Friday, July 12, 2019

20A – Growing Your Social Capital




Domain Expert-

My stepfathers friend Jasper owns an Italian restaurant in Miami. I also worked there during high school as a part time job. Jasper is an expert in restaurant ownership and knows all the ins and outs on how to successfully run an Italian restaurant efficiently. When I asked him about my idea about pitching new chicken products at Chick-fil-a to spice up the menu (chicken alfredo, chicken parm etc.), he definitely liked the idea but he also wasn’t so sure that Chick-fil-a would be willing to sell these products as some of the dishes I pitched “take a while to cook…doesn’t fit the fast food restaurant mold, but you never know”. Jasper is my domain expert because if Chick-fil-a would be open to testing some of these products, Jasper would be the guy to talk to in explaining how to efficiently make a quality meal to customers.



Market Expert

My aunt owns part of a Panera Bread establishment in Orlando, Fl for the past 5 years. The company has been nothing but a success. My aunt is a market expert as even though Chick-fil-a and Panera Bread aren’t exactly the same, they both serve similar products and have a common group of customers. My aunt knows exactly how to advertise products and really knows the fast food-café market really well based off her experience of being an owner. If Chick-fil-a was willing to try out my ideas, my aunt would be an incredible help to me in plans regarding advertising and targeting the right group of customers.



Industry supplier

As previously mentioned, my family-friend Jasper owns an Italian restaurant. However, he gets most of his foods from one of his friends who owns a company that makes chicken, pasta, lasagna etc. His friend is responsible for supplying many different foods to a variety of restaurants in the south Florida area. Although I don’t know the man directly, Jasper said he would definitely refer me to him to ask more questions. I haven’t had a chance to speak with him yet, but if the idea ever came into the picture, Jaspers friend could potentially be a supplier as he sells most of his products to various Italian establishments within the US. Chick-fil-a obviously isn’t an Italian restaurant establishment, however if Chick-fil-a were to venture into Italian style meals (chicken alfredo, chicken parm), this could be the way to go about it.


Reflection

Overall, talking to people that are family or family friends isn’t that hard. I can freely express my ideas to them and I know I wont be shut down or ignored because they’ll actually listen to me. However, in example, I haven’t talked to the potential guy as my industry supplier mentioned above. Talking to him may be a little more intimidating as he doesn’t know me so he might not be willing to hear my ideas out like I would hope.




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