Philip J. Hickey Jr. - Chairman/CEO, RARE Hospitality
Gerry Hornbeck delivers a strong ROI (return on investment) and ROTI (return on time invested). He has added value in a profound manner to two companies I have led. The scoreboard speaks for itself: after 2 years of Gerry's consulting, the value of Rio Bravo restaurants rose from $17MM to $68MM, culminating in an acquisition by Applebee's. Additionally, his participation and counsel has contributed to RARE Hospitality's increase in market value from $120MM to $900MM over the last five years.

Gerry transitions easily from high level/long term strategic planning to concept evolution; from executive coaching and business analysis to managing organizational transitions. His style of coaching engenders buy-in from all participants, from staff to operations to Board members. This enables the leadership team to drive toward goal achievement through plan execution. Simply put, Gerry is one of the best in the business.

Rick Rosenfield, Larry Flax - Co-Chairmen, Co-CEO's California Pizza Kitchen
Gerry Hornbeck's intelligent perspectives and wide-ranging experience were invaluable to our management team and to the development of our business plan. His strategic planning process and guidance gave us the tools and direction to successfully implement our plan and increase our results. Gerry's approach is challenging, focused and goal-oriented, yet also warn and informal. Gerry is an absolute pleasure to work with.

Ned Lidvall - CEO/President, Rock Bottom Restaurants, Inc.
Gerry Hornbeck/Concept Management provides a unique combination of both broad knowledge and in-depth perspective for restaurant company leaders. Gerry's experience as an owner/operator and his years of consulting give him an unparalleled level of experience. Gerry also brings a genuine and personal approach to his relationships, making him an outstanding mentor and teacher, he truly has all the tools. The Concept Management approach is appropriate for restaurant companies of most any size of lifecycle stage. Bottom line, Gerry has been a significant and valued part of our improvement and progress.

George McKerrow - CEO/Founder, Ted's Montana Grill
Simply put, Gerry Hornbeck and Concept Management are a "mirror to the present and a looking glass to the future." Gerry's foresight and experience give him the ability to make his clients think and reflect on what is and is not working for them. His demeanor is always uplifting, challenging and understandable. I cannot express enough the respect I have for his knowledge and his challenging leadership.

Ken Pendery - CEO, First Watch Restaurants
Gerry Hornbeck and Concept Management have provided us with the resource of a broader perspective of the restaurant industry both in a structured planning system and management/organizational development tools. Gerry's capacity to pinpoint important issues and lead us to their resolution has been material ... a great understanding of our business, management and the industry.

Dave George – President, LongHorn Steak House
A rewarding 10 years. Thank you so much for your counsel and direction. You have played a big part in keeping us focused and moving in the right direction. I personally appreciate our relationship and thought provoking questions you kept placing before me and the team. You have helped me be a better leader, thinker and business person.

Juan Garcia – President, C.O.O., Benihana, Inc.
Gerry Hornbeck has proven to be an invaluable asset to our management team. He has been instrumental in formulating and refining our strategic and business plans. His extensive knowledge of the restaurant industry provides our company with a great resource as we transition into a growth company. Gerry has the unique ability to communicate with all members of the team assuring the necessary buy in from all team members. Once engaged, Gerry becomes a team member, mentor and coach.

David Geraty - President, C.E.O., Geraty Investment Partners, LP For over two decades Gerry Hornbeck and his firm Concept Management have been guiding entrepreneur and senior executives at some of this country's top restaurant companies. In the process he shows how restaurant companies can develop both leading concepts and management teams to sustain their success for years to come.

David Head - President, CEO, Tony Roma's/Romacorp
Upon taking on the mission of reviving a 33 year old brand, and having past experiences with the "consultant trap" and paying for recycled conventional wisdom and repeated industry clichés, I talked with a number of industry CEO's and investment bankers to find a strong multi skilled Strategic Partner. From the beginning it was obvious that Gerry Hornbeck was the "real deal". His work on Strategic Planning, Concept Development and Organizational development have been pivotal to our efforts.

Gerry is a teacher, coach, mentor who is part of the team, with insight and perspectives that allows us to look at the whole picture. I look forward to working with him well into the future.

Bob Derrington - Senior Vice President, Analyst, Morgan Keegan
From big picture to grass roots operating trends, Gerald's tenured perspective of the Restaurant industry has provided us a well spring of knowledge in understanding the complexities facing operators today. His relaxed, patient tutorials have been well timed and consistently on the mark.

Class in session ... Dr. Hornbeck presiding. As a research analyst covering the restaurant industry, our view is traditionally reliant on third party resources. Concept Management and Gerald Hornbeck has provided a seasoned perspective and has help guide us by adding real world insight and direction to restaurant company and concept performance. Gerald's experience with a number of restaurant chains experiencing a wide variety of growing pains including start-up companies, struggling older chains as well a solid chains needing further refinement to their business models is invaluable.

David Gilbert - CAO, Cracker Barrel
Gerry is in an industry veteran who, unlike many consultants, has been there, done that ... experience, success, knowledge and great talent to both understand the tactical business issues while looking at your business from a strategic perspective.

Brad Houghton - CEO, Moxies/Eatz Entertainment of Canada
Gerry and Concept Management brought an in depth business perspective to our management team. His ability to analyze our company's needs and lead us to formulate the necessary solutions have measurably increased our performance and strengthened our management team. Concept Management's planning discipline has become a permanent part of our organization.

Phil Roberts - Founder, Bucca Di Beppo and Oceanaire
Gerry Hornbeck taught us that the first thing we needed to do to corral more customers and grow our company was to harness our resources.

Pete Truxaw - Co-Founder, Salt Creek Grille Restaurants
With Salt Creek Grille being a small but growth-oriented company, we have found our relationship to be extremely valuable in our pursuit of surrounding ourselves with a team of key restaurant industry experts. Gerry has provided candid concept development goals for us to strive to achieve and yet offers a grounded highly experienced view of our upscale casual segment of the industry. The disciplined principles Concept Management prescribes have proven to be keys to our success.