Review: Out of the Dog House

Out of the Dog House by Dick Portillo
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Many of the reviews here trash this book as repetitive, and with the author's arrogance in plain sight. I have read many business biographies, which this is, and I found it actually pretty good. Portillo goes into some depth in describing his childhood and how his time in the Marines taught him how to think. He relates the difficult start to the business, including not having running water at his first location. He talks about how he came up with his drive through concept and tested it to get it to work better. He even talks about how his kids were involved in the business. He also dives into the operations of the business, dealing with competition, rewarding the long-time employee, and running a massive training program. He doesn't give all the details, you get more of an outline than a blueprint, but the story, for those interested in modern rags to riches stories that don't involve the internet, is quite interesting. When you finish this book, you understand how Portillo thought about running his business. I see this book as being written to provide to Portillo's employees and vendors, to help keep his way of thinking in the business. As Portillo sold off his business, this was likely his last chance to influence its ongoing operations.

I recall hearing an interview of Dick Portillo, probably on Chicago's WGN, probably during the 2008 recession. The announcer jokingly suggested Portillo's deal with the recession by putting less beef on his Italian beef sandwiches. Portillo's reply, deadly serious, was that they would never reduce the size of their offerings, because that's not what his customers want. The announcer jokingly repeated his idea of reducing serving sizes, and Portillo, even more deadly serious, said they would not do it. It seemed if the announcer repeated himself one more time, it would come to blows. You love to hear guys this serious about their product and talk about the business, as you'll get to know how they think and became successful. It might not be replicable, but it's interesting.

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