GGB Founder-led pre-opening mandate — the commercial model, people system, product system, procurement and operating controls prepared before trading.
The Opening Readiness Board
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D1
Commercial model
- Decision
- Open only against a model that survives its own downside.
- Risk
- A venue that trades but never pays back.
- Deliverable
- Base, downside and upside P&L scenarios.
- Evidence
- Financial-model records — figures stay private.
- Capability
- Restaurant feasibility study
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D2
People
- Decision
- Recruit against written roles, not urgency.
- Risk
- An untrained opening team learning on guests.
- Deliverable
- Role descriptions, interview and application workflow, offer preparation, handbook, HR controls — across management, cashier, waiter, barista and kitchen roles.
- Evidence
- Recruitment-workflow records — candidates never published.
- Capability
- Recruitment and training
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D3
Product
- Decision
- Engineer the menu before pricing it.
- Risk
- A menu that sells but does not earn.
- Deliverable
- Menu engineering, recipe development and manual, Arabic menu documentation, soft-opening menu.
- Evidence
- Menu and recipe records — recipes stay private.
- Capability
- Concept, brand and menu
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D4
Procurement
- Decision
- Specify before buying.
- Risk
- Equipment chosen by availability, not throughput.
- Deliverable
- Equipment specification, BOQ, POS/printer/software/tablet procurement, packaging sourcing.
- Evidence
- BOQ and procurement records — prices stay private.
- Capability
- Build a restaurant
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D5
Operating control
- Decision
- Write the controls before trading.
- Risk
- A launch that cannot hold its own standards.
- Deliverable
- Pre-opening manual, opening programme, target schedule, training preparation, municipality readiness.
- Evidence
- Programme and manual records.
- Capability
- SOPs and operating manuals
GGB development framework — the five domains this mandate built, from the attested record.
The situation
Most opening failures are decided before opening day. The mandate here was to build the operating company on paper and in people before the doors opened: model the downside before committing, recruit against defined roles, engineer the menu, specify the equipment, and write the controls the team would actually run.
The mandate
Comprehensive pre-opening and operating-system development. Founder-led pre-opening mandate — the commercial model, people system, product system, procurement and operating controls prepared before trading.
What the mandate covered
- Consultancy agreement
- BOQ
- Invoices
- Opening programme
- Target schedule
- Pre-opening manual
- Management, cashier, waiter, barista and kitchen recruitment
- Candidate sourcing and screening
- Role descriptions
- Interview and application workflow
- Offer preparation
- Employee handbook
- HR-control documents
- Equipment specification
- POS, printer, software and tablet procurement
- Packaging sourcing
- Menu engineering
- Recipe development and manual
- Training preparation
- Base, downside and upside P&L scenarios
- Arabic menu documentation
- Municipality readiness
- Soft-opening menu
How it was run
- Modelled the business three ways — base, downside and upside P&L scenarios — before the operation committed to its cost base.
- Built the people system as architecture: role descriptions, an interview and application workflow, offer preparation, an employee handbook and HR controls, then recruited management, cashier, waiter, barista and kitchen roles against it.
- Engineered the product before pricing it: menu engineering, recipe development and manual, Arabic menu documentation and a soft-opening menu.
- Specified before buying: equipment specification and BOQ, then POS, printer, software and tablet procurement and packaging sourcing.
- Wrote the operating controls before trading — pre-opening manual, opening programme, target schedule, training preparation and municipality readiness.
Decisions that shaped the project what was decided, what it rested on, and why it matters to yours
- Decision made
- Model the downside before committing a fils to the fit-out.
- What was controlled
- The commercial model: base, downside and upside scenarios as separate planning instruments.
- The record
- Three-scenario P&L models (attested; figures private).
- What it proves
- The operation was designed to survive its worst realistic month, not its best.
- Where the record stops
- Actual trading performance — no result is claimed.
- Why it matters to your project
- A downside scenario read before opening costs a spreadsheet; read after opening, it costs the fit-out.
- Decision made
- Build the people system before hiring a single person.
- What was controlled
- Roles, interview workflow, offers, handbook and HR controls — then recruitment against them.
- The record
- Recruitment-architecture records (attested; candidates never published).
- What it proves
- Hiring ran on architecture, not urgency.
- Where the record stops
- Retention or staffing outcomes — none are claimed.
- Why it matters to your project
- The opening team is the operating system; recruiting it without written roles is installing software nobody wrote.
- Decision made
- Treat municipality readiness and the soft-opening menu as launch controls, not paperwork.
- What was controlled
- Opening programme, target schedule, training preparation, municipality readiness, soft opening.
- The record
- Opening programme and readiness records (attested).
- What it proves
- The launch was prepared as a controlled sequence.
- Where the record stops
- An opening date or its punctuality — neither is published.
- Why it matters to your project
- Soft openings exist so the hundredth guest never meets the first-night kitchen.
Evidence and boundaries what this record is built from — and where it stops
What the record consists of
- Consultancy agreement and invoices
- proves an agreed mandate and a commercial transaction
- BOQ and equipment specification
- proves specification and procurement work
- Opening programme and target schedule
- proves planned control of the launch
- Recruitment workflow records
- proves people-system architecture and its execution (candidates never published)
- Menu and recipe records
- proves menu-engineering work (recipes stay private)
- Three-scenario P&L models
- proves financial planning discipline (figures stay private)
The source records for this project — agreement, BOQ, programmes, manuals, recruitment workflow, menu and scenario records — are held on file and described here rather than reproduced, so client and commercial material stays private.
Delivered by GGB’s founder through the operating and consulting practices he led at the time; presented here as one continuous professional record.
The outcome
No outcome figure is claimed for this engagement — the record itself is the claim.
Not claimed
- No opening date, trading result or staffing outcome is claimed.
- The financial scenarios were planning instruments; their figures are private.
- Candidate information is never published.