Question

Respond to the following points, building upon the business plans you begin last week:

• Describe how your new business will, or may be, affected by these differences across cultures:
  • Social and cultural differences
  • Economic differences
  • Political differences
• What areas of management will be important in this business?
• What basic management skills will be most important to this business.
• Identify five specific business goals for this business.
• Describe the corporate culture you would like to create for your business.
  • How will you go about creating this culture?
• Think ahead to one year. How many employees do you expect to have?
  • Draw a sample organization chart for your business in one year. Include job titles, but you do not have to insert names.
• Will decision-making be centralized or decentralized? Support your conclusion.

Answer 1

The venture I would start is a fast food restaurant which focusses on Asian cuisine in a healthier way. The location of the same would be near a college. The idea will be to bring the young crowd and make it a preferred hangout for them. The fast food joint will also have a separate space for attracting the younger folks who are focused on gaming and other related activities. The fast food restaurant itself will be a huge addition to the neighborhood. The food served here will be Asian cuisine with provision of burgers, hot dogs and other snacks.

Social and cultural differences:

Since the fast food joint is focusing on Asian cuisine and with a healthier menu there can be few challenges in accepting the menu initially. The social and cultural view of fast food is always towards high fat food which have always been termed as unhealthy. If the fast food joint focuses more on providing a healthier option the regular customers of other fast food joint may not like the taste and may opt to continue the same. But there has been a significant change in the way society look at healthier lifestyle and it is seen especially high in the college going youngsters. The fast food joint can exploit these opportunities easily.

Economic differences:

If there are changes in the economic state of the community and the country there can be a significant impact in the business revenue model. Fast food with a healthier angle to it will come at a higher premium since the cost associated in preparing the food is also higher. If the economic state is not good then there are chances of people opting to eat regular fast food which could come in cheaper.

Political differences:

There would be no major impact on the business due to changes in political framework. However if there are sudden changes in the legal framework regarding the licensing of such fast food joint there can be some implications and issues with the business.

For successfully managing this business there has to be two different aspects to it. One is looking after promoting the business and doing the day-to-day operators while other is managing the finances and getting the best produce in. The operational aspects as well as budgeting and procurement will play a significant role in long term sustainability of this business. The leaders who are looking after the business should spent a high amount of time to research and identify the market trends and changes in the lifestyle. The teams should also devote sufficient time to prepare the annual projected budget and stick to it so that they business is not doing financially bad. Another major area of focus from management perspective is maintaining the supply chain properly in such a way that the day-to-day operations are proper and there is no hiccup or issues which cannot be rectified easily.

If we were to list down five business goals for this fast food joint, they would be:

• Serving more than 300 customer per week

• Occupancy of 75% during peak seasons

• Keeping the financial loss to minimum

• Higher Promotions and advertising of the business in the limited budget

• Introducing new methods to reach out to potential customers

I would like the business to have a casual approach to it. I would want the leaders to play a man management technique of leadership so that the staff do not feel overburdened and enjoy the work. When the staff enjoy the work, the food that is being prepared will also be satisfactory to the customers. But the financial aspects should be properly managed and there should be periodic audits of the financial records. All the income and expenditure, even if it is a minute one should be documented for future reference. To deploy such a culture, I would give proper training to the staff to use the financial systems that are in place or will be procured. But creating a culture will always take time and will need constant reinforcement with trainings and discussions among the staff.

If I were to look ahead, I would be planning to expand the business to different locations and expand the menu. Based on the capacity at each location there will be higher requirement of manpower and staff to manage the entire business. For each restaurant I would need 12-15 people to do all the work right from procurement, to cleaning, to cooking to management. In addition to this there will also be a separate team to look after the promotional activities and manage the financial aspects of the business across restaurants. In this case, there business should be centralized model since it will help them in maintaining the same structure and quality mechanism across restaurants.

For organizational structure there should be a team who looks after the business and promotions. There will be kitchen manager and procurement specialist, there will also be specialized people for managing the account across the restaurants. A sample is being shared for reference:

CEO Busfoces manage kttelen managen premattns c cooks cleanos warte othez