Developing Entrepreneurial Skills: A Personal Journal On Asian Street Food

Purpose

The self-assessment process requires five assessment, and in this self-journal, I will state the basic principles of the self-assessment process and compare myself with the philosophies to get a conclusion about myself. This self-assessment procedure is based on five different stages, which are achievement drive, creativity, desire for autonomy, and internal locus of control.

Achievement Drive:

The achievement drive is the level of desire and dedication given to the individual goals. Every individual, especially the entrepreneurs have specific goals based on which they act and frame their business strategies. My primary objective was to create this hotel to serve those people who want to get good food at an affordable price. Another desire was to provide the foreigners a glimpse of the Indian and Asian cuisine.

Creativity Tendency: This business idea of opening a South Asian restaurant may not seem like a creative one, but this business idea is unique. Majority of the fast food corners provide local food products, which can be grown and made locally.

Risk Taking: However, opening a restaurant for the foreign delicacy that also at an affordable price point is a unique business idea.

Desire for Autonomy: Arora et al. (2011) have stated that this business proposal is autonomous, as this does not require any outsourced service. The raw materials are readily available in the local market, and the chefs and the staffs are local as well.

Locus of Control: The entire business can be controlled through the chief executing officer. As this restaurant will be controlled and operated by using three staffs only that is why the entire restaurant and the business operations can be easily controlled by using one post only.

B.

As this project is a pilot project that is why the scope for improvement is limited. One thing can be added that this business is using a local chef to make the foreign delicacies. Also, the chef does not have any experience about the regional food of South Asia, and that is why it is tough to maintain the authentic taste of South Asian cuisine in the meals of that particular restaurant. To improve the taste or authenticity of the food, the organization needs to hire a chef who has enormous experience in South Asian cuisine or someone who has done his specialization in South Asian cuisine (Boud, Lawson, & Thompson, 2013).

As per the self-assessment test, my scores reflect that I am a hipster. I cant maintain and conduct the entire operation on my own, and I cannot conduct the business operations myself. I have provided the idea of the leading business and how the human resources will be organized and how the business operations will be conducted. That is why I consider myself as a manager or the creator of the idea.  

Recently I read about the CEO of ‘Wao Momo.’ This organization worth more than $30 million and the entrepreneur started his journey with $4000 only. They hired a small place to sell their momos, which is typical fast food and very soon they developed their company. Initially, this organization was not making any profit at all, but that was not their primary objective as well. The entire journey started with the quantity of the chicken in momo. The entrepreneur thought that the local vendors provide very less amount of chicken and they do that to keep the price low. They increased the amount of chicken inside momo, and later they also introduced various types of momo. The concept of momo was already prevalent, that is why they did not have to spend on marketing of their product. In respect to this topic, I would like to bring in the famous Desire Belief Model of Davidson. He has stated in this motivation theory that behind every creation there is a desire of the individual and the belief in what they are doing. Motivation is the factor which helps the individual to stick to their goal and task and makes them accomplish that project. 

Tasks

On the other hand, they solved a problem, which was a requirement of many consumers. Thus they solved a problem in the marketplace. Later they introduced their chain of fast food corners, and they also developed different types of momo and transformed this snack into a meal. The CEO of Wao Momo is Sagar Daryani, and he transformed his small, fast food counter into a chain of restaurants within three years (Boud et al., 2013). 

How This Personality Inspires Me:

Often it is considered that some of the most brilliant ideas are the most simple ones. Momo was a well-known product, and it was a favorite dish as well. Though he turned a pure momo corner into a well-organized restaurant chain because he solved a significant problem in the industry. People were willing to spend money on good quality momo, but it was available only in small street side vendors. They were unable to provide good quality products as they had a very short budget and this is the main reason he was able to change the entire scenario. I found this person very interesting because the way he turned a simple idea into a million dollar business and that also within a brief period (Ragu and Mati, 2011).

Critique of This Business:

This business has changed the entire scenario of fast food corners in India, and he also changed people used to think about fast food as well. Previously fast food was cheap quality food products only, but the major thing these small shops were missing that people are willing to spend some extra money to get better quality products. After this different organizations started cloning this organization to change the model of their business. In reality, this organization has developed a very less number of critiques. Though it has a direct conflict with the multinational organizations like Pepsi co, McDonald’s, KFC, and various other fast food stores (Helms, and Nixon, 2010).

I have chosen this organization because this organization is very simple. They conducted the market analysis, and they provided the exact product at a perfect price point to the consumers. That is the main reason for the success of this organization. Often a unique idea is not required to solve an existing problem into the marketplace.

The entire business model of this organization is straightforward they developed the momos as a specific meal, as this is a complete meal. There is a carbohydrate, fat, and protein in momos. So it is a complete meal. To boost the sales, they introduced the same product in a new method. They also brought different varieties of momo to increase the number of their sales (Salami, 2011).

This organization has gained massive popularity in a brief period to understand the success secret of this organization the SWOT analysis will help.

Strength: The main strength of this organization is better quality products at a competitive price point. Also, this organization did not use any new product to penetrate the market; they used a trendy product to gain popularity (Amin, Razmi, and Zhang, 2011).

First Personal Journal Entry Set

Weakness: The main weakness of this organization was increasing the cost of the raw materials, and increasing wage of the labors as well.

Opportunity: This organization has a tremendous opportunity because the economy of the respective country is rising, and people are left with more money to spend on food products.

Threat: This organization is facing a threat of being replaced by a similar kind of organization. The same idea of providing better quality momo at an affordable price point can replace this organization.

SWOT Analysis Table:

Strength	better quality products at a competitive price point
Weakness	increasing the cost of the raw materials, increasing wage of the labours
Opportunity	the economy of the respective country is rising, and people are left with more money to spend on luxury items
Threat	being replaced by a similar kind of organization

This assessment helped me to understand the marketplace in a detailed manner. The primary objective of every organization is to achieve a sustainable model of development, and no organization can achieve a sustainable model of development without the efficient management of its resources. The primary objective can be achieved by the smart allocation of the resources and filling up the demand-supply gap into the marketplace (Amin et al., 2011).

The main objective of Wao Momo is to deliver the best quality snack food at an affordable price point, and this objective has helped this organization to achieve the height of the sky. Within a short time period of 3 years this organization has tuned to a multi million dollar organization, and this has cleared proved the point that the most brilliant ideas are the most simple ones.

Poster Company BMC:

The key partners of this organization are the raw material suppliers like chicken, wheat, oil, etc. This organization is also dependent on its human resources in order to manage its business operations through its branches which are situated over 200 cities.

This organization only deals with high-quality fast food. The basic food product of this organization was steamed momo only. Though it has developed a complete meal package by using momo as a raw ingredient. Different types of Momos are also available and they have also created fusion food products by using different food making concepts.

This organization is offering high-quality fast food package at an affordable price point. That is this organization can easily attract the consumers of urban areas. People in the urban localities search for high-quality food which is hygienic and affordable as well. the food products of wao momo offer all of these facilities at an affordable price point which has attracted their targeted population.

In this fast food industry, consumer relationship is very fragile. Though this organization has successfully developed a healthy relationship with their consumers by providing good quality services at an affordable price point. They also listen to their consumers as well, and in order satisfy their consumers they also conduct consumer loyalty programmes. The management staffs of this organization constantly collect consumer feedback in order to understand the requirement of their consumers they develop their food products according to the demand of their consumers.

The main consumers of this organization are the urban population, especially the urban youth. College students, and young professionals who spend the majority of their time outside of their home. People belong to the age group of 17 to 35 are the potential consumers of this organization. this organization didn’t have to work hard to penetrate the marketplace because in India Momo was already a very popular snack option. It is a healthy snack as well and that is why this food can easily attract the people of all age.

Previously this organization was owning all its retail properties and stores, but soon after developing Wao Momo as a popular brand, the management team started giving franchise. This organization operates its business operations through its own retail stores and franchise stores.

This organization believes in simplicity and innovation. All of their food products are easy to make and they are very easy to assemble as well. yet all of their food products look innovative, and nobody has ever thought of these food products before. Especially a steamed momo can be served as a fried momo as well, this was entirely their unique idea. They also introduced chocolate momo as a desert, which is also a unique product as well.

After studying the strategic leadership I have learned different aspects of doing business. previously the idea of being unique and being innovative was very complex to me, but this assignment has helped me to realize that every business idea doesn’t need to be a complex one. Rather the solution of the existing problems lies in front of us, we just need to solve the problem in a simple and easily accessible manner. This will help the common people to understand out objective and it will also help us to develop at a faster rate as well.

References:

Amin, S.H., Ramzi, J. and Zhang, G., 2011. Supplier selection and order allocation based on fuzzy SWOT analysis and fuzzy linear programming. Expert Systems with Applications, 38(1), pp.334-342.

Arora, S., Miskovic, D., Hull, L., Moorthy, K., Aggarwal, R., Johannsson, H., Gautama, S., Kneebone, R. and Sevdalis, N., 2011. Self vs. expert assessment of technical and non-technical skills in high fidelity simulation. The American Journal of Surgery, 202(4), pp.500-506.

Boud, D., Lawson, R., & Thompson, D. G. (2013). Does student engagement in self-assessment calibrate their judgment over time?. Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education, 38(8), 941-956.

Helms, M.M., and Nixon, J., 2010. Exploring SWOT analysis–where are we now? A review of academic research from the last decade. Journal of strategy and management, 3(3), pp.215-251.

Ragu, I.V. and Mati, M., 2011. Students Perceptions and Intentions towards Entrepreneurship: The Empirical Findings from the University of Dubrovnik-Croatia. International Journal of Management Cases, 13(3), pp.38-49.

Salami, C.G.E., 2011. Entrepreneurship and Youth Unemployment in Nigeria: The Missing Link. Global Journal of Management and Business Research, 11(5).