Restaurant Strategy Planning and Design: Greek Bistro in Singapore

This report outlines a comprehensive restaurant strategy for a Greek bistro, focusing on its establishment in the Clarke Quay area of Singapore. The strategy encompasses various levels of analysis, including environmental factors (internal and external), organizational structure, strategic management (competitive, corporate, business, functional, and operational strategies), and activity-level considerations (budgeting, accounting, marketing, sales, operations, and customer service). The report emphasizes the importance of location, zoning, and physical characteristics, highlighting the advantages of a riverside location in Clarke Quay. It also covers sales generation, traffic analysis, visibility, and competitor analysis, along with survey results to understand customer demographics and preferences. The report concludes with a detailed plan for a Greek bistro, emphasizing its unique selling points and strategic advantages in the Singapore market, targeting expats and office crowds with a Mediterranean dining experience.

ADVANCED DIPLOMA IN RESTAURANT
AND CATERING MANAGEMENT (ADRCM)
RESTAURANT STRATEGY PLANNING AND
DESIGN

Before setting up an organization, we need to look at four level of factors:
1. Environmental Level
2. Organization Level
3. Strategic Level
4. Activity Level
Environmental Level
This factor is divided into two parts Internal (micro environment) and External
environment (macro environment).
Internal environment consists of elements that exist within or inside the organization.
- Financial resources
- Human resources
- Information resources
- Technology Resources
- Corporate Culture
- Organisation Goodwill
Based on the above resource, organisation can create and deliver value to the
customer. This value is essential to define the purpose of the organization in which
will also seeks to be profitable.
Elements of internal environment consist of:
1. Owners and Shareholders- people who invested in the company.
2. Board of Directors- are the governing body of the company and are
responsible for overseeing top managers.
3. Employees- people who perform the tasks of the administration.
4. Organisational Culture- is the organization belief, visions and mission
5. Resources of the Organization- things such as physical resources, human
resources, information resources and technology resources.
6. Organization image- the reputations of the organization which will help to
portray a good image into public minds.
Organizations Level
Organizations has structure which defines the hierarchy in which the distributions of
roles or responsibilities within the organizations. In this case we are looking are
hierarchy such as owner, board of directors, marketing team, head chef, head
bartenders, managers and employees. There are three type of organizations structure
we can look at:
1. Functional Organization- where people are grouped by areas of their
specializations. Rank and file work from respective department work on a
certain project assign and report back up to head of department.
2. Projectized Organization- companies is organized by projects. Project
managers have control on the projects and resources only report to project
managers and when the project are done, they need to look for a new project to
work on.

3. Matrix Organization- team members report to their project manager and also
functional managers.
Strategic level
Understanding strategic level will help to align the restaurant to goals from the top to
the bottom of the restaurant mission and vision. Five level we should look into before
setting up a restaurant are:
STRATEGIC
MANAGEMENT TYPE
MEANING
Competitive strategy
This mean taking external competitions into
considerations to deliver a better service to
what customer needs. For examples:
1. Price
2. Product
3. Promotions
4. Place
Corporate Strategy This simply describe the Vision and Mission of
the company. In this case, what is the
restaurant ultimate vision and mission it
wants to achieve.
Business Strategy This concern the marketing strategy on how
the company want to be seen. In this case,
what product or services can the restaurant
provide to the customers.
Functional Strategy This refers on department strategy to achieve the
objectives of the business. For example, on how to
apply this on a restaurant business we can look into the
marketing strategy such as what kind of cuisine we
serving and where the restaurant will be located.
Operation Strategy Organization need to pick a place to opearate to
develop an operations strategy. When opening a
restaurant we need to look at where we can it be to
give us a competitive advantage.
Activity Level
Activities of the business help to bring out the productivity and growth of the
company. Six level we can look into and incorporate into the restaurant business:
1. Budgeting
We need to set up a budget for every department in the restaurant. This way it
can helps to determine revenue utilizations in the respective department. For
examples, a budget for kitchen operations so that we can monitor what it is
spent on, wastage and what is sold.
2. Accounting and Audit

This is the process to manage the flow of money in the organization. For
example, all the equipment in the kitchen, bar and restaurant such as table
chair and cutlery has a depreciation. We need to identify what is the asset and
liability for example an items that has high cost value but are not selling fast
enough as the rest is a liability.
3. Marketing
Marketing is the core for all business on which focusing on improving brand
recognition and brand value in the market. They will conduct market research
giving a competitive advantage for the company. We can apply this in
restaurant in a way marketing will research what is the trend that consumers
are leading for example what kind of diet they are into.
4. Sales Activities
Sales are ultimate revenue generators for organizations. We can apply this the
restaurant by having a sales team to sell our restaurant venue for events such
as wedding functions.
5. Operation and supply chain
A good supply chain provide the organization with inventory management to
delivery management. We can apply this on the restaurant business by
providing the operation staff with the best supplier with attractive price that
benefits the business to operate.
6. Customer Service
Customer service is important for any business as its not only about the
product that we selling but also service that satisfy the consumers. How we
can apply in the restaurant business for example, providing a reservations
platform in order to save time from queuing up, acknowledge any celebrations
they having like birthday and promotions. Since restaurant business is a people
business customer satisfaction is top priority as this will determine the ratings
on the restaurant.
With the above planning and strategy we will proceed with opening restaurant
business. In this case I have chose to open up a Greek Bistro in the CBD area along
the Singapore River. Through the research I have done, there are not a lot of Greek
restaurant here in Singapore and Greek cuisine is the trend that most consumer are
into; KETO diet.
LOCATION
The key factors of opening the restaurant is the location. It will determine the success
of the menu, marketing strategies and customer reviews. As research, most Greek
restaurant in Singapore are not that accessible and not in the centre.
This location along the Singapore River is suitable concept for my restaurant as it will
give a Santorini vibe dining in overlooking the water. This concept also sending a
romantic vibe for couples for a beautiful night out.
There are also a few condominiums around the area which mostly caters to expats.
Not many locals will appreciate KETO diet as rice are the main staple of their diets.
As we know Greek cuisine are about Mediterranean grilled meats and with this
location it cater to the expats nearby who are mostly European.

Around the area we also has big offices such as WeWorks, UOB building, Raffles
place and so on. This place will be the best place for office crowd to hang out after
work to unwind and enjoy a good dinner with their colleagues.
We can expect a few dynamics of customers to the restaurant for examples families
from the nearby condominiums, office crowds, adolescents as we know Clarke Quay
is also a party place and also couples for romantic dates.
ZONING
The best place to situate the restaurant will be at Clarke Quay. It’s a commercial area
by Capital Land.
As many of us knows that Clarke Quay is a conservation landmark comprising of five
block. Most of the building are shophouses and warehouses that are restored in 19th
century under a multi- coloured illuminated canopy making the place lively at night.
There are over 60 restaurants and bars situated in the area and business in Clarke
Quay runs day and night.
Restaurant in Clarke Quay comes in different sizes big and small to cater to all type of
demographic crowds. Since Clarke Quay policy is to operate day to night business for
restaurant, we can attract lunch crowd from nearby office.
AREA CHARACTERISTIC
Opening a restaurant in Clarke quay will face a little challenge for dinner time as most
bars will be operating at night. Most bars in Clarke quay will play loud music to hype
up the energy for respective bar which will affect our Greek restaurant business to set
a romantic chill out restaurant.
The restaurant that I intend to open for this Greek restaurant will be an open concept
outdoor by the river thus, blocking the noise from nearby might be a issues. We also
might also face problem such as having drunk guest coming in to restaurant who
may/may not cause problem that will cause a horrible experience to other guest.
PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTIC
Having an outdoor restaurants we need to consider the weather. We need to have a
few coolers to cool down the area on hot day. We will also need to worry if we have a
contingency plan for wet weather; is all the seating cover with canopy.
Clarke quay however has river cruise along Singapore river which I see it as a great
advantage for the restaurant. We could partner up with River Cruise to cater for light
bites for the boat tour which is also a good marketing strategy to promote Greek
cuisine by the river. This will our main theme concept as the mini Santorini by the
river. To block the noise, we will have a two piece live band that plays loves song to
create the ambience.
We also need to ensure a good cleanliness of the restaurant as not to attract pest. We
need to ensure the restaurant is at a good hygiene standard that required from SFA.
UTILITIES

We need to check the price of a rent a space a Clarke Quay for example a size of a 70
pax capacity space. Water and electric supplies we can get help from Clarke
management to help up with the blueprint for power source.
SALES GENERATORS
I am truly confident with the sales that can be generated with the location selected,
The target audience around Clarke Quay area are at great genre of people. We can get
business crowd such as expats, working young adults, teenagers and also families.
STREET AND TRAFFIC INFORMATION
A good flow of traffic in Clarke Quay from River Valley road, Hill street and
Clemenceau Avenue. Most of these street are coming from Central Business District.
Traffic are busy especially from six in the evening onwards a great advantage for us
to have the dinner crowd.
VISIBILITY
Having a restaurant along the River side gives us an exposure especially for River
Cruise boat that pass by. As mention above we can partner up with River Cruise tug
boats to organise a boat trip with a catered food and drinks. This way we can
introduce Greek cuisine to guest on the boat and we can give out flyers to them for
examples; visit the restaurant with this flyer and receive a 10% discount for the whole
dining experience.
COMPETITORS
In Clarke Quay there is 60 over bar and restaurants but none of them are doing Greek
Cuisine. Therefore having a Greek cuisine in Clarke quay gives us a competitive
advantage.
The only thing we need to compete with restaurant nearby is the price of alcohol as
there is a lot of bars offering Happy Hour price. In order to compete with these
competitors, we need to sell Greek product such as Greek Beers, Greek Gin, Greek
cocktails and etcetera.
SURVEY QUESTIONS
1. Is the restaurant accessible to get to?
2. Are they staying near the area?
3. What is their age?
4. Are they working nearby?
5. What are their salary range?
6. What are most restaurant lack
According the survey conducted, ten of ten are saying that Clarke Quay is a very
accessible locations as there are nearby carpark and also downtown line nearby.
40% of the people that pass by the locations are resident at nearby condos. We have a
good variety of joggers in the evening and also on the weekend who lives nearby.

40% of them are at 30 years old. 20% are at 50 years old. 30% of them are in their
20s. 10% are children that goes out with their family for dinners.
Most of the crowd are working nearby at a 40% of them. 30% are people who goes
there for dinner before drinking at bars nearby. Another 30% are families who stayed
nearby
Salary range of the people are at $2500 to $8000 a month or even higher as there are
office nearby and international company nearby. We have a few expats that work
nearby.
Most of them agree that restaurant nowadays lack of a good service and customer
experience. Price range of some restaurant are steep at a mediocre service and food.
In conclusion, there are pros and cons for this concept to work. As mention above
there are a few established and well known Greek restaurant in Singapore but we are
the only one which is at the right in the middle which is so accessible to everyone.