The proverbial bottle of old monk that was largely responsible for the birth of Faasos, keeps coming back, especially on the days we can afford it, and screws our heads up totally. Problem is it's happening with alarming frequency. When I look back at the last 12 months of so, I shudder at what I see. We have broken more norms than the number of wraps we made.
First up, we needed to train folks to run our outlets, which were popping by the dozen. We hired an industry veteran - KFC and all - to run our training. But soon, it was clear that, in absence of a manual and highly automated machines, our man was a headless chicken (and hence was aptly positioned to be at KFC. Sorry). So, again, over a late night bitching session, we made a resolve, which was - never to hire anyone from the industry. Next morning we posted our now infamous "Entrepreneurs wanted" job ad. Man, deluged we were. Finally hired three crazies who never had anything to do with restaurants (apart from of course eating at them). These 20 somethings have changed the face of Faasos in 6 months flat. They brought on board tremendous ownership, incredible self-starting attitude and complete ignorance about the impossibility of a task. One of these dudes is now starting "University of Wrapology" - to prepare 100s of lost souls to make delicious wraps in 30 varieties in super quick time.
Then came the fresh vs frozen debate. Frozen was the order of the day. Once made, stays for a quarter of a century. No wastage, no difficult trips to market every day, no issues with transporting to all corners of the country, no hassle. But, then we never liked frozen and fried food. And our dinner, lunch, evening snack happen at Faasos. We said, "Naahh... we cant eat that shit". So, we remained fresh. Make on the day, sell on the day. Whatever is left, throw away.
Also, we are probably the laziest buggers on the planet. Hence we got really disturbed when we had to read reports, go to outlets to check on people, policing the cash etc. etc. So, we decided to make the store managers the real CEOs of the company. We asked them to make their own profit-and-loss projections (some of them thought it was a new wrap) and adhere to that. We also told them that we were there to help them and customers wrote their pay-checks. Beyond which, we left them to make their own calls. Not one phone call came to us, from that day, to ask if they could give a complimentary meal to a customer who did not get food on time or got the wrong wrap. Phew what a relief.
The biggest one was this "location" thing. Everyone said, boy you want to start a restaurant, you got to keep in mind three things "location, location, location". We were relieved that we had to focus on only one thing. But, when we went shopping, we could hear three things "Deposit, Rent, Lock in". And they actually meant "die today, die everyday and keep doing that for a long time." So, we started looking for tiny stores in side alleys. With the hope that if we keep making that fresh, juicy, desi wrap and reaching it to folks in super quick time, no one is going to notice if we have a huge, swanky, air conditioned outlet on the high street.
Anyways, hope the luck does not run out on us while we are pushing the boundaries of sanity. But then, we dont want to do it any other way. What fun is there to copy century old traditions and end up with some run-of-the-mill, boring organisation that manages to make some money.Who wants to be a Compaq? Its much more fun trying to be an Apple. Even if that means failure.
Jaydeep
Founder n Pretending CEO
Faasos
First up, we needed to train folks to run our outlets, which were popping by the dozen. We hired an industry veteran - KFC and all - to run our training. But soon, it was clear that, in absence of a manual and highly automated machines, our man was a headless chicken (and hence was aptly positioned to be at KFC. Sorry). So, again, over a late night bitching session, we made a resolve, which was - never to hire anyone from the industry. Next morning we posted our now infamous "Entrepreneurs wanted" job ad. Man, deluged we were. Finally hired three crazies who never had anything to do with restaurants (apart from of course eating at them). These 20 somethings have changed the face of Faasos in 6 months flat. They brought on board tremendous ownership, incredible self-starting attitude and complete ignorance about the impossibility of a task. One of these dudes is now starting "University of Wrapology" - to prepare 100s of lost souls to make delicious wraps in 30 varieties in super quick time.
Then came the fresh vs frozen debate. Frozen was the order of the day. Once made, stays for a quarter of a century. No wastage, no difficult trips to market every day, no issues with transporting to all corners of the country, no hassle. But, then we never liked frozen and fried food. And our dinner, lunch, evening snack happen at Faasos. We said, "Naahh... we cant eat that shit". So, we remained fresh. Make on the day, sell on the day. Whatever is left, throw away.
Also, we are probably the laziest buggers on the planet. Hence we got really disturbed when we had to read reports, go to outlets to check on people, policing the cash etc. etc. So, we decided to make the store managers the real CEOs of the company. We asked them to make their own profit-and-loss projections (some of them thought it was a new wrap) and adhere to that. We also told them that we were there to help them and customers wrote their pay-checks. Beyond which, we left them to make their own calls. Not one phone call came to us, from that day, to ask if they could give a complimentary meal to a customer who did not get food on time or got the wrong wrap. Phew what a relief.
The biggest one was this "location" thing. Everyone said, boy you want to start a restaurant, you got to keep in mind three things "location, location, location". We were relieved that we had to focus on only one thing. But, when we went shopping, we could hear three things "Deposit, Rent, Lock in". And they actually meant "die today, die everyday and keep doing that for a long time." So, we started looking for tiny stores in side alleys. With the hope that if we keep making that fresh, juicy, desi wrap and reaching it to folks in super quick time, no one is going to notice if we have a huge, swanky, air conditioned outlet on the high street.
Anyways, hope the luck does not run out on us while we are pushing the boundaries of sanity. But then, we dont want to do it any other way. What fun is there to copy century old traditions and end up with some run-of-the-mill, boring organisation that manages to make some money.Who wants to be a Compaq? Its much more fun trying to be an Apple. Even if that means failure.
Jaydeep
Founder n Pretending CEO
Faasos
Ownership. It's everything. Employees only go that far :) Loved reading your blog Jaydeep. And of course, Faasos eater since the beginning of time and do believe that a chicken mayo takes you to moon and back.
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