Restaurants (rec.food.restaurants) Providing a location-independent forum for the discussion of restaurants and dining out in general, and for the collection of information about good dining spots in remote locations.

Reply
 
LinkBack Thread Tools Search this Thread Display Modes
  #1 (permalink)   Report Post  
Posted to rec.food.restaurants,rec.food.cooking
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 4
Default KFC's recipe for success

It's the franchise system, and not the 'secret' recipe of 11 different
herbs and spices.

http://www.mfa.org.my/?franchise-art...ess:2D6C181CD4

{
The secret of Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC) success

By Badrishah (See below)

Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC) is a very well known restaurant in the
world. It is rated at number 60 as the world most well known brand by
BusinessWeek (McDonalds at number 9 and Nescafe, 23).

Its history spans almost 80 years when it started at Corbin (Kentucky-
USA), in the 1930s. During this period the United States was under The
Great Depression with almost 25% unemployment rate. The hard time was
probably one of the biggest factor in forcing Harland Sanders ("The
Colonel") to start experimenting with various mix of spices and herbs,
trying to get the best formula for his recipe. (If we still remember
the Asian Economic Crash 1997-2002, one of the last remaining business
that kept going during the recession was the food industry).

By 1939, the recipe was already perfected and the Colonel had expanded
his restaurant to accomodate 142 seats. This was a fairy large
restaurant, the size is equivalent to several tennis courts.

However there was one problem. The WAITING time! It took almost 30
minutes for the chicken to properly cooked. Turn the gas bigger and
you risk of having the chicken cooked on the outside but still red
with blood inside.

Saved by the Pressure Cooker

Thanks to technology, in 1939 pressure cooker was introduced. Pressure
cooker allow liquid to boils at higher temperature. Water for example
normally boils at 100 degree Celcius, but with a pressure cooker the
sealed lid doesn't allow air or liquid to escape and enable water to
boils higher at 125 celcius.

This significantly shortened the time for cooking and as an added
advantage, the nutrients (hence the taste) are retained making the
food more delicious. Since the boiling point is much higher, this
would also kill more germs and make the food last longer.

It should be noted that The Colonel spotted the pressure cooking
technique just weeks after it was introduced. This means he was always
looking for ways to improve the taste and the time it takes to cook
the famous kentucky fried chicken.

Time means money.

Every minutes saved means less time waiting and more satisfaction to
the customers. This would also encourage a first time buyer to become
repeat customers.

The Colonel is also a smart guy. He can read the writing on the wall.
By early 1950s, he probably heard rumours that an Interstate Highway
is going to be built BYPASSING his town. This could have a devastating
effect on his business. He is now probably under serious dilemma. When
the Interstate was finally opened in 1955, it caused a huge diversion
of traffic away from his town.

Owning a big percentage in a small town VS Owning a small percentage
in a large country.

Seeing an end to his business, the Colonel auctioned off his
operations. Confident with the quality of his fried chicken, the
Colonel started travelling from town to town franchising his recipe.
He visited countless restaurants, promoting his recipe by cooking
fried chickens for the owner and the workers.

The first franchise was awarded to Pete Harman of Salt Lake City. A
handshake agreement stipulates a payment of a nickel to the Colonel
for each chicken sold. This is one of the real strength of the
franchise system. It provides a stream of money albeit the sum is
initially very small.

Building a franchise network is like building a pipe for money to flow
to you. In the beginning, the cost is huge because you have to set the
infrastructure, digging the earth, linking pipes, bypassing obstacles
etc. In the beginning the volume of water flow (money) in your pipe is
also dismal.

After a few years of hard work, the effort will start to bear fruits.
A penny here, a penny there, ten pennies from this town, a hundred
pennies from that city, a thousand pennies from this district, ten
thousand pennies from that state and it happen EVERY DAY! Before long
it started to make a huge impact on your income.

The KFC secret recipe: Does it matter?

It is an open secret that the KFC is made of a mix of 11 herbs &
spices. Using modern spectrometer, we can blast the Colonel spice with
X-ray photoelectron or burn them with a specially designed gas and
study the result.

With a database of results made with similar technique using all
spices & herbs known to mankind, it would take just weeks before we
could identified the exact names and percentage of those 11 spices.
However, DOES IT MATTER?? Does it really matter to know the exact
names and compositions of those spices?

An average businessman would think the secret recipe is so valuable
and willing to pay millions for a copy of it.

A genius businessman would not pay even a penny!!

It is the franchise system, not the spice recipe.

Have you been to a night market ("pasar malam") and tried the fried
chickens sold by the hawkers? Have you ever been to a small restaurant
or a foodstall and found out that the fried chicken was so crispy and
delicious?

Then you were wondering why this small time businessman did not make a
fortune out of his "secret recipe"!

The next time you visited the restaurant again, did you notice that:-

* sometimes there was nobody to take orders
* sometimes it was closed without properly giving a notice in
advance
* sometimes the table was in a mess and nobody to clean even after
5 minutes you were seated.
* sometimes the sink was dirty and choke full with food residual.
* sometimes the fried chicken was overcooked, and at other times
it was undercooked.
* sometimes the fried chicken was too hot and at other times it
was not so spicy.

What is the point?

The "secret recipe" represent only a small percentage of the success
of the KFC franchise. If I were to give a percent, it may not
represent more than 20% of the total success.

THE SUCCESS IS DUE TO THE FRANCHISE SYSTEM!!

In a franchise system, everything is documented and there are strict
rules for running the business. For example:-

* The chicken must be cooked in a pressure cooker and left for 15
minutes
* The size of each of the chicken parts must at least 8 cm wide
and weight 300 grams
* The chicken must be marinated overnight
* The age of the chicken when they were slaughtered must be
between 60-70 days
* The minimum size of the restaurant must be 24x60 feet
* The color of the logo, the chair and the table must be yellow
and the floor is dark grey.
* The toilet must be cleaned every 3 hours.
* The sink must be cleaned every 30 minutes
* The windows must be cleaned every morning
* Food left unsold after 15 minutes must be discarded.
* The worker must wear company-shirt and trousers. No jeans,
corduroy or leather.
* 5% of gross earning must be used for local advertisement
* 1% of gross earning must be used for national level
advertisement
* 3% must be used for R&D to develop new recipes & local brand.
* The food must also be offered in discounted packages (e.g 2
chicken, 1 fries, 1 glass of pepsi)
* The food can be ordered seperately / "ala carte" but no discount
applies.
* The restaurant must have air-condition.
* Etc.. etc..

This long list of standard operating procedures is actually the key to
the success of the franchise. The long list is actually an accumulated
wisdom and know-how the franchise system have developed after a few
decades of operation.

Finally we found the holy grail!!

THE "SECRET RECIPE" of KFC SUCCESS IS ACTUALLY THE WHOLE FRANCHISE
SYSTEM!!
}



  #2 (permalink)   Report Post  
Posted to rec.food.restaurants
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 4
Default KFC's recipe for success

On Dec 12, 11:36*pm, Omelet > wrote:
> In article
> >,
> *Deep Water Port > wrote:
>
> > THE "SECRET RECIPE" of KFC SUCCESS *IS ACTUALLY THE WHOLE FRANCHISE
> > SYSTEM!!
> > }

>
> Duh. *A borningly long post to get to a boring point?
>
> Post the damned spice recipe! Get it right!


Are you ever stupid. You missed the whole point of the post. Who
cares what the spices are? There is MSG in there. If you have
rebuttal, then rebut what I have said using logic and genuine
knowledge. If you can't do that, then STFU.
You can't can you? You haven't a clue as to how to rebut what I have
posted.
Why do I argue with idiots is my next question.
> --
> Peace! Om
>
> Web Albums: <http://picasaweb.google.com/OMPOmelet>
> "One man's theology is another man's belly laugh."
> --Robert Heinelien


  #3 (permalink)   Report Post  
Member
 
Location: London
Posts: 17
Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by Deep Water Port View Post
On Dec 12, 11:36*pm, Omelet wrote:
In article
,
*Deep Water Port wrote:

THE "SECRET RECIPE" of KFC SUCCESS *IS ACTUALLY THE WHOLE FRANCHISE
SYSTEM!!
}


Duh. *A borningly long post to get to a boring point?

Post the damned spice recipe! Get it right!


Are you ever stupid. You missed the whole point of the post. Who
cares what the spices are? There is MSG in there. If you have
rebuttal, then rebut what I have said using logic and genuine
knowledge. If you can't do that, then STFU.
You can't can you? You haven't a clue as to how to rebut what I have
posted.
Why do I argue with idiots is my next question.
--
Peace! Om

Web Albums: Picasa Web Albums - OMPOmelet
"One man's theology is another man's belly laugh."
--Robert Heinelien
Was the Colonel really the first person to use the 'franchise system' as in he invented the concept? Great story, I always wondered about the origin of KFC.

Final, stupid question: Did the Colonel look anything like the caricature used in the KFC logo today?
__________________
Find your nearest Prezzo restaurant and book a table for free! Check for the latest Prezzo offers & specials available.
Reply
Thread Tools Search this Thread
Search this Thread:

Advanced Search
Display Modes

Posting Rules

Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off
Trackbacks are On
Pingbacks are On
Refbacks are On


Similar Threads
Thread Thread Starter Forum Replies Last Post
Recipe for success! kevin ander General Cooking 0 20-02-2012 01:01 PM
Recipe for success! kevin ander General Cooking 0 20-02-2012 12:59 PM
KFC's recipe for success Deep Water Port General Cooking 0 13-12-2010 01:49 AM
recipe for success -hi- General Cooking 0 24-10-2006 01:51 PM
success with recipe BigJohn Sourdough 1 29-11-2005 01:14 PM


All times are GMT +1. The time now is 11:25 PM.

Powered by vBulletin® Copyright ©2000 - 2024, Jelsoft Enterprises Ltd.
Copyright ©2004-2024 FoodBanter.com.
The comments are property of their posters.
 

About Us

"It's about Food and drink"