16 Oct 2010; PN, CEO of a large IT company, was looking at an advertisement in the newspaper, with a sense of satisfaction.
The advertisement was about opening of a new kind of restaurant, called Do-IT-Yourself Restaurant. It was a special restaurant for PN because it was owned and run by his employees.
It was a state-of-the-art restaurant; its speciality was, that one could go there with mates and cook their own food under the guidance of the restaurant staff. Each cooking table was fitted with video screens and each and every step of cooking was instructed by the celebrity chef Sanjeev Kapoor, the most celebrated face of Indian cuisine.
PN’s mind went back three years. That was when this new revolution started in his organization.
It was 23 Oct 2007; PN was traveling from Mumbai to Bangalore, back to his office. He vaguely remembered that the person sitting on his left was some celebrity; Ah yes, he was Sanjeev Kapoor, the celebrity chef who had become an icon. PN congratulated Sanjeev on his achievements and wished him well. They had a good chat on what PN should eat at his age and got a few tips.
PN suddenly remembered that his organisation was hosting the biggest corporate potluck-lunch the next day. It was a great opportunity to invite Sanjeev Kapoor for the event.
Sanjeev readily agreed to be there the next day. The potluck-lunch event was a great success; everyone had brought something for his/ her team. Some people had decorated their lunch tables using vegetables and fruits. It was a fun filled atmosphere. And Sanjeev’s presence added to the excitement.
Sanjeev appreciated the efforts by people. He said, “It is no surprise that you engineers cook so well because I always consider cooking as a science and the kitchen as a laboratory. No wonder you engineers are such good cooks.”
PN thanked the celebrity chef for giving his time to attend the event. Sanjeev, looking at the excited faces, said, “I too enjoyed it and had I known about this event earlier, I would have participated too!”
PN could not resist this opportunity; He responded, “Well Sanjeev; I will create some opportunity so our people can see you more closely.”
Soon after Sanjeev left, PN had a meeting with the team leaders of the Potluck Lunch event. He congratulated them for the excitement the event created, the togetherness he could sense in the teams. He told them what he had promised Sanjeev Kapoor and asked them to come out with ideas on how to make this happen.
A large number of PN’s young engineers worked onsite; a large number of his young engineers had relocated from far away places, away from their families. Learning to cook their food, therefore, was a basic survival skill for them. PN wanted to focus on this need taking help of Sanjeev Kapoor.
Some days later, the team met PN; people came up with something very novel. “We don’t think Sanjeev Kapoor is needed here to teach us cooking because every recipe is available on the internet. But what we want to do is set up a restaurant jointly with him; A do-it-yourself restaurant.”
PN was amused yet curious.
The team had a full plan with them including the funding side of it.
They were quite excited to talk about it.
“We will run regular classes ourselves on weekends for our people to learn cooking. For many of us, cooking is a passion and therefore we do not mind spending time to teach our colleagues.
What we really want to do is set up a restaurant.”
PN asked them, “But what do you know about running a restaurant?”
“That’s where we will need Sanjeev Kapoor’s help. His association will bring about lot of publicity and credibility and professional help.”
PN liked what they were saying.
“We will do our own funding; there are so many thousands of us in the company. People will definitely like to invest in this novel venture.”
PN did not want to dampen their spirits; he knew this excitement will pass once they got busy in their work. The only help they demanded from PN was the support from some of the company’s department so that all the legalities were taken care of.
PN said, “Well, ask them; if you “sell” well, they will help you in their personal time, I am sure. I do not want this venture to be part of our main business. But count me in as far as personal investment is concerned.”
The team went back full of anticipation.
They met with Sanjeev Kapoor and told him the idea; Sanjeev was happy to be part of this venture. This was one-of-a-kind restaurant and he knew it made lot of business sense in a city like Bangalore where the young crowd would love to experiment with cooking.
The teams started their internal publicity and gathered lot of people to learn cooking. In parallel, they started speaking about the DIY restaurant; there was a good response to an idea that all employees together could invest in this venture.
Also, they started producing the instructions videos for several types of combinations of meals, one for a set of two people and the other for a threesome. The instructions ensured that each person’s tasks, when cooking, were complementing the other/s. They included music and jokes in the videos to make cooking interesting. It was a huge task but then there were so many people involved in it and everyone loved what they were doing.
To cut the story short, there was a huge response when the ‘cooks’ invited all staff to invest in the venture. Sanjeev Kapoor invested his own stake in it; The ‘cooking stations’ looked sleek, each with a video screen and also equipped with a video camera, if the guests wanted their cooking to be captured in a video.
The site of the restaurant was finalized, the look and feel and the publicity campaign were finalized, the staff was recruited.
The stage was set for a grand opening.
It was one of the happiest moments for PN when the restaurant opened.
PN met the excited members at their restaurant.
The dream he sold to his team three years ago, actually became a reality.
His staff members loved being part of the revolution. There was great excitement about the stamp they were going to put on the map of their city.
The media splashed rave stories about the employees’ initiative of PN’s organization.
Management experts sang about the various ways the employees could be engaged for better employee satisfaction.
PN felt a deep sense of satisfaction that he could provide a platform for his people to express themselves and be happy. It was a small victory for John Galt[1]!
Did his people stop after this achievement? Of course not – they taught Indian cuisine to their clients’ employees, they taught hygiene and cooking to a lot of women folk from villages and created careers for them (the dial-a-cook project). Their three course meal videos became famous. Well, the list is endless. Suffice to say that a large number of employees of PN’s company got a forum to express themselves, to start a new journey which they only dreamt about.
The advertisement was about opening of a new kind of restaurant, called Do-IT-Yourself Restaurant. It was a special restaurant for PN because it was owned and run by his employees.
It was a state-of-the-art restaurant; its speciality was, that one could go there with mates and cook their own food under the guidance of the restaurant staff. Each cooking table was fitted with video screens and each and every step of cooking was instructed by the celebrity chef Sanjeev Kapoor, the most celebrated face of Indian cuisine.
PN’s mind went back three years. That was when this new revolution started in his organization.
It was 23 Oct 2007; PN was traveling from Mumbai to Bangalore, back to his office. He vaguely remembered that the person sitting on his left was some celebrity; Ah yes, he was Sanjeev Kapoor, the celebrity chef who had become an icon. PN congratulated Sanjeev on his achievements and wished him well. They had a good chat on what PN should eat at his age and got a few tips.
PN suddenly remembered that his organisation was hosting the biggest corporate potluck-lunch the next day. It was a great opportunity to invite Sanjeev Kapoor for the event.
Sanjeev readily agreed to be there the next day. The potluck-lunch event was a great success; everyone had brought something for his/ her team. Some people had decorated their lunch tables using vegetables and fruits. It was a fun filled atmosphere. And Sanjeev’s presence added to the excitement.
Sanjeev appreciated the efforts by people. He said, “It is no surprise that you engineers cook so well because I always consider cooking as a science and the kitchen as a laboratory. No wonder you engineers are such good cooks.”
PN thanked the celebrity chef for giving his time to attend the event. Sanjeev, looking at the excited faces, said, “I too enjoyed it and had I known about this event earlier, I would have participated too!”
PN could not resist this opportunity; He responded, “Well Sanjeev; I will create some opportunity so our people can see you more closely.”
Soon after Sanjeev left, PN had a meeting with the team leaders of the Potluck Lunch event. He congratulated them for the excitement the event created, the togetherness he could sense in the teams. He told them what he had promised Sanjeev Kapoor and asked them to come out with ideas on how to make this happen.
A large number of PN’s young engineers worked onsite; a large number of his young engineers had relocated from far away places, away from their families. Learning to cook their food, therefore, was a basic survival skill for them. PN wanted to focus on this need taking help of Sanjeev Kapoor.
Some days later, the team met PN; people came up with something very novel. “We don’t think Sanjeev Kapoor is needed here to teach us cooking because every recipe is available on the internet. But what we want to do is set up a restaurant jointly with him; A do-it-yourself restaurant.”
PN was amused yet curious.
The team had a full plan with them including the funding side of it.
They were quite excited to talk about it.
“We will run regular classes ourselves on weekends for our people to learn cooking. For many of us, cooking is a passion and therefore we do not mind spending time to teach our colleagues.
What we really want to do is set up a restaurant.”
PN asked them, “But what do you know about running a restaurant?”
“That’s where we will need Sanjeev Kapoor’s help. His association will bring about lot of publicity and credibility and professional help.”
PN liked what they were saying.
“We will do our own funding; there are so many thousands of us in the company. People will definitely like to invest in this novel venture.”
PN did not want to dampen their spirits; he knew this excitement will pass once they got busy in their work. The only help they demanded from PN was the support from some of the company’s department so that all the legalities were taken care of.
PN said, “Well, ask them; if you “sell” well, they will help you in their personal time, I am sure. I do not want this venture to be part of our main business. But count me in as far as personal investment is concerned.”
The team went back full of anticipation.
They met with Sanjeev Kapoor and told him the idea; Sanjeev was happy to be part of this venture. This was one-of-a-kind restaurant and he knew it made lot of business sense in a city like Bangalore where the young crowd would love to experiment with cooking.
The teams started their internal publicity and gathered lot of people to learn cooking. In parallel, they started speaking about the DIY restaurant; there was a good response to an idea that all employees together could invest in this venture.
Also, they started producing the instructions videos for several types of combinations of meals, one for a set of two people and the other for a threesome. The instructions ensured that each person’s tasks, when cooking, were complementing the other/s. They included music and jokes in the videos to make cooking interesting. It was a huge task but then there were so many people involved in it and everyone loved what they were doing.
To cut the story short, there was a huge response when the ‘cooks’ invited all staff to invest in the venture. Sanjeev Kapoor invested his own stake in it; The ‘cooking stations’ looked sleek, each with a video screen and also equipped with a video camera, if the guests wanted their cooking to be captured in a video.
The site of the restaurant was finalized, the look and feel and the publicity campaign were finalized, the staff was recruited.
The stage was set for a grand opening.
It was one of the happiest moments for PN when the restaurant opened.
PN met the excited members at their restaurant.
The dream he sold to his team three years ago, actually became a reality.
His staff members loved being part of the revolution. There was great excitement about the stamp they were going to put on the map of their city.
The media splashed rave stories about the employees’ initiative of PN’s organization.
Management experts sang about the various ways the employees could be engaged for better employee satisfaction.
PN felt a deep sense of satisfaction that he could provide a platform for his people to express themselves and be happy. It was a small victory for John Galt[1]!
Did his people stop after this achievement? Of course not – they taught Indian cuisine to their clients’ employees, they taught hygiene and cooking to a lot of women folk from villages and created careers for them (the dial-a-cook project). Their three course meal videos became famous. Well, the list is endless. Suffice to say that a large number of employees of PN’s company got a forum to express themselves, to start a new journey which they only dreamt about.
[1] John Galt is a key character in the magnum opus “Atlas Shrugged” (1957) by Ayn Rand. “Atlas Shrugged” is about how John Galt creates an Atlantis, a place where the only moral purpose of life for people was to achieve their own happiness.
2 comments:
what does this PN stand for?
PN is the name of the CEO, who is the hero of my book.
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