Gumption: Taking Bubba Gump from Movie to Restaurant

Book excerpt: Written in a cinematic style, this book is about the creation, growth, and sale of the Bubba Gump Shrimp Company. The concept began when Paramount Pictures reached out to see if there was interest in creating a restaurant based on the movie Forrest Gump. It is also the personal story of the author's growth as a CEO and creator of restaurant concepts. A host of situations are described such as restaurant concept creation, high stakes boardroom confrontations, and escaping corrupt officials in foreign lands. The narrative is partly an unvarnished peak behind the everyday scenes of restaurants, movie studios, and Wall Street. There is also an almost step-by-step recounting of how the Bubba Gump concept and others were created and operated. Lessons can be learned on unorthodox methods used in moving from traditional approaches to untried ways of doing business.