Operations of the Leon’s restaurant

Executive Summary

The report has focused on the operations of the Leon’s restaurant. The Leon’s restaurant seeks the vision to provide high quality services to the customers. The operations in the Leon’s Restaurant deliver the vision of the business through satisfying the stakeholder needs. With the changing trends, different new trends of the Industry 4 are emerging which can influence the industry trends and the operations of the Leon’s Restaurant. In this term, the big data, robotics, cloud and Industry IoT are some of the major trends which are being used in the Leon’s Restaurant. The Industry 4 trends on the other hand are efficiently helping the operations of the Leon’s Restaurant to have the effective workflow and operations. Additionally, the report has reflected the influence of these Industry 4 trends on the stakeholders of customers, employees and suppliers.

Introduction

The business of Leon Restaurant

Leon Restaurant is a popular fast-food chain in the United Kingdom which was established in the year 2004. Mainly, the concerning company operates a chain of restaurants where it provides wraps, muffins, burgers, fries, salad, chicken pot, hummus, donuts, cakes, cookies, coffee, juice, and drinks. Leon Restaurants effectively operates its business under the Lodging, Gaming and Restaurants industry in the United Kingdom as well as in the international market[1].

The vision of the company

The vision of Leon restaurant is to provide tasty as well as healthy fast food to people. The menu provided by the restaurants of the concerning company is motivated by the variety, flavors as well as natural healthiness in terms of the Mediterranean preparations[2].

This entire report focuses on the explanation of the competitive advantage of the concerning restaurant which is known as Leon restaurant that operates its business internationally. Thus, the report discussed the business operation of the concerning restaurant company and its impact and application on the vision of the company. Moreover, the technical changes of Industry 4 have also been analyzed in the following report which shows its impact on the operation of the company as well as on the vision of the company. Three key stakeholders of the company have been identified and the impact of the Industry 4 changes on the stakeholders also been discussed. Afterward, future changes of the concerning company and its impact on the stakeholders have also been evaluated in the following report. Based on these two proposals has been developed regarding satisfying the identified key stakeholders. In the report, the better proposal has been identified among the two and justifies the reason behind the identification. Based on this, the report demonstrated management techniques in terms of the quality management of the company and provides a recommendation to the company.

Preparation

Operation of Leon

Leon Restaurant is a fast-food chain in the United Kingdom which was established in the year 2004. Leon has almost 57 restaurants by the year 2015 and in Amsterdam, the first Leon outside England was opened in the year 2016 June. Apart from this, many branches of Leon Restaurant have been opened in the international market such as Oslo, Utrecht, Dublin, and Gran Canaria. Along with this, the first restaurant of Leon has been opened in the United States, in Washington D.C. and hence, by the year 2018 the company opened almost 61 sites. In the year 2015, January, six outlets of Leon have been operated by HMSHost in railway stations, airports in southern England[3]. In the year 2018 Leon declares that the relationship between Leon and HMSHost became strong incorporating an agreement regarding a franchise in railway stations and airports throughout the Middle East and Europe. Through developing such agreement with HMSHost, the concerning company expected to reach maximum customers on the international scale and it will increase the demand for further opening of the company overseas[4].

Apart from this, Leon developed a partnership with Autogrill by following an agreement. Due to this partnership Autogrill, the concerning company became able to open new stores in new locations near the railway stations and airports in the core Middle East and European countries. The locations where Autogrill manages Leon’s stores are Belgium, Germany, UK, Switzerland, Finland, Denmark, Norway as well as the Netherlands. In addition, the company became able to open its new stores in more locations in terms of only airports such as Bahrain, United Arab Emirates, Turkey, Kuwait, Spain, France, and Saudi Arabia[5].

Nevertheless, in the year 2017, the concerning company introduced itself as a founding member of the Sustainable Restaurant Association and achieve an award of Raymond Blanc’s Sustainability Hero at the “Food Made Good” award of the Association. The mentioned restaurant company joint up with a retail company named John Lewis and developed tableware and cookware lines and published many cookbooks in the market.

Impact of operation on the vision of the restaurant

The operation of the company greatly influences the concerning restaurant company in meeting its vision. The vision of Leon restaurant is to provide tasty and healthy fast food to the customers over the world. Therefore, the partnership of Leon with HMSHost is very beneficial for the concerning company in meeting its vision as the partnership with HMSHost help concerning the company to provide tasty and healthy foods at the railways and airports in the street stores. In this term, HMSHost manages nine stores of Leon in the United Kingdom and the Netherlands. Therefore, maximum customers became able to get such fast foods from the HMSHost stores provided by Leon. Furthermore, the partnership of Leon with Autogrill is also effective for the company in meeting its vision.

The agreement between Leon and Autogrill becomes very efficient for the concerning company in opening new stores in new locations near other railway stations and airports in the Middle East and European countries. The agreement between Leon and Autogrill greatly influences the business operation of the company as it helps the company in opening various new stores in different locations[6]. The concerning company became able to attract a huge number of travelers of railway stations as well as airports in Europe and outside the European countries. Due to such agreements the company effectively provides its high-quality foods made by the Mediterranean cooking and attracts customers towards its minimalist and sophisticated designs.

Emerging technologies of Industry 4

In Industry 4, nine technical evolutions have been described. These nine technologies are autonomous robots, big data and analytics, simulation, cyber security, the industrial internet of things, horizontal and vertical system integration, the cloud, additive manufacturing and augmented reality[7]. Some technologies can be highly beneficial and crucial for the better performance of the company which may influence the operation of the concerning restaurant company greatly. These evolution technologies evident in Industry 4 are big data, the cloud, autonomous robots, the industrial internet of things and much more. The evolution of cyber security can be highly beneficial for the concerning company in protecting critical and vital information of the business as well as industry.  The evolution of cloud technology also can be highly effective for the company in recording important and crucial information regarding the items, sells, profits, and much more in a reliable manner. On the other hand, the evolution of autonomous robots can also be greatly efficient for the effective operation of the business of Leon Restaurant. The robots, in terms of the chatbots, can be used for high customer service operations. In addition, the evolution of the industrial internet of things can also effectively influence the operation of the concerning company. The big data can help to have effective operations and can be seen as the “holy grail” for the restaurant, as it helps in analyzing the customer trends and preferences[8].

Impact of the changes of Industry 4 on the vision of the restaurant

These technological changes or evolutions of Industry 4 effectively help in the delivery of the vision of the concerning company. The vision of the company is to provide tasty and healthy foods to the maximum customers over the world. In this term, the big data helps Leon’s Restaurant to increase its sales by analyzing the external data. The external data, other than inventory, payroll, scheduling, and sales, are equally significant for organizational growth. The big data helps Leon’s restaurant to analyze the customer trends and preferences through extracting the data from social media and the recent reviews. Furthermore, cloud technologies can also be beneficial for the company in maintaining the records in detail which can be crucial for the company in meeting its vision. The use of robotics as the technological changes can help the Leon restaurant to deliver effective customer services. The chatbots can be used for resolving the queries asked from the customer end or can also provide the information in relation to the service operations of Leon’s Restaurant. The Industrial IoT, on the other hand, helps Leon’s Restaurant to have optimized workflow and streamlines operations. The industrial IoT helps in monitoring the kitchen appliances control, whereby the industrial IoT, when equipped in the appliances, picks up the information through analyzing and send to the cloud, which then is processed to the restaurant manager. In this concern, the use of the Industrial IoT helps to reduce the cost, by maintaining the product quality and improved workflow.

Identification of stakeholders of the restaurants

The three major stakeholders of the concerning restaurant are customers, suppliers, and employees.

Customers

Customers are considered as key stakeholders in any type of business as customers greatly impacted the items and services of a business therefore, customer satisfaction is considered as one of the key objectives of any business. In terms of the Leon Restaurant, the company interacts with its potential customers to identify their needs and choices which are then implemented in their product development. The interaction is done through social media as well as through the face to face conversation using ratings[9].

Suppliers

Suppliers appear another major stakeholder of business as suppliers provide the required materials and components to the business. The main objective of the company is to provide healthy food with tasty flavors to customers. For this reason, the company purchase high-quality raw food items from farmers and growers and produce healthy and tasty food items for customers. In this case, suppliers are communicated to identify the issues with the product quality and recommendations for enhancing the materiality and services[10].

Employees

Employees are the most important stakeholder in a food and beverage business. In the mentioned restaurant, employees have a great role in the operation of the business such as managing in front services, customer services, order taking, preparation, cooking, order delivery and much more. In this concern, the employees are engaged in the decisions, whereby the issues which are faced by them are discussed along with the improvement plans of the business strategies and decisions[11].

Impact of the changes on the stakeholders

The changes in the trends of technology including industrial robots, Industrial IoT, big data along industrial IoT highly influence the stakeholders of Leon’s restaurant. Big Data can be used by Leon’s Restaurant in order to satisfy the customers, which are the major stakeholders of the organization. In this concern, Leon’s Restaurant can use the reviews, feedback and the hashtags on social media, in relation to their ratings and reviews by the customers to enhance the quality of food delivered to the customers. Additionally, the industry trends of the food of Australia can also be analyzed by Leon’s Restaurant in order to change the menu accordingly, which will help in satisfying the consumers of Leon’s[12]. The operational works, in terms of using the clouds, can help the employees to work easily, whereby employees can be able to store and access the data if required, as the clouds specifically help to secure the business information and other data. On the other hand, the Industrial IoT can be used for implementing operational efficiency. It will help in inventory forecasting along with tweaking the production schedules, which in turn will help in maintaining effective relationships with vendors and suppliers.

Proposal Development

Future changes and its impact on stakeholders of Leon

Some new trends can be considered Leon is likely to face in the future and these trends may have a huge impact on the stakeholders of the restaurants. Such changes are the following:

Digital menu board

The application of the digital menu board can appear as the new trend in the restaurant industry where most of the restaurants can implement advanced technology on the menu board of the restaurant. This can be highly beneficial for the restaurant management as well as the customers as this new technology will provide the restaurant menu to the customers immediately after they arrive. Furthermore, the application of such technology will reduce one job in the front staff of the restaurant as they will does not need to provide menu cards to the customers individually[13].

Food technology

Implementation of advanced technology in the delivery of food can arise as an effective and new trend in the restaurant industry. Implementation of GPS tracker in the process of delivery of food already became highly beneficial for the customers as well as the delivery staff of the restaurant as due to this feature, it became easy for the delivery staff of the restaurant the destination of the order whereas the customers can track the order through this feature. Moreover, it can be assumed that the delivery system via drone can arise as a new trend in this industry which can be highly beneficial for customers as they can get their ordered food in a very short time. However, the application of this feature may negatively affect the job of the delivery staff of the restaurant[14].

Two proposals for satisfying stakeholders of the restaurants

Proposal 1

By analyzing the future trends in the restaurant industry, it can be stated that the implementation of a digital menu board in the restaurant can be highly beneficial for Leon restaurant in attracting a huge number of customers towards the company stores.  The application of this advanced technology will be highly preferable for the customers who will visit the restaurants as this technology will show the menu provided by the restaurant on the table immediately after arriving at the customers. In this case, customers will not need to wait for menu cards and restaurant management can be able to provide efficient customer service and meet customer satisfaction. Furthermore, the digital menu board will show the most popular items in the restaurant which will be helpful for the customers in food selection which will also satisfy them[15].

Proposal 2

It also can be found that the implementation of advanced technology in the process of home delivery of food can also be largely beneficial for the concerning restaurant in meeting customer satisfaction. The application of drones in the process of home delivery will enable the restaurant to deliver the ordered food to customers in a very short time for which customers will be highly satisfied with the service of the restaurant[16].

Justification for a better proposal

The first proposal will be more beneficial for the concerning restaurant rather than proposal 2. This is because the application of proposal 1 the restaurant will be able to satisfy its two stakeholders such as customers and employees. Application of digital menu board will reduce one responsibility of customer services staff of the restaurant, therefore these employees will be satisfied with the implementation of such a feature. On the other hand, the application of proposal 2 will enable the restaurant to satisfy only one stakeholder such as customers and for this feature the other stakeholders of the company, employees will be des-satisfied. This is because the implementation of a drone in the process of home delivery will eliminate the requirement of employees in this section which will negatively affect the jobs of many employees. Therefore, it can be stated that the application of proposal 1 will be most beneficial for Leon Restaurant than the other one.

Management techniques for quality management

Restaurants are considered as unique operational systems to provide the consumers with responsive and efficient services and food. The F&B industry is experiencing high competition globally. The hotels and restaurants need to keep up with new trends and preferences of the consumers[17]. Gaining of competitive advantage has become crucial for restaurants. The organization needs to give the right direction to the management team to gain a competitive advantage and to achieve sustainability. The restaurant need to implement strategies to improves the quality of service and food.  Leon’s restaurants need to implement strategies by diving the strategies into segments.  The strategies are discussed below:

Improvement of operational efficiency

The food industry is becoming quite competitive in recent past years[18].  In this competitive environment, the managers and the owner of Leon’s restaurant need to implement strategies and need to provide emphasis on the preferences of the customers. The restaurant needs to provide customers with a special range of menu and quality service.  The organizations in order to achieve a competitive advantage need to go through two strategic avenues.  The organizations need to focus on improving operational efficiency by hiring skilled and efficient employees. The restaurant needs to keep experimenting with food. Leon’s restaurant is well known for offering healthy fast food to the consumers irrespective of age groups however the restaurant needs to expand the menu and needs to introduce local delicacies to the consumers[19].

The restaurant needs to improve the inventory systems which will help the restaurant to reduce production and waste cost and also will help the organization to determine the cost of food service. The restaurant needs improvement in the menu management and needs to increase labor efficiency with the help of standard scheduling[20].

Enhancement of operational quality

This specific strategy includes enhancing the operational strategy which includes output nad input and processing subsystems.  The restaurant needs to use the measures of quality control to monitor the quality of work-in-progress, incoming material, and the other outputs.   This also includes that the management team needs to understand the importance of the needs and preferences of the customers and needs to adopt marketing innovations and technologies to provide the customers with quality food and service.

The above-mentioned strategies are considered as non-exclusive. Leon’s restaurant needs to implement both the strategies to improve nad enhance efficiency and quality of oragniztional operation which are essential to gain a competitive advantage.

Conclusion

Recommendation

F&B industry has become highly competitive and the restaurants need to provide the customers with quality service and food to gain competitive advantage. Leon’s restaurant has been considered as a leading fast food restaurant in the UK.  The restaurant has been successful to gain the trust of the customers however in the environment of increasing competition the restaurant needs to implement new and innovative strategies to achieve sustainability and productivity. Recommendations can be offered to Leon’s restaurant  to help the  restaurant in achieving competitive advantage:

• The restaurant needs to keep on experimenting with a variety of the menu and need to offer the customers with local and healthy delicacies. The restaurant needs to offer food to the customers irrespective of age groups.
• Analysis of local competition needs to be done by the restaurant along with understanding the strength of the competitor companies. These measures will help the company to understand whether it is superior or inferior to contemporary companies.  This will help the restaurant to take the necessary strategies.
• The restaurant needs to focus on one specific goal which it wants to achieve in the near future. This will provide the restaurant with a competitive edge.
• Recruitment of skilled and efficient employees needs to be done by the restaurant. In the F&B industry, the organization needs to establish healthy and strong communication with the consumers and in the process friendly and cooperative staff is essential.

Conclusion

The report has provided an overview of the management policies of Leon’s Restaurant.  The report has made a clear distinction of the present organizational operation of the restaurant along with its future goal.  The organizations need to implement strategies to gain competitive advantage in the industry of ever-growing competition. The fast-food restaurants have a major responsibility for the health and safety of the consumers thus along with gaining competitive advantage the restaurants need to practice ethical exercised to attract and provide the consumers with quality service and food.  The report has provided the concepts and ideas of the operational management of Leon’s restaurant as elaborately discuss the strategies Leon’s restaurant needs to take and implement to gain sustainability and competitive advantages.  The report overall has provided the operations the restaurants in the local fast food market of the UK and the restaurant is willing to expand the business in the global market for which the restaurant need to implement innovative and effective strategies.

Reference List

Journal

Jang, Y.J., Zheng, T. and Bosselman, R., 2017. Top managers’ environmental values, leadership, and stakeholder engagement in promoting environmental sustainability in the restaurant industry. International Journal of Hospitality Management, 63, pp.101-111.

Koo, D.W., 2018. The Impact of Risk Perceptions of Food Ingredients on the Restaurant Industry: Focused on the Moderating Role of Corporate Social Responsibility. Sustainability, 10(9), p.3132.

Rhou, Y., Singal, M. and Koh, Y., 2016. CSR and financial performance: The role of CSR awareness in the restaurant industry. International Journal of Hospitality Management, 57, pp.30-39.

Šerić, M. and Praničević, D.G., 2018. Consumer-generated reviews on social media and brand relationship outcomes in the fast-food chain industry. Journal of Hospitality Marketing & Management, 27(2), pp.218-238.

Shamhuyenhanzva, R.M., Van Tonder, E., Roberts-Lombard, M. and Hemsworth, D., 2016. Factors influencing Generation Y consumers’ perceptions of eWOM credibility: a study of the fast-food industry. The International Review of Retail, Distribution and Consumer Research, 26(4), pp.435-455.

Tapia, M. and Turner, L., 2018. Renewed activism for the labor movement: the urgency of young worker engagement. Work and Occupations, 45(4), pp.391-419.

Website

Autogrill. (2019). ABOUT US. Available at https://www.autogrill.com/en/about-us [Accessed 02 December 2019]

Autogrill. (2019). Autogrill: exclusive partnership with Leon. Available at https://www.autogrill.com/en/press-releases/autogrill-exclusive-partnership-leon [Accessed 01 December 2019]

Bcg. (2019). Embracing Industry 4.0 and Rediscovering Growth. Available at https://www.bcg.com/en-in/capabilities/operations/embracing-industry-4.0-rediscovering-growth.aspx [Accessed 05 December 2019]

Bloomberg. (2019). Leon Restaurants Ltd. Available at https://www.bloomberg.com/profile/company/3628934Z:LN [Accessed 10 December 2019]

Foodserviceandhospitality. (2018). Top-10 Food Trends for 2019. Available at https://www.foodserviceandhospitality.com/top-10-food-trends-for-2019/ [Accessed 02 December 2019]

Forbes. (2018). What is Industry 4.0? Here’s A Super Easy Explanation For Anyone. Available at https://www.forbes.com/sites/bernardmarr/2018/09/02/what-is-industry-4-0-heres-a-super-easy-explanation-for-anyone/#6db1f4b09788 [Accessed 06 December 2019]

Leon. (2019). FOUNDERS. Available at https://leon.co/us/founders/ [Accessed 05 December 2019]

Leon. (2019). LEON. Available at https://leon.co [Accessed 06 December 2019]

Leon. (2019). THE LEON VISION. Available at https://leon.co/us/vision/ [Accessed 03 December 2019]

leon.co. (2019). Leon. Naturally Fast Food. Available at  https://leon.co/ [Accessed 15 November 2019]

Restaurantden. (2019). 5 NEW TECHNOLOGY TRENDS IN THE RESTAURANT INDUSTRY. Available at https://restaurantden.com/5-new-technology-trends-in-the-restaurant-industry/ [Accessed 03 December 2019]

[1] Leon. (2019). LEON. Available at https://leon.co [Accessed 06 December 2019]

[2] Leon. (2019). THE LEON VISION. Available at https://leon.co/us/vision/ [Accessed 03 December 2019]

[3] Leon. (2019). FOUNDERS. Available at https://leon.co/us/founders/ [Accessed 05 December 2019]

[4]Bloomberg. (2019). Leon Restaurants Ltd. Available at https://www.bloomberg.com/profile/company/3628934Z:LN [Accessed 10 December 2019]

[5] Autogrill. (2019). Autogrill: exclusive partnership with Leon. Available at https://www.autogrill.com/en/press-releases/autogrill-exclusive-partnership-leon [Accessed 01 December 2019]

[6] Autogrill. (2019). ABOUT US. Available at https://www.autogrill.com/en/about-us [Accessed 02 December 2019]

[7] Bcg. (2019). Embracing Industry 4.0 and Rediscovering Growth. Available at https://www.bcg.com/en-in/capabilities/operations/embracing-industry-4.0-rediscovering-growth.aspx [Accessed 05 December 2019]

[8] Forbes. (2018). What is Industry 4.0? Here’s A Super Easy Explanation For Anyone. Available at https://www.forbes.com/sites/bernardmarr/2018/09/02/what-is-industry-4-0-heres-a-super-easy-explanation-for-anyone/#6db1f4b09788 [Accessed 06 December 2019]

[9] Rhou, Y., Singal, M. and Koh, Y., 2016. CSR and financial performance: The role of CSR awareness in the restaurant industry. International Journal of Hospitality Management, 57, pp.30-39.

[10] Koo, D.W., 2018. The Impact of Risk Perceptions of Food Ingredients on the Restaurant Industry: Focused on the Moderating Role of Corporate Social Responsibility. Sustainability, 10(9), p.3132.

[11] Jang, Y.J., Zheng, T. and Bosselman, R., 2017. Top managers’ environmental values, leadership, and stakeholder engagement in promoting environmental sustainability in the restaurant industry. International Journal of Hospitality Management, 63, pp.101-111.

[12] Leon. (2019). THE LEON VISION. Available at https://leon.co/us/vision/ [Accessed 03 December 2019]

[13]Foodserviceandhospitality. (2018). Top-10 Food Trends for 2019. Available at https://www.foodserviceandhospitality.com/top-10-food-trends-for-2019/ [Accessed 02 December 2019]

[14] Restaurantden. (2019). 5 NEW TECHNOLOGY TRENDS IN THE RESTAURANT INDUSTRY. Available at https://restaurantden.com/5-new-technology-trends-in-the-restaurant-industry/ [Accessed 03 December 2019]

[15] Forbes. (2018). What is Industry 4.0? Here’s A Super Easy Explanation For Anyone. Available at https://www.forbes.com/sites/bernardmarr/2018/09/02/what-is-industry-4-0-heres-a-super-easy-explanation-for-anyone/#6db1f4b09788 [Accessed 06 December 2019]

[16] Restaurantden. (2019). 5 NEW TECHNOLOGY TRENDS IN THE RESTAURANT INDUSTRY. Available at https://restaurantden.com/5-new-technology-trends-in-the-restaurant-industry/ [Accessed 03 December 2019]

[17] leon.co. (2019). Leon. Naturally Fast Food. Avalilable at

https://leon.co/ [Accessed 15 November 2019]

[18] Shamhuyenhanzva, R.M., Van Tonder, E., Roberts-Lombard, M. and Hemsworth, D., 2016. Factors influencing Generation Y consumers’ perceptions of eWOM credibility: a study of the fast-food industry. The International Review of Retail, Distribution and Consumer Research, 26(4), pp.435-455.

[19] Tapia, M. and Turner, L., 2018. Renewed activism for the labor movement: the urgency of young worker engagement. Work and Occupations, 45(4), pp.391-419.

[20] Šerić, M. and Praničević, D.G., 2018. Consumer-generated reviews on social media and brand relationship outcomes in the fast-food chain industry. Journal of Hospitality Marketing & Management, 27(2), pp.218-238.