Bubba Gump's Employee Retention Strategy The United States is a nation dependent on the restaurant industry, over the past 60 years the allocation of the household food dollar towards restaurants it grew from 25% in 1955 to 47% in 2012. Bubba Gump, a young restaurant company (founded in 1996), leveraged a brand based on the film Forrest Gump (1994). Scott Barnett, President and CEO, knew his brand would gain immediate recognition. In the highly competitive hospitality industry, all restaurants seek competitive advantage by capturing much of the food dollar spend. In 2001, Barnett fully understood that most new brands needed to differentiate themselves from similar concepts through food quality, excellent customer service and consistency across all units. (Case Study: Bubba Gump Shrimp Co. 2007) Facilitated a program focused on a “culture of caring and concern for people.” In the late 1990s, Bubba Gump was facing a management retention problem and was positioned for aggressive growth. The combination was not aligned. We will diagnose and provide an alignment strategy to reduce management and employee turnover, and specify career paths for management, strengthening Bubba Gump Growth. Organizational Fit and the Culture of Excellence “Culture can become a “secret weapon” that makes extraordinary things happen” (Katzenbach, J. n.d.) In recognition of a talent retention problem, (late 1990s) Bubba Gump Shrimp It sets itself two objectives, 1). Improve unit-level management retention and 2) Increase same-store sales. (Aamondt, M. 2012) The tasks to achieve these two goals required changing the status quo, creating a culture that all employees could embrace, reinventing the hiring process to attract the right people, and enabling teams to succeed . Research on the importance of culture. A 2000 restaurant industry study stated that employers were the reason for turnover.