Pizza, fried chicken and grandparents in Taiwan
Dave Brandon, CEO of Domino's Pizza, tells a story about his company's efforts to add franchises in Taiwan. They did all of their research and opened their stores, but market penetration was well off projections. They couldn't figure it out. Parents loved the pizza. Kids loved the pizza. But not enough people were ordering it.
Brandon states, "We studied and researched it. We studied and researched it. And nothing changed. Finally, we realized that grandparents in Taiwan often lived with their children and grandchildren, and they were exercising veto power over the pizza choice. Turns out, grandparents didn't like pizza too much, but they do like fried chicken, so now all of our stores in Taiwan also sell fried chicken."
Continue reading.
Brandon states, "We studied and researched it. We studied and researched it. And nothing changed. Finally, we realized that grandparents in Taiwan often lived with their children and grandchildren, and they were exercising veto power over the pizza choice. Turns out, grandparents didn't like pizza too much, but they do like fried chicken, so now all of our stores in Taiwan also sell fried chicken."
Continue reading.
Labels: Michael_Tenbusch, nonprofit_innovations
posted by UWSEM webmaster at
11:36 PM
1 Comments:
That quote has been stuck in my head since I read this, "did you write the grant for the program, or the program for the grant?". I'm pretty new to the world of human service agencies and "programs", coming from a background of art and music, but I quickly found that point to be one of the most frustrating things about this kind of work. I believe that United Way has a better head on its shoulders than most organizations, but I still have to laugh when people try to use the term "grass roots" when talking about their programs. To me, an operation stops becoming grass roots the minute we let funders, politicians, and corporations who want their name attached to the program, govern how the operation is run. I understand the pressures involved in asking for funding, but sometimes it can feel like we are working to impress funders and other "important people", and using those in need as the platform on which we stand. So I'm glad that someone else echoes my frustration and is willing be be honest about it. I even took it as a challenge to UWSEM, and maybe you didn't intend it that way, but I do think it's necessary to be able to be honest about what's wrong with what we're doing sometimes, and not just remain in a certain direction because that's what we've established ourselves as to funders.
By
John Azoni, at 11:23 AM
Post a Comment
<< Home