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THE BEC INTERVIEW

pelling food-and-beverage offering. relevant for the next five years?
I think BECs need to continue with technology integra-
Any specific plans or strategies for 2024? tion, including modern scoring, online booking, mobile
We are focused on continuing to fine-tune aspects of apps and other improvements that continue to improve
our business. For example, this involves the cloud-based the experience while simultaneously eliminating labor, like
accounting and budgeting platform we use to track our self-ordering kiosks for food-and-beverage. We all need to
actual sales against forecasts. In addition, we want to con- get a lot better at social-media marketing, which is such
tinue improving the branding of our food-and-beverage, an important and surprisingly complex part of the process.
consistency across the portfolio and generally working to And, as always, we need to be cognizant of customer
maximize profitability across all departments and all of the feedback and willing to adopt a continuous improvement
venues. mantra.

Your entertainment division is a part of your bigger com- Thank you, Bill, for your friendship and for taking the time to
pany. Do you apply the same principles of success across all share your perspective with our readers.
your operations? What are your top principles for success in
business? George McAuliffe is president of Pinnacle Entertainment
We’ve always believed in a few concepts: continuous 1% Group. He began his career in location-based entertain-
improvements, turning negatives into positives, there is ment in 1979, and over the past five years has performed
no shame in failing, and make 100 mistakes once, not the consulting work for 300 family entertainment centers,
same mistake 100 times. including a significant percentage that utilize bowling as an
anchor attraction. McAuliffe can be reached at georgemc@
See anything coming down the pike? How does the BEC stay grouppinnacle.com.

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