The Cursed Shop

“Beware of this haunted shop I heard there was a kid who once entered this shop and never came out. His poor mother lives in misery because of her loss” said Cousin Noah. I still remember that day while my cousin and I were walking passing by this shop located in Arad Town. It was before 20 years but I remember it like yesterday, this shop was called the cursed shop, or the haunted shop. Furthermore the title (cursed shop) came because whenever a restaurant opens in this same shop after a while the business shuts down. By time people started believing that this shop was really cursed, it’s funny how some people are naïve.

 

 

I kept in mind this shop and the different restaurants that opened there; I said to myself there must be a reason behind this. Further investigation in this case I found out the reason was simple; the restaurants did not have good forecasts for the demands of the customers. A restaurant would open to operate and they would order for example a large amount of Kebab given it’s a restaurant serving fresh food they would have many Kebab left unfortunately some were already grilled and been ready to serve, this is just one example. Of course the forecasting was not the only reason, given the place of the restaurant, prices, and demand of customers played a role.

I believe that this restaurant could have avoided the risk by using the forecast starting from Qualitative method (using surveys or even second hand information.)Also using the Quantitative methods to forecast the demand and base the price on the forecasts.

Friday (11th may) class was an eye opening class, I always wanted to know how restaurants were able to survive and know exactly how much portion of meat, salads , fish , or any type of food to prepare each day. From the class exercise I leaned that there are different types of forecasts that addresses different categorize like (Economic, Technological and Demand forecasts.)Furthermore each method is suitable for a different case or scenario. There are two approaches to this matter the Qualitative  including ( Delphi method , consumer market survey , sales force composite) , and the Quantitative method including  ( Naïve approach , moving averages , exponential smoothing , trend projection , linear regression. )Moreover the manager has to know what type of forecast to use because each approach will give an answer however only one answer is accurate and reflects reality.

 

 

CLICKER TIME:

 

Do you believe that Forecasting is vital for any restaurant?

  1. YES
  2.  NO
  3. I didn’t read the article I just want to comment for the 5%

What do you think is the best Quantitative method to use for the restaurant?

 

 

More on restaurants failure click here:

http://www.econ.ucsb.edu/~tedb/Courses/Ec1F07/restaurantsfail.pdf

 

The he ,him , she , shim ( communication)

In any businesses a unified communication is vital; it will bring a cohesive process (where everyone knows clearly what is supposed to be done, who has to do what, and, how it is done.) As a result the operations will be faster, and easier.

I don’t know whether you recall this play or not, but do you remember that classical theatrical play (bye bye London)? An Arab guy went to London and tried to communicate with the receptionist. The receptionist asked: “Sir, Do you speak English?”  The man replied: “Oh good English, he, him, she, shim, you this me that.”  The receptionist was confused, there was a lack of communication .Imagine if this was a real life case, this poor man will have some difficulties living there.

Moreover the {paper puppets activity} illustrated a similar case, where there was a lack of communication between the students which created some sort of delay and many papers were rejected by quality. In addition a student even tried to do his / her task and someone else which was against the procedures and orders given.

 The second class activity (the sky’s limit) illustrated the importance of unified communication while conducting any project. Through Unified communications tasks were given, there was a project manager, an accountant (to keep track of the purchases), a time keeper, and the actual engineer of the tower, we were communicating back and forth. The unified communication gave the advantage of flexibility and planning while processing the activity. Those who had a unified and clear communication lasted until the end of the challenge.

Bringing this to life:

I worked at an insurance company, as employees we were left alone with no integrated communications; many employees took things under their matter because there were neither unified communications nor processing. If there was a delay we would have a hard time tracking the papers. As a result it delayed the paper process, auditors faced problems with reviewing the paper work, customer service had to face the angry customers and find a good reason for such delay. When a unified process was introduced and a clear communication was given, the work became easier, papers were easy to trace, and deadlines were met.

In conclusion:

Managing any business the operational aspect is very important. Conducting such business needs a unified communication and process to run effectively, and plan for any sudden change. Moreover setting unified communication and process will make the business more stable and more open to any change, which will give an advantage for any business to adapt to new trends.

At the end I will leave you with this thought:

Do you believe that communication is important for operational management?

Could any company survive without clear communications?