Skills and Challenges in Food and Beverage Sector

This document discusses the skills and qualities required in the food and beverage sector, as well as the major challenges faced by the industry. It explores the impact of organizational culture on job satisfaction and morale of employees in this sector. The document also provides recommendations to improve the quality of services in the food and beverage sector.

Food And Beverage

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
MAIN BODY ................................................................................................................................3
Skills and qualities required in food and beverage sector...........................................................3
Major Challenges Facing the Industry........................................................................................1
REFERENCES ...............................................................................................................................4

INTRODUCTION
The services of food and beverages has been widely defined as the procedure of setting,
preparing, presenting as well as delivering the food and beverages to the consumers. The visitors
and customers visit the restaurant or hotels to utilize the services of food. Thus, it has been
observed that it is necessary to maintain the premise well furnished and hygienic so as to attract
large number of customers towards the food and beverage sector. The services of such sector
contributes a large profits and earnings in the hospitality industries. The requirement of good
quality services in food and beverages has been increasing as the value of meetings, social events
or personal events are enhancing (Cassano, Rastogi and Basile, 2015). The employees of such
sector work tirelessly and efficiently to escalate the experience of customers through their lavish
and high standard services. Commercial food and beverages services is involved in primary
enterprise, which consist of cafeterias, clubs, restaurants, bars and lounges. While non
commercial services of food and beverages are secondary business which commonly involve in
catering with restricted choice of beverages as well as food.
Holiday Inn is generally a British owned brands of American hotel, which was founded
by Kemmons Wilson at 1952. The headquarter of such hotel groups are in Denham,
Buckinghamshire, United Kingdom. It has been considered as one of the biggest hotel chain in
world which comprise of around 1,173 hotels in Africa, Asia, America, Europe. They provide
luxurious and delicate services of food, meetings, beverages, conventions, lodging and many
more. The report will focus on the challenges which are being faced by the industry and
recommendations which can be made to improve the qualities as well as services of the food and
beverages. The skills which are required to fulfil the demands and needed for successful business
operation will be evaluated. The impact of organisational culture on job satisfaction and morale
of current employee working in food and beverage sector will be discussed.
MAIN BODY
Skills and qualities required in food and beverage sector
The hospitality has been considered as one of the most broad and wide industry which
renders well suited job and ultimately has a great outcome on economic level (Caspi and et.al.,
2017). It has been observed that whether people work in restaurants, hotels, catering business,
lounges, food outlets and in some events, they have ample of the roles and responsibilities which

has to be fulfilled for staying longer in such area and uplifting the sector together with their
achievement. There are different service restaurants which serve resources depending upon the
supplies and services which are being provided. The quick service restaurant are those fast food
centres where the food is being prepared, brought up by the consumers and immediately
consumed over there. The self serving function is generally adopted in such outlets. The full
service restaurants are based on themed or ethnic fine dining family restaurants where the
beverages as well as food menu is broad and lengthy and the expectations of the consumers are
very high. Such type of restaurants are directed depending on the satisfaction level of the
customers and their associated experience (Scully and et.al., 2015). The food and beverage
services operate on a basic cycle which generally involves the preparation of the food where
storing the raw materials is required which is followed by cooking and preparing the food so as
to make the operational department of the food and beverages smooth and supple. Once the food
have been prepared the servicing starts which involve in presenting the food as well as beverages
in most unique and attractive way which positively influence the consumers and they visit the
restaurant more frequently. After presenting the food the customer consumes the food, followed
by this process cleaning the place and utensils starts which allow to maintain the hygiene of the
restaurant making it germ free and less toxic place. Thus it has been analysed that the
professional and skilled management as well as administrating skills or qualities are very
essential in respect to succeed and manage the total operational process to fix together with
preparing requisite amount of food items and products suitably. It is assistive to conduct dealings
in more effectual as well as cost effective style so that request and demand of goods can be
consummated in decent way (Davis and et.al., 2018). Moreover, it is necessary to provide goods
in desired time period of time as per the orders of clients in accurate mode. There are several
management skills and features which has to be adopted by Holiday Inn to pull off as well as
manage their day to day activities along with decently serving their guests and visitors in terms
of achieving their full satisfaction and honour. The skills and qualities which are required and
has to be there in the employee working in the field of food and beverages have been mentioned
below.
Decision making – The decision making process has been refers to settle and determine
anything for well being of enterprise in respect to modify the quality of goods and provide the
customers at reasonable value so that huge number of population are drawn towards such hotels.

However, the managers working in different department of the company put efforts and give
attempts to discover better menus and food items at inexpensive cost and this plan of action
furnish assistance to pull new and diverse consumers along with holding the same which
ultimately effects into enhancing the amount of income and profits as well. The manager
reviewed that they have to make crucial decisions at the time of making policies and guidelines
where they have to keep in mind that the taken decisions is advantageous to the business and
upgrade the level of restaurants.
Problem solving – This can be represented as the way to apply efficacious plan of action
including policies to deal with different outgoing and upcoming contingencies to figure out the
issues immediately. It is incumbent to sort out difficulties and issues in operations and other food
department so that the cause of loss can be decreased in the right way for acquiring better
earnings (Maxime, Marcotte and Arcand, 2006). The argument among the workers or in between
any branch of supply chain must be resolved immediately so as to attain high quality services. As
per the manager views, problem of guest with a particular waiter or issues regarding the
modification in itinerary has to be explored and resolved very patiently as well as smartly. Such
measure aids in making the brand name more comprehensive and well known.
Good communication qualities – The interaction skill has been considered as a very
important part of hospitality under which food and beverage sector comes. Everyday the
employees working in such field comes in contact with diverse customers of various age,
background, temperaments. Thereby, it is very necessary to communicate in such a manner
which is transparent and not offensive. The workers being the most vital part of an organisation
as they are the ones who actually represents their hotel brands and chains. Thus, they has to
adopt a language which should be understandable enough to all the consumers in equal manner.
According to the viewpoint of the manager, customers has to be treated in nice and delicate way,
such practice assist in developing intense relationship between hotels and customer which further
make a much big difference.
Multitasking ability – Working in respective sector may be quite tiring and hectic as it
involves a person to be multitasker and quick. This practice ensure in managing the time
effectively so as to prioritise the work according to the need and demand of the market as well as
the organisation (Riley, 2005). The capability to handle pressure and work calmly in such
pressurised and chaotic environment has to be organised subtly. The managers view on such

ability is distinct and shows that the waiter has to attend few customers at a same time, which
require multitasking abilities, like to interact in polite way, remembering and noting the order list
correctly and at the same time receiving feedbacks and giving bills, thus they should have the
power to handle such situation and then work accordingly.
Skill of teamwork – It has been always analysed that the power of team work is
immense in each and every organisation. When working in a food and beverage hotels or in
restaurants, a busy kitchen and tirelessly working staff is normal. Thus, operating well with the
others while keeping up with the outside customers is essential (McCrickerd, Lensing and
Yeomans, 2015). The team should response in a collective way and must not concentrate on
small minded issues which generally pops up during the work. After getting views form the
manger it has been observed that the, following new faces in very common in this type of
business, but if an whole organisation works collaboratively the whole managing and operating
team quality work can be enhanced and ultimately helps in reaching to new ventures and places.
Listening skills – The skill of good and patient listening gives an edge to the employees
and actually aids in understanding the views and problems of the guest which further give them
professional and skilled value. Such practices also assist in knowing the minute details of the
costumer and later helps in evaluating the desires and wants of the guest from the respective
hotel. When the views of manager were analysed, it has been concluded that the level of patience
and listening skills are always being examined, like when the customers and guest who came to
visit in hotel demands such services which actually are not in a relation with their existing
package.
As per the skills and the qualities which have been mentioned, it is clear that the
employees of Holiday Inn must acquire such skills for bringing positive change in the
organisation and for smooth functioning of the business. It has been analysed that the plan of
actions are mandatory to be established while making suitable strategies in order to make
innovative and creative changes so as to promote customers retaining power properly. Moreover,
it consider the practice of making more efficacious as well as extra ordinary eatable items by
making its presentation as well as quality more fascinating so as to develop powerful customer
base (Powell and Nguyen, 2013).

Major Challenges Facing the Industry
Talking about the business organisation, whenever they perform any of the business
activity in the market then in that respective situation sometimes problems arises. It is crucial for
the organisation to ensure that they are ready to deal with those challenges if they want to
compete in the market. The main reason for the occurrence of problem or challenges in front of
the business organisation is frequent changes in trends and requirement of customers. It is the
actual reason that many of the small and medium enterprises suffer to perform better in the
market as continuous changes are required over here. Talking about Holiday Inn, they are one of
the leading industry in the sector of hospitality where they deal in different part of the world. For
the purpose of performing each and every work in a systematic manner, they have divided
number of departments so that any sort of problem do not occur upon the organisation. Although,
they have been dealing in different part of the world but still they are facing lots of challenges
and the main reason is culture and believes of people living in specific area (Coles and Kirwan,
2011). Some of the major challenges which are being faced by Holiday Inn is explained below.
More Competition: In present situation, it has been found that competition is increasing
day by day where newly commenced industry is giving tough competition to those business
organisation which are performing since longer period of time. Talking about Holiday Inn, it can
be easily said that due to raise in competition in the market company is required to change their
plans and policies on regular basis where lots of expenses occur on daily basis. Increase in
competition has directly affected the organisation in generating the revenue as it is decreasing
day by day (Adeigbe and et.al., 2015).
Finding & Keeping Valued Customers: It is said that on in hotel industry, it is very
important for any of the business organisation to sustain their customers for longer period of
time. As competition is increasing on daily basis due to which problem is increasing because
there are number of hotel who provide the similar form of services at a very reasonable price. In
context of Holiday Inn, their management has been suffering to retain their valuable customers
for longer period of time. It is because there are number of hotel industry who is providing the
similar sort of services at a different price. It is one of the major challenge which is being faced
by one of the top rated hotel in current scenario.
Sustaining the employees: Whenever any of the organisation is being incorporated, they
mainly thinks that how they can sustain their employees so that work can be performed in a
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systematic manner. If in any of the situation organisation is able to sustain their employees then
they can easily accomplish their goals because they are very familiar with the working
environment of an organisation. In context of Holiday Inn, they are also facing the problem
related to sustaining their employees which is one of the major challenges that company wants to
resolve in current situation. As company is forced to change their employees on every short
period of time which incur unnecessary expenses for the business organisation (Bayona-Saez and
et.al., 2017). It is said that if company is willing to perform better in future period of time then it
is crucial for them to find put the ways through which they can give them the opportunity to
sustain their employees for longer period of time and that is one of the way through which
organisational goals can be achieved.
Produce Going to Waste: It is also one of the challenge which is being faced within the
hospitality industry. Here, company is forced to throw their food product which is increasing the
daily expenses due to which overall benefit and revenue is decreasing day by day. Similarly,
talking about Holiday Inn, they are not good at retaining their employees for longer period of
time and whenever employees are changed within the business organisation company have to
provide them different training. But, there are number of situation where employees take time to
adopt the situation which is one of the main reason that company is unable to decide that what
should be the quantity of food product they must use so that it will not be required to throw out.
It is creating lots of problem and becoming one of the major challenges for the company where
solution is required to be obtained.
Change in marketing trends and dynamics: In present situation, market is changing
day by day and it is necessary to understand that how company can adopt all of those changes so
that better results can be obtained (Robertson, 2016). It is necessary for the company to perform
as per the requirement where they are needed to understand that how they can do better form of
advertisement so that public can be attracted easily. In case of Holiday Inn, they have to make
quick changes as demand and wants of people do changes in every short period of time. This
types of trend bring number of changes in the organisation where it doesn't allow employee to
settle in fix working style for longer period of time. It is one of the reason that challenges in front
of the business organisation increases and create unnecessary issues at the time of accomplishing
the goals of an organisation.
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Maintaining online reputation: Whenever any of the business organisation is being
operated they are needed to perform better because it is the only way through which guest can be
attracted towards the organisation (Ogleand et.al., 2017). In present scenario, each and every
organisation is focusing on their online website to promote their business so that business goals
can be accomplished. In case of Holiday Inn, they are very innovative in promoting their
business through the online sources but still they are required to perform better within market to
achieve the targets. But, the main challenge which company is facing in online is that their
business website create problem for guest at the time of doing payment which create negative
impact in front of the guest. It is the challenge which business organisation is needed to solved
for attaining positive result in future period of time.
Customer Expectation: Nowadays, expectation of employees is increasing day by day
where they want number of facilities whenever they visit to any of the new place. Every time it is
not possible for any of the business organisation to perform better in the market because meeting
out the expectation of every single guest will create problem for the organisation to accomplish
the goals. In the same manner Holiday Inn is also suffering because they are unable to meet out
the expectation of all the customers. Here, the main reason of occurrence of problem is that hotel
is not trying to take any of the feedback from the customers who visits the hotel. It is also one of
the challenge where company is required to work for desirable result.
In short, these are some of the problem which are being faced by the business
organisation like Holiday Inn and if they are willing to perform better then it is necessary for
them to find out the best possible solution. If all of this challenges can be addressed then chances
of achieved the desirable result will also increase which will give additional opportunity to
company to sustain and give competition for longer period of time (Bresciani, 2017). But, if in
any of the situation, management of the organisation fails to perform as per the requirement then
lots of problem may occur in future period of time.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Adeigbe, R.T and et.al., 2015. Food and beverage marketing to Latinos: a systematic literature
review. Health Education & Behavior. 42(5). pp.569-582.
Bayona-Saez, C and et.al., 2017. Open innovation in the food and beverage industry.
Management Decision. 55(3). pp.526-546.
Bresciani, S., 2017. Open, networked and dynamic innovation in the food and beverage industry.
British Food Journal. 119(11). pp.2290-2293.
Caspi, C.E and et.al., 2017. Food and beverage purchases in corner stores, gas-marts, pharmacies
and dollar stores. Public health nutrition. 20(14). pp.2587-2597.
Cassano, A., Rastogi, N.K. and Basile, A., 2015. Membrane technologies for water treatment
and reuse in the food and beverage industries. In Advances in Membrane Technologies
for Water Treatment (pp. 551-580). Woodhead Publishing.
Coles, R. and Kirwan, M.J. Eds., 2011. Food and beverage packaging technology. Hoboken, NJ:
Wiley-Blackwell.
Davis, B and et.al., 2018. Food and beverage management. Routledge.
Maxime, D., Marcotte, M. and Arcand, Y., 2006. Development of eco-efficiency indicators for
the Canadian food and beverage industry. Journal of Cleaner Production. 14(6-7).
pp.636-648.
McCrickerd, K., Lensing, N. and Yeomans, M.R., 2015. The impact of food and beverage
characteristics on expectations of satiation, satiety and thirst. Food quality and
preference. 44. pp.130-138.
Ogle, A.D and et.al., 2017. Influence of cartoon media characters on children's attention to and
preference for food and beverage products. Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and
Dietetics. 117(2). pp.265-270.
Powell, L.M. and Nguyen, B.T., 2013. Fast-food and full-service restaurant consumption among
children and adolescents: effect on energy, beverage, and nutrient intake. JAMA
pediatrics. 167(1). pp.14-20.
Riley, M., 2005. Food and beverage management: A review of change. International Journal of
Contemporary Hospitality Management. 17(1). pp.88-93.
Robertson, G.L., 2016. Packaging and food and beverage shelf life. In The Stability and Shelf
Life of Food (pp. 77-106). Woodhead Publishing.
Scully, P and et.al., 2015. Food and beverage advertising during children’s television
programming. Irish Journal of Medical Science (1971-). 184(1). pp.207-212.
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