In: Operations Management
Despite all the significant benefits that arise of the practice of marketing, it remains a human activity. Marketing has flaws which have been highly publicised in recent times. " Despite the social criticisms of marketing that Hungry Lion should be cognisant of." Your answer should include the impact of those criticisms on the operations of Hungry Lion. 25 ma
The Continent’s Progressive QSR Player
Stellenbosch-based fast food specialist Hungry Lion has found
ideal footing for expansion over the coming years, owed to
optimised operations and an admirable outlook
Writer: Jonathan Dyble | Project Manager: Josh Hyland
MARKETING MANAGEMENT
Adrian Basson is a self-described Afro-optimistic. “There’s no
hiding from the fact that there are a lot of challenges in Africa,
but retail is a promising sector when it comes to facilitating
opportunities, creating employment and generally building a
business that can have a widespread impact,” he says.
“When you reach a remote town with an empty plot, the local
people don’t often have much. But as we’ve built new stores and
helped to launch new shopping centres, we’ve been able to not only
witness, but also facilitate the construction of new, thriving
ecosystems. We’re proud to be a business that contributes to the
success of these societies – I guess you could say we’re a
capitalist business with a socialist outlook.”
Basson, now CEO, became part of the Hungry Lion story in 2001
and has seen the company come a long way over the past two decades
to be the responsible, esteemed organisation it is today.
Having opened its first restaurant in South Africa in 1997, the
business today proudly operates a network constituting over 200
stores across South Africa, Lesotho, Swaziland, Botswana, Namibia,
Zambia and Angola, with over 4,000 Hungry Lion employees. Looking
at the bigger picture, however, such statistics only touch the
surface of what the brand is bringing to the region.
“In many ways I like to think that our product is an
afterthought in what we’re looking to achieve,” explains Basson.
“Yes, serving bigger portions, more chips and more smiles is key to
our operations, but it’s just one part of our overriding goal –
providing joy to our employees, customers and local communities
through food, served with passion.”
This ethos is relatively new to the firm, becoming more of a
core focus during the company’s major rebranding process that
kickstarted in 2014. Having originally been part of the Shoprite
Group, Africa’s largest food supermarket chain, Hungry Lion is now
a totally independent company in its own right with a unique brand
and character.
“In the beginning, we weren’t really building a brand,” reveals
Basson. “We purely sold chicken and chips at an affordable price on
a somewhat ad-hoc basis. However, we eventually found ourselves
with 100-plus stores, and with the economic challenges that came
around in 2008/09, we realised that stores without a brand, a
story, and an experience would fail to deliver in the long term. It
was a case of changing with the times and we invested a lot into
the design of our stores, our product quality and consistency,
together with the development of the brand itself.”
Since transitioning from being a business-centric to a
customer-centric brand, Hungry Lion has reaped the rewards with the
business undergoing stratospheric growth over the past few
years.
Adding a modern twist
Moving in this re-energised direction, strategy changes quickly
followed for Hungry Lion, evidence of which can be found in the
firm’s increasing use and the implementation of revolutionary
technologies.
Fast forward to today, the company now benefits from artificial
intelligence, automated system checks, cloud computing and live
dashboards – technologies which serve multiple purposes in the way
of driving the business forward. This together with an always
connected workforce, makes executing operationally so much more
efficient.
“I’ve always had a connection with technology,” Basson reveals.
“I used to work in the technology division of Compaq in London and
also formerly as the Chief Digital Officer of Shoprite for a
period. We live in an era where we can augment the people with
technology to do the repetitive stuff, so that they can focus on
the more human touches.”
In a space where most others in the fast food industry are
franchised and owner-managed, Hungry Lion is unique in the African
landscape, with almost all stores being fully-owned and managed
from its Head Office. This is where automated systems and clever
use of technology comes to the forefront in managing the business
over vast distances and across borders.
“With technology comes data and with data comes insight,” Basson
continues. “Using our systems, we’re able to see the performance of
each of our stores in real time, have an overview of customer
experience, and execute plans to fix problems at speed and scale.
These capabilities would never have been possible if we didn’t have
the right technologies in place.” With full visibility of
information comes accountability, since everyone can see what needs
to be done and if it was done. Transparency is a crucial merit of
these technologies, a cultural trait of Hungry Lion that is
accentuated in other ways.
Basson adds: “We have a network of area, country and regional
managers who act as an extension of our Head office in
Stellenbosch. Head office employees pay regular visits to different
regions to keep a finger on the pulse of local operations. Our area
and country managers, in turn, come to Head Office regularly for
updates to business processes, training, and meetings. This
constant exposure in both directions ensures that best practises
are shared and implemented to all stores quickly.”
Prosperous career planning
Combined with both these expansive technologies and a
transparent, remodelled structure, Hungry Lion recognises that its
staff are key to achieving the firm’s ongoing ambitions.
To this end, the company ensures that it provides extensive
benefits to its employees, bolstering its position as an employer
of choice and equally its talent retention capabilities.
Such initiatives include the introduction of E-learning
materials in five languages and the company’s live in-house
training platform from LessonDesk, a comprehensive new employee
assistance programme, access to affordable healthcare for employees
and more specialised and tailored training programmes.
What’s more, Hungry Lion has a strong focus on career planning,
testament to its culture of internal promotion.
“Typically speaking, joining a fast food business as the lowest
level of employee, the pay isn’t fantastic and it’s not uncommon
for these workers to have bigger aspirations,” explains Basson.
“What we’ve realised is you can either listen to and facilitate
these ambitions, or your workers will leave and look for
opportunities elsewhere. We like to pursue the former, providing
clear career paths for our inspirational and aspirational workers.
From cashiers to controllers to junior managers to regional
managers, and so on, this personal growth structure is in place at
Hungry Lion.”
A core part of the company’s ethos, providing key opportunities
to reward loyalty and ambition, Hungry Lion offers not just a job
but an all-encompassing opportunity to build a prosperous
career.
A sound, responsible outlook
Such a humble and grounded approach is not only applied
internally, but equally externally through a number of corporate
social responsibility initiatives.
These are built around Hungry Lion’s three-pillar CSR strategy,
with the organisation contributing towards hunger alleviation,
championing change in local communities and promoting skills
development.
Between February and March of this year alone, for example, the
company provided food for the attendees of a seminar addressing the
issue of domestic violence, pupils of an underprivileged primary
school during a field trip and fire fighters in the Western Cape,
while also supporting a Soweto children’s home and a local police
station’s cricket tournament for rural schools.
“It’s an element to our business that we take pride in,” reveals
Basson. “We like to show that we care for our communities,
customers and especially our employees and their families. There’s
a lot of need in Africa from a poverty standpoint and being in the
food business we’re able to help local communities in addressing
such issues. I wouldn’t say we have a set agenda – ad hoc
opportunities arise, and we react accordingly in each of the
locations that we’re based, helping to give people a sense of
purpose and promote skills of local communities.”
Asked about a particular such initiative that springs to mind,
Basson is quick to highlight the company’s efforts in supporting
the Zambian people during a cholera outbreak at the beginning of
2017.
He continues: “We immediately lowered the prices of our food,
ensuring people could get nutritious, safe and affordable food, we
donated money to the government that was used to help with the
clean-up process. We even provided sanitation kits to our staff,
helping them clean their own living environments to ensure their
family’s health.”
Having developed a culture that is firmly centred around
providing benefit to all people, whether it’s supporting local
communities or providing unrivalled, progressive career
opportunities, Hungry Lion’s outlook is unique and
admirable.
Opportunity is a word that is creating an atmosphere of
excitement within the company at the moment, with continued
expansion firmly on the table for Hungry Lion after experiencing
double digit percent organic growth over the past two
years.
“We’ve set 20 new stores as a benchmark, but realistically this
is a ball-park figure on the conservative side,” reveals Basson.
“If we can open 50 stores then we’ll do it – if we find a good site
where we can profitably trade, we will open. There aren’t any
specific limitations.”
New systems and optimised procedures in place, last year’s
corporate action, focus on organic growth, and consolidation
allowed Hungry Lion to not only transition into independence, but
equally provided the platform for the company to gear up for full
throttle expansion over the coming years.
“We’re realistic at the same time,” Basson continues. “We understand that we cannot conquer the whole continent in 2019 or 2020, but the plan is to grow as fast as possible. Africa has around 1.2 billon people but in the next three decades this number will double. Further, there are 54 countries across Africa, countries that we know we’ll have a good chance of being able to expand into, whether it be through franchises, joint ventures, or other kinds of partnerships. The opportunities are immense, and I feel our business is a prime example as to why it’s a great time to be investing on the continent right now. I just hope that others will come and join us in the fun!”
Despite the social criticisms of marketing that Hungry Lion should be cognisant of the environment in which the company is working by contributing to society through employment generation and building a business that has a wider impact. The company has been able to develop a brand and adopt a capitalistic business with socialistic outlook by establishing a thriving ecosystem in the region. The company focuses on providing joy to all stakeholders including the employees, customers and local communities through food, which is served with passion.
The brand has created a story and an experience that is focussed on long term unlike the other companies which are short term oriented and focussed on profit alone. This implies the company has been able to focus by being customer centric as against being only business centric which is a flaw of marketing with most companies.
The implementation of revolutionary technologies has helped not only the business but has benefited the company on multiple fronts including the efficient running of operations and managing business over distances and across borders. The company has been able to recruit staffs and retain them. The company runs various initiatives like E-learning materials in five languages and the company’s live in-house training platform from LessonDesk, a comprehensive new employee assistance programme, access to affordable healthcare for employees and more specialised and tailored training programmes. In addition the company has a strong focus on career planning, and a culture of internal promotion. The employees and staff are benefiting from the initiatives of the company.
The company’s approach to running business has been applied for corporate social responsibility initiatives that help in hunger alleviation, welfare of the local communities and promoting skills development.