Some people view changes as a sign of a new breath of life. A new start. Others view it as a tall dark wall that is forever daunting. A never ending struggle.

Our global economy is constantly changing with new or revising legislations. Local economies are changing to adapt to the new trading conditions of a lot of reasons.

Change is crucial and should be a catalyst that no business can look over. Because each and everyday of the week is changing. Each day is completely different.

Today, I would like to stress that business should often reach a state where they are flexible in adopting new ways of thinking and also new improvements to think about but at the same time remain comfortable to the ever changing market conditions.

A lot of businesses that I find “interesting” are those of the businesses that are not comfortable with the new changing market conditions and are on the verge of slowly wilting away.

I often felt like these types of businesses have kept doing the same routine and kept the same ways of dealing with the market conditions and expecting a different result every day. The thing is, a business, should always have a response to these changes.

The problem with most businesses that are in trouble with changes are those that needed help reinforcing their foundations to success.

For this case study sample, we should focus what is happening in Hong Kong. These past few years, Hong Kong have seen a lot of closure of local eateries and local businesses as consumers have changed the trend of “local” consumption. Where as, for those who don’t know, a large majority of the people are going to Mainland China to spend their money on food and shopping.

Right now we will focus more on the local Hong Kong eateries.

The foundation of the local eateries are comprised with these factors: The Food, The Service, The Atmosphere and also the nearby competition. I’ll briefly explain how these foundations are very crucial to these local eateries below. Bare in mind that it can be a lengthy description but I’ll try to make it as simple as possible.

The Food – Do the eatery have a certain food that is very delicious and beats out the “average” competition? This is one of the most crucial fundamental because that certain dish or food will be the bread and butter of the business. If everything within the eatery is considered “average” or below average then the chances of the business of being a success have been handicapped. This can CHANGE. The chief of this eatery business can “research” and improve their cooking. Which is why the top chiefs are always trying new recipes and ingredients and also traveling to new hot restaurants to try out the hot dish and compare. Again, the local eatery business should strive to have a food dish that every customers appraise and stride to win “awards” such as Michelin Stars. As I said before, this can always change, therefore every chief can always learn new ways and improve.

The Service – Hong Kong local eateries have been known to have room to improve within the service department. Things have slightly improved recently but when compared to other countries eatery service establishments, then there is a “gap” that can be filled. To be honest, some of the Hong Kong local eateries, charge 10% service fee, after you order the food by yourself with the help of scanning the QR code – being served with a robot and picking up the dishes by yourself. This to me is humorous as the only work that the services has provided is to count the change when paying. I remember my relatives from the US noticed this and said the following: “Why do I have to pay 10% on top when I’m the one doing most of the work?”. To be honest this statement had been heard countless amount of times and things haven’t changed. As I will explain why this is important – there are alot of things that the “service” can be improved so that the customer won’t have to say the above statement. The art of hospitality should be learned and taught to every service providing business. Simple things like “Giving ice cold water to a customer when it is hot outside” can change things by a huge margin!

The atmosphere – This foundation pillar can be described with a simple question: “How would you like the customer to feel when eating?”. Hong Kong local eateries have this atmosphere to be more business orientated. “How do I renovate and place things that can generate more revenue?” is the common theme in designing most Hong Kong eatery business. Therefore most of the local HK eateries all have the same look and “feel” to it. This is because of one reason: The rent for the business is high. However, this shouldn’t be a problem since the rent is well known to be high before even entering the eatery business in the first place. So the rent is high aspect should already been considered and not an huge red flag. The “atmosphere” foundation pillar needs to be managed day by day. Again, customer’s feelings towards a place is another thing that can be changed and managed! For example the cleanness and the “look” of the local eatery. One of the pet peeves is to check how clean the bathroom is. I can forsure tell that those successful local eateries have clean bathrooms and have a certain different “image” comparing to the average local eatery establishment.

Nearby Competition – This pillar is crucial since the competition is around every corner and is different day by day. A successful local eatery business often know how to respond or create an advantage over the competition. Those who don’t have this nailed down often have a disadvantage. HK local eateries often have one weakness is that they failed to bring out an advantage over their competition. Whether this can be price, product or even marketing. Since “building core value” and “being different” are too much work for these local eateries, those who don’t have or attempt to do these things, again, are in a disadvantage zone. The thing about this is that businesses in Hong Kong often copy the success of others instead of creating their own. Which again, is why I am here, is to guide these businesses out of the disadvantage zone and find a unique twist to their business.

All and all the foundations to success depends on how far the business is willing to go in providing the product/service to the customer. Most local business owners (be it from overseas or Hong Kong) all have one common goal: To just focus on how much money they can rake in before the business fails. This short term thinking is why a lot of businesses closed down these past few years. The solution is often easy but how far will these owners go in terms of their investment and their ROI is another case that needs to be reassessed.

If your business isn’t doing well then perhaps it is time to change? It is often too late when you realize a problem is a problem. Therefore managers and CEOs should always audit their business’s core fundamentals and also foundations to success!

I personally, hope that this article, has opened eyes and see things at another perspective. I really hope that a local Hong Kong eatery establishment will hopefully wake up and change things before it is too late! Anyways, if you have anything to discuss or would like to contact me for some consultation then feel free to leave a comment and click the button below!