Cooking as a business

We have been studying Ferran Adrià and his business model in El Bulli. It’s an interesting combination of Passion, Convenience and a piece of luck. The soul of the business is mr. Adrià. As far as I understand he is a genius, an artist, a visionary. He has been able to reinvent the nouvelle cuisine and, at the same time, reach the lovers of food.

He started as a cook assistant in El Bulli (small restaurant in Costa Brava) and now he is the brand although he is surrounded by a huge team (55 cooks in the restaurant and up to 7 people ruling the core business). He keeps on defending that he wants the money to be able to be free to create. It’s not only what he says but how he behaves. He owns the restaurant, has a workshop to investigate new textures and flavours (250.000 € in R&D investment per year), a foundation to transmit and share his ideas and a consulting business.

We started discussing about the profit engine. We concluded that the restaurant is something to improve the brand Adrià but must be losing money (affordable prices, low capacity, many employees). In addition to this, he is closing the restaurant to be able to devote 100% to the creativity.

The last discussion has been around who is the responsible of the success of El Bulli brand. We have discovered that there is ElBulliCarmen where the business is ruled. There is an impressive entrance with all the publications where Adrià appears. There some people work on the business development of ElBulli.

To sum up, a passion translated into a profitable business. A person turned into a brand despite he always defends there is a team.

Ferran Adrià… what a character

China & Africa

Africa for me is the people I’ve met there. Africa for me is the injustice of extended colonialism. I’ve been able to read some books about such a big continent (treated as one reality but containing several… as any continent) and visit it first through the eyes of my friend Xavier Aldekoa (www.xavieraldekoa.com and @xavieraldekoa, journalist of La Vanguardia for Subsaharian Africa and living currently in Johannesburg) who was passionate and brave enough to go on his own to Mali when he was 20 to follow the steps of René Caillé. Javi is a character (interview in catalan in http://www.365d365e.com/entrevistes/?p=1834).

I went to Madagascar and Kenya-Tanzania with the NGO SED (www.sed-ongd.org) in 2009 and 2010 respectively. I was able to live for 1 month in a half first in Antsirabé and second in Masonga (besides the lake Victory). I was able to talk to the people and enjoy life in Africa, also to know the real struggles in those communities. I have been so lucky…

I had already heard about the influence of China in Africa. When I was a child I had heard a lot of times about the slept giant China was. I also heard some theories that the manufacturing power of the future would come from Africa after Asia… some things are true and some others not. China is moving rapidly and in an intelligent way. They are investing a lot in infrastructures but extracting lots of resources. Here the debate is again colonialism, justice or not, bribery, human rights… the individual issues merged in this weird alliance that is creating some concerns in the West. The concerns come from humanitarian organizations but also from countries that think that China is getting too much power.

These thoughts have come to my mind thanks to two articles in The Economist:

http://www.economist.com/node/18586678?story_id=18586678

http://www.economist.com/node/18586448?story_id=18586448

This is another thing coming from the MBA… lots of readings, not only in class but outside it… The Economist, HBR, Fortune, TechCrunch, FT, WSJ, NYT….Twitter has helped me a lot wit it but let’s let that point for another post…

Raül

Steve Jobs post-PC credo

Long time ago since my last post but here we go again with the aim to publish at least once per week. I have been able to study Apple in several different ways lately. It’s not a product, it’s an experience, you either love it or hate it (mostly the first option is chosen). Jobs is recognized as the soul of the company even though many people is involved. It’s 100% strategy and technology, what else can be better? He is the visionary since the beginning and here you have his last speech after ipad2 launch (through Fortune Magazine):

I’ve said this before, but thought it was worth repeating: It’s in Apple’s DNA that technology alone is not enough. That it’s technology married with liberal arts, married with the humanities, that yields us the result that makes our hearts sing.

And nowhere is that more true than in these post-PC devices.

And a lot of folks in this tablet market are rushing in and they’re looking at this as the next PC. The hardware and the software are done by different companies. And they’re talking about speeds and feeds just like they did with PCs.

And our experience and every bone in our body says that that is not the right approach to this. That these are post-PC devices that need to be even easier to use than a PC. That need to be even more intuitive than a PC. And where the software and the hardware and the applications need to intertwine in an even more seamless way than they do on a PC.

And we think we’re on the right track with this. We think we have the right architecture not just in silicon, but in the organization to build these kinds of products.

And so I think we stand a pretty good chance of being pretty competitive in this market. And I hope that what you’ve seen today gives you a good feel for that.

I hope you enjoy it!

Raül

 

Consulting Club

This is one of the most powerful clubs at ESADE. We are working a lot to improve our consulting skills and abilities. To begin with, a workshop to Crack the Case. This means, being able to solve problems of profitability or strategy, for example by proposing solutions.

Furthermore, we are receiving training in presentation and powerpoint. You think you are expert in a tool and then you realize that you don’t know anything. Something that Socrates already told a lot of years ago.

Appart from this, I have a lot of personal projects since I’ve been appointed as VP of events in the  Tech club and VP of Careers in the Sports Business Club. I am really happy for these and I am not afraid of the challenges that this represent.

Raül

MBASA Student Competition

Last week the Consulting Club proposed us to present a solution to a Case and present it to three judges. It was about a company which had to decide the futur strategy concerning sustainability, branding and profitability. There were 30 presentations and three winners but hard and good work behind all!! Here you have the approach of Team 4 Section B:

We didn’t win but had a great time and learnt a lot for future competitions!

Enjoy your weekend

Raül

Tablets

Technology is around, you can see it everywhere, from the mobile to the TV and all the infrastructure behind it. There are huge companies that work on these devices and one of the best known is Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL). It was founded in 1974 by Steve Jobs who is the real guru of this company despite he was fired in 1986 and rehired in 1997 being the current CEO and the reference. There has been revolutionary products under this brand: Macs, iMacs, iPods, iPhones… check their history, it’s really interesting.

Nowadays they’re promoting the iPad, a new tablet with internet connection (Wifi or 3G), GPS characteristics and a beautiful interface. It’s not cheap but it has been a roaring success with no competitors at all. We have the Kindle from Amazon that is a reader. RIM (creators of the BlackBerry) is planning a product for professionals and others are HP (PalmPad?), Acer, Dell…

We have not forgotten the one I consider its main competitor: the Samsung Galaxy. Samsung is growing really fast and are showing some products really interesting and with high performance. The Galaxy is based in the OS created by Google: Android. Furthermore, it supports Flash (from Adobe), something that the iPad not. The reason behind this lack of support is that Apple states Flash is not secure at all. Lots of companies want to use tablets to show some products from their website which is created in Flash. What to do? There are 2 options: switch device or change the website completely by introducing HTML5 code. Apple has on its side that it’s Apple: design, modernness and the brand. Samsung has on its side quality, price and that it’s not Apple but Google based…

Now the decision is on your side (if you want to buy any!):

RIM (Q1 2011)

HP: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702303738504575568173818767894.html?KEYWORDS=ipad

Apple: http://www.apple.com/ipad/

Samsung: http://galaxytab.samsungmobile.com

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702303339504575566544012851162.html?KEYWORDS=ipad

You can find them all in your favourite Search Engine (Google, Bing-Yahoo…)

Elections!

Yesterday we had a real exciting day after a stressing weekend!

During the weekend we had to decide about hosting a company. Next week the Career Forum takes some companies to Campus and students can apply to host any of these. The work is basically making them feel comfortable. After this, the GBC is coming and application for the committee was due to saturday (I applied for both things!).

We also received the CVs and letters of intent from the candidates for the MBASA board (treasurer, VP and President). The same for every candidate (2-3) for the clubs we are registered in (4 in my case). They had some previous interviews to achieve the last step.

On monday we had several events. First of all, the MBASA candidates presented their speeches for all the 1st and 2nd year students. They had worked a lot and we saw really good ideas and nice presentations. The same in the afternoon for every club, imagine how many nice ideas!!!!

Now it is our turn and we have to vote for our preferences, we just have 24 hours. tonight we’ll know the results and we’ll be able to congratulate some of them although all must be congratulated for their hard work.

Enjoy!

Raül

Now apply your knowledge

After an introductory term of only 4 weeks we have get into the first term with some subjects more “practical”. It means that these take advantage of the acquired knowledge and apply it to the real world. I will try to explain how.

- Business Analysis to Valuation: it’s accounting applied to companies. Now we are analyzing some figures of PepsiCo to know how its perfomance is. I am using it to some companies I want to check (spanish ones).

- Economics: macroeconomics. The project of this programme is analyze the situation of a country and recommend what to do to improve.

- Marketing: what can I say about this? I am trying to do also something on my side. We’ll see if I succeed or not.

Appart from these we have Statistics and Accounting II. Both will help us to analyze better and to preview future performances.

This terms seems to be really challenging with tones of work, meetings, lectures and clubs!

I’ll try to keep you up to date about our life @ ESADE!

Raül

End of Pre-Term!

After only one month, we have finished Pre-Term. This intends to introduce us into the MBA dynamics through Economics, Accounting, Project Management, Business Law and also receiving coaching. Moreover, we get ready for future interviews by completing our CVs, attending our first seminars and starting to decide what clubs to sign in.

Lot of information together? Then you are getting how is a Pre-Term MBA Student Life. Everything is new and challenging but in a “nice” way. Everyone is eager to help you and even review sessions leaded by students help you to understand concepts you are not familiar with (as it is for me for every subject… engineering background, so no knowledge about any subject so far!)

We have been asked to join some clubs. The problem is decide which one because they all are awesome. These are leaded by second year students and help you to involve in the Business a little bit further. There are plenty of options, business and social. You can have a taste of them @ http://www.esadembasa.com/. We had some presentations and I decided to attend Consulting, Net Impact, Tech and Sports Business. I will keep you updated with my experiences in them.

As Pre-Term finishes we have exams, something most of us had forgotten how it was… We all are committed to do it well as, together with team work and Term 1, will permit us to participate in the Exchange Program or not! Sorry but… I leave ’cause I have to study.

Have fun!

Raül

First week

The first week starts in room 0014 with Project Management. Everything is challenging and new (as well as Accounting, Econ, LEAD and Business Law). The best thing of the week is the group meeting! We met each other (team 4) with a dinner hosted by Magnus and Alex (Andreas also!). The rest of us (Peter, Lillian, Isabel and me) joined them at night. We enjoyed chicken and vegetables (no that easy to prepare!) and started to plan the Project about a trip to Burma.

Subjects are interesting, teachers are good and available by mail or in breaks. The cafeteria is a bit crowded but you can manage to get your coffee or lunch!

We are introduced to the clubs, MBASA and a lot of new things. Meanwhile, we have interviews to review our CVs, assignments to do, more teamwork. And also some social staff like the TGIT (Thank God it’s Thursday). This is an event hosted in a different bar every week to meet with classmates in a different enviroment. There are also lots of parties in flats, squares, clubs all over Barcelona. I will re-discover the city for sure!!!

Great 1st week and the best is to come.

Raül