Business Development Plan for an Indian Cloud Kitchen And Implementation Of Development Activities Expert Answer
Need for the Business
Many students from Indian Subcontinent are studying in Australia. They miss home food and cannot cook regularly. An alternative is to go to restaurants, however, that is expensive and cannot be done regularly. So, the proposed restaurant will deliver home-cooked food to the students daily against a monthly subscription.
The restaurant has been conceptualized based on insights from Maggo (2018) and Gaysel (2019).
Culture of the Business
Since the business will be aimed at delivering home-cooked food to the Subcontinent students, so the culture and practices from the Indian Subcontinent will be practised.
Key Roles
There will be three key roles in the business- procurement, preparation, and delivery. As part of the procurement role, there is a need to establish a supply chain to get all the raw materials and other things that are needed to prepare food. As part of the preparation role, there will be a team to prepare and pack the meals daily. As part of the delivery role, there will be a team that will be delivering the food to the students daily.
Problems
There will be several problems that the business would have to face: First, will be the procurement of materials that are specific to the Subcontinent. Second, getting all the necessary approvals from the regulators to start a kitchen. Third, establishing a delivery network to provide food to the customers.
Objectives and Strategies
For the above-mentioned problems, the business will establish several objectives and implement several strategies:
- The first objective is that a supply chain needs to be established, so that procurement can be done without any interruption. To establish the supply chain, the promoter plans to hire a supply chain consultant as the promoter has no experience of running this kind of business.
- The second objective is to get all the necessary regulatory approval. The promoter plan to hire a legal consultant for the same.
- The third objective is to establish a delivery network. For establishing a delivery network, the company will be hiring an app developer to build an app which can be used for placing orders and making payments. Also, the company needs to set up the infrastructure for delivery i.e. delivery partners and vehicles.
Change Management Strategies
Since this is a new business, therefore there is nothing in existence. Also, the processes are being driven by the promotor. So, starting a change will not be an issue.
Communication and Education Plan
Initially, there will be 3 members in the kitchen team, 2 members in the procurement team, and 7 members in the delivery team. The promotor will be taking the orders on the app. He would be coordinating with all the other members. The kitchen team has already been identified and is willing to come on board. The kitchen team is experienced. However, the delivery team is inexperienced in terms of interacting with the customers so the promoter will be giving them training on how to interact with the customers. This training is crucial as these delivery partners will be the face of the company for the customers.
Implementation of Development Activities
Consultative Process
As mentioned earlier, the promoter does not have prior experience in the supply chain, legal aspects, and app development. So, for these aspects, the promoter will be bringing in consultants.
Training and Team Development
The promoter has identified the potential team members and they have also expressed a willingness to come on board. All the potential team members except the delivery partners are experienced. For the delivery, the plan is to hire 5 full-time employees and 2 part-time employees (the promotor will be hiring students who are looking to work part-time). These part-time employees will be used for delivery as well as carrying out the marketing activities as they can easily connect with other students.
Problem Resolution
The promotor wants to establish a collaborative environment where all the team members can share their views. The need for a collaborative environment arises from the fact that the promoter lacks experience in the industry, however, is open to learning from other team members.
Conflict Resolutions
Ideally, the promoter would want that the conflict is resolved amongst the concerned parties, however in case they are unable to do so, they may approach the promotor who is willing to act as a mediator.
Brainstorming Session
If any employee has an idea to grow the business or observes an issue, he can inform others in the WhatsApp group as an agenda to be discussed in the next meeting. All the team members are expected to brainstorm before the meeting and present their insights in the weekly meetings.
Feedback
The consumer app will have an option where the consumers can rate the kitchen on different aspects including food quality, taste, and delivery service. This feedback will be used to improve the efficiency of the kitchen.
Team Meetings and Activities
There will be three different sets of meetings at the kitchen as discussed below:
- First, there will be a daily meeting before the kitchen starts. The purpose of the meeting is to motivate the team.
- Second, there will be a daily meeting after the kitchen ends the operations. The purpose of the meeting is to provide feedback to the team.
- Third, there will be a weekly meeting on Saturday that will be used as a brainstorming session.
All the meeting would be carried out informally.
Evaluation and Monitoring
As discussed above, there will be constant evaluation through the feedback on the app. Also, the team members will evaluate one another in terms of coordination skills.
Management Support
Any team member can easily approach the promoter for any issue or suggestion. In case the promoter feels that a team member is facing any issue or needs to improve the performance, the promoter will have a one-on-one discussion with the team member.
Possible Costs
At this stage, the promoter is not sure about the cost. However, the promoter understands there will not be any additional cost apart form maintenance cost for the app.
References
Gaysel. (2019). Cloud Kitchen – All you Need to Know. SlickPoS. [Online]. Available at: https://slickpos.com/article/research/cloud-kitchen-all-you-need-to-know/. [14th March 2020].
Maggo, N. (2018). The 6 Cloud Kitchen Business Models and How they Work. Limetray.com. [Online]. Available at: https://limetray.com/blog/cloud-kitchen-business-model/. [14th March 2020].
