When do you promote from within, and when do you hire externally?
This piece was originally shared on LinkedIn in response to recurring conversations with founders and leadership teams around this topic.
I’m publishing it here as part of an ongoing body of thinking around restaurant strategy, market entry, and operational decision-making.
One of the most important decisions when building senior teams: the balance between promotion and external hiring.
Promoting builds loyalty, alignment and people who know the business inside out.
It's also quicker, lower risk, and makes commercial sense. Training and people development will always be a core focus for me - from a commercial, employer brand, and values perspective, investing in your team is essential.
The downside is that if everyone at the table came through the same business, you tend to get the same thinking on every problem. Similar reference points and a shared mindset.
This is where external hires come in.
They've seen other businesses at a senior level, they bring new approaches to problems and challenge what 'good' looks like.
I'm also a strong believer in hiring from outside hospitality - we gain fresh perspectives and the ability to learn from industries who may be ahead of us.
The other consideration is that it's not just about who moves up, but also who comes in behind them.
Senior hiring is three-dimensional: talent moving up, strong people backfilling underneath, and external hires adding fresh ideas and strengthening the skill set.
Get only one of those right and you'll feel it within a year.
Since first sharing this, I’ve seen the same issue surface repeatedly — particularly with businesses entering new markets or scaling too quickly. The underlying challenge is rarely strategy itself, but how early decisions constrain execution later.