Why Hiring Full-Time Executives May Be Holding Your Restaurant Back

Hiring full-time executives feels like the next growth step, but for many restaurant brands, project-based expertise delivers faster results with lower risk and overhead.

Alex Fineberg
Director of Operations & Culinary, Executive Chef

Why Hiring Full-Time Executives May Be the Wrong Move for Growing Restaurant Brands

Growth in the restaurant world is rarely a smooth upward curve. It’s more like a hockey stick followed by a roller coaster. One moment you’re celebrating a new location or a record sales week. The next, you’re realizing your systems, people, and processes are quietly buckling under the weight of that success.

At a certain point, every emerging brand reaches the same crossroads:
“We’ve outgrown what we can manage internally. Now what?”

Pressure starts coming from every direction. Menus drift off-track and margins thin. Franchisees aren’t managed consistently. Supplier agreements feel outdated. Documentation hasn’t kept pace. Training slips. Operations simply feel heavier than they used to.

Eventually, the founder can’t do everything manually anymore. Something has to change.

The Default Reaction: Hire a Senior Executive

Most restaurant brands jump to the same conclusion: “Let’s hire someone senior.”

An Operations Director. An Executive Chef. A Training Lead.

Someone who can take the pressure off.

It feels logical. It feels responsible. And in some situations, it works.

But there’s an uncomfortable truth most operators never say out loud.

The Real Problem Isn’t Staffing. It’s Structure.

The work brands are trying to solve isn’t actually full-time work. It’s project work.

Menu re-engineering? Project.
Supplier negotiation? Project.
Costing structure rebuild? Project.
Operations manual overhaul? Project.
Training system redesign? Project.

These initiatives are high-value and high-impact, but they’re also finite. Once they’re built, they’re built. Yet many brands hire senior leaders to solve problems that only exist for two to six months.

That’s where the misalignment begins.

The Hidden Cost of Full-Time Executive Hires

Hiring a director-level leader comes with significant overhead: salary, benefits, onboarding, turnover risk, and the time it takes for them to truly understand the brand.

Restaurant margins were never designed to absorb $150,000 to $200,000 salaries indefinitely, especially in today’s economic climate.

Here’s the strategic disconnect: most brands think they’re paying for a person. In reality, they’re paying for outcomes.

And outcomes don’t require permanent payroll.

Why Project Execution Beats Permanent Payroll

The restaurant industry has always been volatile, but volatility is now the baseline. Consumer behaviour shifts quickly. Costs change weekly. Turnover is constant. Supply chains remain unpredictable. Technology evolves every few months.

Brands that succeed in this environment share one trait: flexibility.

The most successful operators no longer lock themselves into high-overhead leadership roles. They deploy specialized expertise when it’s needed, not indefinitely. They invest in solutions, not salaries. They build systems instead of dependencies.

Hiring a full-time executive to produce a single menu, one costing model, or one operations manual is like hiring a contractor as a lifelong roommate because you needed a renovation.

It doesn’t make sense for the brand. It doesn’t make financial sense. And it doesn’t align with how modern restaurant brands scale.

The Smarter Way to Scale Restaurant Operations

This approach gives operators lower risk, reduced overhead, faster timelines, cleaner execution, scalable systems, and full control over cash flow.

You conserve capital. You deploy resources strategically. You stay nimble in an unpredictable market.

Because the future of restaurant success isn’t about more staff. It’s about smarter structure.