Archive for April, 2010
two cents: I saw ‘Food, Inc.’ now what?
I recently saw the documentary movie Food, Inc. It made me hate the quality of food we’re being offered in supermarkets and served in restaurants. What can we do as consumers to force businesses to improve the quality of food they give us?
Posted in general, on marketing, on social media, strategic therapy, two cents | 
Tags: business, consumer, food, healthy, Marketing | 
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two cents: new franchise.
location ‘unknown’
My partners and I want to bring a Smoothies & Sandwiches franchise to Kuwait, but not sure on location. A mall brings in traffic, but rent is expensive and competition is intense. What if we follow the ‘Blue Ocean Strategy’ and open it away from competition to gain competitive advantage? What are your thoughts on that?
Posted in general, on management, on marketing, strategic therapy, two cents |
Tags: competition, entrepreneur, franchise, Kuwait, location, London, mall, retail, smoothies |
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two cents: a singing waiter. keep him or lose him?
One of our non-Arab waiters sings in the restaurant around customers. We talked to him but we keep receiving complaints. Should we just fire him or penalize him?
My policy on hiring and firing is simple: hire slow, fire fast. Choosing the right people from the start is much better than trying to improve the skills of the wrong people. Having said that, once you hire the right employee you need to give him training, a brand culture manual or some sort of guidance that sets expectations. When it comes to non-Arab waiters, many of them are not highly educated, they speak limited English and/or Arabic and they come from completely different cultures. Maybe it’s acceptable to sing around customers in his hometown. Maybe it’s a self-control mechanism to calm himself when he’s nervous. Some people eat, others sleep; he sings.
Posted in general, on management, strategic therapy, two cents |
Tags: culture, firing, hiring, restaurant |
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