Organisation Behaviour: Kake Da Dhaba

                       ORGANISATION BEHAVIOUR

                                            Kake Da Dhaba

 Kake Da Dhaba is designed to create a community atmosphere as a good, old fashioned, friendly, neighbourhood dhaba. The location at Hisar road puts the diner in the heart of lively, downtown Palika Bazaar.

A priority of Kake Da Dhaba will be serving fresh, healthful fare with all selections made on the premises from "scratch". To keep food costs down, the menu will be simple, yet creative with many interchangeable ingredients. Foods will come from local and regional suppliers whenever possible, with a preference for organically grown products. Emphasis will be laid on the bakery which will feature old-world breads baked daily. Only counter service will be offered to keep labour costs low. This will also keep the dining costs reasonable for consumers.

Most of the menu will revolve around non vegetarian goods, e.g. tandoori chicken, butter chicken, freshly baked breads etc.. in increasing numbers of single households and dual earner households with limited time for food preparation, many consumers are seeking fast, nutritious meals. College students, another large group of consumers for Kake Da Dhaba, are well-known for their appetite for delicious non vegetarian food.

Future plans include expanding the vegetarian line, increasing over-the-counter sales, possible university delivery, and a continuing effort to become more proficient in carryout operations.

Based on projections, the Rohtak population is expected to grow 5-7% in the next five years, and with the passage of time Palika Bazaar will continue to provide a unique, vibrant, shopping and entertainment centre for this region.

THEORETICAL VIEW

While going through this project, we came across a number of organizational behaviour concepts that we had learnt. Although it was a small “dhaba”, it has the potential to increase its business. The first thing we noticed that there is the need to change the psychology of the owner. The motivations and the perception can take him a long way in his business. The second thing that we saw their is the lack of satisfaction that the cooks and the waiter were going through. They work day and night but there is no concept of overtime from the owner’s side. This might have led to the attrition. So,we saw that even at such small level satisfaction plays a vital role to stop the skilled cook and the well mannered waiter from running away .The third thing that we found that there is lack of creativity in the owner .It was so because the number of items in the “dhaba” were limited to non vegetarian items. So, we tried to give suggestions which worked out.Here we can say that creativity is the other vital aspect to improve an organisation.

The concept of team management also came into being when we suggested them to increase the home delivery. The owner started managing the waiters in the dhaba and the home delivery boy.He started using the waiters and the delivery boy interchangeably as there was lack of workforce. After the business improved, “Equity Theory” came into being. One of  the waiter started getting demotivated as the wages which were being given to him was lesser than his counterpart although both were making the same effort. It was so because one of the waiter was owner’s close aide. When we came to know about this problem ,we suggested the owner to give equal wages to all those who are working in the same manner. We also suggested that if this will not be done,the skilled workforce will leave the dhaba and it will become a major problem as the new waiter will face difficulty in finding the location as a waiter is used interchangeably with delivery boy here.

INTRODUCTION OF A VEGETARIAN MENU

The restaurant provides a variety of mouth watering non vegetarian dishes to their customer which has helped it create a strong brand for itself. The non vegetarian menu provided by Kake Da Dhaba has a loyal customer following who stand by its taste. However the restaurant fails to provide many vegetarian options to its customers thereby alienating a section of potential customers.

Observation

The menu advertised by Kake da Dhaba does not have any vegetarian dishes displayed. It has been often noticed that groups of customers, especially students, who happen to have 1 or more vegetarian members do not prefer to visit the restaurant because of this point. The restaurant did serve 2 vegetarian dishes originally but did not publicize this fact in any manner.

Solution Suggested

 Increase in the no of vegetarian dishes in the menu to offer some variety to its customers and also to advertise the availability of these vegetarian dishes to its patrons.

Constraints

1. Lack of space and infrastructure to build a dedicated area for vegetarian meal preparation and the involved costs.
2. The menu of the restaurant is printed on the back of its visiting card which has very limited space.
3. Hesitation on the part of the owner to change old practices and bring about a change in its processes.

Implementation of Idea

The suggestion of this idea to the owner was met with instant resistance not only due to the cost factors involved but also because of certain psychological factors. The owner rightly stated that the target audience for his restaurant is primarily non vegetarian and the introduction of vegetarian dishes would have no added advantage. He also stated that his customers associated Kake da Dhaba with its non vegetarian offerings and advertising vegetarian options could in effect tarnish the image of the restaurant. Lastly the owner was also reluctant in changing their set processes of preparation of food and believed that introduction of a large no. of vegetarian dishes would come in way of their daily activities.

After careful consideration of all the points brought in by the owner and other stakeholders, we recommended that some dishes can be introduced in a pilot project for a short time to gauge the response of the customers. We also recommended that the availability of these vegetarian dishes be advertised by word of mouth initially through delivery orders and further steps be taken after observing the response of this project. As a result the owner has agreed to increase its vegetarian offering to 6 dishes in total and has also started advertising about the same through informal means.

Future Aspects of Implementation

We have recommended that in the long term, the restaurant should start getting separate menus printed for them to be able to properly advertise the vegetarian options in the menu. Though we have not been able to record tangible effects of this exercise in terms of cost or increase in sales, we sincerely believe that in the long run the restaurant would reap benefits of the same.

DELIVERY CONSTRAINTS FOR ORDER LESS THAN THE AMOUNT OF Rs500

One of the problems for expanding the business of Kake Da Dhaba is that there is no home delivery for orders below Rs. 500 for a distance more than 3 km. Due to this the owner is losing business as he receives many order on telephone but he is not delivering the order due to his rule.