Connect The Dots

by Rashmi Bansal

You need to be educated thoroughly in that line or in general.

niche,

I’m quite an average person, if I can do it, I’m sure every person can do it.

horizons,

predicament.

Oriental Cuisines

The turning point came one day while he was reading

Arthur Hailey’s Hotel.

flair

affectionate.

strenuous?”

“When you enjoy doing something, you don’t feel the strain.

“Everyday I saw people walking into the hotel, and spending so much!” In one night a businessman would blow up T 2000 on Chivas Regal and a few chicken tikkas. That was more than Mahadevan earned in a month - from both his jobs.

An increment every three years, a promotion every decade. That was not good enough for Mahadevan.

Brilliantly located premises came ‘free’.

“I earned T 800 per month, so every rupee mattered. But I saw people coming and blowing up amounts equal to my entire month’s salary in a single day. I said, ‘This is ridiculous!’ That fire egged me on…”

“We emphasised on two things - good food, and good price.

we will not do a run of the mill kind of a thing.

Let us tell people that for ten rupees, I can give hygiene, quality and good value for money.”

I can’t cook, but my tongue is sharp!

“I was a ‘cost man’,”

“Income minus Expenditure = Profit.”

acquainted

The man would pull out a small notebook with a record of everything.

What was supplied last year, at what rate, at what discount.

“If your feedback is sensible, then people will like you, respect you, and take you as a leader. So, you have to know the job, it is not as if you have to do the job.”

“Most of my restaurants have a glass kitchen. The moment the chef knows that the customer is looking at him, he will try to keep it clean, he will never put his fingers in

Tic Tac - the Indian restaurant

graciously obliged.”

The restaurant was called The Cascade.

food is a business where you can ‘trade on other people’s money’.

I could do this because I looked at opportunities, and cashed in on them.”

authentic

but yet bring something new to the table.

A restaurant is a risky business but if it clicks, there’s instant gratification.

standalone restaurant,

‘I want you to carry a smile!’ The minute you wear your jacket, your personal life is out. You might call this a plastic smile, but you have to smile. You have to greet people.”

You have to stay within the laxman rekha.

Kikomon soy sauce. Or even Ajinomoto.

But there is this thing, even today, that if somebody is eating bread in South India, people wonder, “What is wrong with you? Are you sick?

But first, Mahadevan had to sell the idea to that panel.

pictorial

hypothecate

The ministry objected, “How can you put up a bakery in 800 sq ft? It is not an industry! This is cheating!”

“70% of restaurants close in the first year. If you continue into the second, and survive the third, then it is set. That’s the goal we work with, anywhere in the world.”

“If you give people what they need, they will come back to you.

‘curry buns’, a snack with chicken filling.

Then, there were queries from Dubai, and Mahadevan went there to understand the opportunities abroad.

His own investment in each business was limited to 20%.

“But franchising was a mistake… a BIG mistake.”