Title: Go-for-the-Jugular
Idea: Old
wounds run deep
Plot: Humiliated when studying in an engineering college, efforts to avenge by targeting his batchmate’s business fails, but leads to reconciliation
Genre: Drama
Script Regn No (SWA): 36461
Membership No: 49484
Seg I
A young man, Rakesh, working for one of the top 20 global consulting companies waits his turn in the queue in the staff canteen to place and pick up his meal. It’s taking a while as people are consulting the menu card and then placing the order.
Seg II
He wonders what if there was a website or mobile app for his colleagues to view the menu and place the order with an order number that is confirmed on the app and flashed on the digital screen for the person to walk up and collect the order. The order can be paid for online and so no waiting to pay. For a consulting company that’s one helluva productivity move.
Seg III
Rakesh after getting his meal joins Manoj at his table and shares the idea with him. Manoj runs the technology practice for the firm. He gets excited. Rakesh asks Manoj if one his engineering guys can work on the app. Manoj says no. Rakesh is taken aback by the abruptness of Manoj’s response. Manoj says let’s do it outside of the company and offer to the company as our product.
Seg IV
Rakesh cannot believe what he is hearing. In his gut he knows that Manoj
is right. Manoj says let’s put some capital together of $50,000 (25 each) and
start a company. Rakesh says he has a friend from his engineering days,
Haridas, who is a tech nerd who is based in Bangalore India, with a
full-fledged engineering and software development team. Manoj says they should engage
him and give him a 10% share in the company as sweat equity unless he wants to
put in capital and become an equal partner. Manoj says Haridas would be glad to
get two business guys as his partners while we a tech nerd as our partner.
Seg V
Haridas is thrilled to hear from Rakesh. Being a nerd, Haridas, was often bullied by his college mates. Particularly by Ritesh and his gang. Haridas walked peculiarly. He always had his back to the wall for reasons inexplicable. Ritesh and his gang when they came across Haridas in the hallway would imitate him. They would line up one behind the other and walk sideways with their back to the wall. It became a cruel joke and some others also joined in.
Seg VI
Rakesh was street smart, as well as, a give-as-a-get guy, who very early in his college term had made clear, ‘Mess with me and be ready to be messed with big time’. He came from a village legendary for wrestling and a sport called kabaddi where you held your breath and had to touch a player on the opposing side and head back to your side without being brought down on their side. The folks from the village know how to give back should someone mess with them. They know how to tackle any situation (metaphorically speaking).
Seg VII
Rakesh made it clear that Haridas is his friend. ‘Mess with him and you mess with me’. Haridas paid for protection by helping Rakesh with his assignment where math, physics, and data was involved.
Seg VIII
Rakesh hears of Ritesh & Gang’s antics with Haridas. Ritesh is a foodie. He loves to eat. He loves pulses in particular. Rakesh & Gang decide to fix Ritesh. But before doing that Rakesh gives Ritesh fair warning. To lay off Haridas. Ritesh tells Rakesh to mind his own business. Rakesh retorts that Haridas is his business. Prophetic in some sense given the way the future unravels.
Seg IX
Venky is part of Rakesh’s gang. He is a ventriloquist. They get hold of H2S gas from the chemistry lab. When Ritesh is with someone significant – his girlfriend, HOD, interviewing for campus placement …Venky from close quarters but hidden makes gurgling sounds and a whistle-like suppressed exhalations. Simultaneously, he releases the H2S from a balloon which adds to the whole sound effect. There is visible discomfort in the room with the stink. Invariably, the meeting is cut short.
Seg X
Soon Ritesh gets a reputation for gas leak. People pass his table and see what he is eating and avoid eating whatever he is eating. This messes up the canteen menu when people en bloc reject ordering whatever Ritesh is eating. Ritesh becomes a joke on the campus and a wreck. He leaves the course midway.
Seg XI
When he is heading out with his bag and baggage, Rakesh and Ritesh cross each other. Rakesh tells him that he had given him a fair warning not to mess with him. Ritesh says this a small world. We will meet again. Rakesh tells him not to forget what happened here. History repeats itself. Or at least it rhymes. Prophetic words from each.
Seg XII
Haridas tells Rakesh to draw up the papers and he will sign it and
transfer the money to be an equal partner with Rakesh and Manoj. Rakesh tells
Haridas about the plan to develop an app. Haridas responds with ‘if you have
thought of it, it has to be good. Tell me what you want done’. Rakesh shares
the online menu idea for an app that will enable people to pre-place and pay
for the order at the consulting company canteen and collect the order from the
counter when the order number is flashed on the canteen digital screen and
alert appears on the app. Haridas asks Rakesh to share the menu card with him
which Rakesh does.
Seg XIII
Haridas has the app ready in a jiffy with a clean interface and easy
navigation to choose and pay. Rakesh contacts another colleague from his
management education days, Janardhan, who works for a payment company and tells
him about the pilot they are doing. Janardhan says he will provide the API for
partner payment companies for the customer to pay with credit or debit or net
banking. He will set up a pilot project with them and provide the necessary
input for payment from the app.
Seg XIV
Rakesh approaches the restaurant chain owner Mehul who runs the canteen on a contract basis at the consulting company. Mehul jumps at the idea because he can see the potential for his chain of restaurants. He offers the app to the consulting company as his product (thereby avoiding any conflict of interest for Rakesh and Manoj). It is a big hit with the 300 staff at the site who download the app and order from there.
Seg XV
Soon Mehul offers the app at all the companies where he is running the canteen including on a test basis to his regular customers at his chain restaurant. They enjoy the experience and invite their friends to dine at the restaurant just for the experience.
Seg XVI
The app at the backend managed by Rakesh-Manoj-Haridas (RMH Enterprises) uploads individual restaurant menus for Mehul’s restaurants. In a matter of six months there are over 5000 downloads of the app and Average Daily Users except Weekends (ADUeWs) at 75% of the downloads.
Seg XVII
People at the corporate canteens place the order mid-morning giving Mehul’s staff time to organize the ingredients, prepare the kitchen, organize food parcels with order number in the sequence in which it comes in.
Seg XVIII
The app alerts the customer when an order is not available and recommends
three alternate choices to click on – thereby not losing a customer – and also
educating the customer on assortment, availability and affordability.
Seg XIX
Additionally the app provides information on the authenticity of source of ingredients, calorie count of each dish, past orders and total spends, loyalty points in cash to use with next order, calendar of auspicious days, “drink water” and other topical alerts, making the app so sticky that leaving home without the phone is to stare at starvation and worse. Reminiscent of AMEX Card line “Don’t leave home without it”
Seg XX
Furthermore, Mehul’s staff, based on the day of the week, can create
menus on the fly, and also know when orders will drop as some days are fasting
days for some communities. Those days orders for juices and fruit plates go up.
Some of these things Mehul’s staff instinctively knew based on their years in
the business. Now the backend of the app designed for the partner provides
forecasts of demand based on seasons and other emerging trends.
Seg XXI
Janardhan at the payments company and Mehul running the chain of restaurant
and part-time investor pepper RMH to sell stake in the company. They suggest
(even if it meant competition for Mehul but as an entrepreneur he believes in
‘cannibalising’ his business rather than getting ‘disrupted’). Mehul believes
he can make pay dirt from his investment in RMH then from his high cost / low
margin / cash rich restaurant business which is always at the mercy of food
inspectors and tax authorities and with real estate prices spiralling making
the restaurant business without a level of regular traffic uneconomical. To him
the app addresses stickiness and traffic.
A good thing to have for his business and for his future wealth creation
prospects.
Seg XXII
Mehul proposes to RMH to scale the idea before someone else beats them to it. He suggests that they list restaurants and their offering, location, etc. For profitable growth he suggests they target cities on three criteria: 10 million+ population (work downwards from there) + benchmark level per capita income growth of the city + upward trend in new restaurants being set up to meet the demand.
Seg XXIII
Mehul suggests the sources of revenue for the app: charge for listing the restaurant on the app with relevant information; advertising on the app from the restaurant; subscription for discounted ‘friends and family’ (F&F) dining scheme – order multiple dishes – one half is free based on number of people dining; a share of the dining bill on the scheme; delivery charges for offsite dining from listed restaurants; expansion into cloud kitchens giving restaurant owners access to new areas of the city for offsite dining; co-branded material for marketers to the customer based on dining and order data; commission from payment companies as credit card affiliate; cold chain for restaurants to get fresh produce; paid events with Master Chefs for restaurant owners and chefs; app for designing offline and online menu card through a templated offering; patented recipe suggestions accompanied by culinary history of the place for preparing international cuisine; providing network of home food delivered with restaurant branding getting over the limitation of staffing infrastructure and so on and so forth.
Seg XXIV
Mehul tells RMH that the capital they
have is not enough for what is needed when they scale. They would need to
invest in AI, Automation, Machine Learning, Data Analytics,
Logistics-at-a-Click to manage the business competitively. Mehul says logistics
is key since the operator does not make the product but is offering a service.
And, no business can survive if the marketing sucks. So, super marketing skill
– offline on TV and online across social media is a must.
Seg XXV
And do all this and more by reducing
costs while growing incessantly and no compromise on delighting the customer
base creating a virtuous circle that can become vicious (read social media) if
the product is bad, if the pricing is uncompetitive, if the delivery is sloppy,
if access and ordering is a chore, if the brand turns boring, if the
word-of-mouth becomes scarce and the rating is stuck on the first star.
Seg XXVI
The burn rate being high the app owner needs to ensure a runway with sufficient funding to keep investing to expand and command the territories they are operating in which at best can tolerate only one other direct competitor and some adjacent category players. The ultimate success lies in hyperlocal delivery – food being only one part of it.
Seg XXVII
Mehul also cautions RMH that for the app operator to do well, the operator needs to make money through larger discounts and higher commission from the restauranteur. Mehul says when overdone it will conflict with the B2B customer interests while it will delight the B2C customer. He tells Rakesh and Manoj be aware of this conundrum but to cross the bridge when they get there.
Seg XXVIII
He tells Rakesh and Manoj you are the consultants. Come back to him with a term sheet and he is in. Rakesh and Manoj to get one done and share it with Janardhan and Mehul who become their first two investors.
Seg XXIX
Rakesh and Manoj leave their jobs and work full time on their app ‘Mouthful’. After achieving success and lot more funding and being one of two major players in the category, they are asked if there is a backstory to the name. Rakesh replies, “Yes. Our first investor Shri Mehul gave us a ‘mouthful’ and set us on this journey. He is a father figure to us.
Seg XXX
RMH’s Mouthful’s ‘F&F’ scheme becomes a blockbuster bringing in good cash flow for the company as well as committed subscribers keen on maxing out on the subscription fees and moving all their dine-in to restaurants offering ‘F&F’.
Seg XXXI
This sets up number of rivals for Mouthful the app. The direct competitor C1, the restaurants who did not offer ‘F&F’ to their customers, and the restaurants who did offer ‘F&F’ to their customers, but bleeding from deep discounting.
Seg XXXII
At a trade conference Ritesh (gas leak) bumps into Rakesh. Rakesh congratulates Ritesh on his restaurant chain which is one of the largest in the industry. As large as Mehul’s. Ritesh tells Rakesh that Mouthful’s F&F scheme is killing his business while Rakesh is sitting pretty on pile of investor money. The air turns frosty around them.
Seg XXXIII
Soon enough Mouthful faces blitz of negative publicity from the industry
for their arm-twisting tactics – especially about deep discounting and
commissions.
Seg XXXIV
Mehul, Rakesh and Manoj meet up. Rakesh and Manoj recall Mehul’s prophetic words about pitfalls of success. They know that ‘gas leak’ is behind it. Rakesh’s ‘wrestling’ instincts kick in. He wants to get Ritesh into an alley and bash him up. Mehul calms him down. He tells Rakesh that the ‘truth’ is with Ritesh. The industry is suffering. Let’s bite the bullet and work with the industry to get their losses mitigated and their profits up.
Seg XXXV
Rakesh and Manoj put on their management hats. They look at the partner and consumer data with them. They look at the heat map of restaurants partnering with them. They map the consumer journey (literally) from home to the restaurant of their choice. They look at peak hour restaurant operations. They look at margins on dishes served. They list suppliers of ingredients and groceries to the partners. They look at the industry workforce and benefits package. They look at every nitty-gritty of the restaurant business. They look at initiatives that can have a positive and collective impact – a win-win for all stakeholders.
Seg XXXVI
They help organize the cold chain – farm to fork – to project demand and reduce wastage. They petition policy makers with media support to reduce taxes on the business to trigger growth and overall tax compliance and collection because of the organized nature of upscale restaurants.
Seg XXXVII
They unleash a flurry of initiatives to cut cost and improve margins across the industry and some stress busters for the workforce. They reverse the industry sentiments towards them. They build industry dependence on their consulting chops and data savvy and manage to dilute the animosity towards them.
Seg XXXVIII
The key competitor too joins in on some of the initiative specially to do with delivery – a huge constraint to achieving prompt delivery. The initiative produces huge positivity going beyond the trade to the city’s wellbeing. The citizens respond enthusiastically to the initiatives. Small things like garbage disposal is organized. Entrepreneurs (who need to be encouraged for Mouthful to grow) are advised on where the gaps in location and cuisine lie for them to capitalize on it.
Seg XXXIX
Ritesh’s effort to turn sentiments of the trade against Rakesh comes
cropper. His inner circle and staff advice Ritesh that he is on the wrong side
of the situation. His own staff are being poached by restaurant owners who find
the initiatives by ‘Mouthful’ productive for them: reducing their costs,
improving their margins and boosting their profits, staff morale and customer
satisfaction levels.
Seg XXXX
Rakesh, Manoj, Haridas, Mehul, Janardhan are at a celebratory dinner on
completing 10 years of operations. Haridas excuses himself to go to the restroom.
In the restroom he bumps into Ritesh. At once he moves to the wall wanting to
escape from Ritesh’s presence. Ritesh extends his hand. He says he is sorry
about what happened in college. It was silly and stupid on his part. He adds that
dropping out of college was a good thing as a form of apology and justification.
It helped him do what he loves. Being around food.
Seg XXXXI
Ritesh accompanies Haridas back to the table where the celebrations are on. Haridas introduces Ritesh as his mate from college. Rakesh asks Ritesh to join them for a drink. Ritesh points to his family at the other end of the restaurant. He says he will but another time.
Seg XXXXII
The frost melts over the heads of Rakesh and Ritesh. Ritesh walks back to his family’s table. Rakesh and gang clink glasses and continue their banter.
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