Operations Management
Case Study Report
Case: Benihana of Tokyo
PREPARED BY:
Dhruv Gupta
Gunjan Kalita
Jigyasa Gautam
Kishlay Saurabh
Naveen Malik
Navpreet Singh Sachdeva
13DM066
13DM075
13DM086
13DM092
13DM112
13DM113
UNDER THE GUIDANCE OF:
Prof. A.K.Dey
Contents
Page No
Activity Diagram
Summary
Strategy
Initial Strategy
Operational
Marketing Strategy
Competitive Priorities
Low Cost
Distinctive Service
3
4
6
6
6
6
7
7
8
2
Activity Diagram
3 Diagram
Figure 1: Activity
Summary
When Hiroaki Aoki (Rocky) came to US in 1959 as part of a
wrestling team he realized that there were more opportunities
for him in America than in Japan. He got himself enrolled in the
school of restaurant management at New York City College,
thinking that he would never go hungry in the restaurant
business. He did a systematic analysis of US restaurant market
and discovered that although American enjoyed eating in
exotic surrounding but were deeply mistrustful towards exotic
foods. He also learned that the American enjoyed watching
their food being prepared.
These learning helped Rocky to open up his first unit of Figure 2: Benihana founder Hiroaki
Benihana by 1963. The major problem that Rocky addressed "Rocky" Aoki
from the analysis was the shortage of skilled labor which he
eliminated with the Hibachi table arrangement, which required only the chef as a skilled
person. This arrangement also helped in reducing the total space of the “Back of the house”
unit from 30% to 22%. In addition to this he reduced food storage and wastage by reducing
the menu to only three simple “Middle American” entrees and was able to cut food costs up
to 35% of food sales.
The instant success of the first unit helped Rocky to open six franchises within the next
seven years soon after which he realized that the franchise owners were investors and had
no restaurant experience which made it even more difficult for them to relate to...