Dubai International Airport Terminal 3
Garhoud, United Arab Emirates
Photographer: Alisdair Miller
Arabian Dessert: At Cheesecake Factory’s Middle East Locations, No Booze, But Plenty Of Decadence
The Cheesecake Factory has shaped the way we eat for over three decades, introducing 81 million people a year to mainstream versions of upscale dishes. Today, CEO David Overton launches his very American brand in the malls of the Middle East.
The Arabian Desert may not be the first place you’d imagine ordering a Bang Bang Chicken and Shrimp, Avocado Eggrolls, or anything else on the menu at The Cheesecake Factory.
But the mecca of American mall dining opens in Dubai today, with the first of 22 planned Middle East locations. It’s partnering with the Kuwaiti firm Alshaya, which licenses and operates many leading U.S. brands there, including Shake Shack, Starbucks, and Dean & Deluca. The Mall of the Emirates location (which will open after the Dubai Malloutpost) will sit at the base of the trippy indoor ski slope, of which every table will have a view.
People may not instinctively put the high-end casual chain in the same innovative category as Google or Facebook. But Cheesecake Factory’s hyper-efficient operation churns out massive volumes of made-from-scratch dishes at relatively low cost and with hardly any waste. The New Yorker recently lauded the company as the unlikely model of innovation for the wasteful and expensive healthcare industry (it’s ok, read that again). It employs nearly 10 times as many people as Facebook, and its 158 U.S. restaurants have the highest sales volumes in the industry, averaging about $10 million per location. If success were measured in avocados, Cheesecake Factory is a major player—its restaurants rip through 3.1 million pounds a year.
Founder and CEO David Overton, who opened the first restaurant in Beverly Hills in 1978 to support his parents’ wholesale cheesecake business, recently spoke with Fast Companyabout how he stumbled onto a winning concept, how he continues to push innovation, and why the Middle East is the perfect place for what he calls “food Americans want to eat.”
FAST COMPANY: The Middle East doesn’t seem like the most obvious place to begin an international expansion. Why there?
DAVID OVERTON: I think the Middle East, when you really look at it, is easier than going to Asia or Mexico or Canada, all of which we are looking at, too. Everyone is on an even playing field because everything is brought in—about the only thing they really have there are dates. Whether you’re an American or European concept, you’re flying it in and paying the same money. That is an advantage.
When you go over there, you see how beautiful the malls are. And almost all life revolves around malls. It’s too hot, so people spend a lot of time in malls—they have a coffee, they shop, they watch their kid go bowling, go to a movie, come back and have dinner, and have another coffee later. They’re there until 11 at night. It’s almost all their social life. We thought that was great.
What changes to the brand have you made to appeal to a Middle Eastern clientele?
Alshaya, our Middle East partners, are great replicators, not creators. They wanted the menu to be exactly the same. They said don’t take anything out or make anything special for us—other than alcohol and pork. There’s no way out of that.
The Mall of Dubai, which is tremendous—3.5 million square feet—does quarterly surveys and one question they asked is, “What American restaurant concepts would you like us to bring here?” For the last 5 years, it’s been Cheesecake Factory. We thought if we’re ever going to go international, this is probably where to go.
You are very hands-on in developing all aspects of The Cheesecake Factory, yet you don’t have a background as a chef or do any consumer research. How do you get inspiration for your menus and new ideas?
When I opened the restaurant I found I had talent in being able to go into other restaurants and reinterpreting dishes. Even though I might be at Spago eating an incredible Wolfgang Puck dish, instead of veal we’ll do it with chicken. What I like, almost everybody likes. I’m not a gourmet, a chef, or a critic. I just like good food and Middle America likes that kind of cooking.
Chicken dijon was the first dish I reinterpreted, and I kept on doing that, which made the menu too big—but at the beginning, I didn’t realize we’d be a chain.
The menu is amazingly big. It’s like a book.
The menu is even bigger today because we added 52 items under 590 calories on our Skinnylicious menu. I felt the time was right for a lower-calorie menu, and instead of putting three or four items on, I decided we would do it Cheesecake style and make it a full menu, to really give people a choice. And we felt we weren’t sacrificing any flavor. If there was anything I had to really reduce the flavor of, I didn’t put it on.
We’re known for the big portions and being fattening and everyone could point to us for that, but now they can’t.
Is that bringing in new clientele, or are people who are already eating there shifting their choices?
Definitely the older people are coming in more often—they say “I came here once a month for a treat but now I can come in once a week because I can eat lighter.”
What’s your favorite thing on the Skinnylicious menu?
I rarely eat on the Skinnylicious menu. My favorite dishes are sliders. As a manager you get used to eating on the run.
Have you ever had a flop?
Yes, we’ve had items that we put on that were good but didn’t sell. It’s one thing when you have 12 items on your menu—everything has a chance. But when you have 200, they have to claw their way to the top.
What’s the top seller?
Avocado Eggrolls are our number one or two seller. Coming up with a dish like that that gets so popular is like Ford creating the Mustang. It’s so important to have real signature items that people love and that take a few years for other restaurants to master. The whole menu is our competitive advantage. It is almost impossible to do and it’s taken us years to perfect our system. It’s our greatest defense against competition.
How does your kitchen function when it’s making everything on a huge menu from scratch, without doing things like shipping out huge vats of guacamole?
It’s a lot of training. We probably have more training than any other casual dining restaurant out there—even for a server it’s two weeks.
Part of the secret is we can keep the food fresh because we’re so busy. It’s harder to run a restaurant that’s not busy than one that is, mostly because of keeping the food fresh.
How did you decide on the everything-from-scratch approach?
Because I was so naïve. I didn’t know how to work steam tables, any chef tricks, how to keep things half cooked and finish them quickly. I did everything to order fresh, and no one was doing that. It was one of the big reasons Cheesecake Factory was successful.
I read about how you had lines around the block the first day. What did you do to create that buzz?
It was a miracle. We didn’t do anything. We were supposed to open at 11:30 but I knew we weren’t really ready, so I put a cardboard sign on the door saying we’d open at 2. We were full and had a wait within 10 minutes of opening. And it hasn’t stopped since.
BY ERIN SCHULTE
AUGUST 16, 2012
Follow Fast Company senior editor Erin Schulte—whose last dish at The Cheesecake Factory was Vietnamese tacos— @erin719nyc.
- Arabian Dessert: At Cheesecake Factory’s Middle East Locations, No Booze, But Plenty Of Decadence (fastcompany.com)
Dubai at start of new boom
Dubai is at the start of a new cycle of boom, powered largely by a dynamic private sector, according to Farid Karmostaji, director of Entrepreneur Development Division of Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Establishment for SME Development (Dubai SME).
Speaking at the inauguration of Franchise UAE 2012, Karmostaji said that an increasing number of companies were looking at Dubai as a base, and a good number of franchisors were keen to set up outlets in the emirate.
“We can feel the new frenzy in the number of new shops opening and malls expanding,” said Karmostaji in comments published by state news agency WAM.
“There is certainly room for more franchisees. Earlier, the concept of franchising was not very clear to some entrepreneurs, but today many local companies are keen to take the franchising route.”
He also said that the Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Establishment for SME Development was ready to play a larger role in the development of small businesses by opening the doors to non-Emiratis.
He told WAM that budding entrepreneurs would be able to take advantage of Dubai SME’s entrepreneurship and business startup courses.
Gaurav Marya, managing director of Franchise Middle East, said the participation of 75 exhibitors from all over the world was a proof that Dubai “serves as a gateway and a business destination of choice”.
The earlier era of a handful of mega companies monopolising the franchise industry is being replaced by small and medium players launching franchisees, he added.
The Middle East is estimated to have over 400,000 high net worth individuals, each with liquid assets of more than $5m, making it an ideal region for growth of franchising and SMEs, he said.
In February, the director-general of Dubai’s Chamber of Commerce said banks should dedicate five times more funding to SMEs.
Lenders should reserve around 20 percent of their funds for small companies, if the SME market is to receive the boost that it needs, Hamad Buamim said.
“At the moment around four percent of banks’ total funding goes to SMEs. We want that to be 15 to 20 percent ideally. This is normally the case in other economies. We believe this is better for the banks as it will reduce their exposure to the big players.”
He added that there was often a misperception about the risks of lending to small businesses, which was having a negative impact on bankers’ policies.
Pearl-Qatar developer will fail to 'aggressively' expand its brands in Middle East
This is the difference between Qatar and Dubai. Execution. Dubai has created global brands while Qatar provides no commercial support for its local companies. I think it will be very difficult for the Pearl Qatar brands to be successful outside as they barely have any brand equity within Qatar let alone regional. None of these companies will be in the red as stand along entities or concepts and business folk in the region and country know this very well. Its a well drawn out facade that has very little substance.
Hospitality Development Company, a subsidiary of The Pearl-Qatar’s developers UDC, says it is going to be rolling out brands it manages across the Middle East, starting with Megu and Pampano restaurants opening in Dubai.
The Dubai restaurants deal is nearly finalized, HDC General Manger Walid Maalouf is quoted by Hotelier Middle East as saying, while negotions are under way on two Istanbul boutique hotels.
HDC manages around 10 restaurant brands at The Pearl, including Liza, Burj Al Hamam and Alison Nelson’s Chocolate Bar. Two of its restaurants, Tse Yang and Megu, were shut down in February after alcohol was banned on The Pearl last December.
Maalouf says the brand expansion was planned before the ban, but admits the resulting slump in sales may have been “an encouragement to speed up that [expansion] process.”
Credit: Photo by Omar Chatriwala
owms:
Dubai at night.
India, Infrastructure and BOT (Build Operate and Transfer)
When DP World was vying to build a fourth container terminal at Mumbai’s main port this year, the Dubai-owned giant made what it thought was a solid bid, proposing to share one-fifth of the terminal’s income with the government. Then a rival came along with a bid that beat all-comers, offering to hand over 51 percent of the port’s takings to New Delhi to secure the project estimated to cost Rs67bn ($1.4bn). Such generous terms are part of an emerging pattern of companies making ambitious - some say unrealistic - bids in a race to cash in on a massive push by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s government to lure private funding into infrastructure. “The bid competitiveness is increasing to the extent that the projects will become unviable,” said Devang Mankodi, finance director for South Asia at DP World.
PSA International, the Singapore state company that is the preferred bidder for the Mumbai port deal, declined comment.
While India hopes that half its targeted $1 trillion in infrastructure spending over five years is privately built, attractive projects are scarce, making for fierce bidding. That means the government may get an attractive deal in the near-term, but it puts heavy pressure on companies and poses a longer term risk if such projects are delayed or derailed due to over-optimistic assumptions on costs or revenue. Winning bids can sometimes be ten times the second place offer, said S Nandakumar, a sector specialist at Fitch Ratings. Some projects attract dozens of bids. Such aggression has prompted major Indian firms such as Reliance Infrastructure , owned by tycoon Anil Ambani, to focus on bigger projects such as expressways. “In small projects the competition intensity is completely crazy,” said Lalit Jalan, chief executive of Reliance. “So we will focus on the large projects where we will have fewer and more rational competitors,” said Jalan, whose company built a slick high-speed rail link to Delhi airport, the first of its kind in India. Strapped for cash, New Delhi is pushing a model known as build-operate-transfer (BOT). Firms bid to build a road or a metro and operate it for a fixed period, collecting toll or ticket fares before handing it over to the government. To win, bidders compete to maximise the government’s share of revenue or minimise the contribution New Delhi must cough up to ensure projects are viable. “Today you have four or five players who are aggressively fighting for a project. So basically they have no choice but to try and increase the financial revenue share… as high as they can to win the project,” DP’s Mankodi said. “The risk associated with that is that once the long term sustainability of the project is being tested, you will have issues,” he said. The risk of that happening hasn’t deterred a slew of companies pitching for infrastructure projects, however. GMR Infrastructure, which built Delhi’s swanky airport and will soon build India’s biggest highway, for example, bid on 25 projects last year and won exactly one, according to a spokesman. “Earlier we were looking at around 6-10 people getting qualified for a bid. Now around 40 normally get qualified,” the spokesman said. Newcomers to the BOT model are creating problems, said Shashank Shekhar, vice president for business development at KMC Constructions. “Novice players means very new guys who don’t have experience of BOT, they are getting into the BOT, which is actually spoiling the market today,” he said. New Delhi expects an annual average of $100bn of private investment in infrastructure between 2012 and 2017, although the government has consistently missed its targets for both funding and construction. A slump in India’s real estate sector and a drying up of work in parts of the Middle East amid unrest in several countries, means Indian builders are turning to domestic infrastructure. A dearth of attractive projects is another factor. The fallout from a spate of corruption scandals, red tape and land acquisition hassles have slowed the award of bids and subsequent construction work. In roads, for example, India managed to build about 5kms a day in the last fiscal year, far short of New Delhi’s target of 20 kms a day. The Indian government, which unlike China is not flush with government funds to spend on big projects, welcomes the competition. For its part, China has much larger state resources and a much better record of execution on infrastructure projects, although now Beijing appears to face a different sort of headache. The state has accumulated a mountain of bad loans for infrastructure projects - part of a stimulus package during the economic slowdown - leaving a clutch of redundant works. “We want an aggressive bidding climate,” Montek Singh Ahluwalia, a top adviser to the government, said. “It’s the job of the private sector to make intelligent bids.” Some builders have called on the government to shut out bids that look outlandish and end a mentality in New Delhi that they say is more keen on getting things done cheaply than done well. “We need to move out of the syndrome that the cheapest is the best. It’s rarely the best,” Shahzad Nasim, Singapore-based global CEO of the engineering firm Meinhardt said.
Source: yordandim
Sheikh Mohammed outlines rules for board of directors in public enterprises to promote transparency in Dubai - I really like this guy.
The UAE issued a decree on Saturday aimed at improving transparency in state-owned corporates and non-profit organisations.
The decree, issued by UAE Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, restricts the number of boards on which an individual can serve.
It also obliges boards of federal institutions to form an audit committee to monitor risks and financial statements.
The move aims to strengthen practice of transparency and to set a benchmark standard of governance in the agencies owned by the federal government, state news agency WAM reported.
The decree prohibits an individual to serve as a board member of more than four federal companies and to be president of more than three at the same time.
It is also not permissible for members of stock market regulatoratory bodies to be on the board of the listed companies they monitor.
“The resolution chalks out the principles and rules of professional conduct and ethics of public office to be adopted by the federal institutions, especially by the board,” WAM said.
According to the resolution, the Federal Authority for Government Human Resources will develop a system to ensure that there can be no conflict of interests in federal institutions.
WAM added that the Council of Ministers will conduct an annual assessment of board performance in state-owned organisations.
The decree follows the Federal Law No. 5 issued by UAE President Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan, on regulating directors, trustees and committees of the federal government.
In May, Sheikh Mohammed launched a new customer service charter for federal government employees.
He said that excellence in government services was a “strategic priority for the UAE and a duty for all those working in the federal government”.
The new charter is aimed at raising the standards and competitiveness in the government to new levels, in line with the global best practices, he said in a statement.
The tale of modern day Dubai probably starts a bit before 1966, the year oil was discovered in the emirate. Forty-five years later the Dubai brand is defined by a series of “city building” projects that aimed to create a beautiful global city. These illustrative plans accelerated development and with the help of ‘oil money’ and ‘trade money’ built a contemporary dessert city in just a few decades.
The famed Burj Al Arab – a vessel-shaped 7-star hotel that stands on an artificial island is also located in Dubai, as is the man-made palm island – now one of the most exclusive residential neighborhoods of the city.
Those not lucky enough to live in either of these locations can always settle for one of the many resorts that line the shoreline with views to the Palm and the Burj Al Arab.
Dubai has a fairly sophisticated transportation system: a state-of-the-art metro system (pictured above), solar-powered air-conditioned bus stops (some, not all), and a well-built road network. However, it also has its shortcomings, which my recent trip to the city demonstrated to me. Access to metro stations was not always clear. It was easy to see the station but it was not easy to see the access point, or even if there was a critical mass of people using the system. I was also perplexed by the road exit/off-ramp design. The designs used make it difficult to navigate the city. In Dubai, missing an exit or taking the wrong exit can become a longer detour than is necessary. I tried following the logic behind the design and the only thing I could rationalize is that the road layout looks great from a plane, but functionally it was, at times, a nightmare.
Once, when we wandered off the main expat communities and tourist zones, we got came across a few single-family home neighborhoods that resemble American suburbs in density and urban design. I do not always find American suburbs bland, but these neighborhoods truly were. They were devoid of activity on the street, and the only sounds to be heard were the car engines humming away at stoplights.
Jumeirah Beach Residence was my favorite neighborhood. It had the most street life, even during Ramadan, and there were always people at the cafes socializing and people watching. It feels like a real neighborhood where you can get out of your car and enjoy the warm summer night while strolling down the promenade of shops.
(via urbanrelationsinfo)
Kim Kardashian eyes Dubai nightclub, hotel deal
US reality TV star Kim Kardashian said Monday she wouldn’t turn down the opportunity to open a Kardashian hotel or night club in Dubai if the opportunity was right.
Speaking to Arabian Business ahead of her trip to the emirate next week, the ‘Keeping up with the Kardashians’ star said a new business venture in the UAE would enable the family to travel to Gulf state on a regular basis.
“I’m just excited to meet new people and see what other business opportunities are out there other than what I’ve already have got on,” she said. “Absolutely [I would look at real estate], if it made sense and there was something there.
“I’m hoping that I fall in love with the Middle East. I want to go out there all the time. I want to bring my sisters so I hope the right opportunity comes about and I’m able to really do my homework and research some great real estate opportunities or other opportunities in general,” she added.
Kardashian’s mother and manager, Kris Jenner, said the family may also look at opening a nightclub and a branch of retail outlet Kardashian Khaos.
The brand’s first boutique is due to open in Las Vegas at The Mirage in November.
“I would love the opportunity to help design a hotel and get into that business or maybe open a club, like a Kardashian experience, I think it would be really amazing,” Jenner told Arabian Business. “We’re opening up a store in Vegas called Kardashian Khaos and I would love to bring that to Dubai, it would be fun. We consider it a great opportunity to see what’s going on.”
Compared to the US, the Dubai club scene is relatively untapped, Kim said.
“It’s something we have had offers out here in the States but it’s very saturated out here. I think it would be really fun to have something in a place we can go away and have fun.”
Kardashian is set to launch the first overseas branch of US-brand Millions of Milkshakes in Dubai Mall next week. The 30-year-old shot to fame along with her family in the reality TV show, ‘Keeping up With The Kardashians’. The hit television show has spawned several spinoffs, the latest of which features Kim and her sister Kourtney opening their boutique DASH in New York City.
In December, Kardashian became Hollywood’s top earning reality star, earning an estimated $6m from her various enterprises. The star lends her name to a host of products including skincare, swimwear and also promotes the weight loss product Quick Trim.
Kardashian said any business venture she did take on in Dubai she would be fully involved in.
“It might seem like we have a lot going on but when we do choose to put our name on something it’s not just putting our name on it, its fully being involved, every step of the way,” she said.
“If I do take on an opportunity in Dubai or Abu Dhabi or wherever, I will be so involved and I’ll have to come back constantly. So I wouldn’t take on the opportunity unless it’s something I really wanted to do because there are so many things going on here in the States.”
Dubai wants to attract more foreign investment
Source: Gulfnews Dubai is an attractive destination for international investment and is a platform for business in the wider Middle East region. As a result, Dubai Chamber members should launch more constructive programmes to attract global companies, His Highness Shaikh Mohammad Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, said Tuesday. Shaikh Mohammad Tuesday visited the Dubai Chamber of Commerce and Industry where he was briefed on a number of national economic activities. Shaikh Maktoum Bin Mohammad Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Deputy Ruler of Dubai, was also present. Abdul Rahman Saif Al Ghurair, Chairman of the Dubai Chamber, welcomed Shaikh Mohammad’s visit, which he said provides an opportunity to consult Shaikh Mohammad for his opinion and wise directives, which the Chamber will work on implementing to further enhance its role in building a strong business community in Dubai and extend bridges of communication with various countries and financial communities, both locally and abroad. Main goals Al Ghurair said this helps the Chamber achieve its main goals to attract more companies and investors, in addition to creating a conducive environment for investments. At the meeting hall, Shaikh Mohammad listened to a presentation by Hamad Bu Amim, Director General of the Chamber, about the chamber’s role, initiatives and strategies, as well as its participation in events both locally and abroad, such as investment and economic conferences that aim to promote Dubai as a global destination for investments and a dignified life. The meeting was also attended by Shaikh Ahmad Bin Saeed Al Maktoum, President of Dubai Civil Aviation and Chairman and Chief Executive of Emirates airline and Group, Mohammad Abdullah Al Gergawi, Minister for Cabinet Affairs, and other senior officials. Following the presentation, Shaikh Mohammad expressed his satisfaction with the Chamber’s efforts and its positive role in stimulating economic activity in Dubai and providing the facilities that serve investors, businessmen and companies. He said this further enhanced Dubai’s global and commercial reputation. Shaikh Mohammad instructed the Chamber’s chairman and board members to launch more initiatives to encourage international companies to come to the UAE and invest without having to go through complicated procedures. Shaikh Mohammad pointed out the positive role played by Dubai International Airport in attracting regional and global airlines thanks to the high standard of facilities offered by the Civil Aviation Authority. He said despite the availability of alternatives, Dubai airport remained the preferred destination for these airlines thanks to the airport’s swift completion of procedures, its facilities, and logistics benefits as well as its exceptional Arabian hospitality. Shaikh Mohammad urged the Chamber’s members to launch more constructive initiatives based on attractive incentives to draw more international companies seeking promising markets in the region and in Africa, Eastern Europe and the post-Soviet states. Shaikh Mohammad said Dubai is a favoured destination for investment and a portal to these markets.
Page 1 of 2
