The CapeX Factor

Students at The Emirates Academy of Hospitality Management went head to head last month in an F&B concept creation competition as part of their Design and Architecture module. Hotelier Middle East editor Louise Oakley joined the panel of judges to put the students through their paces - and realised there is a lot the industry can learn from this new generation of hoteliers.

It's not only the singing, dancing and acting stars of the future that have to perform in front of their industry idols in order to see who has the ‘X Factor'. Sixty students from The Emirates Academy of Hospitality Management in Dubai went head to head last month as they competed in 14 teams to win ‘The CapeX Factor', a competition which was designed to examine their prowess at understanding the process of creating a restaurant concept.

The competition was part of the hospitality students' Design and Architecture module, led for the first time this year by visiting professors Stefan Breg and Andrew Shipley from Tribe restaurant creators. Tribe chief worrier Breg, previously a director of Hilton Hotel Group, has developed a wide range of concepts from coffee shops to fine dining. He has also held senior positions with Pepsi, InterContinental, Ernst & Young and Burger King. Meanwhile, Tribe chief medicine man Shipley has more than 20 years' experience designing bars and restaurants, with his achievements including Havana, Salsa and Nico Central.

Each team of students received the same brief from the Tribe leaders - to create a capital application and live presentation for a restaurant concept that would replace Seasons, a failing hotel-based outlet located in the fictional city of Doobi Darbi. The relevant market information was provided to the students, who then had just two working days to create their concept and prepare their ‘Dragon's Den' style pitch for funding from a board of investors - the judging panel.

In the world-famous singing competitions shown on our TV screens every year, the shortlisted ‘students' or wannabe popstars have a natural gift. Those caterwaulers we are subjected to in the early auditions are never going to become the next big thing. This is where The CapeX Factor differs, however, and it is why Breg and Shipley wanted to add the challenge to the module.

Too often at hospitality management schools, students are given the impression that concept creation is "some kind of mysterious art or craft that only some people have, something you're born with," says Breg.

"No you're not," he asserts. "You can learn the process. I can remember in my early days as an F&B director in one of the hotel chains going to project meetings and being completely mystified by some of the terminology and the process. So I was completely unprepared and I believe there are a number of professionals in the same situation.

"So what I hope we've done is create a group of 60 people that understand at least the fundamentals of it and the key learning points - it is a science. Some elements are gut feel, but when you make it only gut feel you are in trouble," says Breg.

Key learnings

The students were required to submit an eight-page capital paper to their professors ahead of the 15 minute presentations, which were followed by Q&As from all the judges. In this time the students had to cover the market competition, gaps in the market, guest profile, the name and the theme of their restaurant, the cuisine and menu, the design and feel, how they would market it, risks and contingencies and financials, from refurbishment costs to when they would make a return on investment.

"What they invariably got right was the understanding of the target market, the importance of relating a concept to the people in a market and the potential market that was there," says Breg. "They got the operational viability fairly right as well."

What was lacking generally, was an understanding of the risks and contingencies.

"They listed risks, from terrorism to plague, but they didn't really say what the likelihood of those risks occurring was or what the necessary actions you could take to resolve those particular issues were," comments Breg.

Another weakness noted by the judges was the attention to marketing. Some marketing budgets were small, other huge, but none really specified what would be done except for saying they would use adverts, facebook and radio for example. One of the judges, Fahed Srour, chief operations manager (retail) at the Al Khaja Group - which operates brands such as Hatem and Glorai Jean's Coffees - estimated that 15-20% of the cost of creating and opening the restaurant should be dedicated to marketing, but the teams allocations varied from a few thousand dirhams to four million.

The other key talking point among the judges was the use of technology in several concepts. A third of the teams focused on technology quite heavily and some were quite successful (see Vostro and Tah Chi below).

Disappointingly though, says Breg, while many opted for the use of iPads and touch screens "because young people like that", they were not able to prove or establish an acceptance of technology front of house. One example given was Inamo in London, which has interactive table tops designed for ordering food and playing games with other diners, but this has received mixed reviews.

"For them to say it works in one place out of 20,000 restaurants in London and that people love technology isn't enough - we need them to tell us how to make technology appealing in a  more universal way, how you get from gimmick and gizmo to experience, because that's quite a leap," says Breg.
A safe bet

After all 14 teams had presented their concepts, the scores of each judge, who had to mark the teams out of 10 in 10 different categories, were added up. Overall, the winner was Team Portugal, which had created Vostro Ristorante Italiano. The team consisted of Olga Sadikova, Immanuela Kalangie, Ibrahim Bashir and Arturo Maturan Jr. Their aim was to create a fun, casual setting and provide "global comfort food" with an average cheque of AED 150 (US $41). Highlights included their own herb garden, a loyalty programme and the introduction of modern technology - the team's plan was for their guests to use ipads to order their food.

Popular with all the judges, Breg said the concept won because "they had the most achievable return and the most achievable profit".

"They had the most modest payback, they had five-year pay back - most people here would say get lost - but they won simply because it was achievable and it was relatively low risk and it may well be that this market that we described, Doobi Darbi, needed a low risk concept," he observes.

"The other teams had higher risk concepts, higher capex, and more ambitious plans but none of them were able to match the concept to the user groups - or tribes as we call them - and prove to us that those user groups or tribes would be interested in it. So the safe bet won," says Breg.

Most original winner

While the core aim of the challenge was to teach the students the processes involved in creating an F&B outlet, Breg and Shipley also wanted to recognise the most original concept. This went to Tah Chi, created by the Ivory Coast team comprising Krishna KC, Chimo Chomoche, Dennis Jorgansen, Roshan Liyanage and Suzanne Lee. Technology was at the core of their restaurant design, which featured interactive tables.

"They won on originality because they were boldest, about four or five of the 14 groups had technology as one of their strong features," says Breg. "They won it because they were bold enough to push it and there were elements of it that were interesting. I liked the loyalty programme, I liked the fact the system was not only a service enabler or service facilitator, but it also collected data about people and remembered what meals you had, and upsold to you automatically; it was more proactive than a facility. That's why they won."

Industry implications

So, what can the industry learn from these bold, bright students? The judges were all impressed beyond expectation with the passion, dedication and creativity of the students. Most of all, they were conscious of the need for hoteliers to sit up and take notice of the younger generation, in particular when it came to the use of technology. The consensus was that as this is what we are being told is popular with those in their 20s and 30s, considering the young population of many countries in the Middle East, this is something that should at least be trialled. Hotels are currently experimenting with the use of more technology in the front office, equipping concierges with iPads for example, but has it been tried in restaurants and bars? Obviously not all outlets would be vehicles for this - in many, guests expect the human touch of the waiter - but in some more casual outlets in trendy locations perhaps a self-ordering system achieved through top of the range, attractive technology would be viable. The investment in technology could well be offset by the reduced head count needed to operate the outlet.

And moving from the fictional market of Doobi Darbi to its real life inspirations, Abu Dhabi and Dubai, what gaps in the market did the judges see in the emirates? Mövenpick Hotels & Resorts vice president of food and beverage - Middle East and Asia H.Peter Drescher said he sought more area-specific restaurants offering authentic foods and beverages from specific regions, where the ambiance and décor was all authentic too.

"I think we experience a lot of compromises in restaurants, they are trying to please everyone. The key is authenticity and hiring the people who have their hearts and souls in it," says Drescher.

Breg agrees, but warns of the limits in this region of claiming a cuisine is authentic when the staff are not.

"You can't have authentic Italian when it's delivered by people from a different continent altogether.

"I think the days of fusion have had it," he adds.

"As far as I know there is not a country called fusion you can recruit from."

The biggest danger, however, is the risk of over promising. "If you're going to name something, deliver it," concludes Breg.

And if students can do it, let's hope professionals follow suit!