Evaluating Strategy/ Strategic management

QUESTION 2 Evaluating strategy When most firms were struggling in 2008, Mikes Kitchen increased its revenues from K22.7 billion in 2007 to K23.5 billion in 2008. Headquartered in Lusaka, Zambia, Mikes Kitchen's net income nearly doubled during that time from K2.4 billion to K4.3 billion-quite impressive. An Online magazine in 2009 rated Mikes Kitchen's as their 16th "Most Admired Company in the World" in terms of their management and performance. Mikes Kitchen's expanded its outlet in 2009 when many restaurants struggled to keep their doors open. Mikes Kitchen's low prices and expanded menu items have attracted millions of new customers away from sit-down chains and independent eateries. Jim Skinner, CEO of Mikes Kitchen's at the time, said, "We do so well because our strategies have been so well planned out." The CEO further explained that the acumen is in the way jobs were designed. He quickly bragged about how kitchen staff maintain standards by responding to orders promptly. For instance, this chef will quickly retrieve one whole chicken from the freezer in 30seconds, defrost in the micro wave in 5minutes, cut off a piece according to the order in 3minutes, spice up the piece in 30seconds, fry or grill in 15 minutes while peeling the potatoes in 3minutes into friable slices while the chicken is frying or grilling. Concurrently, the Chef would deep fry the potatoes in 5minutes while the chicken is frying or grilling by which time the meal would be ready and the chef would sound a bell for the waitress to pick up the meal and take 30seconds to place the meal on the table for the in or take away customer. The restaurant receives 100 such orders per day in its 12hrs daily operation time and that an average of four customers would benefit from one chicken. The CEO felt that the Chef consumed too much time serving one order and so he undertook to improve operations through training and development in order to reduce service time. To do this, the CEO identified Sustainable Catering Consultants to provide the training in which a target of 10minutes per order was set. Six months after training, it was concluded based on customer resident time in the restaurant that the average service time achieved per customer stood at 15 minutes. Determine the baseline service time per customer (4 Marks) b) Determine the performance gap between baseline and actual performance (8 Marks) Evaluate performance of the Chef after training (8 Marks) a)