10 learnings from an industrial kitchen

This is part of a series of posts about operational performance, customer success, and decision-making. Some of these are published earlier elsewhere, and the newsletter is designed to bring these together for you.

As part of my job, I get to advise and work with companies on their daily operations and several aspects of business through the COPC Performance Management Framework. I get to see a lot of interesting things, from a vantage point that is insightful as well as amusing.

It is my endeavor to share some of these insights and, also the fun, without sounding preachy. I start by sharing an immensely interesting experience I had three years ago, working in an industrial kitchen for a culinary event. Enjoy!

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(First published exactly three years ago, in September 2019).

Last month, I spent three full days in a commercial kitchen. It was an immersing and fulfilling experience, to say the least. I didn’t cook, the art of which is the dominion of my spouse (who, along with my mother, has been running pop-kitchens throughout India as a passion and interest for the last several years).

This time, I was looking at the processes, the customer experience and the different dynamics of the business. This was of course along with seeing how the hospitality folks operate in the working conditions of large kitchens, and developing a renewed respect for their immense hard work and profession.

From the point of customer experience and operational excellence, the learning was superb, as you can imagine. It is a completely new experience that helps one to zoom into nuances of operations, and thereby form new beliefs and confirm some long-standing ones.

Here are 10 things I found useful to learn in these days in terms of general management, which I think you will find applicable for your own businesses as well, and not just hotels:

1. Prepare, prepare, prepare.?There’s no other way than to prepare and plan. And sadly there is no end to preparing. Be ready to change your plans as things go, but prepare nevertheless. It helps you to switch tracks more easily. For the kitchen, we prepared almost 70% of things a day prior. And yet there was so much to do in real time.
2. Engaging with customer is crucial at different stages.?As the SERVQUAL model from 1980’s told us, the gap between expected service and perceived service is real, and the only way to reduce that gap is by engaging with the customer at different touch-points. This is even before the actual day and time of service delivery. It includes the right amount of positioning, promotion, communication. If this does not happen, you cannot just hope that customers will come in based on word of mouth.
3. Most customers do not know what they want until they’ve tried new things.?Part of engagement with customer involves encouraging them to try new things. As the famous saying attributed to Henry Ford goes, if he’d asked customers what they wanted, they would have said faster horses. Do not rely solely on existing customers and what they say to come up with new flavors, new combinations, and new service innovations. Note that getting to know from customers is nevertheless an important component; just don’t rely solely on it. Some customers want homely food, and some want it to be spicy and memorable. Going by anecdotal comments and quotes can confuse you.
4. Process steps can vary a bit, but overall journey should make sense.?There can be some variation here and there in terms of sequence of steps etc., which does not alter the final output. So don’t fret too much about small variations; look at the overall journey.
5. There is no substitute for product or service quality.?You need to insist for good ingredients, good quality stuff that goes to the customer. Customer Experience is the sum product of interactions, with the core product or service at its center.
6. Not all customers are the same, and that’s okay.?Some guests would order everything on the menu, while some will stick to specific items. Some have specific needs (gluten free, no fat, high fat, vegan, pescatarian, pescatarian but allergic to shrimp, ... the list goes on). Some expect you to recommend them things, while some have very clear requirements. Some will speak nicely with you, some just want to be left alone. Train yourself and your staff to handle this diversity.
7. Not all staff are the same, and that is kinda okay too.?Some are driven, some are not. Some learn quickly, some take time. Some just follow the steps. As long as they work well as a team, and deliver what you need, there’s no need for panic.
8. Training and communicating with staff is key.?Not just the chefs and support staff, but also the mid office guys who punch the orders and the front office guys who take the orders and interact with guests. We usually miss out the mid office, and that is where the system breaks down, the instructions get missed out and the overall experience suffers.
9. Look at the service blueprint.?Clearly defining front, mid and back office works brilliantly everywhere. You don’t have to draw it, but considering that there is a line of interaction, a line of visibility and a line of activity is helpful. These need clear handoffs written down. Missing this creates gaps. Worse, overlapping roles create confusion and chaos.
10. Prepare to fail. It is easy to say this, but we often forget that some things will work and some won’t. And that is part of the process. Learning from failure is one of the most important tool, and we often disregard it. Fail, learn and move to the next one.

We had an absolute ball with the event, and enjoyed every moment of the event, talking to people, feeding them things they would not have tried before, and experimenting with the format, ingredients, and items. But more about it later.

Take care,

Dr. Shreekant Vijaykar

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