By Paul Feinberg
Like the sun and the beaches, L&L Hawaiian Barbecue (aka L&L Drive Inn in Hawaii) was part of Elisia Flores’ (’14) Hawaiian upbringing. Her father, Eddie, and a partner bought the business and began selling franchises before she was born, and Flores did not grow up dreaming of going into the family business. She left the islands to earn a finance degree at USC, then worked a series of finance positions with GE. Ready for a change, Flores applied to UCLA Anderson’s full-time MBA program. When GE asked her to stay on, Flores enrolled in Anderson’s EMBA program, graduating with honors.
She is now vice president and CFO of L&L Hawaiian Barbecue, which features hundreds of franchises (plus two corporate-owned Hawaiian locations) around the world. Their menu features Hawaii’s comfort food greatest hits: barbecue chicken, loco moco, fried Spam, rice and mac salad. Elisia and her father recently visited her alma mater for a Price Center-sponsored entrepreneur’s “fireside chat” held in the Anderson Venture Accelerator.
They make an entertaining pair, with Eddie focused on a concept that grows the business by adding franchises while Elisia ― equally intent on building the business ― takes a more circumspect, data-driven approach. “The move to an entrepreneurial company blew my mind,” she said. “We don’t have budgets?” Countered her father, “Why do we need budgets if we are making money?”
After the event, Elisia, whose mother and sister also work for L&L, sat down with a representative of the UCLA Anderson blog for a quick chat. (This interview has been shortened and modified for clarity.)
Q: What are your main responsibilities with L&L?
My title is CFO, so all the finance aspect is under me, but beyond that I am also spending a lot of my time helping our marketing team as well as (implementing) strategy. So, the two topics that really sparked my interest at Anderson, I get to work on and lead.
Q: It was interesting to hear that the company allows franchisees a lot of latitude to customize their business as they see fit — in contrast to chains that focus on conformity. How does that work?
We provide national, regional and local marketing. The [franchise owners] can do things within in their store and within their budget. But we pool our money at a corporate level and can do radio and TV. We are not like a typical franchise company, we are not doing as much marketing as McDonalds or Burger King is; but instead we are focused on building community, on how we can get the community to come into the store and the marketing efforts that help that.
Q: One of the more or less universal charactistics of a family business is the issue of transition. Is this something your family has discussed?
We talked about it as soon as I moved home. It’s never a really fun thing to talk about, but we are very practical, so we were always talking about what a transition would look like. In Hawaii, there are a lot of family businesses, so there is kind of like a support group there; we have joined a couple of organizations we set up on our own. I think we have not fully fleshed out the plan, but we have started discussions, and I think that if you do not it is a shame.
Q: You mentioned a new type of restaurant the company is working on, a project on which you’re taking the lead. Could you give us a glimpse of the future of L&L?
The (new concept) is called Mixplate and it is kind of like a Panda Express. The food is displayed out in the front to the customer. You can sample it, you can try it. You go through a line and you get to choose exactly what you want. A plate lunch, normally, is two scoops of rice, one scoop mac salad, plus the entree. This way you can choose what starch you want and we added healthier side options, things like edamame, bean sprouts, and then the entrees you can choose whatever you like.
It is a little more in line with food trends and it is a little bit healthier. It is customizable but it is still cooked to order and fresh, what L&L is known for. You are still getting a plate lunch, but I think the flavors are a little bit more bold. It is putting us in line to what current restaurant trends are but sticking true to what L&L is good at and what our rapport is.
UCLA Anderson’s Price Center for Entrepreneurship & Innovation’s annual Steinbeck Family Business Seminar will be held on May 18 and 19, 2018, 8 a.m. – 6 p.m. The Steinbeck Family Business Seminar focuses on leading effective and profitable family-owned (or otherwise closely held) businesses. Gain access to our world-class faculty, experienced business advisors and other family business owners in a collaborative, small group setting. Through lectures, interactive sessions and case studies, attendees are able to enhance their leadership, management and governance capabilities. The content of each seminar is unique; we encourage participants to attend frequently and develop a peer network of fellow family business owners.
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