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In many
subtle ways, market leaders weave their idiosyncratic,
cult-of-the-customer philosophy into day-to-day
management. Their customer credos create for employees a
sense of common destiny; a deep understanding of what
they’re doing and why, and a sense of accomplishment. The
delivery of customer value is a clear goal and can be used
as an acid test for individual and collective success: Am
I (are we) having an impact? Is my (our) work worth doing?
Is there more important work for me (for us) to be doing?
The
powerful cult of the customer is a potent antidote to the
poison spread by whiners and passive complainers. Market
leaders don’t tolerate whimpers of “Ain’t it awful?” and
grumbles like “This company is all screwed up,” or “If
they’d only listened to me.”
‘Go for Gold’
Says Chowking
president Raffy de la Rosa (center), “We have to be
[really] on our toes. I mean, this test kitchen and
training center will not be here if we are not keen on
winning in those arena—delicious food, within consumer’s
reach and making [it] consistently available in all
Chowking stores all over the country.”
--RHOY COBILLA
So how do
market leaders of whatever products and services stay
ahead? They maintain the focus of their discipline and
intensively compete with their own success. They work
continuously and simultaneously to improve their
operations and make it obsolete. They are operational
excellence firms striving to reach entirely new benchmarks
of price and hassle-free service. For every market leader,
advances in value to customers are gained by tightening
performance standards, reengineering work processes and
upgrading competencies.
For
Chowking, an oriental-based fast food, sustained product
leadership comes only from a deep commitment to
breakthrough innovations. By giving consistent product
quality and value for money, Chowking became the first
fast food to attain P1 billion in sales revenues after
only 10 years of operation. The provincial expansion was a
natural decision in the light of Chowking’s advertising
effort spilling over in many provincial cities, taking
advantage of an already existing high awareness level and
growth opportunities in these areas.
Just look
at the triumph of Chowking. “We count ourselves in the
major players. In fact, the ranking now [in terms of
sales] are Jollibee, Chowking, McDonald’s and Kentucky
Fried Chicken. Chowking registered sales growth of P10.1
billion in 2007, from P1 billion nine years ago. Our
international stores have contributed P1 million last
year. Combine the two together, that’s our total sales,”
claims Chowking president Raffy de la Rosa in a recent
interview.
What
particularly distinguishes Chowking from other fast-food
restaurant businesses is that its object of attention is
not simply the transaction, but the customer. Management
eyes not just the hard figures on ledgers but the soft
comments from customers in measuring performance. “The
ballgame here [in this market] is one who can offer the
most affordable and value product, will have an edge.
That’s why we are competing in prices,” de la Rosa points
out.
Achieving
product quality with no errors is not only doable, but
it’s a valuable competitive strategy. Chowking
consistently strives to provide its market with product
offering. Reaching that goal requires that it challenges
itself in three ways: First, it must be creative. Second,
it must commercialize its ideas quickly. To do so, all its
business and management processes are engineered for
speed. Third and most important, it must relentlessly
pursue ways to leapfrog its own latest product or service.
Chowking never stops for self-congratulatory; it is too
busy raising the bar.
“We have
to be [really] on our toes. I mean, this test kitchen and
training center will not be here if we are not keen on
winning in those arena—delicious food, within consumer’s
reach and making [it] consistently available in all
Chowking stores all over the country,” de la Rosa adds.
The other
tremendous asset at Chowking is a motivated work force.
The company has managed to accomplish what few other
companies seem capable of: It has created a high-spirited
attitude in people performing routinized work. Its
approach has been to hire eager people with a lot of
potential, train them to view excellent service as
routine, and assemble them in teams to solve problems that
lead to continuous improvement.
The
efficiency of the “Go for Gold” intensive training and
certification program given to all Chowking cooks stems
from a high degree of specialization to deliver on its
brand promise of product quality and consistency. Each one
is required to prepare more than 40 products according to
Chowking’s gold standard specifications under the watchful
eye of a master trainer. Cooks progress from one-star
certificate to five-star certificate as their skill level
improves. Cooks receive gold pins and certificates in
recognition of their achievement.
De la Rosa
is proud of the fact that the “Go for Gold” training
program was adjudged Best Workplace Practice at the 2006
Asian CSR Awards. According to him, the award affirms the
certified cooks’ important role as the icon of brand
Chowking.
“Training
helps people perform; performance boosts self-worth; a
sense of worth builds employees’ loyalty to the team and
customer,” he says. The benefits of this self-reinforcing
approach to management show up in both happy employees and
a robust set of profit figures.
Chowking
also invested heavily in developing modern automated
processes that cut preparation time at the stores. It
makes sure its vast network of 372 outlets nationwide is
well-stocked by strategically locating its depots and
commissaries in all of the three island groups in the
country and in key cities abroad.
“It helps
a lot that we have a commissary, since it enables us to
mass-produce products and translate the economy of scale
to lower price,” de la Rosa notes. The company will open
70 more stores nationwide, totaling to 410 stores by the
end of the year, with sales of about P11.5 billion.
“Overseas, we will probably increase to about 40 percent,”
he adds.
Most of
the product processing is done at the commissary level,
and food is delivered to the stores, ready for final
cooking. These efforts have been recognized by the
National Meat Inspection Service, which gave Chowking’s
Sucat commissary the most-coveted recognition as the “Best
Meat Processing Plant” in the NCR in 2005. The award is a
testament to the high quality standards the store adopts
in all of its commissary operations.
“We spend
about P400 million a year on advertising,” de la Rosa
says. Chowking used the stimulus response model in basic
psychology in designing all its menu display boards, TVCs,
print ads, billboard ads and other merchandising. It
introduced the concept of “open kitchen” to exhibit how
food is prepared and cooked right in the store, and how
every Chowking store adheres to strict standards of
cleanliness. Another innovation is through audio-piped-in
Chowking Radio programming regularly plays plugs and
entice in-store customer to come back for a visit or watch
out for a new product about to be launched.
Chowking
stores eventually got more sophisticated as it shifts to
the fifth-generation design found in Fort Global City,
Madrigal (Alabang), Eastwood and Santa Ana. “Where before,
Chowking image is close to fast food—well-lighted, plenty
of reds, plastic chairs. Now with the fifth generation, we
changed the plastic chairs into leather back chairs. We
minimize the use of salmon yellow and red colors. We use
more of the earthy colors [brown and mocca]. The lightning
is softened. We improve the counter influenced by the iPod.
Our menu board is now rectangular thin design,” de la Rosa
explains.
Chowking
wants to be world-class, preeminent customer service,
exceed expectations; and as de la Rosa constantly
emphasizes, “We want to delight the customer. And we want
it to be routine.” | 
