Assessing Key Results Areas for Business - Chefair, Rapskallions Bar - Case Study Example

Assessing Key Results Areas for Business Case study I: Rapskallions bar Key result Maintain an Australian theme Rapskallions is themed to be an Australian bar and it is very clear that most of the customers who go to Rapskallions go there because they want to feel the Australian feel in the bar. If the bar or any of its branches deviates from this theme, it will lose meaning. For the bar to succeed in the long run, it will be necessary for the bar to maintain this theme. Managers at the bar must make sure that the theme is maintained every day because as James (2012) says, this is very important tin hospitality industry. The reason that this is a success factor or a key result area for Rapskallions is because there is a chance that the managers may fail to remember that it is necessary to ensure that the theme is kept on. This would lead to the Rapskallions bar losing its appeal to the customers. The Australian theme has to be maintained in order for the customers to keep coming back. This is very central to the business strategy for the firm and any change to this would mean that the business strategy has been changed. Key results 2: Maintain enough stock There is nothing worse that when a customer walks in a bar or club and asks for his or her favorite drink only to be told it is out of stock (Walker & Miller, 2009). Any bar needs to have enough stock in order to make that the customers will always have the drink they want. The reason why maintaining a good stock is a key results area for Rapskallions bar is because the bar sells foreign drinks and it is probably harder for the process of replenishing the stock. Rapskallions bar should have a very good stock management system in place in order to make sure that it never runs from stock and as OFallon (2010) says, such systems can help a firm achieve its strategy. Rapskallions bar only sells Australian drinks and yet the geographical location of the business is very far from Australia. It can be assumed that getting this stock is not easy. Even if Rapskallions bar does not get this stock directly from Australia, there is still a logistical barrier. If for instance Rapskallions bar runs out of stock even for one of its drinks and its suppliers also do not have the stock, waiting for the stock to arrive from Australia would take days, probably months. This would mean that Rapskallions bar would have to turn down its customers who drink the specific drink that is out of stock. Needless to mention, this is just not good for business because as Hayes (2009) says, the way a form manages its stock can affect its competitiveness. If this went on for a long time, it would eventually cripple the business. Key results 3: Maintain enough Australian food Rapskallions bar must also maintain a good stock of Australian food. This is a little different from maintaining a good supply of Australian drinks. With regard to food, not only is Rapskallions required to sustain a good stock, but must also make sure that the food do have an Australian flavor. Unlike drinks that are served directly the way they were bought (with the exception of mixed drinks, which are not the focus of Rapskallions bar), food has to be prepared and it is necessary for the food to taste and have the flavor of an Australian meal. Failure to this will lead to the customer losing faith in the services of the business and maybe even choosing to go elsewhere (Zhang, 2005). Maintaining the Australian flavor of the meals served at the Rapskallions bar is not necessarily an easy thing and has to be managed properly. This involves daily mentoring of the foods and meals so as to ensure that the foods are authentic and original with regard to their Australian flavor (Guston, 2014). Key results area 4: Maintain contact with customers Rapskallions bar needs to be able to maintain contact with customers because as Sturman (2011) says, this is the only formidable choice it can be able to have continued success. It is clear that Rapskallions bar does not have a good central marketing or customer service strategy. In this case, every branch manager in each Rapskallions bar has to make sure that customers are handled well and that sales and marketing processes are handles well in order for the firm to maintain its customer base. Each manger has to therefore make sure that they are able to have good marketing processes that not only guarantee that the current customers are happy, but also that the firm will continue to have more customers in the future (Reid, 2009). As seen in the case study, Rapskallions bar mainly depends on Australian expatriate and also expatriates from other western nations such as United States and Europe. Expatriates never stay in any foreign country they are working in for a long time and only stay for only about six months to one year (Fan, 2003). This means that it is almost impossible for a business like Rapskallions bar to have long term loyal customers (Sturman, 2011). In this regard, marketing and promotion is necessary for Rapskallions bar. In this regard, it is important for a business like Rapskallions bar to have a good marketing plan that will help it to be able to replenish its customers so as not to lose customers in the end. If this is not done in a careful manner, what would happen in the long run is that as the expatriates go back to their countries or f they go to other courtiers to provide their expatriate services, Rapskallions bar would be left without customers. Making sure that more new customers are brought in Rapskallions bar would meant that eventually Rapskallions will not run out of customers. Maintain enough rapskallions merchandise (sweat shirts, T shirts, etc.) The other thing that Rapskallions bar does is to provide Rapskallions merchandise for its customers as part of giving the customers a chance to buy Australian merchandise away from home. Even though this is not in the center of the business strategy, the truth is that this has a significant impact on the business strategy for Rapskallions bar. In this regard, it will definitely be necessary for Rapskallions to make sure that they maintain a good stock of this merchandise so that it supplements the overall cooperate strategy (Tesone, 2008). This will be necessary in order to make sure that the overall success of the business in the long run is guaranteed (Kusluvan, 2003). In the absence of this, it will be difficult for the firm to be able to maintain the business strategy. To be able to meet this key performance area, Rapskallions has to achieve the following; Have contacts f every customer The customer service for every customer must be maintained in order for a proper communication between the business and the customers (Bowie, 2013). It will be essential to make sure that the firm can effectively communicate with the current customers because this will make it possible for the Rapskallions bar to be able to give better services to the current customers. At the same time, these existing customers are also likely to be a good way to reach to potential customers through customer endorsements (Riyad, 2012). Key results 5:Keep contacts of potential customers Although it is hard to have the contacts of individual potential customers based on the fact that most of the potential customers are expatriate who may not be in the country at the time, it is possible to keep a list of the firms that usually hire these expatriates and them use these contacts to reach to any new potential customers who arrive in the country. This will help Rapskallions bar to be able to have a growing number of customers. Key results 6; Have a good training program that is able to train new employees to master the work fast One more thing that comes out with regard to o be able to bar is that its workforce is structure did such a way at the employee turnover is very high which according to Barrows (2008) is not doing for the competitiveness of a business. This has been made to be so because the firm is located in a non English speaking county and its market target is the English speaking customers. For the business to be able to serve its customers well, it has to be able to get some English speaking employees. The way Rapskallions does this is by employing English speaking young people who are in their gap year holiday abroad. Unfortunately, these employees are only available for less than one year, since the gap year is only one calendar year long. Due to this high rate of employee turnover, Rapskallions bar has to be able to come up with a way to ensure that they have a good training program so that the employees can be effectively trained in a short time to help them to be able to offer good services to the customers (Hayes, 2008). Key results 7: Keep labor costs at a minimum One thing that comes out in the case study for Rapskallions bar is the fact that if Chefair is to be competitive, Chefair will have to maintain its labor cost at a minimum possible. In this regard, it is imperative that it makes sure that he labor cost at Rapskallions bar is kept at a minimum. This will help the firm to be able to maintain enough profit margins to be able to be sustainable. As a result, every manager in each of the Rapskallions bar will have to be able to keep the costs at a minimum. Case study II: Chefair Key results are 1: Manage stock Being an on-flight kitchen that supplies food made from fresh ingredients, managing stock is a major area for the business. If the business fails to manage its stock well, there is a likelihood that it can run out of some important ingredients and this will mean that Chefair will not be able to deliver the kind and quality of food it intends to serve to its customers (Saiful, 2013). On the other hand, being able to maintain a good stock level will make it possible for Chefair to carry its daily business smoothly. To be able to deliver in this key result are, the following will need to be done; Maintain good relationships with suppliers As Moser (2007) said, one of the key factors that determine the competitiveness of a business is its ability to manage its suppliers. Having a bargaining power over the suppliers can give a business competitive advantage in that it will not only be able to source the goods at a cheaper price which increases its profitability, but it will also help the business to be able to control the supply thus avoiding fluctuations of supplies (Hitt, 2012). For Chefair, this is going to be important since it needs a constant supply. The nature of the supplies it needs also mean that it is not able to keep a big stock that can be used as a backup. These supplies are fresh farm produce and are highly perishable. This makes it more difficult for the firm to be able to maintain a large stock but has to use a just in time ordering. To achieve this then, Chefair will need to be able to have control of the supply. The risk of not having a bargaining power over the suppliers would mean that the forces of demand and supply in the market would lead to risk that the supplies will fluctuate, or the prices often supplies will fluctuate (Poirier, 1999). This would affect the company in a negative way. To avoid this, it will be necessary for Chefair to have control of the supply of the ingredients. Managing the equipment Most of these products are perishable goods that need to be reserved using equipment such as fridge’s and freezers. This equipment has to be well maintained in order to make sure that they are in good order. If such equipment were to break down, there would be issues with regard to how Chefair will be able to carry out its daily businesses. Having an in house technician to be checking and servicing this equipment would be very necessary. Key results are 2: Maintain good communication with main caterer Chefair does not have its own wash-up or high loader facilities and only depends on main category for washing u and loading means and the other resources that are needed for catering such as trolleys. This means that the daily success of Chefair directly depends on main caterer. Maintain good communication and good communication with main caterer is therefore necessary for the success of its daily activities as well as its long term success. Key results area 3: Manage shifts The other important key results area for Chefair is managing the shift. There are two shifts one from 06.00 to 14.00 and the second shift from 14.00 to 22.00. Coordinating the shifts well so that there is no lapse between the two shifts is very necessary for the operations of Chefair not to be disrupted. In managing the shift, the following will need to be achieved; Have enough chefs for each shift It will be necessary for the each of the shifts to have enough shifts. Chefair has very many kitchen employees but only 9 of them are qualified trained chefs. It is necessary to ensure that every shift has enough chefs who will be in control of what comes from the kitchen (Faeez, 2013). Manage the employees Chefair has many non chef employees who assist in the preparation of the food. These employees help in different tasks in the Chefair’s kitchen ranging from predation of the food so that they can be cooked, set the trays and other activities around Chefair’s big kitchen. Food preparation Chefair prides itself in offering the best service and this means that the process of making the food is very important. Food preparation is a very crucial aspect of making sure that the quality of the foods that Chefair delivers to its customers (Bagdan, 2012). In this regard, the food preparation staff have to be managed correctly in order to make sure that they know and understand their worked properly (Kavanaugh, 2013). Although these food preparation staff are not the actual cook, their output will defiantly affect the quality of the dishes that the chefs will be able to deliver. Dish packing No matter the level of quality that the dishes have, it is the packaging that will matter when it comes to the way the customer regard the quality of the food. Quality is a matter of perceptions with regard to the way the customer expects the product r service to be (Khosrowpour, 2003). This is why the preparation of the food is very important for Chefair and it is necessary for Chefair to make sure that this is done in proper ay, everyday every time. Tray setting Tray setting is also another key area for performance for the Chefair kitchen. This also goes well with the packing. If the trays and the packaging s not done right, it is going to be very hard for Chefair to be able to achieve its goals, both long term and short term goals. Key results are 4: manage stores As has been explained, the success of Chefair depends on having a good and constant supply of the raw materials that are sued for the preparation for the food. Even as the Chefair has a good stock management system to be able to maintain a constant supply of these raw materials (ingredients), it is also going to be necessary for the firm to have a good store management system put in place. Managing the store will involve making sure that the room is well kept and that there are no wastages being incurred by the firm due to poor state of the facilities (Miller, 2009). It will include making sure that the ingredients that need different types of preservation such as chilling, drying and freezing will get that. The preparation rooms for vegetables, fruits, fish and meats will also need to be well managed. These are high perishable goods that need to be well managed in order to sustain their freshness sand therefore the quality of the food that Chefair offers its customers. Keya results area 5: Equipment storage Chefair has to be able to manage its equipment with care in order to make sure that the equipment are in stable order and that they are always available for use. Failing to do this will result in Chefair not being able to operate well on a daily basis. Key results area 6: Goods Outwards area This will be necessary to make sure that there is smooth handling of goods and that the prepared meals are well transferred easily without any inconveniences or without any hurdles. This is necessary especially considering that Chefair does not actually do the high loading of the dishes to the airplane but only does the preparation of the meal. Being able to carefully and manage the goods outward area will help Chefair to have a good working and collaboration with those who do the high loading. This will increase the effectiveness of the work done and also make sure that everything is well managed (Gibson, 2014). Key results area 7: Buffer storage for prepared items (chillers) For a smooth transition of the finished goods from the kitchen to the loading point, it is necessary for a good buffer zone to be available so that the food can easily be transferred from the kitchen to the loading zone (Johnston, 2013). This has to be implemented effectively and it is necessary for Chefair to be able to make sure that on a daily basis this buffer zone is well maintained. There are several of things that can came up with regard to this buffer zone is managed. First, one thing that must be avoided is the cluttering of this area. It must be observed on a daily basis to guarantee Chefair will have unnecessary barriers in the area. The buffer zone should be dedicated for only holding the food that is about to go out to be loaded on the airplane (Earnest, 2014). If Chefair is able to maintain this buffer zone, the loading and offloading of the food will be made easier and many inconveniences will be avoided. Bibliography Bagdan, J. (2012). Guest Service in the Hospitality Industry. New York, NY: John Wiley & Sons. Barrows, W. (2008). Introduction to Management in the Hospitality Industry, Study Guide. New York, NY: John Wiley & Sons. Bowie, D. (2013). Hospitality Marketing. New York, NY: Taylor & Francis. Earnest, P. (2014). Managin Logistics in the Hospitality Industry. New York, NY: Mulling Books. Faeez, S. (2013). Hospitality and Tourism: Synergizing Creativity and Innovation in Research. New York, NY: CRC Press. Fan, X. (2003). Chinese Outbound Tourism. New York, NY: World Tourism Organization. Gibson, P. (2014). Management in the Hospitality Industry. New York, NY: pearson Books. Guston, P. (2014). 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