SWOT Analysis Of Nando's Restaurant

Nando’s city restaurant is situated in the heart of Auckland’s CBD on Queen Street amongst many other food outlets. Nando’s is a casual dining restaurant group originating from South Africa with a Portuguese/Mozambican theme. Founded in 1987, Nando’s operates in 30 countries on 5 continents. Nando’s specializes in chicken dishes with either lemon or herb, medium, hot or extra hot Peri-Peri marinades. In some countries, Nando’s has other flavor options like mango and lime or Mediterranean.

Nando’s Restaurant’s is a brand image in the food industry in South Africa and now they have expanded to many parts of the world. The restaurant opened for the first time in Auckland New Zealand in 2001 and has expanded through franchising. Nando’s has touched the lives of every South African living in New Zealand giving them a taste of home. They have improved the quality of their product every day and improved the quality of product and services over the years. So by doing this they deliver their customers an outstanding Quality, Service, Cleanliness and Value (QSC&V). I choose this company because I have managed the Nando’s in Tauranga for 6 months and I have been working at Nando’s Queen Street for another 6 months. I have also working in Nando’s South Africa for 3 years.

The problems I faced while working for Nando’s New Zealand was wastage, culture, high turnover of staff and hygiene problems etc. at the restaurant.

I applied problem solving models like SWOT analysis. There were concerns with other employees of what type of problems is facing them and how to solve those problems.

After researching I came to the result that because of the working environment, work stress, employees belonging to different countries, problems in communication and conflict with management. This all shows that staff needs a good training; management need training for setting rosters, lack of motivation, bad organization structure, less staff on busy shifts.

Introduction

All the problems which was identified in Assignment Part A will go through research process as we need to find out practical solutions for those problems.

The setting for the whole project is described by few tasks or steps:

Identified business problem.

Need to do research for the reasons behind those problems.

Need to find possible solutions.

Problems that are facing Nando’s are:

Cultural Differences.

High staff turnover.

Lack of communication.

Lack of motivation.

Less staff in busy shifts.

Hygiene problems.

Research Questions:

After all these problems were identified the next step is to do research and to find what the research questions are.

What are the reasons behind these problems?

Is there any weakness in the business behind these problems?

What are the solutions behind these problems?

Value of this research for the company:

This research is of real benefit to the organization because they will get reasons for the problems. Our goal is to solve that problem and we will achieve our goal that the business will grow rapidly and the staff will also not get any type of problem.

The management concept of principle which will explain this is: Henry Fayol in 1916

As he presented 14 principles and 5 elements which are necessary for management are:

Purveyance

To organize

To command

To co-ordinate

To control

This is the management principle and we can also see the value of research for the organization.

Aim and purpose of the study

This study has some aims and purpose which are listed below:

First to find out the reasons behind those problems

To find out the possible solutions for the problems.

Purpose of the study:

To get more knowledge about solving problems.

How to use problem solving models to solve the problems for these types of companies.

Methodology

This part of the assignment is going to explain the methods to find the solution of these problems.

We are suing a research process which includes the interview with restaurant manager, staff and customer feedback. It was carried out both formally and informally.

In the end we used SWOT analysis we are going to solve these problems and to find the facts behind these problems and going to get primary data as well. This primary data involve surveys and interviews from different people as well.

In the staff surveys we asked staffs what we need to do for improvement and responses we get is staff need more training, motivation and good communication.

The same questions were asked to the restaurant manager as well in addition to controlling labor and improving hygiene at the restaurant. We had similar results which are more training, more working hours and motivations is needed.

Customers want improvements in service and need more cleanliness in wastage and restrooms.

This all comes in qualitative measures.

I interviewed:

My manager.

Staff members.

Took surveys from staff.

Interview was conducted on 17th May 2011 at 15:00 because at this time they are no so busy.

Literature review:

This literature is about the research to figure out problems and the possible solutions behind those problems.

I am going to do the SWOT analysis. This will help to find the problems and to find the possible solutions for those problems.

STRENGTHS

Second largest chicken restaurant.

Lots of variety than others.

Strong financial status.

Customer feels flexible while giving orders.

Friendly environment

Big range of choices at very reasonable prices

Big amount of investment has gone into supporting the franchise network.

All food on the menu is healthy and nonfattening because it is flamed cooked on a open fire.

WEAKNESS

Not owned stores just expanded through franchising.

Less organized staff.

Customers cannot give order online.

They do not announce the employee of the month.

Nando’s has a high turnover of staff and they need to spend more money on training and development

Not many people like to eat healthy food all the time.

Most of the time quality issues arise across franchising.

Food takes too long to cook.

Customers get impatient waiting for their food.

Cast between the India people causes problems.

OPPORTUNITIES

New product developments like breakfast and not just a standard menu.

Launching new burgers and promotions.

Good learning experiences for staff.

Increase market shares from their competitors.

They can focus on CSR (corporate social responsibilities)

THREATS

Competition with KFC and other fast food stores.

Attracting customers to eat junk instead of coming to Nando’s to eat healthy.

Customers do not want to wait a long time to place orders and receive orders.

Recession and downturn in the economy may affect the retailers sales.

Strengths and limitations of the study:

This section will show some strength and few limitations which are listed below:

As this study involves interviews this comes in qualitative measure.

So qualitative measure always gives us deeper analysis of any study.

This study creates some limitations as well:

Limitations of study:

These studies sometimes do not give accurate results.

This research can be easily distracted from the purpose of research.

I want to give more research keys and those are, episodic analysis and feedback.

Now I am going to explain Porters five forces to explain the methodology and its relevance to the theory.

THREATS OF NEW ENTRANTS

KFC is the main threat for Nando’s Queen Street and burgers and chicken offered by newly opened shops that are selling products at lower prices are the main threats.PORTERS FIVE FORCES OF NANDO’S

RIVALRY AMONG EXISTING FIRMS

In downtown there are existing competitions for Nando’s. Apart from fast food chains the company has to face a tough competition from other fast food chains like KFC and other new suppliers like world and local food shops

DERTERMINAITON OF BUYER POWER

Purchasing power of the customer is another force that affects the business. This is affected by the per capita income, income and saving of the customer in the particular ethnic group and region.

THREAT OF SUBSTITUE PRODUCT

As there are other fast food chains like KFC, Subway and Burger King there is a threat of substitute products offered by these chains and local food shops, restaurants and take away. These products are offered in a wide range at competitive prices.

DETERMINANTS OF SUPPLIERS POWER

The main factors affecting Nando’s are supplier’s concentration. The main internals supplier is Tegal Chicken and external supplier is COKE that process the threat forward integration.Results and Discussions

As I interviewed restaurant manager and staff members I got some information about Nando’s and some primary results as well.

There are certain problems that are faced by Nando’s Queen Street, these problems are both external and internal.

These problems are identified as under:

Cultural differences: Everyone belongs to different countries/cast and they do not know how to communicate with each other and how to respect each other. So there is no good work ethics.

Lack of motivation: The managers are not acknowledging staff if they have done a good job.

Reasons for high turnover

Poor training

Working environment

Work stress

Poor management

Conflicts with management

Poor training: The main reason of the employee’s high turnover is the lack of skills and knowledge and the partiality by the management. As everyone belongs to different countries and they lose confidence while taking new staff by the existing staff which should not be done in good organizations.

Working environment: The working environment is not good for the staff because the staff like to work in a company where they are rewarded for their work or management should motivate them. So because of all this there is lack of motivation as well.

Work Stress: Management does not set the roster properly and this leads to less staff in busy shifts and because of this their staff feels work stress. So they cannot manage stress.

Poor management: The manager’s leadership style is wrong they are autocratic they do not listen to what staff is telling them.

Conflict with management: Due to lack of understanding in organization staff conflict with management.

Analysis of data:

I think that the reason behind the cultural differences is staff is very stereotyped. As they belong to different countries they do not give importance to people of other culture.

There is a lack of motivation in the company because staff are not awarded or motivated by the management if they have done a good job.

Less staff in busy shifts because managers do not set the roster properly like they don’t know when the restaurant is going to be busy so there is too much stress on staff on busy shifts.

There is no understanding between the management and staff. Managers sometimes do partiality with their staff so there is no understanding between them and the business cannot grow.

So those are the reason behind all these problems and now second thing is to give the possible solutions of these problems.

On the basis of interviews these are the possible solutions which are given below:

Solutions of the culture difference problem:

There is only one solution to this problem that is the staff and the management has to change their stereotype nature and have to have good communication with each other. They need to understand other culture so they cannot lose confidence while communication with each other.

There should be some activities, they should organize a party one in every two months so they can understand other staff members culture so they can manage everything well while working.

Solution to lack of motivation:

The solution to this problem is that they should have an employee of the month competition because this will increase the level of staff’s performance and reward them for a job well done.

Solution to the problem high staff turnover:

As there is a problem of poor management because managers do not know how to set rosters for a busy shift so they should get training from head office so that the mangers and company gets well organized. Managers should also get a weekly report from head office so they have an idea of how they are performing.

Appropriate training is very important for every organization so the restaurant manager should also give training according to the job description requirements so there is not a high turnover of employees.

Work rotation is key in any business to increase interest in other aspects of the restaurant by allowing staff to multitask.

They should recruit accurate staff who is energetic and lively. During interviews managers must set down the rules and procedures and job description. They should be fair with employees and if they want improvement in the company they have to give sufficient training to employees.

Solution to wastage:

Staff needs to use their mentality and to organize and know when they will be busy and at what time and what kind of menu items will be ordered. When I worked at Nando’s the busiest time was between 11am to 1pm. The main menu items being ordered consistently for months as Rice, Pita’s, Wraps and burgers. So my common sense told me to make more chicken tenders and chicken fillet patties cooked and kept ready and to keep less full chickens. All left over food from the night should be given to feeding charities and not to staff because staff used to cook extra chicken so it can get wasted and they can take it home.

Management Theory:

Four principles of management theory are: Planning, Organizing, Leading and Controlling.

Planning – For motivation we have to make a plan and have to reward them for good work.

Organizing – It is very necessary to seat a roster properly and should be organized for a good balance in life.

Leading – Managers should lead staff in a proper way.

Controlling – As restaurant manager has full control on labor we need to take the feedback from all staff and the manager.

I have given the SWOT problem solving model earlier. So all this is an appropriate management theory to explain the meaning of my finding of the result and their relevance.

Conclusions and recommendations

Conclusion

This research comes to an end and lastly I want to say that Nando’s Queen Street is facing high problems in culture differences, wastage, high staff turnover because of poor training and poor management. The discussions from all the staff and managers we came to the result that training is necessary with work rotation at work with accurate recruitment system. This solution will help the restaurant to minimize high staff turnover and if employees get proper training they would know what to do at a particular time. They will know about the rules and duties so their work output would be good. Job rotation will help staff to undertake all the transfers as they can do multitasking by handling any task like making burgers, grilling chicken, taking orders and give customers a better service. All these things will make staff more confident and the business will grow rapidly.

I have discussed and analyzed each solution for every problem so that shows that both aim and purpose of research activity has been solved.

Recommendations:

I want to recommend that the restaurant manager should study the details of surveys. They need to organize everything according to the plans. They should arrange a meeting once every month and concentrate on the issues like job rotation for staff and to hire suitable staff. The managers should understand their staff and the need to look after the aspects of the restaurant. They should give them more hours of training. The manager should talk to staff face to face to hear their problems and he should come up with a strong solution to build a good relationship with them. They should not hesitate when talking to the manager. They should implement four principles of management to try out the things that causes problems in the restaurant.

References:

Class notes

Information from Assignment Part A

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