Evaluation of a Recent Entrepreneurial Venture: Yo Shushi - Case Study Example

YO! Sushi Table of Contents YO! Sushi 1 Table of Contents 1 Introduction 2 Summary Background of Yo-Sushi 2 Business Model and Strategic Framework of Yo-Sushi 5 Evaluation of Entrepreneurial Skills of Yo-Sushi: A Reflection 8 Conclusion 10 Reference 11 Introduction Since the past few decades ‘Entrepreneurship’ has been able to attain a considerable amount of public attention. The concept was first introduced in the 1700s and it has got intensified with the days. Entrepreneurship is a significant factor driving the wealth and competitiveness of a country. The report aims to provide an insight into the Yo-Sushi business and operation. This report is an effort to analyse and evaluate the strategic framework of the company in light with the respective academic models. At the end a conclusion has been inferred from the discussion with a reflection on the entire report. Summary Background of Yo-Sushi Globalization has affected people’s lifestyles and their food habits. People have become more open to different cultural diversity and they have also started to taste the foods of different origin and culture. In UK, the Japanese based food items are being very popular and entrepreneurs have found business opportunities due to growing interest of Japanese foods in UK. Yo-Sushi is a UK-based restaurant chain and it is being very popular for its Japanese fast food items especially for sushi. Simon Woodroffe, the founder of Yo-Sushi, was able to identify the increasing demand of Japanese foods in UK during mid of 1990s and hence, he opened first restaurant of Yo-Sushi in 1997. Sushi is a famous Japanese dish made of vinegared rice with sea-foods. The Sushi bars are famous in Japan as ‘kaiten’ that offer food to consumers through a conveyor belt and Yo-Sushi follows this concept of business in the UK and other global market. Gradually, this business concept became very famous among the UK consumers, and by the end of 1998, Yo-Sushi trade mark was registered. Woodroffe realized the growing demand of his new business idea in UK and he opened the first restaurant of Yo-Sushi in 1999 (Intellectual Property Office-a, 2006). Soon, Yo-Sushi became a big brand in UK as many people started queued around the Yo-Sushi restaurants for experiencing the traditional Japanese taste. It has experienced a very rapid expansion and achieved an upper hand position in the market for Japanese food. For further business expansion, the organisation inspired other supermarkets and food retailers to stock and sell packaged sushi offered by Yo-Sushi (Yo-Sushi-a, 2011). Yo-Sushi offers value added services to its consumers, and considering the requirements of consumers, its services includes dine in, takeaway and delivery. Sushi is the core brand product for Yo-Sushi but it has also introduced other popular Japanese food items that includes “delicious soups, rice or noodle-based dishes, salads, tempura and even hot classics like Chicken Katsu Curry, Salmon Teriyaki or Yakisoba noodles” (Yo-Sushi-a, 2011). The key success factor of Yo-Sushi is the innovative ideas and great leadership. Prior to starting the Venture of Yo-Sushi, Simon Woodroffe had been working in entertainment business for 30 years. He used to design and stage concerts and his services were very famous for his innovative ideas. He was very efficient in understating people’s preferences and tastes and hence, he used his expertise and entrepreneurial skills in business for establishing Yo-Sushi. His plausible leadership quality and entrepreneurial skills made Yo-Sushi a famous brand in UK and in other market places (Intellectual Property Office-b, 2007). Currently, Yo-Sushi has gained 11 years of successful business in the global market place. It has expanded its business in the UK market as well as in global market. Moscow, Dublin and Middle East countries like Dubai, Kuwait etc are the major international market for Yo-Sushi. This fast food restaurant is led by efficient leaders and teams. Yo-Sushi is a privately held company owned by “Quilvest and the YO! Sushi senior management team in the UK” and Robin Rowland, the present CEO is responsible for controlling the business with the help of efficient teams (Yo-Sushi-a, 2011). The management has been able to open more than 60 restaurants in UK and global market and it serves more than 3.5 million consumers throughout a year. Proper food processing and high quality ingredients are the primary essence of Yo-Sushi’s offered food items. In order to maintain high quality food and to procure quality sea foods ingredients, it complies with standards of Marine Conservation Society (MCS) for offering the best solutions to suppliers and for offering high value to its consumers. The following table shows MCS standards met by Yo-Sushi. Table 1: MCS Standards (Source: Yo-Sushi-b, 2011) Business Model and Strategic Framework of Yo-Sushi There are a number of key factors contributing to the success of a business, location is one of them. In the absence of a right location the name of a brand or quality of a product may just fail to fulfil its potential. This also holds true for Abracadabra Investments' franchise operations, Yo- Sushi. The first restaurant was opened in Soho, London in the year 1997 by Simon Woodruff. As of now, the company operates around 41 restaurants in five years. Among these restaurants, around 30 restaurants are in the United Kingdom (non-franchised) and 11 franchised outlets are established in partnership. These franchised restaurant chains are in Russia, the Middle East, Ireland and `Malaysia. By the next few years, the company aims to increase the number of chains in UK and outside UK (Franchise Options, n.d.). The restaurant is based on the concept of a Japanese ‘Kaiten’ sushi bar, offering an enhanced quality with fast and fine dining experience for all the age groups. The target customer of Yo! Sushi was not limited to a certain age group, while that was intended to all the age groups. Customers can arrange colour coded dishes from the conveyor belt and can order the drinks using airline style call buttons. The food of Yo! Sushi is based on the mixture of traditional Japanese recipes. The menu consists of a number of delicious dishes among which 35 % are hot or cooked dishes and the number is still growing. Each of the dishes is colour coordinated and the prices of the dishes range from £ 1.5 to £ 5 (Barr, 2007). The target customers, specifically the children responded quite well to the restaurant’s menu featuring rice and noodle dishes. These restaurants can be assumed to be conventional fast food outlets as the establishment requires a considerable amount of money to invest in. As per the franchise director of the company, more and more potential franchises are looking forward to get connected with this company. This restaurant model is best suited for the large urban areas. The Yo! Sushi bars are the places where technology is connected with good food. The restaurant is on conveyor belt where a press of button would call in a waiter or a robot trolley would bring in the drinks for the customers (Pearce, 2002). The Sunday times has revealed that the Sushin in there is best. That is why the concept is quite popular among the international globetrotters, urban professionals and students alike allowing an well-designed pit stop for fresh as well as healthy pioneering Japanese food whilst shopping, going for cinema or travelling. The funding of Yo! Sushi was through the Quilvest and Primary Capital. Quilvest is an international financial institution and Primary capital is private equity firm. Both of these companies have helped Yo-Sushi to build up its business. While Quilvest has supported the company management team in growing the company, Primary has backed the GBP 10 million management buy-out of Yo! Sushi happened in the year 2003 (PRNewswire, 2010). Over the years, the company has been incurring an ongoing cost of telephony rentals and maintenances. This has become a considerable overhead as the restaurant is having plans to expand further to double the number of outlets in the next few years. To reduce the operation costs, the restaurant chain is intended to start implementation of an IP telephony (Mari, 2008). The company would replace a legacy set up with the new technology and the change would be across its branches and outlets. Yo! Sushi is based on Franchise Business Model. The basics of franchisee business model depend on the franchisor and franchisee. The franchisee was granted the license to use a particular brand name. In this case, the franchisees have been entitled to use the brand name of ‘Yo! Sushi’. The company offers marketing guidance and business guidance to the franchisees. In turn, the franchisees would give them a percentage of the revenue earned. In this case, the franchisor gets the fee every year and at the same time would get the opportunity to expand its business without putting on extra capital. This widens the brand name as well as gives the company a wider customer base. Inclusion of a strong franchisee in the chain strengthens up the franchise chain and increase the popularity of the brand names and products. The company has expanded its business both locally and globally. Globally the company is extending its business using the franchise chain. The restaurant chain has established its stores in UK’s premium fashion and travel locations including Harrods, Heathrow airport, Selfridges, Harvey Nichols etc. According to McKinsey model, any business should develop its growth strategies based on the operational skills, privileged assets, growth skills and special relationships. Operational skills can be assumed as the core competencies of a company. Yo! Sushi has strong competencies in technology and customer service. The company’s privileged assets include its large franchisee base and a large customer base of all groups. Growth skills of any company depend on the skills which the business would require to successfully manage its growth strategy. The company is expanding its business overseas through using franchisee. A company may have a number of special relationships which can open new options. For an instance, Yo! Sushi has its relationship with its franchisees as well as its funding partners, which can be proved an enhanced weapon to encourage growth in the coming futures. Robin Rowland, the CEO of the company, is an effective leader displaying the traits as per Thomas Kilmann conflict mode instrument. Robin has displayed characteristics such as competing and collaborating. The leader has collaborated with the franchisees and competed with the competitors. The person has shown assertiveness and cooperativeness to run the business and expand the same to increase the counting of chain stores. Evaluation of Entrepreneurial Skills of Yo-Sushi: A Reflection The success of a new venture is primarily dependent on the entrepreneurs’ skills and their leadership quality. The efficient decision making process is inevitable for new ventures as it has to counter higher degree of risks like market risk, financial risk, demand risks etc. The above discussions and analyses have presented internal and external condition of Yo-Sushi. Yo-Sushi was established during 1997 and it has just 11 years of experience. Therefore, it can be defined as new venture and its evaluation of its entrepreneurial skills is important for understanding Yo-Sushi’s reasons behind its success. Before evaluating entrepreneurial skills of Yo-Sushi, a brief explanations and discussions on entrepreneurial skills and theories will be helpful for better understanding and evaluation. Entrepreneurial theories can be categorized into three main areas. According to first theory, entrepreneurs are seen as crucial economic agents. Economic agents are integral part of a developing economy as they plays crucial role in shaping an economy. J. B. Say stated that “an entrepreneurs is an economic agent who unites all means of production, land, capital and labor, and finds value in the product of their employment and reconstitution” (Gurusamy, 2009, p.25). As per the second theory of entrepreneur, entrepreneurs’ personality is the key factors for success of a new venture. Theories of personally and leaderships provide explanations of multiple traits and personality that influences entrepreneurial skills. Barrick and Mount (1991) has identified five major personality traits in entrepreneurs that offer a general framework to evaluate entrepreneurs’ skill. These big five personality traits are emotional stability, extraversion, conscientiousness, openness to experience and agreeableness (Case Western Reserve University, 2008, p.3). The third entrepreneurial theory states that entrepreneurs’ behaviour and skills are primarily affected by their business environments. Entrepreneurs have to deal with several factors like business and social environment in the course of managing an organisation of venture. They have to face multiple situations and issues and entrepreneurs tend to form their responses to tackle such situations. These stimuli influence their psychology, abilities and capabilities (Davidsson, Delmar and Wiklund, 2008, p.3). Yo-Sushi has experiences rapid growth since its inception in 1997. The company’s entrepreneurial skills have been proved efficient and effective for its rapid growth and expansion of Yo-Sushi. As it has been already mentioned that the founder of Yo-Sushi, Simon Woodroffe was an expert in understating the need of consumers, and hence, Yo-Sushi is committed to meet the market demand. Many companies are able to meet their market demand but in case of Yo-Sushi, it always tries to introduce innovative ideas and skills to serve their consumers. In the UK market, Yo-Sushi is popular for its innovative service business models and it has been a great strength for its success. The company has been able to categorise their potential brand loyal customers. Yo-Sushi’s business model primarily focuses on providing very fast services to its consumers who want very quick services. Yo-Sushi restaurants are present in places where such consumers easily available who wants quick services (Hume, Hume, Milhous, 2007, p.3). In order to offer better services, the company has also implemented technologies for betterment of consumer services. The business concept of Yo-Sushi is itself a unique idea that reflects prime entrepreneurial skills. For business expansion programs, it follows franchising business model and hence, it has been able to enter various cultural diversified markets like Middle East, Moscow etc. Besides, its strategic frameworks are strong enough to attract new consumers and to develop brand image in market. It offers wide ranges of foods with attractive pricing strategies and it also developed specific community for Yo-Sushi’s lovers called ‘Yo! Love Club’ that is a creative idea for brand awareness (Yo-Sushi-c, 2011). Conclusion Entrepreneurship appears in various sizes. The concept is true for large corporations as well as for small stores. In most of the cases, the motivation is to offer something different and creative. The glamour of entrepreneurship is hidden into the hard work, the competitive management, the ground breaking strategies and an effective leader. Yo! Sushi has been able to establish its brand through creative thinking and innovative ideas. The company has marked its uniqueness by establishing a franchise restaurant chain based on technology, effective customer service accompanied with good food. The company has effectively financed its operation and business by entering into partnership with Quilvest and Primary Capital. Effective funding strategies, privileged assets, relationship with the franchisees and customers have enabled Yo-Sushi to make its mark in the restaurant industry. Reference Barr, G. June, 2007. Yo! Sushi, Newcastle. [Online]. Available at: http://icnewcastle.icnetwork.co.uk/0300entertainment/nightsout/tm_headline=yo-sushi-newcastle%26method=full%26objectid=19341359%26siteid=50081-name_page.html [Accessed on January 28, 2011]. Case Western Reserve University. October 31, 2008. Entrepreneurship and the big five traits personality trait: A behavioural genetics perspective. [Pdf]. Available at: http://faculty.weatherhead.case.edu/shane/Entrepreneurship%20and%20the%20Big%20Five%20Personality%20Traits.pdf. [Accessed on January 28, 2011]. Davidsson, P., Delmar, F. and Wiklund, J. 2008. Entrepreneurship and the Growth of Firms. Edward Elgar Publishing. Franchise Options. No Date. The Franchise Kings. [Online]. 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