Hospitality Business Assessment And Strategic Direction Progect

Introduction

Known as Mr Shone, Mr Shone is the owner of Shoney’s Dining & Bar. He runs Shoney’s Dining & Bar with his beloved wife Mrs Kathie along with his business partner Mr Roger James and his wife Mrs Karen Chang. Shoney’s Dining & Bar is a dining outlet where it also serves alcohol, however the foods and drinks over there were halal. Now way back in 2014, Shoney’s only do a catering services and after that they open up a small dining area near to the Inanam terminal. Unfortunately, the business at Inanam terminal was to shut down because of some political problems and in 2016 they open a new business at Kg. Air. Not long after that in 2017, they move to Gaya Street till now. Mr Shone goal was to establish his own business, and that’s why he started his career in this business with only a catering services. As for Shoney’s mission is the serve the customer, they see their customer as their first priority and stakeholder that needs to be taken care of.

For Shoney’s to become more successful, they had only one objective that they need to carried out, and it is to serve the customer with a good attitude and making sure that they are satisfied with their services. Along with that, Shoney’s also carried out their service philosophy and that is to serve the customer with smile. Shoney’s Dining & Bar is located at Lorong Ewan 52 Jalan Gaya, Kota Kinabalu which it past HSBC near the Tong Hing Supermarket and it is near to Suria Shopping Mall. Shoney’s Dining & Bar has the ambience with a good atmosphere, where family can enjoy their quality time together and it is also a friendly dining area towards kid and child. There is also a separated section for those smokers and non-smokers area. Shoney’s Dining & Bar serves variety of western foods types like pasta, burger and steak. Every foods and drinks have their unique name and style of presentations which it attracts the interest of their customers. The price of each food is also reasonable and the portion of each food is also quite big, and sometimes customer may be not finished it off.

External Analysis

External analysis is conducted in any form of business industry that allows them to better understand their market, company and competition. We can say it is a tool used by marketers to analyse and monitor the external marketing factors that have an impact on an organisation (McIntyre, 2018) which is beyond their control. Below is the diagram of PEST, which looks into external factors; the full diagram is PESTEL which includes law and environment factors. However, for this report it is recommended that we only utilize these 4 of the 6 as foundation of our selected (Shoney’s Dining and Bar) company. By applying the 4 foundations of PEST into our report, we have summarized the entire analysis that looks at external influence over organisational performance. The result of which is used to identify threats and weaknesses which is used in a SWOT analysis later in the report.

PEST Analysis Political

• They are legally bound by the law. Requires fulfilling and abiding the necessary obligations before starting a business. (Registration Act)
• They did not specifically mention anything that refers to their taxes, subsidiaries and agreements. It is confidential for their part.

Economic

• Their initial location was at Inanam, but they moved to Gaya Street because of some political matter that was not disclosed on their part.
• The consumers purchasing power at KK City is more diverse and potential because it is the hub for tourists and locals alike.
• They do not have any particular peak seasons, but they imply that it gets busy after 6 PM.
• They did not mention the current economic tensions has affected them in anyway.

Social

• The other reason for their relocation was that they wanted to target the city was to attract more diverse customers.
• They mostly provide their services at the diner, like any other food industry. However, they do provide catering which is accessible through online communication (explained in technological section).
• Because of the relocation, they are competing with SOULed OUT, another food business at Imago.
• Shone’s wife, Kathie, was an “Unduk Ngadau”. Her status has the potential to influence the Kadazan Dusun community.
• They go for Blue Ocean strategy; they do not cater any specific markets.

Technological

• They utilize the standard requirement of technology to run their business; cashier station and air-conditioners. They do catering which is accessible through direct call to the diner, or through social media which they also immerse themselves with.
• The business was not going into any futuristic theme. They stick with the 60’s 70’s style of serving; the atmosphere was retro café-like with its 70’s army poster and wooden decors.
• Most of the decorations and interiors are done by the owner (Shone) himself; he is both excel in culinary and carpentering.

Internal Analysis

Internal analysis can be defined as a review of an organization's strengths and weaknesses that focuses on those factors within its domain. A comprehensive internal analysis will typically give a business a good sense of its basic competencies and the desired improvements that it can make to help meet the requirements of potential customers within its intended market (Business Dictionary). The data generated by an internal analysis is important because it can be used to develop strategic planning objectives to sustain and grow the business.

S. W. O. T Analysis

Shoney’s Dining and Bar need to continue doing research and other studies in order to keep their restaurant alive and running well. This is because of the tight competition between the others restaurants, Shoney’s Dining and Bar has to constantly make improvements and changes not just when required but it has become a must to help their restaurant survive. Therefore, Shoney’s Dining and Bar need a SWOT analysis as a tool to determine what is good or bad at their restaurant. SWOT is a short form that stands for strengths, weakness, opportunities, and threats. In the restaurant setting, a SWOT analysis is used to determine or identify some good and bad practices of the restaurant, more like discovery the problems that the restaurant is at present will face so that they will not be left unsolved. Through this SWOT analysis, Shoney’s Dining and Bar may be able to find opportunities that can help their restaurant become growing and improve to avoid or prevent any threats from hitting the restaurant.

Strengths

There is some internal strength that Shoney’s Dining and Bar has which it can be used to measure how they will survive in Kota Kinabalu. Shoney’s Dining and Bar has had 4 years of experience setting their restaurant with a classic decor for their dining environment by serving western food and beverage. The classic restaurant concept carried out well with menu bar and decor makes their restaurant become unique and it will make their customer enjoy and have a memorable experience. Shoney’s Dining and Bar also serves big portion of food that is cooked by a chef with years of experience. In addition, not only they serve big portion of food but the price that is being charged is also affordable and reasonable for the public. Shoney’s Dining and Bar strength are in their price where their price is lower-priced menu than a similar restaurant, this will make everyone will be able to buy the food that Shoney’s Dining and Bar provides as for the target market in general. Shoney’s Dining and Bar also has a friendly staff which makes the customer feel comfortable to interact with them. They also serve their customer nicely and make sure their customer enjoys their food. Most of the staff have more than a year experience working in the food and beverage industry therefore they really know in entertaining their guest. Shoney’s Dining and Bar also has a strategic marketing to market their product in which they used social media as their platform to get their target market which are Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube and also by a radio (Kupi-Kupi Fm). Shoney’s Dining and Bar also have a reservation system where the customer also has to make a reservation first before coming here as claimed by the manager they are usually busy on the evening.

Weaknesses

Shoney’s Dining and Bar weaknesses are where the location for their restaurant is not strategic because it is a single location and limited to reach. Not only that, the area provides a very limited parking, if the customer wants to have lunch or dinner here the customers need to park their vehicle at other location like at Suria Sabah or at Pillars of Sabah, after that, they have to walk by foot to reach the location. Furthermore, the restaurant space is too small that it cannot be occupy by too many people at the same as it has a limited seating and because of that, the customer needs to make a reservation first before coming especially during dinner time as that is time where it will be packed. Shoney’s Dining and Bar also does not have an official website as when it was searched through Google, it does not readily lead to their product website but it only lead to their official Facebook page only and lacks enough specific product information, this will make the customer hard to find some information about this restaurant. Shoney’s Dining and Bar also offer a few choices of menu, not much variation in seasonal products that are offered because it only focuses on western food and most of the food is junk food and is not really healthy. This will make Shoney's Dining and Bar cannot attract that many diverse customer as not all customer prefer western food. If the management of the restaurant does not make any innovation in terms of the menu they offer it could lead to their restaurant not standing long enough because people can change their taste also.

Opportunities

Being in the food and beverages industry, Shoney’s Dining and Bar has a of opportunity to grow in their business especially in expanding the space of the restaurant, as mentioned earlier the space of the restaurant is too small to accommodate many customers at one time therefore by moving their restaurant to another location with adequate space and parking lot, it could bring in more customer and save the hassle of loyal customer to make reservation from them in the evening. Other than that, as Shoney’s Dining and Bar is now growing and booming, the management could reconsider in opening a new branch in another strategic location so that it would attract new diverse customers as one of this restaurant’s strength is that they are very generous with the food portion with reasonable price thus the restaurant should take advantage of this to open a new branch in a new location specifically in an area that has restaurants too but does not provide the same services as Shoney’s in order to give them more competitive advantages. Due to the rising of health concerns these days. Shoney’s Dining and Bar should also take into consideration of the trend in eating healthier by incorporating more organic ingredients into their menu and also introducing new menus that suits with the trend but still follow with the theme of the restaurant. Last but not least, the restaurant could also consider in offering delivery services to meet the needs of the people on the go as when we ourselves had dine in at the restaurant, we did not require to wait for our food for a long time therefore by providing delivery services it could save other customers’ time from dining in and enjoy the food from the comfort of their home.

Threats

One of the main threats for Shoney’s is the ever emerging food outlets that provide almost the same type of food or have the similar dining experience such as English Tea House & Restaurant, Sky Blu Bar and also restaurants inside Suria Sabah Shopping Mall such as Upperstar because then the customers will have more choices on where they want to spend their money. Next, the increase of price of certain raw ingredients could also serve as a threat because if the price increases the restaurants then have to either raise the price of their menus or finding new supplier of the ingredients in order to reliably, efficiently, and profitably delivering the freshest and highest quality products on a consistent basis or they could lose their business.

Conclusion

In conclusion, Shoney’s Dining and Bar has a good position in the market in this era where they could attract many types of customers from different background and interest. This is because, as mentioned in the introduction the Shoney’s service philosophy is serve with smile and they ensure that the customer is their first priority and important stakeholders. This make the customers feel welcome and enjoy their time and foods at there. Moreover, they also have a better understanding of their market, company and competition as they ensure that they analyse their external and internal opportunities and performances. As mentioned, Shoney’s dining and Bar applying the Political, Economic, Social and Technology (PEST) that influence the external organizational performance. We can see that Shoney’s bound with the law (Registration Act) as they register their food outlet to the authorities and this could give customer trust to dine over there. In terms of the economic, as state above Shoney’s moved from Inanam to Gaya Street because of some political matter and in the city customer are more diverse and they have the potential to market their product and also the customer has the purchasing power. This restaurant also has the ability to compete with other competitors as they go on Blue Ocean strategy where they did not put any specific target market and this can attract many various customers.

Therefore, this restaurant also has a good influence over the market as the owner’s wife is hold the “Unduk Ngadau” title that has a potential to attract the Kadazan Dusun community. Shoney’s did not just state their service philosophy without applying it, this restaurant ensure that the customer satisfied with the service given and help the customer by applying the reservation system that can ensure the customer can dine at there. As stated above the Shoney’s also analyse their internal strengths and weaknesses where this could give the business a good sense of its basic competencies and the desired improvements. The concept and the theme and also the portion of the food with reasonable prices are the main strengths of Shoney’s to compete with their competitors.

The experienced and friendly workers also are one of the strength that Shoney’s have and they used social media as the platforms to market their products and services. However, this restaurant has their own weaknesses in terms of their location, space of the restaurant, limited parking and food choices as they are focus on western food only. Shoney’s could solve these weaknesses by opening the new branch with big space of restaurant and have big area of car park. They also could consider to introducing the new menu but still follow the theme of the restaurant that can attract more customers. To make their service more convenience the Shoney’s may consider to do delivery service to the customers which this can help them to market their food to the potential market.