The father of a large family owned conglomerate company based in KSA has just retired, handing over the leadership of the organization to his oldest son. Just prior to retiring the family added a new restaurant division to the conglomerate, called “International Food Experiences (IFE)”.
The vision behind adding the IFE division was to create a new locally based, sub-branded group of restaurants that specialized in international varieties of food (e.g. Italian, Chinese, French, American, Fusion, etc.). Most restaurants in the Kingdom fall into one of three categories:
- Large foreign brands with foreign/international food but local ownership (e.g. franchises) 2. Small local brands with regional food and local/regional ownership and
- High-end specialty restaurants located in Hotels and other VIP locations.
There were few locally based brands that had expanded into other markets or had created international food offering from a locally based brand or ownership. In essence, the business strategy is to create foreign brands locally, that offer international varieties of food, that can then be franchised regionally and internationally, rather than relying upon the over saturated ‘franchised foreign brands’ market.
The ‘role-model’ and genesis for this idea came from the success of a few regional hotel chains that had expanded internationally. The traditional hotel model in the region was a foreign licensed brand, owned locally, or a regional brand owned locally. In both cases, the local ownership relied heavily on the Master Franchisor to provide operational support and guidance including talent management strategies.
As the new CEO, you have a team that needs to evaluate the appropriate Talent Management strategies to achieve IFE’s vision: affordable world-class cuisine for the world’s diverse taste.
Talent Management Strategy Assignment
Step One: Answer the following questions that will be used to develop the Talent Management Strategy:
1) What Talent Management Philosophy (buy, borrow, build) would you recommend for populating the majority of the IFE workforce and why?
2) Which IFE job positions might you propose using/implementing a different talent management philosophy and why?
3) What tactics would you recommend to make the candidate experience support the overall talent management strategy?
