Challenge: Poor quality of food and bad menu at the International university canteen.

Selection: We picked learning launches. I my opinion a learning launch is a method of  data collection where the key customers are tested in term of execution, and  defensibility assumptions. Most learning launches involve quickly engaging with  customers and testing your key customer assumption.

Application: The University administration appointed a council of student  representatives due to the increasing number of complaints from a multitude of  students about the quality of the food that was being provided at the cafeteria. The  student body then had to make several inquiries with a fairly large number of students  about how to improve the quality of the food and service. Many suggestions where  raised among which included, Improving the general hygiene of the utensils,  improving/changing the cooking styles of some of the food, changing some of the  service providers due to poor service or lack of ethics and most importantly changing  the menu for most of the food provided as majority of the food seemed really foreign to  the students and didn’t have an appealing taste.

The committee set out to act upon and apply all the relevant solutions and doing  so, they got to observe the canteen first to confirm if the complaints where indeed true  and see how applicable the suggested solutions were. After close observation they  resorted to the a few conclusive solutions as follows;

The hygiene of was to be improved, some foods had to be cooked better, the menu had  to be improved according to the students preferences and a certain level of conduct had  to be maintained at the canteen by both the students and the catering stuff. They  prepared several food samples and let the students do the tasting and review the  different food stuff, the food with the best reviews got to be added to the menu  provided it still was with in the budget of the catering committee. Eventually the  Complaints on the food subsided as the students started eating the food more for it had  improved in quality.

Insight: We learnt a great deal about how to deal with people’s needs especially in the  service industry where you’re supposed to satisfy the needs and not wants of a great  deal of people. Through Trial and error we got to learn the big difference between the  people’s wants and their needs and thus took the appropriate course of action.

Approach: The next time round I may propose using another tool for approach like may  be mind mapping to enable us figure out the people’s actual needs rather having to  place high focus on their wants and as a result improve our chances of success in  handling the problem at hand.

