Yeah I know you weren't, George created the original idea obvs but you added to it later on with some of the Lebanese meals and stuff you were suggesting. Steve may have too though, I can't even remember now.
Oh yeah but that had nothing to do with the concept and the theme.
I have one further question for each team before I make a decision:
Inspired, it is clear tome from the evaluations I've received and what I've heard from my advisor that the menu was the large focus on the task with most of the delegation done being in regards to the menu. Whilst the menu is of importance, there were quite a few other aspects to the task and it did appear that other aspects of your pitch seemed like they hadn't been very well thought through as a result, such as the idea about advertising the restaurant on 'The One Show' and only allowing 12 members of the public to attend the launch party and making them have to 'win' a ticket, despite the purpose of the launch party to be to make as many people aware of your restaurant as possible. Why was there such a big focus on the menu in this task?
Aptitude, an issue with your pitch for both viewers and me and my advisors alike was the locations, we didn't really understand the reason between choosing less multicultural places in favour of places like London. Also, it does seem a bit of a risk to immediately start 5 different restaurants across the country despite the brand not being established yet, and logistically it would probably be much wiser to start with one and focus on making that a success before you consider opening more. Who decided on these locations, and can you give us more insight behind the reasoning of this decision?
We decided on other places, as the sheer cost of London shops! The price of somewhere else means that 5 places, would be the same price of two innercity locations with the price of rent.
The locations, I believe, fell at the feet of Roxie. At one time it was suggested that Leeds would be a location for a restaurant, although this was on the incorrect assumption that Leeds was not 'cultural' which is what I believe the team was going for. I live in York, so I have spent many evenings in Leeds over the years and I personally believe that Leeds is diverse, hence why I believed Leeds would be a good location: for differing reasons for my team. Like many things on the task, once the locations were decided they were pretty much not up for debate and I asked for the progress on the locations multiple times as I'd have liked to have linked the launch party more explicitly to the location, however, I was told to 'find them yourself in the chat' so even if I did know, I doubt I'd have been able to change anything at the last minute.
I have one further question for each team before I make a decision:
Inspired, it is clear from me from the evaluations I've received and what I've heard from my advisor that the menu was the large focus on the task with most of the delegation done being in regards to the menu. Whilst the menu is of importance, there were quite a few other aspects to the task and it did appear that other aspects of your pitch seemed like they hadn't been very well thought through as a result, such as the idea about advertising the restaurant on 'The One Show' and only allowing 12 members of the public to attend the launch party and making them have to 'win' a ticket, despite the purpose of the launch party to be to make as many people aware of your restaurant as possible. Why was there such a big focus on the menu in this task?
Aptitude, an issue with your pitch for both viewers and me and my advisors alike was the locations, we didn't really understand the reason between choosing less multicultural places in favour of places like London. Also, it does seem a bit of a risk to immediately start 5 different restaurants across the country despite the brand not being established yet, and logistically it would probably be much wiser to start with one and focus on making that a success before you consider opening more. Who decided on these locations, and can you give us more insight behind the reasoning of this decision?
Roxie was in charge of locations, but i think we all backed her idea to choose locations that would less likely have places like Tropicity. Also, the cost and competition supported the locations she had chosen. We had decided on a chain as we felt it was a unique, and creative venture which we needed to capitalize on but i do think we should have thought more on both of these points.
Inspired, it is clear from me from the evaluations I've received and what I've heard from my advisor that the menu was the large focus on the task with most of the delegation done being in regards to the menu. Whilst the menu is of importance, there were quite a few other aspects to the task and it did appear that other aspects of your pitch seemed like they hadn't been very well thought through as a result, such as the idea about advertising the restaurant on 'The One Show' and only allowing 12 members of the public to attend the launch party and making them have to 'win' a ticket, despite the purpose of the launch party to be to make as many people aware of your restaurant as possible. Why was there such a big focus on the menu in this task?
I dunno really, that's just what we seemed to take the most time over doing. I guess because the theme of our restaurant required a lot of thought over the ingredients and recipes since it was all ethical related. The launch party wasn't even discussed much until the end of the task.
A fairly positive appraisal of George as a PM overall it appears, although I did get a slightly different response from a team member who is not able to be here right now...
Inspired, whose idea was it to go down the 'ethical foods' route? Was this a unanimous decision, or were there people less enthused about the idea than others?
I'm so sorry about how long it is taking me to respond. I'm having serious trouble with my Internet connection, and it has honestly taken this long to load the page to reply. Hopefully things will be quicker soon.
The idea was mine initially, but the rest of the team got on board fairly quickly. Mitch wasn't happy with it and had an alternative suggestion, but I personally felt that this idea would work better and the rest of the team seemed to be more on my wavelength with that, so I overruled him.
Yes Lord Sugar, I will clarify the locations to you as yes I was fully responsible for them. I answered these questions for Oxygen and David on the other thread but I will clarify futher.
We are opening 5 restaurants to start out with rather than 1 or 2 because firstly the concept is a fairly unique idea, there is a big market for this kind of restaurant - the traditional British family, and we want our idea to reach out to as many people as possible thus spreading it out around Britain. And not 10, because that would not be cost effective enough and be far too risky.
Secondly the costs of setting up these restaurants would be minimal in the locations I have pinpointed, in well-established metropolitan areas but that are not too big as to incur massive costs as setting up a restaurant in London/Birmingham/Manchester would be far too great - costing roughly ten times more than other smaller but equally as significant areas such as Cornwall where purchasing building space is around £20,000 compared to somewhere like London which is around the regions of £140,000 to £200,000. So setting up 5 restaurants is very much feasible. We can set up five restaurants in these less expensive metropolitan areas for half the cost of setting up one in London. I hope that clarifies why not London.
Regarding the actual locations themselves, we wanted less multicultural areas because there is less of a chance of encountering competition. There are many Indian restaurants like the Blue Elephant for example in London which already do what we do and have already acquired a loyal consumer base.
Also Devon and Cornwall are great locations because they attract lots of native British tourists especially families which are our prime consumer base. Also the whole idea of tropical cuisine is to bring the holiday to you - they don't have to go abroad to visit these exotic locations e.g. go all the way to India, go through the effort of getting vaccinations/visas/flights, when it is located right next to them. The beach location basically enhances the whole tropical idea and really sets the scene.
I have one further question for each team before I make a decision:
Inspired, it is clear tome from the evaluations I've received and what I've heard from my advisor that the menu was the large focus on the task with most of the delegation done being in regards to the menu. Whilst the menu is of importance, there were quite a few other aspects to the task and it did appear that other aspects of your pitch seemed like they hadn't been very well thought through as a result, such as the idea about advertising the restaurant on 'The One Show' and only allowing 12 members of the public to attend the launch party and making them have to 'win' a ticket, despite the purpose of the launch party to be to make as many people aware of your restaurant as possible. Why was there such a big focus on the menu in this task?
I will answer the part about the allowing 12 members of the public. Initially, it was going to be all socialites attending. It was brought up that maybe people from the public should attend so whereas we could've just handed random people tickets, we wanted to raise as much awareness as possible. I know that if I am walking on the street and I get handed a ticket to a launch party, I wouldn't really feel that it's valuable, but winning it adds an extra layer. And moreover, I think that giving the people who lost a discount during their first visit would entice them to come. It was purely a marketing strategy to maximize and milk the exposure and I do think it was a smart strategy. We had originally wanted 20 people but George thought that 20 was too much so it was cut to 12.
Thank you for your responses. Aptitude, I understanding your reasoning and it does appear that a lot of thought has gone into it, however I do still think that London may have been a more viable option for a location - I am aware that the costs of starting a restaurant in London would be considerably higher but could you not have compensated for that by only opening it in London instead of instantly five different locations across the country? That would have probably cost less and been a much for logical decision, I feel. Even if there are similar restaurants I don't see this as a massive problem as London is such a huge place I'm sure you would have been able to find a location that does not have anything similar in close proximity? Inspired, I definitely do feel that the over focus on the menu was an issue on this task as a whole and it does appear as a result less focus has gone on other important aspects of the task.
Anyway, I think I've heard enough now, time to make a decision...
I have one further question for each team before I make a decision:
Inspired, it is clear tome from the evaluations I've received and what I've heard from my advisor that the menu was the large focus on the task with most of the delegation done being in regards to the menu. Whilst the menu is of importance, there were quite a few other aspects to the task and it did appear that other aspects of your pitch seemed like they hadn't been very well thought through as a result, such as the idea about advertising the restaurant on 'The One Show' and only allowing 12 members of the public to attend the launch party and making them have to 'win' a ticket, despite the purpose of the launch party to be to make as many people aware of your restaurant as possible. Why was there such a big focus on the menu in this task?
Aptitude, an issue with your pitch for both viewers and me and my advisors alike was the locations, we didn't really understand the reason between choosing less multicultural places in favour of places like London. Also, it does seem a bit of a risk to immediately start 5 different restaurants across the country despite the brand not being established yet, and logistically it would probably be much wiser to start with one and focus on making that a success before you consider opening more. Who decided on these locations, and can you give us more insight behind the reasoning of this decision?
That was mostly my decision. Some of the team wanted to work on other parts of it from earlier on, but once we had our theme I wanted to spend the first couple of days designing the menu and then later work on other things such as the launch party. I felt that we had enough time to do that, and also I tend to feel that the menu is the most important part of any restaurant. You can have the best theme in the world, but if the food is horrible, it's a waste of time.
Maybe that was the wrong decision. It seemed like a good idea at the time, and it still seems like a good idea in all honesty, but maybe I could have managed things differently. What I will say though is that we started work on the launch party at exactly the time that I said we would, and quite a lot of the time it did seem like myself and Shadi were doing most of the work on it. The other four chipped in occasionally, but it was really the two of us working on the launch party and the other promotional aspects over and above the rest of the group.
Aptitude, we thought your initial idea was great and had plenty of potential. However, we do feel that it could have done with more development and work. It all seemed a bit half baked, and to be completely honest your pitch was a bit of mess and all seemed a bit last minute.
Inspired, on the other hand, despite it appearing that the majority of your pitch was done last minute, we actually thought it was a very good pitch with lots of conviction and thought behind it. However, the problem with your team was the idea itself. We felt that 'ethical foods' is not a strong enough theme to carry your restaurant itself, and we feel that the restaurant itself appeared pretty generic and did not adhere to the creativity aspect of the brief that was made very clear.
We feel that despite there being clear flaws in your pitch and conceptualisation of the restaurant, overall your restaurant has much more potential and with a few tweeks could potentially be something that could actually work. Inspired, unfortunately we feel that your restaurant would not be able to stand up against tough competition from other restaurants with a lack of clear theme and identity, and anything that makes it stand out from the rest of the market, and therefore we cannot award you the win.
Comments
Oh yeah but that had nothing to do with the concept and the theme.
Inspired, it is clear tome from the evaluations I've received and what I've heard from my advisor that the menu was the large focus on the task with most of the delegation done being in regards to the menu. Whilst the menu is of importance, there were quite a few other aspects to the task and it did appear that other aspects of your pitch seemed like they hadn't been very well thought through as a result, such as the idea about advertising the restaurant on 'The One Show' and only allowing 12 members of the public to attend the launch party and making them have to 'win' a ticket, despite the purpose of the launch party to be to make as many people aware of your restaurant as possible. Why was there such a big focus on the menu in this task?
Aptitude, an issue with your pitch for both viewers and me and my advisors alike was the locations, we didn't really understand the reason between choosing less multicultural places in favour of places like London. Also, it does seem a bit of a risk to immediately start 5 different restaurants across the country despite the brand not being established yet, and logistically it would probably be much wiser to start with one and focus on making that a success before you consider opening more. Who decided on these locations, and can you give us more insight behind the reasoning of this decision?
Roxie was in charge of locations, but i think we all backed her idea to choose locations that would less likely have places like Tropicity. Also, the cost and competition supported the locations she had chosen. We had decided on a chain as we felt it was a unique, and creative venture which we needed to capitalize on but i do think we should have thought more on both of these points.
I'm so sorry about how long it is taking me to respond. I'm having serious trouble with my Internet connection, and it has honestly taken this long to load the page to reply. Hopefully things will be quicker soon.
The idea was mine initially, but the rest of the team got on board fairly quickly. Mitch wasn't happy with it and had an alternative suggestion, but I personally felt that this idea would work better and the rest of the team seemed to be more on my wavelength with that, so I overruled him.
We are opening 5 restaurants to start out with rather than 1 or 2 because firstly the concept is a fairly unique idea, there is a big market for this kind of restaurant - the traditional British family, and we want our idea to reach out to as many people as possible thus spreading it out around Britain. And not 10, because that would not be cost effective enough and be far too risky.
Secondly the costs of setting up these restaurants would be minimal in the locations I have pinpointed, in well-established metropolitan areas but that are not too big as to incur massive costs as setting up a restaurant in London/Birmingham/Manchester would be far too great - costing roughly ten times more than other smaller but equally as significant areas such as Cornwall where purchasing building space is around £20,000 compared to somewhere like London which is around the regions of £140,000 to £200,000. So setting up 5 restaurants is very much feasible. We can set up five restaurants in these less expensive metropolitan areas for half the cost of setting up one in London. I hope that clarifies why not London.
Regarding the actual locations themselves, we wanted less multicultural areas because there is less of a chance of encountering competition. There are many Indian restaurants like the Blue Elephant for example in London which already do what we do and have already acquired a loyal consumer base.
Also Devon and Cornwall are great locations because they attract lots of native British tourists especially families which are our prime consumer base. Also the whole idea of tropical cuisine is to bring the holiday to you - they don't have to go abroad to visit these exotic locations e.g. go all the way to India, go through the effort of getting vaccinations/visas/flights, when it is located right next to them. The beach location basically enhances the whole tropical idea and really sets the scene.
I will answer the part about the allowing 12 members of the public. Initially, it was going to be all socialites attending. It was brought up that maybe people from the public should attend so whereas we could've just handed random people tickets, we wanted to raise as much awareness as possible. I know that if I am walking on the street and I get handed a ticket to a launch party, I wouldn't really feel that it's valuable, but winning it adds an extra layer. And moreover, I think that giving the people who lost a discount during their first visit would entice them to come. It was purely a marketing strategy to maximize and milk the exposure and I do think it was a smart strategy. We had originally wanted 20 people but George thought that 20 was too much so it was cut to 12.
Anyway, I think I've heard enough now, time to make a decision...
That was mostly my decision. Some of the team wanted to work on other parts of it from earlier on, but once we had our theme I wanted to spend the first couple of days designing the menu and then later work on other things such as the launch party. I felt that we had enough time to do that, and also I tend to feel that the menu is the most important part of any restaurant. You can have the best theme in the world, but if the food is horrible, it's a waste of time.
Maybe that was the wrong decision. It seemed like a good idea at the time, and it still seems like a good idea in all honesty, but maybe I could have managed things differently. What I will say though is that we started work on the launch party at exactly the time that I said we would, and quite a lot of the time it did seem like myself and Shadi were doing most of the work on it. The other four chipped in occasionally, but it was really the two of us working on the launch party and the other promotional aspects over and above the rest of the group.
Inspired, on the other hand, despite it appearing that the majority of your pitch was done last minute, we actually thought it was a very good pitch with lots of conviction and thought behind it. However, the problem with your team was the idea itself. We felt that 'ethical foods' is not a strong enough theme to carry your restaurant itself, and we feel that the restaurant itself appeared pretty generic and did not adhere to the creativity aspect of the brief that was made very clear.
However, we have made a decision...
My internet is finally back up and running.
"Bites nails"
We feel that despite there being clear flaws in your pitch and conceptualisation of the restaurant, overall your restaurant has much more potential and with a few tweeks could potentially be something that could actually work. Inspired, unfortunately we feel that your restaurant would not be able to stand up against tough competition from other restaurants with a lack of clear theme and identity, and anything that makes it stand out from the rest of the market, and therefore we cannot award you the win.
Commiserations Team Inspired
Well done Aptitude.