"That openness in the executive area says a great deal about Boddie-Noell," observes Knight.
But the aesthetic appeal of the building -- with its plants, objets d'art, and walls covered with blue suede -- is only half the story. The other half is its efficiency. It recirculates atrium heat, and zone-manages heat and air conditioning automatically via a 20-year computer calendar (which knows, among other things, when daylight saving time will begin in 1994). "If I want to come in on a Saturday morning," notes Waters, "I can phone my sector number on the computer, and it will instruct the building to bring up the temperature in my office." Everything, moreover, is designed with tomorrow in mind. Waters talks with enthusiasm about Stages Two and Three, new wings to be added here and there, movable walls shifting with precision and purpose. "We've already arranged to get limestone in the same section of the same quarry for the new facade," he says.
BNEI's information management system is equally impressive. The 40-megabyte IBM mainframe, 80 terminals, and three miles of coaxial cable in "The Machine" are tied to each restaurant's own computer, and thus to each cash register in the BNEI system. "I can tell you exactly what happened in any one unit," Waters points out. "I can tell you how many customers hit, what went through the drive-in window, who did the best job of suggestive selling, how many coupons we collected, who's over payroll . . ." Waters, a short, stocky man whose energy belies his stark gray hair, taps a few keys on his computer and pulls up the daily figures for Unit 1441, located in the Tower Shopping Center in Raleigh, N.C. Number of transactions, nonfood sales, net sales, paid insurance, total cash, promotion, eat in, eat out, drive through, cash short, tax -- every action of the unit's life is chronicled in glowing green. "Shortages, missing inventories, how many BTUs or gallons of water a unit uses -- we're on top of it every day," he asserts.
So detailed is the information that Waters can tell you, in an instant, how much it costs BNEI to put ketchup on a single burger.
Roger Maloch, product-marketing manager for Management Science America Inc., which wrote BNEI's software, calls it "a very, very sophisticated system . . . requiring 100,000 lines of code."
"They're among the more informed companies we've dealt with," he adds. "They have everything under control, and know exactly what they do and don't need in terms of figures."
In June, the company began installing personal computers in its six district offices, a process it expects to complete by the end of this year. Then, Waters explains, he will be able to turn the information around to district vice-presidents overnight. "I want them to know what they were doing yesterday, today." The managers will then be in an even better position to watch over and improve the performance of the units they oversee.
"When you look at our kind of company," Waters observes philosophically, "you think, 'Well, hell, it ain't too hard to flip a hamburger, throw it on that bread, lay it on the counter, and sell it.' But then you look at the total package, and you see an amazing diversity of disciplines." The business, he explains, is simultaneously capital-intensive ($850,000 to open a unit), labor-intensive ("how do you train and retain all of those people?"), and marketing-intensive. "You spend $2 million to $3 million on an ad campaign, and you hold your breath . . . and then you discover that McDonald's is spending $300 million in ad dollars." He shakes his head with mock dismay. "Now, I don't mind getting in the ring with Ali," he adds, "and I'll do it . . . but I'm going to be carrying a two-by-four." It may be simply a matter of pride or exaggerated expectations, but Waters claims that BNEI can soon catch McDonald's in terms of unit volume.
Be that as it may, the issues of capital, labor, and marketing that Waters raises with such concern sound almost academic. Nick and Mayo Boddie have been turning their native talent and Nash County intelligence to those topics for more than two decades, and now a group of bright and dedicated professionals is fine-tuning their achievement. There seems little likelihood that the apathy that frequently accompanies success will ever shortchange them. "You can't tell me that we can't do what we did today a little bit better tomorrow," says Waters with conviction.
BNEI opened four new Hardee's in the Memphis market in June, and will probably cut ribbons on an additional five by the end of the year. Hardee's outlets alone, however, are not likely to define the company's future growth. "We want to grow with Hardee's as much as we can," avers Mayo, "but, after a while, it's going to be a case of not having enough territory." BNEI is now developing two restaurant concepts of its own -- Mama Jean's Pizza (named after Mayo's wife) and Annie Lou's Country Cooking (named after his aunt, Annie Lou Noell) -- which it hopes to franchise.
All this has meant a busy, productive, and ultimately rewarding career for Nick and Mayo. In 1979, the brothers bought back their ancestral home, Rose Hill, and have since renovated the regal 1790s mansion that was once the old plantation's crowning glory. Corn once more puts up its thin green shoots in those Southern fields, Black Angus graze about the place with quiet dignity. In a way, it seems like poetic justice of an exquisite sort, a case of lost riches found, of Southern honor finally restored. The fact that it was all accomplished through fast-food franchising makes it even more extraordinary.
Unless, of course, you happen to live in Rocky Mount, N.C.
