Dian Shui Lou 點水樓

Day 3 - lunch at Dian Shui Lou 點水樓

• Launched by Namchow Group (南僑集團), a soap-making chemical manufacturer-cum-culinary giant. 
• High-profile restaurant chain specializing in Jiangzhe cuisine (江浙菜)
• Restaurant design is modeled on tradition

Pointers from the visit to Dian Shui Lou 點水樓:

• Horizontal and Vertical integration of business: diversity of products- soap, oil-based products, frozen dough, ice cream, F&B

• Driven out of Interests and Passion by boss
• Clear market segmentation due to diversified products. Market segmentation is a marketing strategy that involves dividing a broad target market into subsets of consumers who have common needs and priorities and then designing and implementing strategies to target them.
• Knowledge about food: moved into F&B industry because of knowledge about Jiangzhe cuisine
• Customer oriented: 

-Xiao Long Bao Bar- customers can see how food is prepared

-Deodorise seawater fish to achieve better food standards for customers- by putting fish into freshwater tanks

-Use of specific ingredients for specific dishes to achieve best food standards for customers

• Cleanliness of kitchen and restaurant
• Innovation: different flavours of Xiao Long Bao
• Aims to contribute to Taiwan's rich F&B and service industry
• The only restaurant to be awarded the full five stars by the Northern Taiwan Restaurant Guide (北台灣餐館評鑑)

Before listening to the presentation

Les Enphants

Day 2- Visit to Les Enphants for a factory tour.

From the Les Enphants website 

 (http://temp.phland.com.tw/les_en/en/company.html)

' The foundation of the Les Enphants group is built from the notion of human needs. In an effort to satisfy a parent’s desire to care for their children, we have developed a wide range of products that offer the same care and love as the mother. Broaching from children’s needs, we aim to provide children with the best in our product development. The sewing of each garment is bestowed with a mother’s devotion and attentive care. Today’s dedicated efforts bring us to witness the children’s future dreams!  '

Here are some insights from my visit to the Les Enphants factory tour.

• Customer-centric: Les Enphants's business philosophy is “Devoting to the children as our lifetime career”. 

• Corporation of philosophy and creativity into company logo: 

Les Enphants’ logo is derived from the French Les Enfants, which means “for the children”, and combines also the group chairman’s founding philosophy of Peace and Hope, which has been extended and developed into an English alphabet combination of PH, made to resembling an elephant.

Peace and Hope, founding philosophy of Les Enphants.

• Company responsibility- Emphasis on safety, service and quality standards of products, to ensure customer trust and ease of mind.

• Caters to need-based customers; women and children.

Formosa Chang 胡须张

Lunch for Day 2 was held at 

Formosa Chang 胡须张, 

a restaurant well-known for its 卤肉饭 Braised Meat rice.


If you google Formosa Chang, you notice its website header is '懷念的古早味' . 

Website: http://www.fmsc.com.tw/

Yes, today Formosa Chang has more than 30 branches across Taipei, and the restaurant chain has been in business since the late 1980s. Formosa Chang is one of the more successful ventures that have brought street food staples into the realm of mass production. 

(information from a restaurant review written at website: http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/feat/archives/2011/08/26/2003511675)

卤肉饭 Braised Meat rice. Delicious.

A glimpse of the presentation held at Formosa Chang. It is inspiring to learn of the hard work which built up this restaurant chain, especially so since Formosa Chang started out very small, as an outdoors food stall.

Listening intently.

 Below are some learning points I took away from Formosa Chang:

1) Importance of customer assurance, especially in the F&B industry- Certification of quality and success. In 1999 Formosa Chang attained the ISO 9002 certification and eventually many other awards. 

2) Creativity- Infusion of popular culture: collaborating other trendy brands with Formosa Chang.

An example is this video where a trendy clothing brand Pizza Cut Five collaborates with Formosa Chang to create this commercial: 

潮流品牌Pizza Cut Five找來美食鬍鬚張 聯名CF，大大翻玩鬍鬚張的形象。

Another example is the trendy packaging, also a collaboration with the brand Pizza Cut Five.

3) Flexibility during unexpected crisis- the swine flu period. At this point of time, a staple ingredient, pork, was limited due to the swine flu. Customers did not dare to eat any pork in fear of jeopardizing their health. Formosa Chang thus came up with a chicken dish to tide through this unexpected crisis.

Formosa Chang's chicken dish.

4) Financial planning and gearing. There is a need to strike a balance between expansion and finances. If expansion happens too fast, it will be difficulty in absorbing shock when financial issues arise, for example, if interest rates increase. This may greatly jeopardise any business.

5) A reminder from one of the presentation's slides- Jeremy Lin's lessons.

Definitely applicable to everyday life.

These said, thank you Formosa Chang for an inspiring lunch.

Wang's Steak

Day 1 - 

Dinner at Wang's Steak.

The management trainees visited the restaurant as mystery shoppers and observed the service delivered at Wang's Steak.

I was in for a treat- a 6 course meal. 

Multi-course meal at Wang's Steak.

Below are [ Wang's Steak ]'s company values, extracted from their website (http://www.wangsteak.com.tw/cultural.htm).

	誠實 ─	對人對事，以誠實為第一要務。對公司、同事、廠商、客戶、政府、家人誠實以待，而誠的態度是：既誠信又實在。
	群力 ─	群策群力、團隊精神。確信 1+1+1=9 的正面連鎖反應。相信在群體的激勵之下，每一個人的潛能更能發揮到極致。
	創新 ─	創意無限、行事成熟而不守舊。敢於向傳統挑戰，不迷信、不陳腐。任何決定以科學數字作分析。
	滿意 ─	凡事要讓客戶滿意、讓公司滿意、讓周圍所有的人都滿意；當然， 也要自我滿意。但此非自滿，而是自謙。

To summarise in English, Wang's Steak aims to deliver these values: Honesty, Teamwork, Innovation and Satisfaction.

From my experience at the restaurant, Wang's Steak definitely managed to achieve the values they are aiming for. Wang's Steak really impressed me in various ways:

• Excellent food, large portions
• Sincere service - they asked if the food is up to standard, if it's to our liking; greeted as I walked to the washroom, cut the food up for me, and even warmed up the food for me when I returned from the washroom minutes after the food had been initially served.
• Great english - the staff were able to speak fluently in English and catered to my needs promptly.

• Product knowledge- the waitresses were able to clearly explain and introduce the dishes to myself and my colleagues from the same table, even up to nitty gritty details such as how the food was cooked and prepared.

After our food, the restaurant manager Jerry also gave a presentation about Wang's Steak. Here are several learning points I'd gathered from his presentation.

• Innovation: Jerry mentioned how the restaurant staff noticed what was being thrown out in the garbage, which is indicative of the customer preferences. For example, they used to serve soup in a french bread bowl but noticed that customers did not eat the french bread and tend to throw the french bread out. Thus, Wang's Steak decided to 'twerk' the dish in a creative way and used puff pastry instead.

Jerry was probably referring to this french bread being thrown out.

The restaurant probably decided to present the dish in a new creative manner such as this.

Pictures of dishes above credited to Google.

• Jerry also mentioned how Wang's Steak did not have franchises- all branches and opened by the company itself to ensure the restaurant's standards in terms of product or service.

All in all, I learnt a lot from Wang Steak's. I left the restaurant a full, satisfied consumer, contented with the food and definitely the service.

Will I visit Wang's Steak when I return to Taiwan? 

Definitely.

ASIT

First Day in Taipei- First Stop: ASIT.

ASIT stands for the Association of Service Industries, Taiwan.

On the way to our venue. The weather in Taipei is pretty cold.

View from the bus ride.

We attended a talk at ASIT. Various local companies, which are established in Taipei's service industry today, presented about their businesses to us.

Here is a glimpse of the venue the talk was held:

The Taiwanese companies presented their businesses to us and I noticed, although each company had their own unique identity, own niche market and own business approaches, they all share some similarities:

1) Focus on culture and identity. The companies are confident of their business models, passionate in what they do, positive, hold a strong belief in what they are doing and selling, and proud to contribute to the Taiwanese service industry.

2) Dare to experiment; to be creative and innovative. Often, these businesses start out small, selling only a specialized product. They then branch out to diversify their products horizontally or vertically. Eventually, they may even go international and enter the global market. Each business has a strong identity, and a unique story behind its beginning.

3)  A humble attitude. These companies are humble, not only towards their customers, but also their staff. They are willing to learn, and believe in nurturing talents and individuals, and thus practice on the job training for their staff which really helps staff to learn and grow, thus contributing to the eventual success of the company.

4) Sincerity, being heartfelt, and ethical towards customers. These Taiwanese companies are very customer-centric and truly keep customers' well-being in mind. They do not only look to earn monetary benefits from their customers, they aim to instill trust in customers by ensuring the best quality in the service and goods they provide, and to offer their best to their customers, and to establish a strong and loyal company-buyer relationship.

These points above make me feel that the Taiwanese companies are 'Uniquely Taiwanese'. Because of their strong values and emphasis on customers, Taiwanese companies rank high in terms of service standards.

My favourite presentation is the one by Mango Cha Cha.

Image credits to Google

I feel that being able to enter a global market with a signature dessert dish, especially with much competition from others in the food industry, is no easy feat. It certainly holds a lot of expansion potential, especially in hot tropical areas such as Singapore. The boss of the company has branched out to Malaysia, and is also selling other related products, such as dried mango. I like how happy and chirpy the company identity feels, just like the mango fruit they are selling, and how catchy the company name is.

Listening to the presentations definitely gave me an insight into entrepreneurship and renewed my passion in the retail industry. Perhaps, one day, I may come up with a bright idea like these Taiwanese companies did, and start and manage my own business.

At ASIT, I also had the opportunity to present briefly about my company Wingtai to the various Taiwanese business presenters.

 Credits to the person I took these photos from, I can't remember the exact source.

It was quite nerve-wracking to speak in front of these successful Taiwanese businessmen, but I survived. It was an interesting experience and I realised I would love to learn to be able to engage in public speaking with poise and confidence.

After this, we had a short business networking session with the Taiwanese and it was also my first experience receiving name cards and networking with various companies.

Thank you ASIT for this experience.

Prologue

Prologue- An opening to my experience of the CEP Taiwan Learning Trip.

So, it's the 5th night after I've touched down in Singapore from Taipei.

I've been working continuously after the trip and am finally able to find time to use my laptop to work on the blog posts. Hopefully, you'll enjoy my series of posts.

Taipei is a beautiful city well known for its great culture, people, food and of course, service.

I've been to Taipei before as a tourist, and loved it. During my previous visit there, I've already formed a good impression of Taipei's service standards.

I also have many Taiwanese colleagues at my current retail workplace, who would often tell me about their home country. They themselves provide excellent service on my shop floor.

A glimpse of my Taiwanese colleagues in Singapore.

I was especially excited to explore Taipei, especially so from a 'learning journey' point of view to learn more about Taipei's service industry, which is a refreshing change from my usual travelling experiences. Personally, Taiwan is also a relevant destination for me to learn about the Taiwanese's work culture and service standards since I work with a pool of Taiwanese staff back in Singapore.

Day 1...

Reported at the airport at 6.30am.

It was my first experience flying on a SQ flight. Thankful that the flight was safe. I napped and slept through most of the flight to gear myself for the next activity upon arriving at Taipei.

Here are the management trainees from my company, Wingtai, who I've met and made friends with on the trip.

Fun fact- I never actually truly spoken to any of the other Wingtai management trainees previously,as our company is big and made up of many retail brands and we hardly get a chance to meet or get together. Thus, I'm glad the trip helped bridge us together.

From left to right (top picture: Siti from G2000, Rachel from Topshop, me from i.t, Kevin from Adidas.)

Off we head to our first destination in Taipei.

Arrived.

We have arrived safely at the Taiwan Taoyuan Airport yesterday. (:

Onwards to our taiwan trip together!

Adidas, Topshop, g2000 and I.t Wingtai trainees.