Hospitality Industry Placement Subject - Assignment Example

?Hospitality Industry Placement Executive Summary During the process of gaining invaluable academic knowledge, the scope of having real life workplace experience can facilitate to provide considerable amount of benefits. Similarly, during the past 1 year, apart from participating in the Bachelor of Business major in hospitality, I have gained invaluable workplace knowledge by working as a food and beverage attendant at Iron Chef Restaurant. Iron Chef is a leading Chinese sea food restaurant in Australia. In this report, the prime intention has been to correlate the academic knowledge with workplace experience. For making a detailed evaluation of Iron Chef, factors such as organisational structure, vision, values, background information and nature of market among other factors have been evaluated. Table of Contents Executive Summary 2 Table of Contents 3 1. Background of the Study 5 2. Description of the Organisation 6 i) Size 6 ii) Industry Type 7 iii) Numbers of People 7 3. Nature of the Business 8 i) Products 8 ii) Services 8 iii) Business Knowledge 9 iv) Competencies Used 10 4. Nature of the Market 10 i) Customers 10 ii) Competitors 11 iii) Suppliers 11 iv) Legislative Framework of the Business 11 5. About the Business Operations 12 i) Business Systems 12 ii) Processes 13 iii) Technology 13 iv) Managerial Expertise 13 v) Teams/ Workgroups 14 vi) Ethical Aspects of the Enterprise 14 6. Strategic Scenario 14 ii) Organisation Structure 15 iii) Vision/Values 15 iv) Culture 15 v) Communication with Market Place 16 7. Celebration by the Business/Organisation 17 8. Areas Need of Improvement 17 9. Conclusion and Recommendations 19 References 20 1. Background of the Study The report related hospitality industry placement has been prepared with the aim to correlating the comprehended academic notions with a real life workplace scenario. During the course of academic study, there are a number of aspects that an individual learns. However, the learning culminates into proper understanding if an individual experiences different perspectives in the workplace. Similarly, I have also in the past 1 year acquired certain invaluable workplace knowledge during my placement in Iron Chef Seafood Restaurant. As an international student, during my placement at this renowned restaurant, I am presently working as a food and beverage attendant. During my tenure within the workplace for the past 1 year, my prime aim has been to ensure friendly along with competent food and beverage related service which leaves up to the expectations of the guests at this well-acclaimed restaurant. The Chinese restaurant i.e. Iron Chef in situated in Cabramata, NSW Australia. I had obtained the scope of performing the assigned job role during the course of doing Bachelor of Business major in hospitality (2012-2013). Within the course I have come across, a number of concepts such as customer relations, systems and procedures, human resource responsibilities along with health & safety. Subsequently, the provided learning experience during placement has facilitated me to attain hands on experience regarding these academic notions. With these understandings, the report is being submitted with an aim to integrate the real workplace experience with the academic learning. 2. Description of the Organisation Iron Chef Chinese Seafood Restaurant is a popular seafood restaurant in Australia. It delivers around 200 varieties of dishes to the customers (Iron Chef, n.d.). It has different luxury private dining rooms, each with unique themes and styles. Each room is decorated and is constructed with art audio and visual facilities. In this restaurant, all the offered dishes are very delicious and attract a lot of guests who are primarily seafood lovers. The offered delicious foods come in a variety of flavours. The restaurant also offers the facility to arrange certain occasions such as wedding, and birthday party among others (Iron Chef, n.d.). Despite the fact that the restaurant offers an exclusive location for the guests with high quality seafood, it does not signify the offered food items are unaffordable for all classes of people. i) Size In terms of size, it has been viewed that the restaurant provides a spacious outlook. Comfortably around 600 guests can sit in this restaurant at a particular moment. The restaurant possesses a 4-tiered seafood related tank which is a unique offering in Australia. There are also open style kitchens featuring BBQ along with noodles areas. All the chefs in this restaurant are quite experienced. The corporate people can also organise their banquets and lunches in a convenient manner as there is high quality visual as well as audio technology available. A mix of oriental colours as well as western patterns also attracts a lot of sea food lovers to this unique restaurant. Moreover, the menu which is being delivered by this restaurant is very much unique in the region, which provides it a distinct competitive advantage. For this purpose, the restaurant has gained an award in the year 2012 for its authentic foods and services (Iron Chef, n.d.). Every Monday and Wednesday Iron Chef restaurant offers discounts on the foods to draw the attention of its target customers. The restaurant uses a multiple hue of colours which is also a unique feature (Iron Chef, n.d.). ii) Industry Type Iron Chef Restaurant is one of the leading luxury dining restaurants in Australia. It offers certain exclusive luxury facilities that have created a unique sense of existence for it in the hospitality industry. There are luxury private dining facilities available for special guests in the restaurant. All the rooms of this restaurant are air conditioned and are highly attractive. This is an eco-friendly restaurant, which has facilitated it to gain consumer preference in the hospitality industry as a number of consumers have started to seek for eco-friendly features in their place of dining (Iron Chef, n.d.). iii) Numbers of People The restaurant possesses specialised executive Chef, BBQ Chef and Dim Sum Chef among others. These highly esteemed and qualified Chefs focus on certain key organisational values that aim to meet the consumer requirements of taste, smell, see and touch along with listen. The restaurant also possesses a number of qualified food and beverage attendants who take proper care to deal with the requirements of the guests. This in turn facilitates the restaurant to attain an esteemed position amid the sea food loving consumers especially in Australia (Iron Chef, n.d.). 3. Nature of the Business i) Products Products generally signify goods which are prepared according to the needs and the wants of the customers. A restaurant generally aims to prepare its product offerings according to its core competency and also as per the demands of the larger section of target consumers. The product offerings of any restaurant vary as per three key constituents including quality, smell and price. In this regard, Iron Chef Restaurant offers a set of delicious and sumptuous offerings in its menu which are derived from a genuine passion for Asian cuisine. This restaurant is very traditional and offers foods such as Lamp chops in homemade prices, chicken pieces, dried fish prices and king pawn French style among others. These offerings are Iron Chef’s specialty dishes. The restaurant also offers soups for the Chinese customers such as Iron Chef’s tofu soup with selected seafood, traditional dried scallops and fish maw soup, Beijing style hot and sour soap, beef mince and shredded egg white soap, crab meat and creamy sweet corn soap among others. The restaurant’s offered food items especially for Chinese consumers include Entrees, Premium Soups, In-house BBQ, Cold Appetisers, Abalone, sea cucumber, shark fin and fish maw, prawns and scallop, poultry, beef and lamb, pork, steaming hot pots, vegetables and tofu, various types of noodles, rice and dessert. This restaurant is also popular for wines. It offers various types of alcohol based offerings such as Draught Beer, Bolted Beer, Cognac/ Brandy, Vodka, Scotch and Rum among others. Chef Hung Lai is the main man behind Iron Chef’s yum-cha menu which includes 102 variations (Iron Chef, n.d.). ii) Services In order to grab the attention of visiting guests, Iron Chef Restaurant aims to provide a major focus on its service. Service plays a major part for hospitality sector based organisations. Efficient delivery of competent service can facilitate to attract the consumers to pay repeated visits to the restaurant. In this similar context, it is determined that as a part of effective and attractive service delivery customers on public holidays and Sundays are not charged with any surcharge figure for wines. The quality of service delivery is also a major consideration by Iron Chef Restaurant as it is ultimate decisive factor which differentiates an organisation from the other (Iron Chef, n.d.; Truelocal, n.d.). iii) Business Knowledge Good business knowledge about the organisational strengths and weaknesses always facilitates an organisation to achieve its goals and objectives. In relation to Iron Chef, the key features of evidently competent business knowledge include its efficient use of resources such as chefs for preparing high-class Asian cuisine especially seafood. Moreover, it has also used various promotional campaigns from time to time especially on the occasion of different festivities to draw a significant extent of guests (Iron Chef, n.d.; Restaurant Owner, 2013). iv) Competencies Used In terms of competencies used, it can be highlighted that all the kitchen staff of Iron Chef are highly experienced. It is the core competency of the restaurant. All the foods are made as per the needs and wants of the customers. It precise, it is a customer focussed restaurant. All the rooms or executive lounges of Iron Chef are well furnished and well decorated. The rooms are air conditioned and eco-friendly. This restaurant provides all the facilities alike a luxury restaurant. Another key competency is that the restaurant has been able to offer high quality Asian cuisines at affordable prices, which enables to attract a large number of guests. The restaurant also offers discounts for customers. Moreover, visitors comprising corporate sector guests and other generally regular visitors all find the place as one of unique destinations to dine in (Iron Chef, n.d.). 4. Nature of the Market i) Customers Especially, Chinese guests are the main customers of this restaurant. A large section of the offered products are made as per the requirements of the Chinese people. Japanese people are also the customers of this restaurant, although this restaurant is a Chinese restaurant but it offers foods which attracts people from different communities. Moreover, local residents of Australia are also attracted towards the restaurant as it offers unique facility to organise corporate banquets as well (Iron Chef, n.d.). ii) Competitors There are other Chinese restaurants also in Australia which offer delicious foods to the customers such as Flower Drum restaurant in Melbourne, Camy Shanghai Dumpling Restaurant and East Ocean restaurant in Sydney among others. All of these restaurants provide good Chinese foods to the customers. Thus, it is quite a competitive marketplace for Iron Chef to sustain. Thus, it needs to continuously strive to offer high-quality foods with an enviable variety to stay ahead of its competitors (Media Spy, 2010). iii) Suppliers Suppliers are amid the most important components for any restaurant. With regard to Iron Chef restaurant, the suppliers include International Trade Association which represents the complete value chain by supplying the food and drink industry around the world. This association helps the industry to meet a number of lingering challenges on a continued basis. The local suppliers of quality food ingredients of Iron Chef offer it sustained value added supplies which largely enables the restaurant to meet the evolving challenges. In addition, Cape Cuisine is one of the top food distributors of luxury hotels and restaurants in the region (Cape Cuisine, 2009). iv) Legislative Framework of the Business There are many legal guidelines that need to be followed by the restaurant industry. In this regard, tip credit laws vary from state to state. As a worker of the restaurant sometimes the employees may claim about a tip credit law. This factor needs to be considered by Iron Chef Restaurant. In addition, each and every employee needs a minimum hourly wage. If any worker who is working in an extra period then according to the specified regulations, additional pay needs to be reimbursed to the employee. New Internal Revenue Service (IRS) tax law procedures have been introduced for the restaurant industry. All the restaurants have to abide by some rules and regulations regarding timing. The restaurant has to be closed at a specific time. In this case, proper timing may be the vital constituent of the Iron Chef restaurant. Moreover, this corporation needs to abide by the Corporations Act 2001 of Australia its varied operations (Alibaba Group, 2013, Houston Chronicle, 2013). 5. About the Business Operations i) Business Systems The overall business systems of Iron Chef Restaurant are very structured. All the foods are timely delivered to the customers. All the systems are very specific and properly maintained for which the customers are more attracted to this restaurant. The entire business system of the restaurant is based on offering a variety of dishes in the restaurant’s menu along with focusing on kitchen management, proper dining room management, purchasing and inventory systems, bar and beverage management as well as administration of the management. A key element of the business system of the restaurant is cleanliness because a neat and clean restaurant always grabs the attention of the customers. Iron Chef Restaurant of Australia is able to manage varied business systems related activities with the aid of its popularity in Australia. Proper marketing and advertising promotion, business and equipment management, facilities management and equipment management might create a great impact to the whole business procedure. From the overall analysis of Iron Chef Restaurant it has been perceived that this restaurant is very much well developed and the business systems of this restaurant regarding equipment management, finance management, safety and security management, operations management, product specifications and ordering and time keeping procedures, inventory control, payment processing and food safety are properly managed (Iron Chef, n.d.; Lonely Planet, 2013). ii) Processes Iron Chef Restaurant incorporates a number of processes within its food and service delivery activities. Proper delivery services always facilitate to gain the trust of the consumers in the restaurant industry. Thus, proper order taking by food and beverage is a key factor for efficient functioning of the restaurant. In addition, on time processed food delivery is a vital factor for the restaurant (Iron Chef, n.d.). iii) Technology The latest audio and visual technology catering is a best drawing feature of Iron Chef Restaurant. This feature mainly attracts the corporate guests who can organise their events within the restaurant premises with the aid of this facility. All the rooms are highly decorated with the exclusive style and multiple colours based on latest technological colouring options. Accommodation is quite convenient and the rooms are well decorated and furnished. As it is an eco-friendly restaurant, thus it is kept in strict vigil that all the areas are illuminated through the use of high quality of eco-friendly arrangements (Trip Advisor, 2013). iv) Managerial Expertise All the kitchen team members of this restaurant are very much experienced and skilled regarding their work. The team managers are very much expertise in this restaurant. They aim to properly delegate the works of food processing and order taking among others so that on time high quality services are rendered (Tvitropes, 2011). v) Teams/ Workgroups Communication between the staff and the managers is very much important for any business operations because it facilities to enhance the level of communications relationships of the organisation with the outside world. In Iron Chef, the highly qualified chefs at times work with small batch of assistant chef to meet the consumer requirements (Restaurant Owner, 2013). vi) Ethical Aspects of the Enterprise Each and every employee should try to avoid any conflict within the organisation. Conflict creates a negative impact related to the organisation with the outside world as well as within its workplace periphery. Meetings with vendors and suppliers increase a value of the organisation. Free services or special favours for any employees might create conflict in the organisation. Thus, it is always in the mind of the management of Iron Chef to not provide any kind of undue special offers to its employees or the guests because it might hamper the whole management system and the organisation’s reputation. Iron Chef needs to maintain ethical operation’s based rules and regulations as per the guidelines lay down by Australian concerned authorities (Darden, 2011). 6. Strategic Scenario i) Strategic Direction The key strategy of all the restaurants is to provide better quality dishes and services. In this case, Iron Chef Restaurant provides better quality services and offers high quality foods. This is a key strategic direction for the restaurant. The incorporation of marketing strategy facilitates a company to identify its competitive advantage. A restaurant industry based organisation can enjoy competitive differences as compared to others on the basis of the proper strategy. This includes product superiority, services superiority, distribution network of the product delivery and image of the restaurant as compared to other restaurants among others. Iron Chef Restaurant is one of the prominent luxury restaurants in Australia. Iron Chef, in order to expand its business needs to offer products and services as per altering consumer demands. Moreover, apart from Chinese and seafood offerings, Iron Chef also need to include its menu a variety of continental and local Australian cuisines to attract even more consumers (Iron Chef, n.d.). ii) Organisation Structure Iron Chef follows a hierarchical organisational structure. The higher level authorities aim to look after various strategic directions of the restaurant such as offering promotional features and allowing the restaurant to be used by corporate among others. In addition, the restaurant possesses experienced head chefs who with the help of other assistants aim to provide quality service in a sustained manner (Iron Chef, n.d.). iii) Vision/Values The vision of Iron Chef Restaurant is to provide proper delivery of services to the guests. It also aims to fulfil certain pertinent values comprising the key senses of human beings such as taste, touch, smell. listen and see. The organisation aims to meet the requirements of satisfying these key human senses through its quality seafood based offerings (Iron Chef, n.d.). iv) Culture Iron Chef Restaurant is especially renowned for meeting the needs of Chinese people. However, this restaurant is also catches the attention of local people because it not only makes dishes for Chinese people but it also offers some local dishes as well for the Australian people which in affect is based on Australian local culture (Iron Chef, n.d.). v) Communication with Market Place In order to maintain proper communication with the marketplace, certain key strategies are adopted such as offering discounts on Sundays related to wine product. This restaurant also adopts certain advertising and promotional strategies for the people. Through internet, newspapers and local channels of Australia, Iron Chef Restaurant has aimed to communicate with its target consumers in the marketplace (Iron Chef, n.d.; Australian Good Food and Travel Guide, 2013). 7. Celebration by the Business/Organisation In order to determine an organisation’s progression towards the right direction, it is necessary to comprehend the good things done by it. In relation to Iron Chef, it is observed that there are special arrangements made for the occasion’s related corporate get-together and wedding party. Special dishes are made for those people who are willing to celebrate some family occasions. In Senior Lifestyle Magazine, in the year 2012, the dishes of Iron Chef Restaurant were acclaimed because this restaurant provides some better quality dishes for the customers’ especially Chinese ones. According to this magazine, this restaurant offers a special dish i.e. Dim Double roasted calamari tube with tangy sauce. To differ from other restaurants in Cabramatta, this restaurant offers more than 500 seats for special guests. Iron Chef is well furnished with luxurious dining rooms where some private events, wedding party and corporate functions can be organised. This restaurant also provides top-end Sichuan dishes to the customers. It has also gained awards as one of the best restaurants in the fine dining category. It is very popular as a traditional restaurant. This restaurant also gained national award in the month of October in 2012 ((Iron Chef, n.d.; The Sydney Morning Herald, 2013). 8. Areas Need of Improvement From the overall analysis, it has been perceived that the restaurant has been able to establish a niche place for itself in the Australian marketplace, however the areas such as finance and operations management might be better off with certain improvements. The organisation also needs to improve its inventory management area. To manage around 500-600 customers at a stretch, properly trained human resources are needed, otherwise it might affect customer satisfaction. Proper service is the main and foremost component of the hotel and restaurant industry if the hotels and the restaurants are not able to provide better quality service then it might create a negative impact to the customers. In order to ensure quality service, it needs to organise periodic training sessions for its staff such as food and beverage attendant, chefs and procurement managers among others to ascertain that they are well attuned with the latest scenario in the industry (Iron Chef, n.d.; Australian Good Food and Travel Guide, 2013). 9. Conclusion and Recommendations It has been observed that Iron Chef is one of the leading Chinese Seafood and eco-friendly restaurants of Australia which offers special dishes for the Chinese people but it also offers certain local dishes for the residents of Australia. All the dishes of Iron Chef are delicious and the rooms of the restaurant are well-furnished and decorated, moreover it also has some luxury facilities. Despite the fact that the restaurant has been quite successful to meet the ever-evolving challenges in the Australian marketplace, it needs to focus on ensuring a greater visibility of the restaurant amid the global consumers. Iron Chef can provide greater focus on marketing and promotional activities to draw major consumer base. In addition, it also needs to render greater emphasis on training and development activities of its managerial level and supervisory level employees. Another factor which needs to be considered is inventory management which could enable Iron Chef to minimise its overall operational expenses by a considerable extent. References Alibaba Group, 2013. Most Popular in Food & Beverage. Products. [Online] Available at: http://www.alibaba.com/Food-Beverage_p2 [Accessed August 08, 2013]. Australian Good Food and Travel Guide, 2013. Iron Chef. New South Wales Restaurants. [Online] Available at: http://www.agfg.com.au/guide/nsw/sydney/liverpool-surrounds/cabramatta/restaurants-dining/iron-chef [Accessed August 08, 2013]. Cape Cuisine, 2009. Cape Cuisine Is The Top Food Distributor To 5-Star Hotels, Restaurants And The Catering Trade. Services. 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Restaurant Owner, 2013. How to Turn Your Good Restaurant into a Great Business. Business Plans. [Online]Available at: http://www.restaurantowner.com/public/565.cfm [Accessed August 08, 2013]. The Sydney Morning Herald, 2013. Iron Chef Comes to Australia. Restaurant. [Online] Available at: http://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/restaurants-and-bars/iron-chef-comes-to-australia-20100810-11wly.html [Accessed August 08, 2013]. Trip Advisor, 2013. Iron Chef Chinese Seafood Restaurant. Hotels. [Online]Available at: http://www.tripadvisor.ca/Restaurant_Review-g255060-d816781-Reviews Iron_Chef_Chinese_Seafood_Restaurant-Sydney_New_South_Wales.html [Accessed August 08, 2013]. Truelocal, No Date. Iron Chef Knives. Home. [Online] Available at: http://www.truelocal.com.au/business/iron-chef-knives/auburn [Accessed August 08, 2013]. Tvitropes, 2011. Series: Iron Chef. Discussion. [Online] Available at: http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Series/IronChef?from=Main.IronChef [Accessed August 08, 2013]. Read More