While its recipe for franchisee profits and deep fried chicken pieces certainly isn’t to everyone’s taste, KFC is reportedly soon opening its first store in Cambodia. Apparently future expansion plans include KFC outlets for Laos and Burma. I have previously written about the dire state of the foreign fast food market in Burma. Although my piece is a few years old, it may be worth a look for anyone looking to learn a bit more about what happens in a land of “fake” McChickens.
But McDonalds isn’t the issue here. KFC has something potentially much more interesting going on.
What intrigues me most about this KFC expansion into some of the poorer parts of Southeast Asia is inspired by a recent experience in Kolkata. Late one afternoon, after a stint in the distant mountains of northeast India, I went looking for a dose of the Colonel’s special herbs and spices.
I don’t want to get overly emotional about this but I was struck, and very impressed, by the fact that almost all of the staff at this particular KFC are deaf. The place worked perfectly; customers are expected to point out their order on a small menu, and then “the system” takes over. It is easy and simple and fast. And in a town as tough as Kolkata I imagine that the opportunities available to many deaf people are few. A job at KFC must, for some, be a lifeline and a chance to build a great future for their families.
Anyone who wants to read more about this approach to KFC staffing can learn more in these pieces (from Malaysia, Singapore, Pakistan and Egypt). It is clear that this is company policy – they want to hire people from a traditionally disadvantaged section of society. From what I saw of the KFC in Kolkata this is a simple, yet brilliant, idea. And, according to these accounts from around the world, it works well for everyone. In my case, the “Colonel’s Choice Burger” was fresh, and the customer service was top-notch. The server even tried to “suggestive sell”.
I wonder if this approach to staffing will be on the menu as the KFC brand is introduced to places like Phnom Penh, Vientiane, Yangon and Mandalay. Training people to run a KFC, and exposing them to all of its good points, and flaws, is one thing. It is a very different thing to deliberately seek out a highly competent yet disadvantaged part of society to be at the heart of a new business.
KFC is blazing a trail here. There is no reason, in my mind, why the Fujis, the Burger Kings and the MK Sukis of this world can’t follow suit. What do New Mandala readers think? Is this the type of corporate policy that should be encouraged? Will we be seeing it in Burma or Laos any time soon?
3 responses so far ↓
1 Grasshopper // May 2, 2008 at 1:22 am
I remember thinking when I was in Pokhara and looking at the network of kids who had maimed themselves along New Road to gain better pity points for passers by, that surely the government could have employed them to do something, and so if a private, foreign corporation can take that over role, it is a clear failure for the previous governance which cannot be blamed on anything other than the leadership – holding Ghana as an example of what can happen with good leadership (…maybe Prachanda is not all that, but at least he’s a breath of fresh air before I am called a relativist for democratic communism.)
I was led to believe that a local can rent a single room place (no water) in Pokhara for 400 n. rupee a week, but if one of these kids wants to eat then they cant afford rent and vice versa. So the choice is obviously food and exist 24 hrs on the street – so if theres only one broked hearted foreigner per week – they’re there when they pass by and survival ensured.
What if along with pay – KFC or whomever, also allowed employees for 2 meals a day? This way, overall living is much more manageable. I know being on the street is much worse than my corporate reservations … Business does seem the best option for social welfare while there is inadequate, indecisive, self interested soap opera governance. That might even be a universal!
2 DeafPulse.com - the one-stop pulse for all Deaf-related news and blogs. // May 2, 2008 at 6:37 am
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3 Warathida // May 2, 2008 at 2:11 pm
It may seeem that this KFC’s policy is appreciated and other fastfood enterprises should follow. The policy is indeed providing the deaf staffs better life and incomes to support their families.
However, I am not sure that this opportunity given to the deaf will be the benefit for them in the long term. ( I am a liitle pessimistic.
)
Namely, by the nature of selling system of KFC or any fastfood restuarants, the employees must forever be the employees. That’s because they will be fixed in one position and do their duties all the working hours. For example, fry chicken, make burgers ,toast bread, and etc.
This may be right and proper according to the division of labour doctrine. But I think that working like this renders people become a machine or a small part in the big Fordian line system.
(I don’t know whether there is anyone can own the resturant after being employed in such fastfood resturant, but I really hope there will be some. ) The working condition in such fastfood restuarants remind me about the movie “Modern time” (1936) starred by Charles Chaplin, for the labourers in the factory were fixed in one spot and did the same thing all day. In the movie, Charles must screw tight a few knots all day, and though finishing work in the evening his hands couldn’t stop screwing.
Besides ( I am starting to be more pessimistic. ) I think this policy is very tricky. That KFC employs the local disadvantaged people is the subtle tricky approach to reduce the resistance to the foreign investment and to gain the good image as a foreign corporation which do care about humanity and has social reponsibiltiy. Thus with this policy of hiring the deaf ( whom I believe that they have working capability as much as normal people but may be received lower wages), KFC become accepted by the local actors and its other exploiting activities are ignored or even forgetten. As far as I’m concerned, the Colonel’s menus are not worse than those of Mcdonald.
Not only Testco Lotus , Mcdonald should be protested, but also KFC.
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