Explain the unique features of Benihana and discuss how these impact the financial performance of the company. Your answer should be brief (one page or less) and be submitted as an ATTACHMENT Key unique features of Benihana 1. The Optimal Space Utilization: The restaurants have about 8% more than average productive dinning space. 2. Location Advantage: The restaurants are located in heavily populated areas so as to attract clientele for lunch and dinner.
Strategic planning is crucial at this stage and there are tools available to help any business perform the analysis needed to succeed. Kudler Fine Foods is an upscale food store specializing in foods and services that appeal to a niche market; gourmet chefs and gourmet chefs in training. The firm had good initial success with its first two stores, but its third store is suffering with lower than expected sales. The firm wishes to continue expansion and increase profitable growth. Before moving forward the company’s owner, Kathy Kudler, needs to understand her company fully and have accurate knowledge about the firm’s internal and external environment.
When I look on the menu, the way they have their food displayed is great. Every time I order something, I get something that does not look like what I saw on the menu. I know that my food is not going to look exactly like the menu, but let it look at least something like the menu. When you get food that looks totally different from what you saw and the waiter is trying to convince you that it is the same order, then it is a problem. All I am saying is let the presentation on the menu look somewhat like the food that they are serving you.
There are times that she has to be the manager and the cook at the same time. Beth says her most favorite thing not having the same stuff to do every day. She says it gets boring when you have the same thing to do day after day. She told me about the skills needed to run a restaurant like multitasking and having a good attitude. The education requirements to run a restaurant are just work your way to the top.
The business objective is to maximize profits by offering the best quality products selections at competitive prices around. Kathy Kulder was the vice-president of Marketing for a large defense contractor. From her traveling constantly and the pressures of her job, Kathy looked for other opportunities. Relieving her stress, she began cooking gourmet foods. While doing that, she realizes there was an opportunity to open an upscale food shop in La Jolla.
If Zappo’s displays an item, it is in stock. Once it is sold out, they remove it from the website- thus reducing customer frustration. They also have a 100% satisfaction guaranteed return policy, and can be returned within 365 days for a full refund. Zappos focuses on customer service, they develop relationships with their customers, including phone calls that last hours and sending pizzas to people’s houses! As for employees, they are treated just as well as the customers.
Benihana focuses on recruiting highly skilled chefs and train them. The authentic Japanese cooking style (cooked in front of the customers) gives a unique experience. Since chef interacts with the customers, he/she could adapt his cooking style (faster/slower) based on the customer emotions (intimate customer experience) Higher advertising cost: Benihana spends about 8-10 percent of the gross sales on advertising which is pretty high for restaurant business. An average restaurant will spend about .75 percent of gross sales on advertising. Unique dining experience (authentic): The “Hibachin Table” concept helps in providing unique customer experience.
When Kudler makes business improvements, it causes their competitors to either imitate them or get out of the business. Some negative effects a monopolistic competition has on Kudler Fine Foods is that in the long run, profits even out and the company will maintain equilibrium. Entry to this industry is relatively seamless. As new competitors enter the market, the demand curve shifts to the left which thereby reduces economic profit. Productive efficiency is absent in the monopolistic competition.
Fast food restaurants dont force the clients to buy and eat there. There are comments that people make and say that fast food restaurants should carry warning labels like the ones for tobacco and alcohol. I disagree, people should know what's right or wrong, good or bad, healthy or unhealthy. It is their responsibility, just like Mitch Jordan from Sacramento, California said, "Eat a lot, do nothing, and get fat. Eat a lot, exercise a lot, and stay healthy.
The veterans were taking the better clients giving themselves a better commission. This also left the territories under worked and not producing as many sales as possible. The final problem that Dave Thomas encountered was enforcing the strategy and policy with the older sales people. While the younger sales people are driven and respectful to new changes, the veteran sales reps are used to the old way and the enforcement of new changes is difficult. As far as strategy, there is consistently a discrepancy between selling high volume or selling only high margin items.