Emotions

People keep telling me "oh you must be so excited about the new venture".  I actually think I should be as well!  But I'm not, and I'm trying to work out why.

In my mind, I have made a commitment, both emotional and financial, for this restaurant to be launched. And once that commitment was made, it's now just a matter of completing the implementation plan, and get all our ducks lined up.

I am seeing this phase like a project that needs to be completed.  What I am realising, though, is that in my previous job I can just pass it over the fence, in this case I'm actually the one catching and running with it!  The difficulty is to imagine what running a restaurant would be like, in order to make the right decisions now.

I don't think I am that future focused, which may also explain the lack of excitement.  Just be in the moment, and do what needs to be done.  Good thing Jo has more future focus than I do!  What I do need to do better is to imagine how I will be managing and leading 30 people, driving the right culture to get the sales and results we are looking for.

Beverages

I got some sales figures from the KL outlet to review.  My initial aim was to get the alcohol volumes to be in a better position to negotiate with the alcohol suppliers.  I did get that, but the figures (and revenues) were very interesting, bringing to light some things that I hadn't thought of before.

- Beers make up nearly 80% of alcoholic beverages.  This negotiation is key to our costs.
- The revenues from non-alcoholic "mixer" drinks is greater than all our spirits (bottles, mix drinks, cocktails) combined.  We really should look at developing a great set of "coolers" that people who don't drink would be proud of drinking.  Something with a bit of funk.
- Our drinks menu is also too focussed on those spirits.  Many of the options need to be removed, to improve the usability of the menu.
- Fountain soda is also very popular.  I always thought Coke (and variants) would be highest in volume, but Iced Lemon Teas are double the intake of Coke.

With all these negotiations, I would focus on the areas where we have greatest volume (and therefore greatest cost).

Ethnicity

We (verbally) hired our first employee today.  A milestone!
I love her attitude, I think she will really help us with the service levels and hospitality of the restaurant.  Question I have is will she fit the "american casual dining" concept, or a better question, can customers associate her with the "american casual dining" concept, or will her ethnicity (Indian) and her demonstration of that ethnicity be an issue?

I want to say no, it's all about the service.  But Singaporeans (as with any one, really) can be racist and judge people by their covers.  It's this kind of stuff that I may need to be more sensitive to.

A similar potential issue would be hiring a Muslim to manage a kitchen or manage a restaurant that is focussed on pork.  Even if the they have no issue with handling that meat, would we have an image problem and be disrespectful to the wider community by having that person in the restaurant.

We should never discriminate based on religion, let's hope it doesn't become too much of a sticking point.

Organisational Plans

Going into the Unilever kitchens was an experience.  So much kitchen gear, so little of it is used!  I am still in dire need of understanding the food preparation side, to appreciate the quality of the foods.  When the rubber hits the road ie when I'm in my own kitchen, that may be the time where the learning really starts.

Talking to Tham, he provided some good suggestions regarding the organisational structure.  He argues that at the end of the day, the duty manager (one of the restaurant managers or myself) should have the final say for the whole restaurant, including the kitchen.  In essence, the customer, that the restaurant manager represents, is the boss.  I think this system has value, as ultimately the customer is the one bringing in the revenue.  What it does imply is that the kitchen cannot be an independent area, with its own rules.  What it also implies is that all our restaurant managers need to have a working understanding of the kitchen, how it works, what is required to run it.

It was also good to have Tham do a review with the shortlisted candidates.  He provides a much more structured way of interviewing staf, more so than how we did the first round of interviews.  Some good questions he asked were: who was your ideal boss and why; how do your staff see you; what analytical awareness do you show, especially in terms of costs and profits etc.