The secret of Kentucky Fried Chicken

Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC) restaurant is a well-known throughout the world. It is ranked number 60 in the world most trusted brands by BusinessWeek (McDonald in the number 9 and Nescafe, 23).

Its history spans nearly 80 years since he started in Corbin (Kentucky, USA) in 1930. During this period the U.S. was in the Great Depression almost 25% unemployment rate. The difficult moment was probably the major factors forcing Harland Sanders ("The Colonel") to start experimenting with various mixtures of spices and herbs, trying to get the best formula for your recipe. (If you still remember the 1997-2002 economic collapse in Asia, one of the last business kept going during the recession was the food industry).

In 1939, and the recipe is perfected and the colonel had expanded his restaurant to accommodate 142 seats. It 'was a great restaurant fairy, the size is equivalent to several tennis courts.

However there was a problem. The waiting time! It took almost 30 minutes for chicken cooked properly. Turn the gas is at risk of having bigger and chicken cooked on the outside but still red with her blood.

Saved by a pressure cooker

Thanks to technology, in 1939 the pressure cooker was introduced. Olla pressure to allow the liquid boils at higher temperatures. Water for example normally boils at 100 degrees Celsius, but a pressure cooker with the lid sealed does not allow air or fluid to escape and allow the water boils at over 125 Celsius.

This significantly reduces the time to cook and as an added bonus, nutrients (hence the flavor) continued to make the food more delicious. Since the boiling point is much higher, this also kill germs and make more food last longer.

It should be noted that Colonel identified the technique of pressure cooking a few weeks after being introduced. That means always looking for ways to improve the taste and the time required to cook the famous Kentucky Fried Chicken.

Average time for money.

Every minute saved means less down time and greater satisfaction for customers. This will also facilitate a first time buyer to become regular customers.

The colonel is also a smart guy. You can read the writing on the wall. In early 1950, after hearing rumors that an interstate highway will be built without going through their town. This could have a devastating effect on its activity. At present, it is probably in serious dilemma. When the Interstate was finally inaugurated in 1955, which caused a huge traffic to be diverted from their city.

Possessing a large percentage in a small village VS owning a small percentage in a great country.

After seeing an end to his professional activities, the Colonel auctioned its operations. Confidence in the quality of its fried chicken, the Colonel, he traveled from city to city franchise your recipe. He visited numerous restaurants, promoting his recipe for fried chicken owner and workers.

The first franchise was awarded to Pete Harman in Salt Lake City. A handshake agreement provides for the payment of one cent for each chicken sold by Colonel. This is one of the true strength of the franchise system. It provides a flow of money, but the amount is very small initially.

Building a franchise network is like building a pipeline for the flow of money for you. At first, the cost is huge because you have to configure infrastructure, digging the earth, connecting pipelines, bypassing obstacles, etc. At first the volume of water flow (money) in his tube is also sad .

After several years of hard work, the effort begins to bear fruit. A penny, a nickel, a dime of this city, one hundred cents of that city, a thousand pennies this neighborhood, ten thousand coins that have been and what happens every day! Soon he began to make a huge impact on their incomes.

The secret recipe for KFC: Does it matter?

It is a secret that KFC is constituted by a mixture of 11 herbs and spices. The modern use of the spectrometer, can Colonel explosion of spices with X-ray photoelectron or burn them with a specially designed gas and study the result.

With a database of results similar technique with all the spices and herbs known to mankind, it would take a couple of weeks before we can identify the exact names and the percentage of 11 spices. But who cares? It 's really important to know the exact names and compositions of spices?

An average employer might think that the secret recipe is so precious and willing to pay millions of euros for a copy.

An employer's genius does not pay a penny!

And 'the franchise system, not the spices recipe.

It was a night market ("pass Malam") and tried fried chicken sold on the street? Have you ever been in a small restaurant or a foodstall and found that fried chicken is so crispy and delicious?

Then they wonder why this small business owner still made a fortune, his "secret recipe"!

Next time I visited the restaurant again, have you noticed that -

* Sometimes there was no one to take orders
* Sometimes closes properly without giving a warning in advance
* Sometimes the table is in a mess and no clean up, even after 5 minutes we were seated.
* Sometimes the bathroom is dirty and full choking on food waste.
* Sometimes fried chicken is overcooked, and other times is enough.
* Sometimes fried chicken is too hot and sometimes not so hot.

What's the point?

The "secret sauce" represent only a small percentage of success of the KFC franchise. If I were to give a percentage, can not represent more than 20% of total success.

The success is due to the franchise system!

In a franchise system, everything is documented and there are precise rules for the functioning of society. For example: -

* The chicken should be cooked in a pressure cooker and left for 15 minutes
Grams * The size of each side of chicken should at least 8 cm in width and 300 weight
* The chicken must be marinated overnight
* The age when they were slaughtered chicken must be between 60-70 days
* The minimum size of the restaurant should be 24 × 60 feet
* The color of the logo, the chair and the table must be yellow and the floor is dark gray.
* The toilet should be cleaned every 3 hours.
* The sink should be cleaned every 30 minutes
* The windows should be cleaned every morning
* Food left unsold after 15 minutes should be discarded.
* The employee must bear the shirt and pants business. There are jeans, velvet or leather.
* 5% of gross proceeds must be used for local advertising
* 1% of gross proceeds must be used for national advertising
* 3% should be used for R & D to develop new recipes and local brand.
* The food should also be offered discounts on packages (for example, 2 chicken, fried 1, 1 glass of Pepsi)
* Food can be ordered separately / "ala carte", but does not apply discount.
* The restaurant must have air conditioning.
* Exc. etc..

This long list of standard operating procedures is really the key to the success of the franchise. The long list is actually a cumulative wisdom and know-how of the franchise system was developed after a couple of decades of operation .......