I think you needn't go to a fancy business school and get an MBA. Let me show you how you can get an MBA right in your kitchen. I give a list of 10 points, nowhere near exhaustive. Happy to discuss this further.
1. Your kitchen exists only for your family,ie those who eat with you - your consumers or customers. If it doesn't serve their purpose, it is dead.
2. What you give has to have value - cost and price are immaterial. Value is as perceived by the client or consumer or here, family. I may cook the meanest pasta this side of the Mediterranean but if my son wants Idli and Rasam, I need to give him THAT. And no bragging please about Virgin Olive oil for all my cooking or that I use Naati Badami and Spanish Kesar in the Halwa. The value perception overrules all brag about ingradients.
3. Want To learn about just-in-time inventory? No place better than the kitchen. The best run kitchen optimises everything, and no wasted bags of rice or tons of pickle. Everything fresh, everything now, everything flavoursome. But this just-in-time principle means one has to be extra-efficient and remember to get things at the right time, or you run out of what you need the most...
By the same token, woe be to the kitchens with deep-frozen vegetables and dishes excavated like mummies after months.
4. Every MBA learns how to be efficient in terms of time, energy and process. A streamlined kitchen has less noise and more aroma. Less shelf space and more inviting dishes on the table. Less show and more action.
5. Everyone has to have pride in their skill. Talk to a home-maker. She will tell you what her people love, and how she has preserved their love for her cooking. Innovation is to be measured in terms of longevity of your consumer base!
6. Want to experiment with new cuisine? With new TV recipes? Answer the key question: why? Do your people want novelty? Variety? Give them what they want. That way, you deliver value and avoid disasters.
7. How do you celebrate success? Simple. That's why you have festivals. When people all eat together and celebrate what the family has enjoyed thus far, that is celebration.
8. Ecology begins in your kitchen. Anyone who understands the sustainability of resources in the kitchen will easily translate this to the outside world. Do you know how dishes can be made with jackfruit seeds, orange peels, leaves of vegetables which we tend to throw away...so many dishes without wasting valuable resources.
Long ago, people were making natural manure with kitchen waste in their backyard.
9. It's funny how many electrical gadgets we use today in the kitchen. If one works with the hand, and manages the preparations by close supervision, you can be sure of the results. It improves efficiency and reduces waste. Of course intelligent use of efficiency multipliers like cookers and grinders reduces manual work. But one always should strike a balance.
10. How many servants do you employ in your kitchen? Does your cooking top have an Italian finish? Do you have the world's largest fridge? Each of these is a valuable resource and has to do something to produce more value. Otherwise it is a waste and you will regret it later!
Postscript: how about cleaning up and doing the dishes? Glad you asked. That's the unglamorous part..just like EHS. If you don't do it, sooner than later, you will shut down:-)
