In the course of this report, the manager of the SupperTime restaurant have been interviewed. Issues and managerial challenges that have been faced while managing the organisation have been discussed in the course of an interview and ways in which the organisation have integrated the business have been highlighted. Analysing information from the academic sources, how the current manager has utilised his key skills in elevating the business of the organisation have been specified in the course of this report. This report also includes a detailed listing of the opportunities and prospects of this organisation and how the manager’s role have effectively alleviated the business of the organisation have been specified. What operational areas have been focused up on, by the management have been focused here and by application of theoretical framework the strategies that the company have applied for overcoming the impending and current organisational challenges have also been discussed. This report also encompasses an extensive literature review regarding the managerial strategies and implications that have been implemented in this context. The most feasible managerial implications that are employed in various business contexts have been reflected in the literature review also.
The start-up restaurant managers in the Sydney area located in popular locations like George Street, Kent Street, Tower Square and other similar places generally focus on Yelp ratings of the restaurants. One basic equation that works for the start-up restaurants in Sydney is that for an increase in ratings by 1 star, they can assume about 9% increase in the revenue collection. Hence for the managerial teams of the restaurants, it is very important that they provide special emphasis on the customer experience. These restaurants do not have a dazzling interior display with which they would be able to entice the customer service. Hence the start-up restaurants always focus on providing premium customer service in order to ensure customer loyalty. In this context, Siegel (2018), implies that that they need to have the right people at the right places catering to the real time needs of the customers. That is why it is essential that the restaurants conduct great scheduling of their activities. Again, Welling, Martin and Strömberg (2018), opines that in order to specialise in customer treatment, the managers of the restaurants receive training from local agencies like Quinyx, who provide workforce handling and customer management training. By virtue of this, Cao, Y., & Kim, K. (2015), states that the managers are able to save about 9 to 10 hours of time in a week by automating the process of scheduling.
As per the opinion of Liu et al. (2018), the start-ups have very less initial capital. In this context, customer management training for the employees becomes a costly affair for them. The average training cost per annum exceeds AUD $500. That is why the managerial training is provided to the executive managers so that they can help the employees to learn the aspects of customer management through time scheduling. The process of scheduling is actually labour intense. However, Guchait, Pa?amehmeto?lu and Lanza-Abbott (2015), this process leaves ample time for the managers to invest time in floor management. The advantage drown from the implementation of this process, allows the managers of the start-up restaurants of Sydney to engage in floor management rather than always being stuck to the laptop screen.
Thus, the outcomes that the managers of these start-up restaurants are able to achieve for their organisation are time savings to a great extent, reduction of additional cost of manual work and integration of scheduling as well as budgeting. Hence, it is evident that the role of the executive manager are crucial for the success of the organisations.
Another important aspect in the restaurants, is highly professional communication skill among the employees during the prime time of rush hours and happy hours in the restaurant. In this context, Zhang et al. (2017), opines that many small restaurants in Sydney face this problem to a large extent. Again, Davis et al. (2018), informs that the restaurant groups attempt various strategies like formation of private Facebook groups as well as WhatsApp messaging service. However, success to those strategies have remained always limited.
This is why, Wang et al. (2015), have expressed the idea that in this context, a constant lint between the customers and manager is essential. There is an emerging trend of using a business application that leads the customers to communicate through an application that allows them to request for a service through a live screen. Pinging on that screen immediately sends a SOS pop up message to the manager. After that it is up to the manager to manage the waiters and direct the culinary team of the restaurant. This is where the managerial skills of the executive manager comes in to action. Nowadays many of the recently opened restaurants follow this technology.
Retention of potential staff have been one great issue for the organisation. There is great amount of internal scouting among the restaurants. This is why, many of the potential staff in the restaurants get a better offer in other organisations. Besides that, Pirani and Arafat (2014), also implies that the many of the employees in the start-up restaurants are employed on casual basis. As an impact many of them who are students or get to find better job in other sectors, leave their jobs. In this context, Chen, Cheng and Hsu (2015), renders that the approximate cost for the replacement of 5 potential employees of any department in the restaurant is about AUD $2000. In this context, Abukhalifeh, and Som (2015), implies that the strong presence of the manager who can induce a strong employee culture and also have the necessary skills of understanding the needs of the employees and referring their needs to the upper management. These strategies are very essential for engagement of the employees. The example of Papa John’s Pizza can be taken. Every quarter year, the organisation holds a meeting for appraisal of the employees and a speech from the manager follows in appreciation of their effort (Heo, 2016). In addition to that the peak time sales dividend that is earned by the company, is actually distributed to the employees who have shown constant impactful performance for 6 months. The enticement to earn the appraisal helps the organisation to retain majority of the employee base.
The Suppertime meal chain was first established as a food delivery business, which did not have own outlet and relied on the services like delivery from other restaurants also. The company had 47% share with the food delivery giant of Sydney known as Foodora. After the new acquisition, many new stalls are going to be opened in posh areas of Sydney as well as in Melbourne and Brisbane. The organisation have a different app of their own by virtue of which, the customers can order food, book table or customise food for them. However, this brand was not able to cope up with the business needs of the company and the revenue targets started to be missed. After this the process of acquisition happened. This gives the opportunity to the upper management to appoint new Operation Manager to the organisations various branches. The organisation have the facility of accepting online orders, parallely catering to customers. There are 3 shareholders and an employee base of 50 permanent and 25 casual staff (Bloomberg.com, 2018). The casual employees comprise of the delivery executives and the members of the marketing team. The permanent employees are members of the customer assistance team. There are two managers in each branch. One of them is for customer support and another is for management of the delivery team. There is a supervising manager positioned above the two managers.
A session of candid interview with the newly appointed manager of the SupperTime restaurant is analysed under this section. In the reflection of this interview with the manager, the main issues faced by the management have been highlighted in detail. At first he was asked what enticed him to join as an executive manager in favour of the SupperTime. The manager was stark in his replies. He reflected that he had started working in the hospitality industry since 15 years of age. The work methodology in the restaurants are lively as well as action oriented. He feels that he feels motivated to work in such a work atmosphere. Besides that, he commented that he is comfortable working al 7 days in a week, a criteria which many of the others cannot satisfy. Because of this, he has an additional edge over the others in this profession. Again, a vast experience of working in restaurants like serving as a waiter for Raddison Hotel or as a Kitchen hand in Barista helped him to acquire knowledge about the work methodologies in a restaurant. His experienced as well as a degree in management helped him to crack the interview in this organisation.
The next question asked to the manager involved his initial experience after joining this place. He opined that his experience had been mixed. After joining this place, he observed that the place had high level of culinary expertise. However, in spite of that the restaurant could not help itself towards a constant economic growth owing to the lack of presentation skills and dearth of promotional activities. His initial decision after joining the place was that the place should have their own delivery website. The manager suppose that this would help to make the restaurant popular a large base of customers. In fact, he reported that the exactly same outcome happened. In a span of 6 months, the fame of the restaurant had spread across George Street and the restaurant started to receive customers from various parts of Sydney.
The next step that the manager took in the latter half of the year 2017 had been the up-gradation of the packaging and presentation. This obviously enhanced the production cost per unit. However, seeing the progress achieved within 6 months of his joining, the upper management and the directorial body had accepted hi proposal.
The third question to the manager was regarding what strategies he had pertained to, for preventing the high rate of employee turnover. In this context, he said that he felt that employee empowerment was the most important step in this context. The counter question to the manager was that whether he felt that the salaries that they provided to staff was adequate in comparison to the industry standards or not. He replied that the average salary that most of the restaurant owners provide in George Street is the same. Hence, the issue that he observed was that the employees were majorly aged under 30.
As an outcome, they naturally had a high level of loyalty and passion towards the company. It is because these traits are dominant among the staff of this age group. The staff aged under 30 are generally pursuing first or second job of their career. Hence they are earnest to show their potential as well as skills in the workplace. The manager said that after 1 year of his joining, he implemented the policy that bespoke that 50% of the workers in the executive or the managerial level would be selected from among the most experienced staff in the organisation. The manager opined that after this proposition, the propensity of leaving among the workers reduced. Besides, he clarified that most of the workers leave an organisation because of the fact that they are concerned that they would not have any prolific growth in the company. Hence, this was evidently a tailored solution. At next, the issue that needs to be addressed is the demand of hiking the salary of the lower level staff like the delivery executive or the waiters. The manager accepted that this is one area where the organisation have not been able to cope and find a suitable solution.
Another important question that was asked to the manager was that what other spectacular and innovative solutions had he implemented, which he could feature in his CV. In reply, the manager declared that women chefs were introduced in the culinary team during his tenure. Besides, as a manager he had started a trend of CSR activities that involved community service for the poor, whereby the restaurant delivered the surplus food to the orphanages and the also donated to the poor. During his tenure, the restaurant had also won the title of the most favourite start-up restaurant of the Sydney city.
In discussion with the manager, another prospect that came up was the question regarding what differences the manager perceived between the outlook of the restaurant before and after his arrival. The most poignant difference that was pointed out by the manager was a definitive change in the communication process. Before his arrival the process of communication was strange and lacked professionalism. There were no professional staff for particular departments. The waiters hailed each other to communicate over a distance and there were great commotion as well as misunderstandings between the customers and the staff. That is why, the manager opined that before his arrival, the organisation did not receive more than 3 out of 5 stars in employee service standard.
After his arrival, the manager decided to introduce a new system of communication. He observed that in formal and best rated restaurants, the internal communication is private and formal. Hence, he started a new system of communication, whereby the customers directly communicated through a display screen on the table notifying the customer service department regarding what they wanted. The manager himself took up the work of allocating waiters or other staff for every call. This system is highly in favour of the customers and they feel that the change have alleviated the scenario of the restaurant.
Recommendations and Conclusions
The first recommendation that can be provided in this context is that the employees should be communicated with a positive attitude and operations with the employees should be transparent. A regular basis appraisal system should be introduced in the organisation. This could help the employees to feel motivated and also set a standard among them. As an outcome, they would always try to develop the standard of their service in the restaurant.
Another important strategy that can help the organisation to develop is to develop an illustrative website. This can help the company to make the website more popular and if possible the pictures of their food and information on the basic ingredients should be included in the website. As an outcome, more online orders would be placed on the website and as an outcome, the restaurant can profit more. This is because, it is evident that online orders earn more than the onsite orders.
The restaurant is a recent start-up that have been doing productive business in George Street and as an outcome, the bran fame is spreading gradually. Having planned strategies and the new implementations from this manager, helped the organisation to flourish. The sound management have set a protocol and has allowed the parent body of this restaurant to invest for opening more new branches in Sydney and in other cities.
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