Scope of Work
- Launch of a large, high-end, licensed lounge & Thai fusion restaurant
- Launch of a Japanese Sushi & Teppanyaki concept restaurant
- Concept development, concept build, launch & management of cafes
- Overall operations management, team building and performance management
- Marketing campaigns, customer & partner relationships management
Challenges
- Learning & re-learning F&B from a Dubai perspective
- Understanding to work with multi-national, multi-cultural team members
- Adapting to a new-world & international working methodology
- Making in-roads and establishing relationships in a new environment
Approach
The Critical Part
It was the first professional experience in an international environment in Dubai and learning the ropes of working with a cross section of different nationalities as team members as also customers.
One had to quickly adopt & adapt in doing the following within a very short time-frame :
- Immerse into understanding all operations
- Involve & engage with all team members to understand them, their profiles, their personalities, capabilities and draw up individual job roles
- Understand individual concepts for development, launch, recruitment, training, marketing, finance, menu’s and target customers
- Preparing schedules for each concept for further implementation of all key tasks and seeing them through
Launch of an iconic, large, licensed venue comprising a very stylish lounge & dining area focused on a Thai fusion theme & menu.
- This venue created multiple benchmarks for many an outlet to imbibe, copy & follow in Dubai
- The venue had customers queueing up in its days of prime & glory
Launch of a contemporary Sushi & Teppanyaki concept restaurant establishing a cuisine frontier with its menu.
Launch of diverse café concepts across town.
Establishing relationships with suppliers, partners, media, marketing agencies & internal associations.
The Important Part
With the launch of different venues, styles, concepts & managing diverse teams, it was extremely important to stay involved in day-to-day operations.
Getting your hands dirty is the best way to lead and there was no other way it could be done.
With such commitment & focus, the overall operations across all venues were managed with a clear direction on the following:
- Educating, training & building key team leaders & members
- Implementing & supervising daily SOP’s
- Checking daily inventory, purchases, key perishables & beverage stocks
- Maintaining daily audits, attendance systems & discipline protocols
- Coordinating marketing & customer out-reach initiatives in a non-digital era
- Negotiating with key partners for beverage deals, key food supplies & ongoing pricing mechanisms
- Coordinating menu revisions, trials, promotions & customer experiences
This phase was not only very exhausting but enriching as well, thus leading to great performance, high revenues & supreme reputation for all concepts & brands being established in the market-place.
The Fun Part
All hard work done, late nights & extra hours later, the fun began.
Routine is not considered fun, but after what was such a roller-coaster ride,
regular operations actually did seem like a lot of fun.
The teams were trained and set into their mode of operations, audits were aligned, marketing campaigns being implemented well, customer experiences on the rise, revenues increasing & inching higher, it was a fun ride, to be enjoyed.
Learnings
- New territory, new country, new cultures, new ways of working.
- Settling into working with multi-national colleagues.
- Embracing international working styles & mechanisms.
Awards & Recognition
- Great recognition in the form of excellent customer experiences, their feedback, media accolades, rave reviews were the hallmarks & awards won by the entire team of all the concepts.
