Pain & joy of an "Empire" - Shakir Haq's take on operating a restaurant chain & being tech ready

The UpstreamLife

In this episode we bring you a piece of Bengaluru's modern history. No other restaurant chain is so well known as Empire. Its young CEO, Shakir Haq talks about all the decisions that he took to make this multi-million dollar business remain family first and still be a company that runs on sound management principles. It's a fascinating journey of transformation and perseverance for Shakir, who was always interested in automobiles and technology. His entry into the family business and rise happened with sheer grit.
00:00 - Introduction
01:51 - Bengaluru means so much to the Empire brand
03:40 - Scaling the brand.
08:08 - Blending experience with technology, especially the old chefs.
11:30 - The operations of the stores.
14:00 - Experimenting and scaling in the era of technology.
16:00 - Joining the company as a management trainee
21:00 - Firing a senior manager & garnering support from a team.
25:00 - Managing consistency of taste and challenges many brands face.
29:00 - Experiments that worked, failed and the evolution of Empire.
32:00 - Going to the central kitchen concept.
38:40 - Standing apart in the business.
44:00 - Working towards a farm to fork linkage
47:23 - Accelerating new brands.
49:28 - Being bootstrapped even as a lot of PE Funds want a piece.
53:00 - Retaining workers in the Blue Collar segment.
56:00 - The need for grooming those who work part time.
01:03:57 - Being inspired by Dad and handling COVID-19
01:08:05 - Learning to run a professional business.
01:11:50 - Family first

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