Corporate Social Responsibilities (CSR)
Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) has been embraced by many enlightened companies in Malaysia and Secret Recipe is no exception. Secret Recipe engages itself with many activities which even wider in scope than mere charitable activities that will have an overall positive impact on society.
Corporate Social Responsibilities (CSR) program that had adopted by the Secret Recipe is providing job opportunities among senior citizens.
Secret Recipe is extending over 50 job opportunities to senior citizens in its service line as its corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiative in the year 2008. Secret Recipe chief executive officer Datuk Steven Sim hopes to help senior adults or retirees whom in need of jobs due to the economic situation in 2008. According to Datuk Steven Sim, he believed that senior adults are more focused and have a strong commitment to the company which have contributed significantly to its success. Secret Recipe also given simple requirements to participate in this project. For example, senior adults must be Malaysians, have the right commitment and attitude, in good health and able to work on full-time or part-time basis in a service-based industry. (thestar.com)This good initiative and program carried out by the Secret Recipe in the realization that senior citizens are also a part of the community that need to be concerned.
Futhermore, Secret Recepi also make a good initiative of corporate social responsibilities (CSR) by participating in a sponsorship program. Secret Recipe making a generous contribution to SMK Sultan Ismail, Kota Bharu, Kelantan by sponsoring 10,000 copies of The Star in support of The Star-NiE from March to November. With the realization that education is a major aspect to socioeconomic development, Secret Recipe has greatly invested approximately of RM 6,000 in this area to assist the students pursue their dreams. The main aim of the company is to promote literacy in the community, building a strong educational infrastructure, enhancement of the reading and improve of the English language. On the matter of corporate social responsibility, Secret Recipe proves that they not only acknowledge regarding delivering quality food, but also with giving back to the society through various means, such as awareness campaigns and sponsorship. (thestar.com)
All smiles at the sponsorship ceremony were (from left) Low, Secret Recipe's marketing manager Jamie Fong, and public relations executive Madeleine Thien
Secret Recipe also embraced corporate social responsibility by carrying out charity projects. In the year 2008, Secret Recipe successful, organized a charity event. The celebrities whose cake creations were selected in the Celebrity Cookout Charity Initiative reality program in 2007 given opportunities to sale their delectable confections at Secret Recipe outlets. The donation fund is collected from each cake sold, RM10 was channeled to the five selected charity organizations and ultimately RM 100,000 was donated. The charities that benefited were Yayasan Anak Warisan Alam, whose aim is to educate the young on nature by spreading environmental message and heritage through conservation programs; World Vision, which works with communities, families and children to defeat injustice and poverty; Persatuan Anak-Anak Yatim dan Ibu Tunggal; Prihatin that accommodates shelter and support to children and single mothers whose infected with HIV/AIDS; and The Independent Living and Training Centre (ILTC). (thestar.com) By doing this, Secret Recipe able to give positive impact on society. Take for example, the charity project would lessen the burden of the organizations, especially on the cost of living in general. Besides that, the proceeds of the charity drive has set the platform for other organizations to follow suit. Ethical business activities such as this showcase not only benefits society, but also the company itself as they able to gain media interest and generate positive publicity. Celebrities involvement in this charity project such as Amber Chia, Carmen Soo, Sheila Rusly, Hannah Tan, Eja, and many more provides greater opportunity for the company to share positive stories online and benefit from word of mouth marketing without investing on expensive advertising campaigns. These also can attract new customers or make existing become a loyal customers.
In conclusion, being socially responsible is not just ethical business practice but also makes good business sense. Using the corporate social responsibilities (CSR) framework in company business has positive effects on the employees, customers, its public relations, and economic of the company. Corporate Social Responsibilities (CSR) is a potential business tool if its integrated into the business strategy.
Winning creation: Chia (left) and Soo putting the finishing touches to their cake during the Celebrity Cookout
Business Surrounding
Business’s location is key to successful operations and overall development. Secret Recipe Cakes & Café Sdn Bhd had chosen Sunway Pyramid Shopping Centre as the business location to operate their business. There are a few reasons for the business to choose Sunway Pyramid Shopping Centre as a location.
One of the reasons for choosing Sunway Pyramid Shopping Centre is due to its strategic location. Sunway Pyramid Shopping Centre location have a various means of public transport and provide easy access to and from Sunway Pyramid. It is easily accessible via the Federal Highway, KESAS Highway, NKVE, LDP and the NPE due to the highly developing location happen in recent years. The main road is so much more convenience than before and it is accessible to college, university, hospital, and many hotel. As a result, its create opportunity for Secret Recipe to draw many attention and create free publicity. Moreover, according to government plan, MRT (Mass Rapid Transit) will be built in nearby of USJ which indirectly, may bring more people to this place and it will be one of the significant opportunity for the Secret Recipe which located at Sunway Pyramid Shopping Centre.
Furthermore, Sunway Pyramid was built in a strategic location with full of crowd. It is located in the centre of town where it’s surrounded by many attractive places such as theme park like Sunway Lagoon, hotel,shopping complex,university, college, new housing area and industrial park. This will lead to population expansion opportunity which may benefit Secret Recipe by capturing this business segment opportunities. The higher the population the more demand from customer to dine at Secret Recipe will be. It will help them to increase their profit and serve the market better.
Secret Recipe choose to operate their business in shopping malls, Sunway Pyramid as it able to provide opportunities for Secret Recipe with extensive grounds for expanding their foodservice outlets due to the high stream people that shopping malls will attract. As shopping malls continue to be a major hanging out place for Malaysians nowadays, food outlets like Secret Recipe will encounter high demand from customers since their opportunity to dine out during their shopping trips, thus, create opportunities for Secret Recipe to serve larger market and increase their profit. Besides that, Sunway Pyramid also provides ample parking space to customers. Ample parking space is important for customers so that they able to enjoy qualified services with convenient parking.
Secret Recipe may also experience threat of competitors. Secret Recipe which located in Sunway Pyramid , which is the most famous shopping complex in the Subang Jaya. Therefore, many food service industry are aiming to develop business here while the existing competitors continue to renovate and upgrades their outlet design and service . For example, Sushi King has renovated and upgrade their outlet in the beginning of 2014 by introducing new concepts of ordering system using technology innovation. In this year also, Fish Manhattan renovated their outlet which located right beside Secret Recipe, which will be extremely competitive for Secret Recipe as both of them can act as substitute service. Lifestyle cafes with similar concepts are mushrooming at the Sunway Pyramid due to the high demand of such dining concepts. For example Delicious and Full House which implying the same . It may appear as a threat to the Secret Recipe as their number of competitors increases which allow customers to have a choice to use substitute product to satisfy their own needs.
The renting of retail shop in Sunway Pyramid is high which may appeal to Secret Recipe as a threat. Sunway Pyramid charged a high rent to its retail shop as Sunway Pyramid is the center of attention of large crowd for entertainment and hanging out place. For example only a huge and strong brand image are able to observe at Sunway Pyramid such as KFC, McDonalds, OldTown White Coffee, Kenny Rogers and many more. This threat may effect Secret Recipe as it able to affect and reduce their operating profit margin (ROS).
Strengths
Secret Recipe Cakes & Café Sdn Bhd is one of Malaysia’s fastest growing cafe chains. It is undeniable that Secret Recipe has developed customer loyalty. Secret Recipe Sunway Pyramid has a long list of loyal customers, which is the main contribution to their strength. Loyal customers are believed to have a lower cost to maintain than new customer and easier to handle as its already meet customer satisfaction. With the well-known brand, Secret Recipe Sunway Pyramid able to serve a bigger market especially tourist. With the loyal customers, the company able to maximize their profit because loyal customers are willing to spend more money on trying new products, dining more frequently, recommend the outlets to others and give the outlet sincere suggestions. Thus, loyalty links contribute to the success and profitability Secret Recipe Sunway Pyramid. Customers loyalty is the Secret Recipe Sunway Pyramid strength as they serve as business advantages.
The products offered at Secret Recipe Sunway Pyramid is well-known for its quality and high standard. The restaurant also serve a wide selection of well-guarded homemade recipes of cakes, fusion food, baked desserts, beverages and many more which have become favorites among old and young generations. Besides that, they also offer variety of healthy products as nowadays customers prefer a healthier lifestyle. For example, healthy cake was introduced to the market such as Hi-fiber Cream Cheese and Sugar Free Moist Chocolate Cake which is sugar free and trans-free cake and gain a great review from customers. All the products offered at Secret Recipe Sunway Pyramid are always closely monitored, crafted and tailored by the Secret Recipe to maintain and standardize their quality. It can help to keep the food fresh, healthy and high in quality. Their commitment to quality differ them apart from their competitors which appeared as one of the Secret Recipe Sunway Pyramid strength.
As the Secret Recipe Sunway Pyramid belonged to the Secret Recipe, they have the strength in term of brand image. Secret Recipe is already a household name which have interior design, unique products, customer service standards and unique market to focus with. Secret Recipe Sunway Pyramid has the ownership of utilizing such a unique, distinctive and strong brand name which differ them from competitors. This can be prove when Secret Recipe successfully makes bakery as a restaurant with combination of catering other foods besides cakes while the competitors stay with the idea of bake cake remain as bakery. Therefore, its encourage customers to walk-in and dine inside the outlet which added strength to Secret Recipe Sunway Pyramid.
Weaknesses
As for the price aspect, the Secret Recipe Sunway Pyramid was provided with price lining that they need to follow in correlation to standardize all the pricing provided by the brand. One of weaknesses of Secret Recipe Sunway Pyramid is the high cost perception factor. Secret Recipe pricing objective is to be as reasonable as possible to give opportunities to the average income who desire for a good dining experience. The range of prices offer by Secret Recipe is affordable for the target group of middle income group and higher. However, for the lower income group, the price offered are relatively high. Therefore, making it unaffordable for ordinary people and they may not have the ability to try their product. Hence, may lead to decrease in the number of customers their acquire as its losses potential customers to its competitors seeking for affordable and better prices for such dining experience.
Secret Recipe Sunway Pyramid also experienced like any other foodservice establishments which has a rapid degree of employee turnover. Even though the problems is expected and consider as typically accounted by some industries, but it will appear as a weakness for Secret Recipe Sunway Pyramid. This is because, high level of employee turnover will increase the management labor costs in providing classified ads, interviewing, training and reviewing applications. Although Secret Recipe Sunway Pyramid utilize a job-placement service, this is still an expense. Furthermore, time also being invested in the training process. It will takes a lot of effort and time of other employees to train new hires, this may weighs down thir own works and indirectly, affect productivity of the outlet, which is costly. Employee turnover has a direct impact on company profitability and revenue.
Positive impact of going global for Secret Recipe
Secret Recipe expand their business by going global, results in positive impacts toward their business. As we all know that important reason for going global is to make international business profit so that they able to earn more profit compare to their domestic market which is Secret Recipe outlets across Malaysia. This can be proved when Secret Recipe successfully registered double digit growth for the past 5 years. Secret Recipe has expanded their wings by over 100 cafes throughout the domestic region and global. Even though the statistics of an economic crisis, Secret Recipe still managed to continues to register annual growth of 30% for the past three years and increase in 300% of profit. Through this, we witnessed that when Secret Recipe become an international business, it could increase the total profit.
Growth opportunities are one of the main positive impacts of going global for Secret Recipe. Going global gives Secret Recipe to take the advantage of the business opportunities in other countries. Nowadays, Secret Recipe are getting increasingly interested to expand their outlets in a number of developing countries such as Indonesia, Singapore, Brunei and many more as the income and population are increasing in these countries. This provides business opportunities for Secret Recipe as they could achieve the growth due to the foreign market. As Secret Recipe has enter the foreign market in both developing country and developed country such as Australia and China provide gargantuan growth opportunities to the business. For example, from the year 2000 to the year 2004 China’s real Gross Domestic Product (GDP) has increased with the average rate of 8.5%. The fast growth in real GDP lead to higher disposal income in which provide for a higher spending power among the people. Therefore, this is a good reason for Secret Recipe to expand their outlets in China in order to benefit from the higher spending trend in China. Secret Recipe received the positive impacts by enjoying the benefits of continuous GDP growth in China.
Negative impacts of going global for Secret Recipe
Secret Recipe expanding their business by going global may have a negative impact toward their business. Entering foreign market may expose Secret Recipe with the particular countries issues. For example, Secret Recipe had been affected by the spread of the Avian Flu which started in China and outbreaks to the other countries. This issues forced people to avoid eating poultry as they scared that they may be infected with the Avian Flu. Indirectly, it give a negative impacts on Secret Recipe as it affect the sales of poultry dishes in Secret Recipe’s outlets. Secret Recipe also affected by the incorporate of some illegal chemicals in their products in China. Due to the fast growing rate in China’s economy which result in a shortage. Thus, encouraged some producers of food industry to scheming manufacturers who used this opportunity to incorporate some illegal chemicals in their products which may cause dealth and health problems to the customers. Some of manufacturers also tend to sell a copy version of the food under the name of a well-known brand. Due to these issues, Secret Recipe outlets need to pay extra precaution toward the supplies of food ingredients which have the approve from the governmant’s health regulations in order to protect and maintain their good reputations. All of these issues give a negative impacts toward Secret Recipe as it may bring down Secret Recipe strong brand image and loss the customers loyalty.
As we know that in an international business, relationship and connection between both parties is very important in order to have a strong and good managements. One of the interesting things about going global is that although we have all these communication technology which have revolutionized the business communications such as emails, social media and text messages, you must not negate the importance of face-to-face communication. Physical travel is still increasing very rapidly which prove that these new technologies are not replacing the need for actual travel. Secret Recipe still in need of physical travel to avoid miscommunications which may lead to inefficiency and work-place conflicts. It is also important so that Secret Recipe does not being misinterpreted or viewed as unprofessional which able to affect Secret Recipe good reputations. However, business travel is more costly which may affect Secret Recipe’ revenue.
Ways for Secret Recipe to Achieve Sustainability Globally
Secret Recipe is one of the brand that had the potential for global recognition. Secret Recipe is a popular choice not only in domestic but also overseas markets as well. The brand was designed by the founder, Datuk Steven Sim to be acceptable to a wide range of market and its products which capable of being adopted to any market.
Secret Recipe has to increase their customer service in order to achieve sustainability in the global arena. Secret Recipe need to take note that its traditional system of handwritten orders that restricting the chain’s potential for growth. Secret Recipe employees are using pen and paper to take orders and walking the orders back to the kitchen staff. Indirectly, this process will lead to errors in orders that will be delivered to customer which cause bad feedback for Secret Recipe and it will also cause extra unnecessary time consuming for the staff to spend to cater their customer longer than needed. As a solutions, Secret Recipe need to take considerable initiative in the challenge of improving customers service by applying Technology of Support Customer Relationship (IBM) in order to maintain their position in the global market. IBM which consist of Wireless POS able to connects wait and kitchen staff in the entire cafe chain to the streamline of serving process. For example, with this technology, it enables the staff to use a handheld-device application WaiterPDA to input the order from customers accurately and quickly and then it will be automatically received by the kitchen , at the same time wit the payment counter. This action is considered as the answer to improving the entire cafe chain operations which ensure that order are capture in real time and correctly, efficiency relayed to the kitchen staff, register correctly and also can reduce paperwork. Furthermore, the staff also has extra time to interacting with customers which enable the cafe chain to provide personalized and improving service to the customers. Secret Recipe able to sustain in global arena if this effort is taken as they able to provide world class services toward their market.
Secondly, it is important for Secret Recipe to have a good management of staffs as a way to sustain in the global arena. Good management of staffs can be built through training. Even though, Secret Recipe employees do provided with training, but it seem that the training is not enough of the fact that the staffs does not stimulate the sense of responsibility, skills, knowledge and ability to reflect the brand name and image. As Secret Recipe is well-known for their premium service and products in Malaysia and also internationally, hence, high standards for their behavior of its employees and physical aspects. This also acknowledges as one of the steps to improvise the entire Secret Recipe performance as they already looking to apply IT system in their management. Therefore, the staffs needed the training aspect to be familiar and confident with the system in order to serve customers a better service. A clearer and better training should be emphasized so that the employees remember that they are representing a global brand and make them understand what exactly is the service philosophy of Secret Recipe. A well trained employees result in a good management of staffs which benefit Secret Recipe to achieve sustainability in the global arena.
