Wednesday, August 8, 2007

McDonald's- The Indian Experience

Yesterday, I had the opportunity of listening to Vikram Bakshi Managing director and Joint Venture partner of McDonald’s India . Long back when it had just entered India, we had done a project in our college on the entry of McDonald's in the country, so for me the experience of listening to the man who launched it in India and made it a success was good.


I will briefly share some of the insights which he shared on the evolving Indian consumer and Indian retail scenario. He was upbeat about the Indian market looking at the fact the population of the country is young and one with a lot of disposable income. But 'time' is one of the commodities which is becoming more and more scarce, which has implications for the fast food business. According to him, owing to the paucity of time, the consumer is looking at 'convergence', i.e., he is looking at combing many of his activities, like, ‘shopping + entertainment + food’, and which means their restaurants have to be present in places where this kind of convergence is taking place.


He discussed various initiatives taken by Mc Donald’s India which were unique , like the a separate veg and non-veg kitchen which is done only in India, introduction of local menu with burgers like the Mc Aloo Tikki burger which has become the largest selling burger for the chain in the country, the home delivery model and the various supply chain initiatives in the country. Though the chain adheres to all the basic principles (Like QSC&V) set by McDonalds globally, it has adapted many things in India which is one of main reasons for its success in the country.

On a query related to the growing heath concerns, he emphasized that the consumer gets what he wants in McDonald's chain, by which he meant that though people might claim to be health conscious but the moment they step out of their house they don't want bland salads to be served to them. Though as a chain they were trying to address the issue, by reducing fat content in many of their products.


He also took us through an interesting exercise wherein all of us were asked to closed our eyes and open them exactly after one minute and check the time. Most of us opened out eyes well before one minute. His managers were facing the problem of customer being unhappy with the time taken for the delivery of their orders, inspite of the reduction in the time from ‘order to delivery’ from 68 to 55. Mr Bakshi through the exercise demonstrated that the consumer’s one minute is actually close to 50 seconds, so what is important is the perceived time and not the actual time. And in the service industry it was important to match the expectations of the consumers to be at the top of the game.....

3 comments:

Prasad Kulkarni said...

Yesterday, I had the opportunity of listening to Vikram Bakshi Managing director and Joint Venture partner of McDonald’s India . Long back when it had just entered India, we had done a project in our college on the entry of McDonald's in the country, so for me the experience of listening to the man who launched it in India and made it a success was good.


I will briefly share some of the insights which he shared on the evolving Indian consumer and Indian retail scenario. He was upbeat about the Indian market looking at the fact the population of the country is young and one with a lot of disposable income. But 'time' is one of the commodities which is becoming more and more scarce, which has implications for the fast food business. According to him, owing to the paucity of time, the consumer is looking at 'convergence', i.e., he is looking at combing many of his activities, like, ‘shopping + entertainment + food’, and which means their restaurants have to be present in places where this kind of convergence is taking place.


He discussed various initiatives taken by Mc Donald’s India which were unique , like the a separate veg and non-veg kitchen which is done only in India, introduction of local menu with burgers like the Mc Aloo Tikki burger which has become the largest selling burger for the chain in the country, the home delivery model and the various supply chain initiatives in the country. Though the chain adheres to all the basic principles (Like QSC&V) set by McDonalds globally, it has adapted many things in India which is one of main reasons for its success in the country.

On a query related to the growing heath concerns, he emphasized that the consumer gets what he wants in McDonald's chain, by which he meant that though people might claim to be health conscious but the moment they step out of their house they don't want bland salads to be served to them. Though as a chain they were trying to address the issue, by reducing fat content in many of their products.


He also took us through an interesting exercise wherein all of us were asked to closed our eyes and open them exactly after one minute and check the time. Most of us opened out eyes well before one minute. His managers were facing the problem of customer being unhappy with the time taken for the delivery of their orders, inspite of the reduction in the time from ‘order to delivery’ from 68 to 55. Mr Bakshi through the exercise demonstrated that the consumer’s one minute is actually close to 50 seconds, so what is important is the perceived time and not the actual time. And in the service industry it was important to match the expectations of the consumers to be at the top of the game.....

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Anonymous said...

Yesterday, I had the opportunity of listening to Vikram Bakshi Managing director and Joint Venture partner of McDonald’s India . Long back when it had just entered India, we had done a project in our college on the entry of McDonald's in the country, so for me the experience of listening to the man who launched it in India and made it a success was good.


I will briefly share some of the insights which he shared on the evolving Indian consumer and Indian retail scenario. He was upbeat about the Indian market looking at the fact the population of the country is young and one with a lot of disposable income. But 'time' is one of the commodities which is becoming more and more scarce, which has implications for the fast food business. According to him, owing to the paucity of time, the consumer is looking at 'convergence', i.e., he is looking at combing many of his activities, like, ‘shopping + entertainment + food’, and which means their restaurants have to be present in places where this kind of convergence is taking place.


He discussed various initiatives taken by Mc Donald’s India which were unique , like the a separate veg and non-veg kitchen which is done only in India, introduction of local menu with burgers like the Mc Aloo Tikki burger which has become the largest selling burger for the chain in the country, the home delivery model and the various supply chain initiatives in the country. Though the chain adheres to all the basic principles (Like QSC&V) set by McDonalds globally, it has adapted many things in India which is one of main reasons for its success in the country.

On a query related to the growing heath concerns, he emphasized that the consumer gets what he wants in McDonald's chain, by which he meant that though people might claim to be health conscious but the moment they step out of their house they don't want bland salads to be served to them. Though as a chain they were trying to address the issue, by reducing fat content in many of their products.


He also took us through an interesting exercise wherein all of us were asked to closed our eyes and open them exactly after one minute and check the time. Most of us opened out eyes well before one minute. His managers were facing the problem of customer being unhappy with the time taken for the delivery of their orders, inspite of the reduction in the time from ‘order to delivery’ from 68 to 55. Mr Bakshi through the exercise demonstrated that the consumer’s one minute is actually close to 50 seconds, so what is important is the perceived time and not the actual time. And in the service industry it was important to match the expectations of the consumers to be at the top of the game.....

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Unknown said...

Yesterday, I had the opportunity of listening to Vikram Bakshi Managing director and Joint Venture partner of McDonald’s India . Long back when it had just entered India, we had done a project in our college on the entry of McDonald's in the country, so for me the experience of listening to the man who launched it in India and made it a success was good.


I will briefly share some of the insights which he shared on the evolving Indian consumer and Indian retail scenario. He was upbeat about the Indian market looking at the fact the population of the country is young and one with a lot of disposable income. But 'time' is one of the commodities which is becoming more and more scarce, which has implications for the fast food business. According to him, owing to the paucity of time, the consumer is looking at 'convergence', i.e., he is looking at combing many of his activities, like, ‘shopping + entertainment + food’, and which means their restaurants have to be present in places where this kind of convergence is taking place.


He discussed various initiatives taken by Mc Donald’s India which were unique , like the a separate veg and non-veg kitchen which is done only in India, introduction of local menu with burgers like the Mc Aloo Tikki burger which has become the largest selling burger for the chain in the country, the home delivery model and the various supply chain initiatives in the country. Though the chain adheres to all the basic principles (Like QSC&V) set by McDonalds globally, it has adapted many things in India which is one of main reasons for its success in the country.

On a query related to the growing heath concerns, he emphasized that the consumer gets what he wants in McDonald's chain, by which he meant that though people might claim to be health conscious but the moment they step out of their house they don't want bland salads to be served to them. Though as a chain they were trying to address the issue, by reducing fat content in many of their products.


He also took us through an interesting exercise wherein all of us were asked to closed our eyes and open them exactly after one minute and check the time. Most of us opened out eyes well before one minute. His managers were facing the problem of customer being unhappy with the time taken for the delivery of their orders, inspite of the reduction in the time from ‘order to delivery’ from 68 to 55. Mr Bakshi through the exercise demonstrated that the consumer’s one minute is actually close to 50 seconds, so what is important is the perceived time and not the actual time. And in the service industry it was important to match the expectations of the consumers to be at the top of the game.....

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