the end, the company is customer focused rather than kitchen focused. The bottom line was affected very, very positively. As the execs discovered, in the prehistoric days of when Tony worked Taco Bell, having people with actual knowledge of cooking, and maintaining and cleaning cooking equipment *does not add to the profits and value* of the business. So they eliminated the maintenance and cooking by off-siting as much as possible, reducing the kitchens and increasing customer oriented space and perceived tastiness of the food.

Calvin