Executive summaryHeadquartered in Beverly Hills, California, The Cheesecake Factory restaurants are an American success story with over 150 locations providing generous portions with unlimited, inventive menu selections all made fresh with quality ingredients and served in a warm and casually comfortable setting.

The Cheesecake Factory used the combined experience of Global LT to deliver its cultural training through seamless, integrated online training modules to support their Kuwait and Dubai restaurant training.

Global LT opens up a world of opportunities for The Cheesecake FactoryBackground With a philosophy to “create an environment where absolute guest satisfaction is our highest priority”, The Cheesecake Factory is a successful brand in the United States and they’re leveraging that success to expand globally.

For more than 30 years The Cheesecake Factory has served more than just delicious food and cheesecakes, they’ve helped guests share lasting memories with family & friends.

The Cheesecake Factory created the upscale casual dining segment in 1978 with the opening of their first restaurant in Beverly Hills, CA. And even with over 150 restaurant locations, they’re just as unique today as they were back then!

With ambitions to open restaurants around the world, they called upon Global LT to help train their executives and restaurant staff on cultural competence. The Cheesecake Factory created a program to support trainers leaving to open new operations internationally and Global LT came highly recommended. It soon became apparent that the training was much more than a level of service provided, it became a true partnership.

The Cheesecake Factory’s Global LT Story

Thanks to Global LT, The Cheesecake Factory now benefits from:

• Customized program which was geared towards the restaurant industry

• Superior cultural preparation for their Dubai and Kuwait team to provide greater customer service

• On-going learning modules that can we be reviewed at any time

C A S E S T U D Y

Naturally, for a company with such a strong international brand, staying abreast of customs and traditions was top of mind. “It’s really important for us as an organization to provide the best support tools for our employees. Many who were assigned to train in the Middle East had never traveled overseas before, and many of the stereo-types that existed needed to be addressed to provide them an added sense of security and peace of mind.”

All of the assignees scheduled to temporarily relocate to the Middle East to train international employees were dispersed around the United States at the time of training. In order to accommodate the intricate needs of The Cheesecake Factory employees, Global LT provided an online training module that was effective and convenient for employees living in different parts of the country.

The ProblemThe Cheesecake Factory had a list of needs to fulfill in order to create and personalize a cultural training program for their trainers and their executive level team.

“Because our employees are all over the US, our concerns were: What information do we provide, will it be enough, and how will we deliver it? It was imperative that we included enoug information so that our employees would be culturally trained within a short timeframe. We had a wide variety of concerns due to stereotypes of the Middle East, so we needed the material not only for training purposes, but to ease people’s minds,” says Erich Renken.

At the onset of development, an online module seemed to be the only appropriate solution. However, that came with concerns, too. The Cheesecake Factory asked pertinent questions such as: How would the interactive modules work? Would the employees utilize the online training, and would they fully understand the message? Would the information delivered be able to engage both restaurant workers and executive teams?

Global SolutionLeveraging the needs of the client with Global LT’s world class resources, online modules were designed to support The Cheesecake Factory’s training goals.

Global LT designed 10 twenty-minute modules. Each module consisted of a PowerPoint presentation which had narrated audio recorded by a professional voice talent in order to offer the highest-quality recording. The presentations were then converted to a format that was able to be loaded in the learning management system.

Deliver cultural training to over 100 employees located

throughout the USA.

Developing a format that would allow each

employee to train from their own location.

Training modules needed to provide insight on geographic challenges

and the culture of the Middle East.

The content needed to be trackable within the

corporate learning man-agement system

1. 2. 3. 4.

C A S E S T U D Y

The project development and production took approximately eight weeks to finish. With the support of Global LT’s New Business Development Manager, Cultural Trainer, and The Cheesecake Factory, each module was meticulously designed to meet its specific goal of debunking stereotypes and sharing best practices regarding acceptable behavior in the region.

In addition to the modules, Global LT also produced a “Cultural Smart Card” which was given to participants for easy access when needed. The smart card reviewed the most important information covered in the module i.e. survival phrases, holidays, major dos and don’ts. This tool not only made it convenient for the employees, it also provided access to corporate module reviewers on utilization and completion of the courses.

Within the first week of delivery, over 75 employees had viewed the modules at their convenience.

Global BenefitsThe benefits of receiving cross-cultural training prior to relocation are that it:

Prepares the individual/family mentally for the move Removes some of the ‘unknowns’ Increases self-awareness and cross-cultural understanding Motivates and excites the employee for their new adventure Reduces stress and provides coping strategies Eases the settling-in process Reduces the chances of relocation failure

Dedicated supportWhile The Cheesecake Factory is complimentary about Global LT’s services, they are equally glowing about the standard of customer service delivered by the company.Due to the overriding success of this project, The Cheesecake Factory is planning additional modules for the Gulf region as well as a new program for Puerto Rico.

C A S E S T U D Y