Chapter 2

After reading Chapter two, I thought I would share this about DineEquity:

1) DineEquity's Vision is this: "DineEquity unites great franchises, brands and team members to create the world's leading restaurant company, one guest experience at a time."
The effective elements I find here are: Directional, Focused, Feasible, Desirable, and Easy to Communicate.
The shortcomings are: Too reliant on superlatives (the world's leading restaurant company).

2) DineEquity has a wonderful set of Values: Integrity, Excellence, Innovation, Accountability, Inclusion, Trust, and (my personal favorite) Community. They believe in making a difference in the communites they serve.

3) DineEquity Inc. set goals of "energizing our brands, improving the operational performance of our franchsie systems, and maximizing franchise development" - the intention is to transform Applebee's to a nearly 99% franchised system.

4) DineEquity "expects to continue to apply a new business strategy that includes (1) the franchising of more than 90% of the Applebee's company-operated restaurants, (2) specific changes in the manner in which our Applebee's and IHOP businesses are managed and serviced, such as the February 2009 establishment of a purchasing cooperative, and the procurement of products and services from such purchasing cooperative, (3) the possible introduction of new restaurant concepts and (4) improvements to the overall performance of the Applebee's business by applying some of the strategies we previously applied to the IHOP restaurant business." Source: 2009 10K. Basically, IHOP is using its winning strategy to help Applebee's become more profitable.

5) DineEquity has its Corporate Governance Guidelines, Code of Ethics for Executives and Directors, and Policies for Business Conduct posted on its website. It does a great job of listing the board's role and goals. This allows every potential investor to better understand what the company stands for, as well as being open about its responsibilities. Nobody can say that they don't know what their role and responsiblity is.




Today, the stock closed at 32.58; down 0.62.