Umang Hirpara
The person that I chose to conduct this informational interview was Ralph. Ralph is the
manager at the restaurant Board and Brew. He has been running Board and Brew for over 2 and
half years now. Growing up, he had gone to Board and Brew in California until he moved out to
go to Arizona State University. They had just opened the restaurant in Arizona for the first time
as they were a California chain. Working there, he moved through the chains to head manager of
operations. Throughout my interview process, I learned that his most difficult tasks in the
beginning were supply chain issues. This was mostly during the time of covid because they could
not get their regular distributor to supply everything. Ralph had to find multiple different
distributors and get individual items from each one in order to keep up with business. The reason
I chose to interview this person is because there are so many things he has to keep up with in
order to keep the restaurant running. The supply chain, schedules, and profits are just some
things that he has to do. I made contact throughout a phone call where I asked a series of
questions. My goal for this interview was to learn more about the financials and the supply chain
aspect of Board and Brew.
Throughout my interview, I learned that keeping up with demand is just as difficult as
keeping up with the supply chain. Running any business, whether it be a restaurant or an
accounting firm, the overhead for both businesses is difficult to keep up with. There are salaries,
supply chain problems, risks of lawsuits, and much more the managers have to keep up with. I
learned that in order to manage anything, there are many different responsibilities that come
along. I believe this interview was very informational as we were able to communicate right
away. There were no awkward moments and the interview sounded exactly like a conversation. I
also noticed throughout the interview when I would ask him questions, he would somewhat use
the S.T.A.R method. He told me the situation being the supply, the task was figuring out how to
keep up with demand, the action and resolution were finding multiple distributors in order to
keep the supply chain running. This pertains to my future as I hope to work up the ladder to earn
a management position. I believe interviewing Ralph has got me more prepared for the different
types of situations that could arrive.
Another bonus to this interview was that I had found out that he had linked in. I gained
another connection in my linked in profile. Through his profile I saw a lot of corporate owners of
the restaurant. My next goal is to see if I can talk to Ralph for any intern positions available in
corporate. That would also be beneficial to my resume. In my career pursuits, I hope to be able to
successfully manage a business and continue to move up the chain.
Powered by TCPDF (www.tcpdf.org)
