Ashish Tulsian

Hi. Welcome to Restrocast. Today, my guest is Alaa Sayed. He’s the general manager for Al-Baik, UAE, ServeQuest. Alaa’s journey was very interesting because, you know, from being a professional football player to somebody who wanted to be a tour guide showing people wonders of Egypt to joining the restaurant industry. One thing that ties all these three professions is being with people. The love of being with people and caring for them. I found Alaa to be a great operator and in this conversation I got to know the organizations on the way who shaped him to be a great operator. This is a fun and very insightful conversation. Watch. Welcome Alaa

Alaa Sayed

Thank you.

Ashish Tulsian

Thanks for coming to the Restrocast.

Alaa Sayed

My pleasure. I have seen your interviews with other people in industry here, and it was very interesting to come and be your guest. Thank you for having me.

Ashish Tulsian

Thank you for the honor And Alaa we will dive right in. I’ve seen, you know, a career that is, you know, up to the neck and beyond in the restaurants. You know, you started, you know, probably I don’t know if I should call it the bottom, but but you you really started and and you know, you’ve probably done every role in the restaurant space, you know, from bottom to top. How did it all start? Tell me about your early years.

Alaa Sayed

Quite interesting. I started my life as a footballer, so I was I was playing football and I was good at it. And I was in the national team up to 18 years old. So I’m get used to have people around me all the time.

Ashish Tulsian

That was in Egypt?

Alaa Sayed

Yeah. I was having a proper income then after the injury, I was in the faculty of Tourism and hotel. And the reason why I joined that, I love to be among people all the time. It’s the kind of passion I love to see different people all the time. And the main goal was to be a tour guide OK. So you understand how Egypt is full of like pyramids and all this kind of stuff.

Ashish Tulsian

The main job I mean, the goal was to be a tour guide?

Alaa Sayed

At the beginning. Right. OK. And I was very fascinated about the Egyptian history. I even learned how to read hieroglyphic language, how to translate it. It was very interesting for me to see people coming from around the world to come and see what’s going on. It was a passion after I graduated. Then a lot of events, unfortunate events start to happen in Egypt, and that field was not really stable. And so I start to think about, OK, what is the second option for me?

Ashish Tulsian

Oh, so you were like you were serious about that?

Alaa Sayed

Yeah, I was really serious. So the second option for me where else I can meet people, like where else I can have a job that I can interact with people directly. I don’t want to be kept in office I don’t want to just work 9 hours and a cubicle. Not seeing anyone behind a screen. So for me, it was OK. It’s more or less related to where I studied. And I start with the restaurant business. So as I as you said, I take it from really done up and I have done everything being in the grill for quite a few hours, being on the fryer for quite a few hours.

Ashish Tulsian

I need to tell you some things. My mom is a, you know, absolute National Geographic history and Discovery buff.

Alaa Sayed

OK.

Ashish Tulsian

So like she probably, you know, has has watched more stuff about, you know, about everything. Yeah. Yeah. And, you know, a couple years back, she basically said, you know, I want to go to Egypt. OK. I want to see the pyramids. I want to see everything. Yeah. OK, where is this coming from? She said, no, I watched a documentary on history. I really need to go there. OK. And then I searched online. Yeah, that the what’s going on. How is it? How, you know, how is it to navigate? And then I saw this video of one guy basically said that it’s it’s difficult to navigate on ground in the sense that you know, if you don’t know the language, if you’re not, you know.

Alaa Sayed

You need someone, you need the guide. Yeah.

Ashish Tulsian

You know, you need someone to, you know, to take care, you know, some law basically even says that you can’t make you know, videos or take pictures or something.

Alaa Sayed

It depends. Yeah.

Ashish Tulsian

So so we I saw that. I mean, this was, this was, I think just outside of the pandemic. OK, ‘21, ‘22 last year, one and half years back so I basically promised her. OK we’ll go to Egypt the day I find someone who can.

Alaa Sayed

You have found it.

Ashish Tulsian

I’m going to I’m going to take you on the offer. At least I will help you live your nostalgia if nothing else.

Alaa Sayed

Yeah, exactly. And the good part that not everyone knows is is not Pyramids. Pyramids is the I’m not going to say the last thing that you have to see, but it’s just a small part of it. The down side of Egypt, they call it the south, the Egyptian south have all the Thomson temples and that’s the two cities called luxor and aswan and they are full of amazing things that not everyone knows about them. You will see Tutankhamen the king who died and 17 years old. 16 years old. You can see his entire story life scripted on on on the walls. And you can just read everything about it. Still, colors are very bright and not faded since 5000 years ago. Blue is blue. Green is green.

Ashish Tulsian

Oh, these are 5000 year old structures?

Alaa Sayed

Yeah, So it’s very interesting when you go down more than the pyramids itself. But hey, you got a tour guide. You got it for free. Don’t worry about it.

Ashish Tulsian

No, I you know, I have I can relate to this, you know, right now, two weeks back, I was in Rome and I was basically I’ve been telling everyone the last two weeks that, you know, I went crazy because I am a history buff as well. So for me, Rome’s like, oh, wow, these guys really did some cool stuff. And and and Rome is full of Egyptian obelisks. Yeah. Oh, they’re standing everywhere.

Alaa Sayed

Look at the the British Museum there’s. 90% of the British Museum is Egyptian. 90%, literally. I’m not I’m not exaggerating. The rest is Indian, Exactly. Exactly. There’s nothing related to Great Britain at all.

Ashish Tulsian

I think a British museum starts returning their goods to the world, It’s going to be empty. Exactly. That’s true. But there was. There was this very funny interview, you know, John Oliver yeah. John Oliver did a show on British museums. Please do watch that. You will love it. Like the guy, basically Also interviewed museum directors at different parts of in different parts of UK. And one museum director, they asked that that, you know, they were talking about this particular place in Africa where, you know, British apparently took the mud tablets on which you know, there then King wrote all the sermons and everything. Right. So that is their direct history. Right. And that does not exist in the Africa Museum because it’s one place, right? So it exists in British museum. So so eventually they interviewed this museum director, asking them, asking him, hey, you know, in other words, fine. Yeah, right. Everything’s over. Yeah, yeah. And this is the only piece that was in the world for than for those African kids. Right. And that belongs to those African kids. So why don’t you return that?

Alaa Sayed

Can we take it back?

Ashish Tulsian

The museum director, like without even flinching, stoic, he said, you know, what we are doing is a great service to the African nationals by preserving it for them to come and see it. If we give it back to them, it will get spoiled in their country. He actually said that and have live five, six things like that. I was like, wow, this is this is amazing.

Alaa Sayed

Yeah. Yeah.

Ashish Tulsian

That is some entitlement.

Alaa Sayed

It’s still the same logic.

Ashish Tulsian

Still the same.

Alaa Sayed

The the smart and the no better. So anyway, let’s not debate about it and go to political issues and so I’ve taken the road from the beginning and I love being on the front of the business, but you have to do the drill inside and you can’t be in the front without going through everything inside the kitchen. Right? So I have done my part outside, inside and I’ve taken the chances to be outside in the front line. So then the my turn come to be outside in the front line talking to the people start to.

Ashish Tulsian

No, but how did, how did the restaurant that happened to do did you study?

Alaa Sayed

Yeah. Yeah. Listen, it was, it wasn’t really difficult since you’re going to work as a junior, since I can speak English in anyway. You can read the manuals, you can cook fries. It’s not it’s not really rocket science, just that you need a certain period of change.

Ashish Tulsian

So what did you do? Did you do hotel management?

Alaa Sayed

My my study was about that. So it’s the faculty of Tourism and Hotel Management. So in general, I have studied everything around it. And being a tour guide, it was just like a small element of it. Which is you just need to study the Egyptian history very well and you can just tell stories about it. OK, but the main study was about hotel and business management, so it wasn’t so difficult for me to join the restaurant industry. So just that you need, as I told you to, you need to do the drill work.

Ashish Tulsian

And what was the first job in the restaurant space?

Alaa Sayed

So my, my first job was with Hardee’s, OK? And basically the the came to the faculty or university and he picked some names that had some high grades. And they sent us letters saying like, hey, we have vacancies if you want to join. And back then, the job was in Qatar. I was still I was still in Egypt. So I said, why not let’s try. The title was an assistant manager, but in order to be officially assistant manager, you have to go through all the trainings and I have done it all. Being an assistant manager with Hardee’s was interesting is not so difficult like KFC because, you know, they are the same company Hardee’s was just like a bit behind on on KFC. It’s very like just sandwich and burgers. So you don’t deal really with Fried chicken and oils. But the interesting part was that Qatar back then was at the beginning of the start to having people from outside they opened the doors for all the nationalities to come in. So I met a lot of people from different countries I have a lot of friendships with them and it was really good. Two years and for some on some some issues happening back home. I went back, then I joined in the same field as well. So I joined a business that between the United States and the Egyptian Air Force. So there is a kind of a cooperation between both countries like that.

Ashish Tulsian

They had an Air Force Base. Like an American Air Force Base?

Alaa Sayed

Exactly. And those bases has F&B as well. So each one of the base has a restaurant, has supermarket, has entertainment, has bar, has everything. Yeah.

Ashish Tulsian

We actually work with American Air Base in Qatar.

Alaa Sayed

Oh, OK. Yeah. So I used to manage the F and B in those base American bases. Um, it was quite different, limited customers that you’re dealing with with a very specific requirement and you’re dealing with products from outside Egypt and other products from inside Egypt. It was very nice. Five days work, three days off, you know, you get paid well.

Ashish Tulsian

Great work life balance.

Alaa Sayed

Exactly, exactly. I was, I was doing too many things that only just worked like I have time for my my gym, have time for my family. I was doing a lot of things back then and that stayed with me for like eight years. I was making good money, in dollars. Things were good.

Ashish Tulsian

Spoiled for Good.

Alaa Sayed

Exactly. You know, we having a good life, me and my family. Then the the revolution happened in Egypt. And when the revolution happened in Egypt, things start to get affected somehow. So and it was a sign for me to start to look for something wasn’t bad for me. I was still OK, but it was a sign for me to start, have a look for something outside and I met Gary and I met Tyrone. Tyrone. Now he’s I think. Yeah. Tyrone Reid. And I met him in Cairo it was really it was very interesting meeting 10 minutes. Got the job on the same interview. I got off a letter within the same 10 minutes and he I don’t know for some reason said can I have a photo with you? So we got to take a photo and he sent it to Gary and Gary was managing the business in the UAE. So like hey Gary he sent him a note I found your guy. What’s, what’s going on. What do you mean by find your guy? He said you will know when you go to the UAE, I said OK. And I came to Shake Shack and Shake Shack was at the beginning, they opened in the Mall of Emirates but I joined them later. It was very interesting training periods. We have people from UK, from Scotland, from Brazil, from Portugal, from everywhere in our team. And that was my really first experience to understand how really the the new American business are training because Hardee’s and KFC is still American business. Right? But when we talk about Shake Shack is a completely different level.

Ashish Tulsian

Is it the excellence or?

Alaa Sayed

it is. It is, but it is based on people more than the products.

Ashish Tulsian

OK, how do they how what does your experience of this, the thing that you just said, I yeah, I’m a fan of Danny Meyers. I’m I’m a fan of Shake Shack as a customer as well. And you know, as a as a business person. Yeah. But then what’s the experience of actual people when they say that this is people first?

Alaa Sayed

Let’s reveal something we had an amazing team. So starting from Tyrone and down and the brand philosophy itself is about how to live 9 hours on daily basis with people that you really like and you want to spend more time with them and how we can create this kind of chemistry and it’s always about the 10 minutes that we meet before the shifts. So those 10 minutes we talk, we, we throw jokes but at the same time we talk about business, we talk about goals and objectives, and we make sure that the entire shift have the same rhythm of being motivated all the time. There was no sir/ma’am at all in the entire hierarchy. We all call ourselves with our names and I’ve not really ever faced a problem with those people to the limit that you think, you know what? I want to have another job. No, you don’t get this feeling with them. Hmm. To the point that you love to be all the time in the kitchen, outside the kitchen, dealing with the customers customer start to know you by your name because you don’t really call them sir or Ma’am, you call them by their name. So they start to talk back at you with your name. And this is something I found very interesting. I didn’t see that at any brand before. And the way of putting the unit.

Ashish Tulsian

This side of the world is a little different, right? Yeah.

Alaa Sayed

Yeah, completely.

Ashish Tulsian

Because you also grow up in your in your education. You grow up differently. You don’t call your neighbors by your name. You don’t call your Teachers by by their name. Right. And then so on. It’s it’s kind of layered and ingrained in a very different way. True.

Alaa Sayed

It is a good in some perspective. But at the same time, in this field or in this kind of business, it’s really, really good to be bubbly, to be yourself because you create this kind of environment and letting people see that you’re coming to their beloved place like a place that they love to come on a daily basis or even twice a week to have a nice time even the way we treat people like, hey, what’s shakin and what’s going on? What’s up? You know, we were not allowed to say that at any restaurant that we have worked with before. You cannot say that.

Ashish Tulsian

You know what I mean? I’m just being I’m just trying to push the point a little. Yeah. That you can still achieve by training, right? I mean, you can you can train people to say, hey, what’s, what’s happening? Yeah, but but how does that person I mean, that’s, that’s the act that you’re putting at the counter because there is a customer in front of you. Yeah. But what is he what was your experience as you know, somebody on their team at Shake Shack, I understand that you talked about like first name basis. That’s a very American thing, right? Couple of things are very American that I’m assuming must be happening at Hardee’s and KFC as well. But you’re saying that it wasn’t.

Alaa Sayed

It wasn’t, yeah.

Ashish Tulsian

OK, but what else like where did you feel that the people first approach was really people first, like any anecdotes?

Alaa Sayed

OK, that it could happen through a lot of details happening through the day. So the communication was directly to the point that any staff can communicate with Tyrone directly without going through a store manager or an area manager in a good way. In a sense, that give you a sense of that we are all of us a family. So even if, you know, we we we work in a country that have rules and regulations and there are certain businesses that when you are absent, you need to get a a sick note and you need to do this and that. And you need to know you need to follow the formality with shake shack it was completely different, like when you was calling me saying, I’m sick. I cannot come today. I trust you are sick. You know, I trust this is really happening. And I give you this kind of leverage. And I don’t ask you about formality because I know when the time comes and I need to stay a couple of hours more, are you going to do this for me. And the same rules apply. And sometimes when I remember that correctly, we spent more than 12 hours in the store preparing for the opening and we get a phone call from Gary and say like, Hey, it’s my birthday, please come in. And he’s he invited the entire restaurant and that staff from the management to the last crew. It’s my birthday. You guys come for a drink, come have have cake with me, you know, and that creates one that creates the environment and this is why Shake Shack was really something special in my career, honestly.

Ashish Tulsian

Did you meet Danny Meyers?

Alaa Sayed

I didn’t. But I met his, his team in the office. They came to visit us there was a guy, Tatya Garutee, something Garutee. He was the COO. Yeah, he’s the second manDanny Meyer, he came to our restaurant in in the mall, shake hands, ask us how’s it going? What’s going on? He was very friendly, but I read the book. Danny Meyer, I have to read the book. You know, the guy was amazing. He’s a legend, in my opinion.

Ashish Tulsian

I think you know, I very interestingly I got introduced to the Union Square Cafe, and Danny Meyer’s first in my readings. And I did not know that Shake Shack belongs to the same house.

Alaa Sayed

Yeah, OK.

Ashish Tulsian

And in a parallel world, I used to admire Shake Shack. And and one day both collided, and I was like, wow. Because because I used to admire Shake Shack with intrigue. Yeah. Because it was an American chain. OK, they’re selling sandwiches. Yeah, but they were not McDonald’s. They were not KFC. There was something calm, classy, high quality about them that I could feel it. I could perceive it. I could clearly see that these guys are not in a rush. They’re not going anywhere. They are chill wherever they are, they’re doing extremely well. They’re killing it. It’s a high quality product. It’s a high value product. All the checkboxes were going on in my head, and I’m a lover of high quality products. I’m a lover of high value products. I’m not a discount buyer. I’m not a discount giver. You know, I really believe in delivering the value. Put your money where the mouth is, So for me, they were just checking all the boxes. Right. And then, you know, the day I realized that the inception of Shake Shack and how it, you know, came out of Union Square hospitality, I was like, wow, this is this is phenomenal.

Alaa Sayed

And they sell they sell with all the what you mentioned right now about quality of everything. You’re still being served in a very, very short time. You know like it’s not going to take 20 minutes or something. No it comes in time you know.

Ashish Tulsian

Yeah, yeah. No I’m a I’m a fan. Yeah. I mean if it’s not abundantly clear already I’m an absolute Shake Shack fan.

Alaa Sayed

I’m still me and my family, we have to do a visit to Shake Shack every now and then, we love it.

Ashish Tulsian

Yeah. Same or similar. I if I find no matter what I find Shake Shack I will There’s a very high chance that my priority will change.

Alaa Sayed

Yeah. Then comes to.

Ashish Tulsian

So what what like you, you spent how, how long were you at Shake Shack? 

Alaa Sayed

2 years. Then I get surprised but then with another brand have completely different culture, which is a BurgerFuel.

Ashish Tulsian

I have a story for that. But you continue.

Alaa Sayed

OK, BurgerFuel It’s a New Zealand based brand.

Ashish Tulsian

Oh, OK.

Alaa Sayed

Yeah, it’s from New Zealand. Yeah. And for me, that was something Weird like brands, not from America.

Ashish Tulsian

Up till now, I used to think it’s a local brand, but anyway.

Alaa Sayed

It’s coming from completely different part of the world. But when I get in, I, like everyone is putting shorts, tattoos, earrings. Everyone has personality there’s no formality at all as well. It’s an even an extra level of Shake Shack and I met Colin and Colin de Bruin. He’s he’s the back then he was the operations manager. And by the way, he’s a he’s a friend and he’s one of the guys who’s impacted my personality as well in terms of how to manage the business when I met him, he we had a good like 10 minutes talk, like do you want to work with me?

Ashish Tulsian

I mean, the title of this podcast is going to be 10 minutes interview Guy anyway, OK. Yeah, yeah, yeah, exactly, exactly.

Alaa Sayed

So he asked me do you want to work with me? I said it’s like, yeah, my pleasure. Then he start to put me in training and stuff like that. I was managing the Abu Dhabi area. So back then Shake Shack was like 16 outlets in the UAE and there was a plan to grow more. And I went to New Zealand. I have like 21 days over there for training and see the brand culture and everything. And I was really sad when I heard the news that BurgerFuel is it’s no longer having this kind of branches around in the UAE because really it was really good product, it was really good service. But you know, this is.

Ashish Tulsian

You’re saying they were not able to?

Alaa Sayed

Yeah, the they were not able to accelerate the growth more and for some for some reason and I think of something happen between the holding company and or the.

Ashish Tulsian

Oh, you mean now?  But you spent like you joined them and you spent some time?

Alaa Sayed

Yeah, I spent like two and a half years over there. It was Amazing.

Ashish Tulsian

That was from which year to which year?

Alaa Sayed

I think that was 2018.

Ashish Tulsian

That is exactly when I think discovered I BurgerFuel.

Alaa Sayed

Oh, OK.

Ashish Tulsian

I discovered BurgerFuel and I, you know, up till now I didn’t know it’s a New Zealand brand. Yeah. I discovered burger fuel at WDC. Mm.

Alaa Sayed

Yeah, yeah.

Ashish Tulsian

Right. Quite randomly. Yeah. I was flying from U.S. to Dubai. Came back in the morning. Yeah. Disoriented. I think reached Hotel three hours before check in hotels and they said you don’t have a check-in right now. And I was like dude, no, come on. And then I like threw my bags and said, All right, I’ll take a stroll outside. Right. And I saw BurgerFuel, so I thought let’s just give it a try. A couple of things stood out for me, and I actually honestly, when I walked in, WDC is like an expo area, And there was no expo going on. So so I was like, OK, maybe it’s all empty right now. Because, you know, these guys, have kept an audience in my head Something is also saying that don’t go here. Yeah. Because it’s an expo area. These guys have no incentive to make good food because captive audience, right? Yeah. And the Days Expo is not there. It’s not there. Sure. But I still followed my instincts went in and first thing that I noticed is everybody is very cool. I saw tattoos. I saw I saw people, you know, quite, quite chill. Yeah, absolutely. I felt like, OK, something is happening here. Yeah, OK. It’s interesting. So piqued my interest. Ordered a burger. And I remember I think I don’t remember the specifics of the conversation I had with the order taker, but I know that was interesting because because when I was trying to choose the burger, the way she interrupted and, you know, kind of almost commanded that, you know, come on. Like, yeah, what else, what what do you want, get this. Yeah. As soon as I got the burger and first bite boom, I was like, Wow, this is amazing. And then I kept on wondering, why is it empty? Why, why? Why are people aren’t flocking? Yeah, that was one. Second thing that I have spoken about to a lot of burger joints all across the world. OK, is that what is it called? The the burger holder?

Alaa Sayed

Ah the doofer.

Ashish Tulsian

Doofer?

Alaa Sayed

Yeah, the doofer. Yeah.

Ashish Tulsian

I have never seen it anywhere.

Alaa Sayed

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Ashish Tulsian

All right. So they they give you this, you want to explain what it is?

Alaa Sayed

I think the story of the doofer because BurgerFuel is really something amazing in New Zealand. What they do as anyone related to the brand, somehow you could be a customer, you could be a supplier. There is an event event happening on a quarterly basis, and they just invite all those people and they do this. Throw a party like a proper party, OK? At the head office, the head office is like two floors. There is space for ping pong, billiards and all this kind of stuff. It’s just like Google kind of thing. And they throw the party and everyone has any new idea he can come up with it. And if it’s good they implemented it immediately.

Ashish Tulsian

Beautiful.

Alaa Sayed

So this guy, he’s just a regular customer. He love to eat BurgerFuel and usually it’s really good meat and it’s juicy and it’s messy. Yeah. And he just came up with this and said, Look, guys, I have an idea why you to use this for your burger and this guy after introduce this doofer thing he’s a shareholder immediately so they give him they.

Ashish Tulsian

Give him this is the coolest story.

Alaa Sayed

They Give him share in the company immediately. So this guy this is Joseph the owner and the creator of the brand Joseph and Chris and Joseph he’s the official owner right now and Jonathan is just Joseph, sorry, he’s just like a very cool guy that you just randomly meeting him getting out of his Range Rover like, hey, what’s going on? Let’s go for lunch. I don’t have money and he’s he’s the owner, OK? So don’t worry, I’ll pay for you and he just pay for him and then afterwards you just go at the same day, you just go and have a party with him somehow. And he’s just.

Ashish Tulsian

He’s awesome, I think I think that doofer is a brilliant idea. Yeah. Like, I was so intrigued. I saw that I, you know, of course, fiddled with it to learn how to hold it. Yeah. Because just first I thought it’s just gimmicky, like, yeah, yeah. How will I use this? Yeah. And then I used it.

Alaa Sayed

Just.

Ashish Tulsian

Like it actually doesn’t spill. It holds a burger very nicely, and I’ve never seen this anybody doing it, anybody else doing it. So I have, you know, I’ve been talking about this to so many people. Yeah. Nobody does anything about it. Yeah.

Alaa Sayed

And you can see them, even the people who works with BurgerFuel in New Zealand, the obsessed with cars. It’s a common thing, right? And so they are obsessed with muscle cars and race. So you will see them in the restaurant and you see them at the race, but then all of them know about engines for some reason I don’t know. Yeah. So the brand is attached somehow with muscle cars, race and this cool stuff and you see them all the time related to all the activity that related to this kind of thing.

Ashish Tulsian

Wow.

Alaa Sayed

So it’s, it’s cool from all the angles, but.

Ashish Tulsian

I want to, meet Joseph.

Alaa Sayed

I think he was part of Red Bull at the beginning, by the way. He was part of Red Bull so he’s one of the people that really started the business of Red Bull and introducing Red Bulls to the world.

Ashish Tulsian

Oh, no wonder. No wonder.

Alaa Sayed

He’s he’s.

Ashish Tulsian

Absolutely, car sports and High adrenaline.

Alaa Sayed

He’s a marketing genius as well.

Ashish Tulsian

Nice. How big is BurgerFuel now?

Alaa Sayed

I think they are having a good expansion in New Zealand. Australia, not really in the Middle East currently. 16 hours travel is very hectic

Ashish Tulsian

You know, I do that travel every month. You know, I do, you know, US, Dubai, India.

Alaa Sayed

Every month?

Ashish Tulsian

I mean, because sometimes twice. Yeah. So, you know, when people ask me where are you based? I started telling them that I’m based out of an Emirates aircraft. Yeah, exactly. Because they recognize me more. Yeah. Yeah, you know, you know when, when, when, when flight crew starts recognizing you.

Alaa Sayed

Yeah, I know.

Ashish Tulsian

It’s mixed feelings. Yeah.

Ashish Tulsian

All right, so what after BurgerFuel?

Alaa Sayed

Then comes Jollibee.

Ashish Tulsian

Oh.

Alaa Sayed

Interesting Filipino brand.

Ashish Tulsian

Your world, your your entry into the fried chicken world?

Alaa Sayed

Exactly. And that was the start of managing your business on a completely different scale, like reporting now to shareholders and board members. And you talk heavy stuff and on financial reports and you are responsible on growth, you’re responsible on people, life. And and this is the most critical part that I really faced that you feel some point that you are responsible to on everyone that worked with you crew members and regardless the position. But it is a heavy responsibility in a way that the growth and the success of the brands equal to those people life because you are providing them with salary incentives, job and daily basis. And if you fail to do that they can lose the jobs if you didn’t really achieve what you promise them to achieve and then the business would be impacted and anything happen to the business if it’s downsized or what’s is going to happen, those people might lose the job then it’s going to be mainly your responsibility. And when you think about it from this angle, everyone’s perception, that’s the more I get promoted, the more life is getting easy. But it’s not.

Ashish Tulsian

When did that hit you?

Alaa Sayed

That hit me? The first, the first the first PnL meeting with the shareholders because I used to discuss PnL like million times, but the minute that you discussed this kind of PnL with shareholders, people, who’s really.

Ashish Tulsian

Their their objective, was it the questions and the objectivity around the answer?

Alaa Sayed

Yeah. So they are really looking for a certain growth in the business. You’re looking for numbers yeah. And at the same time, you think about both how to deliver what you promised, but at the same time, you need to maintain this environment and you need to be a sponge. So you taking the pressure from up, and you can’t transfer it down. And I’ve learned a few good things from all the brands that I work with and this is the time to implement. But at the same time, you have to be careful that not all the environments are equal and whatever you have learned in a brand, you cannot just come and implement it on other brand or environment because they are different and you cannot apply the same. So you have to come up with your own way of creating this environment and make it a happy every day shift for them. And still you growing and incentivizing them somehow. If life is getting more expensive, like what we live right now, there’s a new tax being implemented here or there. You need to just be aware about what’s going on and it comes to the limit that you need to even feel how each and every nationality because you are in Dubai and you are dealing with too many nationalities how they think, how they act, how they react, and you have to systemize that in a way to make Indians, Filipinos, Egyptians, Jordanian and everyone just work together in a good environment, it is difficult and everyone, if anyone took tell you that it was a piece of cake for me to create that peaceful environment and business, I challenge him. It’s not it’s not that easy.

Ashish Tulsian

But was it the was it the so see, we talked about Shake Shack. We talked about BurgerFuel. Right. And and then Jollibee. Now, is it the brand’s culture?

Alaa Sayed

Play a big role? Yeah. Yeah.

Ashish Tulsian

So, like, what was the challenge? Why why was it challenging?

Alaa Sayed

The challenge in Jollibee, the brand purely coming from Philippine and Philippines only.

Ashish Tulsian

Correct.

Alaa Sayed

OK, yeah. And we have been in the Asian market. Asian market. So we talked about Vietnam. We talked about maybe Singapore, Malaysia, I think. But never been in the Middle East. Hmm. OK.

Ashish Tulsian

When did they enter?

Alaa Sayed

2015. And there is many elements that you have to talk about, not only the brand culture as well as the, the menu and the menu tastes, flavors and everything in order to adapt all that to the Middle East, it’s quite difficult. And when 99.9% of the staff are filipinos and you want to introduce the brand to the UAE as it’s an international brand, so you have to change this mix. And that wasn’t easy.

Ashish Tulsian

You mean you mean to get UAE audience to look at Jollibee You wanted to change the face?

Alaa Sayed

To start from inside. Right. You need to start actually from here(points at his brain). You need to think about it as an international thing. And if you will do that, then you have to look back and say like, okay, store design, menu, engineering.

Ashish Tulsian

How much of that how much how much of that changed? did it change quite a lot? 

Alaa Sayed

Yeah. And we we managed to attract a lot of different nationalities to come and taste the food, but obviously by introducing different flavors right Mm hmm.

Ashish Tulsian

Also, the R&D for the region was also a part of your portfolio?

Alaa Sayed

It yeah, it was a part. But at the beginning it was difficult because he’s again from Philippines and his kitchen Philippines and his lab in Philippine and everything. So I’ve gone through this. But again, the main part for me for I was OK now is not only that you managing the operation on daily basis, that you have people that are holding the money up there, you have to report to them and you have to start think, how do you look at the business But I got there like, you know, after a few tries I’ve got there, I understood what they are looking at. And since business successful, scalable and you start opening more and more restaurants the off line.

Ashish Tulsian

How surprising was the world of fried chicken as compared to any other format in the restaurant?

Alaa Sayed

I look at it because I’m coming from Shake Shack, BurgerFuel and both of them mainly focusing on the beef. It’s purely about quality of the beef burgers. And this part of the world is different. Like how fried chicken was popular Six, seven years ago in the burger? It wasn’t that popular. A burger is a beef burger, right? Then things start to change. I noticed that even in and KFC. 50% of the menu is chicken burger. Yeah. People love chicken burger. Then start a lot of media thing about Popeye’s and Chick-Fil-A in America. And you remember this story and all celebrities have been involved in it. And OK so chicken burger is the thing. Yeah. It just about how are you going to do it? How are you going to bread it? How are you going to do the spice mix and everything, but how are you going to talk about it as well? Marketing was playing a big role. OK, but it is the item that you can sell 24 seven. Oh, you’re not going to have a difficult time of selling chicken burger or chicken fried chicken in general.

Ashish Tulsian

I, you know, I’ll share my understanding. I think I’ve been in this business for the last twelve and a half years. Yeah, 11 years of running Posist and one and a half years before I used to have my own restaurant. Yes. I’ve been, I’ve roughed it out of little. Yeah. So but I can tell you that up until like three years back. Yeah. Until we signed our first fried chicken, you know, customer Yeah. I didn’t know how different was this business was while it looked the same, the fact that as a fried chicken company, you don’t have the liberty to, you know, cook things in 3 minutes. Yeah. You know, you have to have like a burst frying. It’s going to take whatever 25-30 minutes. Yeah. You know, and you can only sell what is there on the shelves. And that also has a shelf life. Exactly. What’s, what is is that part of the business difficult? Or is this, is this how you slice fried chicken brands versus any other anybody else? Because that’s how I have started looking at it.

Alaa Sayed

It eventually it is about the the end product that the consumer tastes. Right. And you are very specific about what type of things that you want to deliver. And because this is makes a difference a huge difference between you and the competition. Right. So there’s a claim all the time in the market claim that we are the most could be crispy fried chicken. We are the most I don’t know whatever fried chicken. Right. And this claim in order to achieve there is a certain process that you have to follow either how the chicken will rest before the breading or after the breading of cooking time. What is the holding time after it? There is certain measurement in order to keep the consistency and in order to deliver what you promise the customer with. Hmm. And that creates a credibility on the long term. And people regardless, they might have one or two bad experience with you, but they understand that you’re trying to be consistent. And this is why they’re going to come back and back again To you. So fried chicken. No, it’s not an easy field. People think from outside, they’re just selling fried chicken. No, it is not. You are you have to be very specific on even with the supply chain on what type of chicken you are buying, what is the size, what is the specification it’s quite big world. And proudly, I have to say that in ServQuest particularly with serving Al-Baik chicken.

Ashish Tulsian

That’s that’s what I want to talk about.

Alaa Sayed

Quality is, number one, everything like I never seen anyone obsessed with the quality that much.

Ashish Tulsian

How did ServQuest happen? And we’re going to talk about Al-Baik even more.

Alaa Sayed

ServQuest was starting I think with Dubai Mall, one outlet in Dubai mall and everyone knows about the lines happen during Al-Baik opening.

Ashish Tulsian

Do you want to talk a little bit about Al-Baik what what exactly you know to you for anybody who does not know Al-Baik and is watching?

Alaa Sayed

I think I’m if I’m going to start talk about Al-Baik I have to start to talk about how like why ServQuest exists. OK, so Kareem, who’s our CEO who specific about what kind of brand that he need to select for ServQuest. And I think he was focusing on Al-Baik because he had multiple experience with Al-Baik as well as a customer he understand what is the qualities about and he is quite difficult to to to meet a big team and have an interaction with them. And in order even to get Al-Baik as a as a franchise. So Kareem was very precise about it.

Ashish Tulsian

Because they don’t give the franchise away?

Alaa Sayed

No they are very selective about quality. They even go to the limit that they have to do a kind of due diligence about who are you, what you do and how you run your business, what what is your philosophy because they are quite different.

Ashish Tulsian

For sure, I think everybody everybody can see that now.

Alaa Sayed

Yeah. Yeah, regardless There was a fried chicken brands already in the UAE a long time ago. But he felt there is a good space for this brand since it’s really more focused on the customer service and the quality. 

Ashish Tulsian

How did the Dubai Mall people react?

Alaa Sayed

Listen everyone was expecting crowd but not to that limit. And thank God till now we still have this crowd in Dubai Mall. And during Eid time that we have a special preparation for Dubai Mall like we really hire security from special companies.

Ashish Tulsian

For Al-Baik stores in Dubai mall?

Alaa Sayed

Specifically in Dubai Mall to just keep people safe so.

Ashish Tulsian

It’s actually surprising. You know I whenever I speak to anybody about Al-Baik and let’s especially people in the U.S. or India or people who have visited Dubai. And I’ll just ask them have you heard of Al-Baik, you know 90% of the times I’ve heard, “Oh yeah I have, the one that has a lot of queues in Dubai mall” I’m like oh wow OK yeah did you try it? He said no because there were queues in Dubai mall and I think OK, sure. Where did you go? Is it KFC? I think there’s a KFC right around. I haven’t seen it, but I know it from so many people that there is a KFC, like just, you know, adjacent or you know, around.

Alaa Sayed

Yes, but that gives us a lesson on that Not everyone have the time to stay in a queue and we have to be accessible everywhere. And this is why we reached now to 12 restaurants(Now 15). We are opening Dalma Mall very soon, next week in Abu Dhabi. And we are very, very specific on choosing our locations. So you’re not going to see all of them in the food court. You will see us on the street side. So you can have a drive through, you can have a pick up, you can you can just park your car somehow, 5 minutes, get you a chicken and go out.

Ashish Tulsian

I saw that you guys were responsible for jams in Rashidiya.

Alaa Sayed

Yeah, that was our again first drive through. So the first thing that we do in each and everything that it should be like that.

Ashish Tulsian

Did the RTO fine you?

Alaa Sayed

We managed to come to a deal that we re-planning the route of, of, of the road in a way.

Ashish Tulsian

That’s legendary man.

Alaa Sayed

But we had, we had actually acquired a lengthy meeting with RTA 

Ashish Tulsian

And that’s legendary, I mean.

Alaa Sayed

Four days in a row.

Ashish Tulsian

I mean it’s, it’s phenomenal yeah. And like what a brand.

Alaa Sayed

The items over there because if we serve the entire menu, it’s going to be a problem. So we agreed on serving a limited item in the order to just make that.

Ashish Tulsian

And I’m assuming that like the way RTO is not going to re-route just because of, you know, one store I’m sure, but also will not allow somebody to have their own security in the mall.

Alaa Sayed

Yeah. Yeah. But we do that from completely different perspective. So even the checklist that we do before we open in any other restaurant, customer safety comes first. So we have a completely entire department called Crowd Control Department that he has to come with a plan to control the crowd in each and every opening and if this crowd control person can say, no, things are not safe, we delay the opening until we make sure 100% things are correct.

Ashish Tulsian

That’s crazy. What makes, I mean from your perspective as an operator, And I’m and this question is you know, also about your learning because I’m sure this is like a new dimension, right? So what makes this brand, what has been your learning after so many years in the business, what is it that you’ve learned even more new or something that is that is like that was intriguing OK for Al-Baik as an operation.

Alaa Sayed

OK, I can say how genuine is the aspect of really we have to care about our customers. So you hear this a lot. We have to take care of our customers, right? We have to take care of them in terms of providing them a proper quality, quick service. But we come to to a certain point that we take care of our own pockets. So you have this question all the time from the CEO of Al-Baik or the CEO of ServQuest. They ask this question. Do you think this product should be expensive? Do you think whatever the product that you offering is going to be affordable for everyone in general without excluding any category in the in the community? My goal and my only goal to be affordable and everyone can come and buy and eat. So I think that makes a difference. 

Ashish Tulsian

But that’s you know, that’s that’s amazing that you’re saying that because I recently, you know, got an opportunity to meet Rami and in my 45 minutes worth of interaction, I heard that twice, you know, I can now relate.

Alaa Sayed

It is a philosophy.

Ashish Tulsian

I heard that twice like in a you know in a conversation. He basically said, you know, when we don’t work efficiently, my customer pays for it. I can’t make my customer pay for it.

Alaa Sayed

Yeah.

Ashish Tulsian

And now I’m relating I mean, it’s just it is just hitting me now that that it is not the conversation I had.

Alaa Sayed

It’s it is. But also because it is a philosophy we all and you find us saying that without the preparing for it just comes naturally because this is how we talk about the business and daily basis. And then the last thing I would do as a brand GM that I would go with a proposal to increase any price. This is something it might be crucial. It might take us to a completely different direction. So I’m very careful and keen as well on implementing this philosophy in the UAE since the life cost here Still expensive right. I do believe Saudi still the Saudi community don’t have this kind of pressure that people who live in Dubai has.

Ashish Tulsian

But my experience of Saudi is that, you know, for some reason, you know, from a food price perspective, Saudi is quite cost conscious.

Alaa Sayed

Oh, yeah, yeah.

Ashish Tulsian

I mean, from food price perspective, I’m not know sure that affordability. Yeah, yeah. But for some reason, yeah. My observation is that in Saudi you know, Saudi people. Yeah. When they look at food as expensive. Yeah. They don’t like it. It’s not the like it’s not that they don’t spend. Somewhere the belief is that you should not over charge on food. Because I see that in the reviews. I see that in the, you know, when I, when I, when I was looking at it, I look at restaurants in Riyadh or Jeddah on my visits and when I see the Google reviews and if somebody is like doing like 3.9, well, the restaurant looks absolutely fab. Yeah. And I generally go and look at like one star reviews. Most of them are getting butchered for being expensive. And I’m like, wow, that’s yeah, like a thousand reviews, which just, you know, they’re saying that it’s expensive. It has to be a, it has to be a culture thing that they don’t want. They don’t think that food should be expensive, which is quite a noble idea if you think about it. Not, not from the capitalist world, but.

Alaa Sayed

Yeah, yeah. But maybe, maybe we are because I’m here in the UAE since I think 2012. And I think the way that we perceive the the food industry or the restaurant industry in general, that quality usually come with a price and we get used to. So we don’t have this kind of principle.

Ashish Tulsian

But I think I think Al-Baik is an outlier because the kind of volume, you know, I mean the kind of razor thin margins, you know, you maybe operating on, I don’t think volumes without volumes that can be justified anyway. I don’t see any other brands and it’s.

Alaa Sayed

It’s Going to be difficult. It’s going to be difficult to sustain that. So I think the main elements is to be really affordable and provide the right quality to the customer and that those are the main ingredients of the success of Al-Baik I believe. And we’re trying to implement that in the UAE and hopefully the growth will be triple X very, very soon, which we actually having in 2024, We have a quite good expansion plan.

Ashish Tulsian

Absolutely. And you guys are doing a great job on that.

Alaa Sayed

Yeah thank you.

Ashish Tulsian

Alaa, what frustrates you? What are the things that you on a day to day basis like in general, you feel that you know the day I have my way, I’ll change it?

Alaa Sayed

That I don’t know if it’s a tricky question or or a difficult one, but listen, decision making process, one of the things that sometimes frustrate me. It could be a very, very clear idea and could be very obvious to everyone that it is a good idea the process of making the decision, it might really it might make you lose the opportunity. And sometimes it makes you lose interest on what you trying to do. OK, and this is not on a specific things that are being faced through my whole career about maybe it’s because I’ve get this more often, people are telling me that you’re a bit high tempered. Sometimes you are you want to make things happening very quick. And this is part of me. I cannot change like I’ve tried many times. But when, when, when I have something to do, I want to do it. I don’t feel comfortable until I finish it. And this is not how the world goes sometimes, you know, sometimes and sometimes you know, I find out after being really motivated to do something and I feel it’s really a good idea after going through the process, I find that, you know what? I think I was wrong here. I think they had a point. And here. Exactly. Well, I have learned to be patient a little bit and balance things and listen to the people who are being in this industry more than you. Listen to the people who has experience more than you. Being pushy all the time is not the ultimate goal.

Ashish Tulsian

So have you like subdued it a little?

Alaa Sayed

Sometimes yes, but sometimes I lose it. I have to be honest. Sometimes I just lose the temper and not in a bad way. But sometimes I just I show my frustration, you know, and that might have a negative impact sometimes on people around you.

Ashish Tulsian

What do you think? You know, people are I mean, UAE is, of course, always bustling with restaurants and hospitality in general. But what what do you think is your advice in general is to, you know, to people who are starting in the restaurant industry today, because I see that in the current breed of people, you know, nobody wants to have a ten year plan for some reason. I don’t know why. But but but I don’t I mean, I don’t think there’s any business or any career that can be built in three years. Maybe TikToker. But yeah, yeah, yeah. So I stand corrected, Maybe TikToker. But in hospitality, it’s even longer because you know, your, your experience and learning is like too deep. You have to rough it out. There’s no other way.

Alaa Sayed

Exactly.

Ashish Tulsian

What is it? What’s your, what’s your advice to people? Starting in the restaurant space or thinking about making it in the restaurant space?

Alaa Sayed

Listen, before before we had this podcast, we’ve been talking about that there is really a big hype for the last few years about startup companies, tech companies as well. And you will see them all the time on the media, podcasts, and they talk about themselves and the success. But if you really dig deep enough and you find out the factors of their success, thry’re relying more on quick service delivery, providing customers with whatever he think about in a quite quick time. But all that comes from the restaurant industry. The main elements of the restaurant industry is providing quality, providing good service so I think tech companies have taken those two elements. They implement them on a different way, scale it up and become viral everywhere. But look at it. It was all the time about having a good time in the restaurant and having good quality food all the time. Either you have your girlfriend, either you have your family. If you are with your parents, you discuss for 10 minutes about where you want to eat and you vote. Then there is a specific restaurant that you have good memories with. And you are 100% sure that you can have a proper quality food over there. Then they start to do the journey. So it is a proper journey because you have time to talk about it. Before, during having the food and after leaving the restaurant, you might have a comment or two on what happened in the restaurant. The food was amazing today. The steak was really delicious whatsoever. And then when you meet a friend, you start to tell him about your experience interest in this restaurant. So it’s a lengthy process, even for you as a person to have a good restaurant experience. You go through a lot of stages and you still talk about it, so when you establish the business, don’t think it’s something that you can build in one year and be successful. And just and I hear this a lot, even from people who are having thinking about having a franchise in the UAE like you know, get the franchise five years and just sell it or just.

Ashish Tulsian

Make like 100 restaurants. And yeah, yeah, it.

Alaa Sayed

Really is the ultimate goal? I don’t think you can make it. It is It is a legacy. Establish even one restaurant having good reputation, provide customers with good service and good food that might live with you your entire life and can be here even to your sons and kids. And this is what happened in India that will happen in Egypt and Italy. You will find restaurants.

Ashish Tulsian

Yeah. Generational. Yeah. Yeah.

Alaa Sayed

Because they have, they have ethics, they have principle, and they stick to it and they be known for it. So success is not that you hit and run success is not that established 20-50 restaurant in very short period get the profit and leave because believe me this is going to be like a very, very limited profits with the limited period that you are running the business and you’re going to lose it. Yeah. You’re not going to sustain it.

Ashish Tulsian

Unless you really love it. There is no point doing it.

Alaa Sayed

Yeah. So establishing restaurant business if you’re not in love with the industry, if you’re not committed to, if you’re not understanding what kind of discipline that comes with. I don’t think you should start this business eventually from the beginning.

Ashish Tulsian

But then what about the notion that restaurant business has a lot of money?

Alaa Sayed

It’s quite wrong. People need to, And this is this is I think the reason behind, I’ve heard this statistic and I’m not sure if it’s correct or not, but 70% of the people who start restaurant business they fail and only 30% are really success.

Ashish Tulsian

No, I don’t think so. I think the numbers should be higher.

Alaa Sayed

Higher. More than 70%?

Ashish Tulsian

I don’t think I think if 30% were succeeding, OK, things would have been even better. I mean.

Alaa Sayed

And this is behind the perception of “I have money, let’s open a restaurant”. It brings a lot of money.

Ashish Tulsian

You know, you know, what baffles me is and is the fact that, you know, to be a doctor, you need a degree. Yeah. To be, you know, maybe a civil engineer, you know, degree.

Alaa Sayed

Of course.

Ashish Tulsian

You need you need formal education and training to be a chartered accountant or a lawyer. Yeah. Restaurant owner. The only qualification is that you should have money. Restaurant owner. Yeah. And by the way, before I point a finger to the world. I was that restaurateur.

Alaa Sayed

Yeah, yeah.

Ashish Tulsian

I used to run a telecom company. And one day, you know, I said, oh, let’s open a restaurant. Yeah. Why? Because I love food and I have money and that’s it. I got screwed. I stopped liking that food. I was like, Dude, this is too expensive. I’m not eating at my own restaurant. It kills me. Hard realization.

Alaa Sayed

Yeah. It is good that you have the passion for, for for the restaurants, even if you have money. But get someone who knows the industry. You know, let them work for you. It’s going to be way better because establishing restaurant is not just being a chef or understand the food. It is supply chain, it’s R&D, it is operation management, it is cleaning company, you know, it is marketing. It is even person who done the signage outside everything participating in the success. And you need to understand that, which is quite difficult. You will never understand it if you’re not working in the field for quite a long time, even though you have a degree in restaurant management, whatsoever, if you didn’t go inside the kitchen and work there and touch the hot utensil over there, I don’t think you understand what is the restaurant business means there is people love this kind of business to the limit that when you go outside in the dining, they look at the customer and they immediately understand what he want without even asking him. I have met people we’ve been talking about multiple restaurants and this person, I will never forget him. He was just walking by he didn’t even stop for 2 minutes. He look at all the financial statements and like this store and this store will break even next year. Close this restaurant, it is not going to make money. Those three restaurants could be successful. And he walked. It didn’t even take 2 minutes. He just look at it. And he he was true exactly what he said happened. This is how much people are involved in this industry and this is how much they love it.

Ashish Tulsian

Wow.

Alaa Sayed

Yeah. I met this people and those people who are inspired me and whatever the chance come to tell a story about those kind of people I met in the industry in my life. I don’t hesitate to tell the stories because it’s quite interesting.

Ashish Tulsian

And that’s amazing. Yeah, absolutely. You know, what about technology? And by that, what I mean is efficiency is the continuous, you know, push today. Yeah. And, you know, you’re running, you know, Al-Baik, in the in UAE. So that brand is all about, you know, efficiency efficiency. Outside of the restaurant, also, the same things are happening. Some pieces you just mentioned, right? So the tech companies came and they just made the food available to the customer in a very different way, the way customers are interacting with your brand is continuously shifting. Yeah. And for last five years, and especially through the COVID, the restaurants had to just react and then continuously innovate on that. As an operator, what is your feeling about technology eating the restaurant world?

Alaa Sayed

I think this this conversation was happening really during the pandemic. So I would say technology was all there, right? There was always a good part in the restaurant industry that you can use technology in a way not going to affect the entire experience. That human touch should be over there. Pandemic happen. Then the physical contact between people was very limited. Then a lot of technology comes in to even emphasize the the the less contacts that happen between people who’s running the business and their customers. To the limit that things became very robotic and we missed the experience of being in the restaurant. We missed this human interact the human touch of, hi, how are you? How is your day going? Was making a big difference between the customer and the waiter who’s coming on the table. And maybe that morning greeting was making a huge difference in my life. When I go to some place, have my coffee on the morning you know, hey Alaa how are you, how was your day? And you start to have this 2 minutes of little chat. It disappeared during the pandemic, then once the pandemic gone, And hopefully it’s not going to come back again, Some people who operate in restaurants start to realize that, and they start even to limit the technology and their industry to the limit that not to overcome on the customer experience. So it’s very good that I can use the QR code. It’s OK. I don’t mind that, sometimes it is.

Ashish Tulsian

I hate it. We we provide technology to the restaurants but trust me. If I am dining at a restaurant and if anybody asks me to scan QR code for a menu, I’m like, Come on, man. Yeah, I’m not doing this. And people around me will be like, Dude, you guys do this. I’m like, see, you know, we do this because customers demand it. Like our customers, which are restaurateurs. Yeah. If I had my way. Yeah, I will take the QR code menu out, not only from my portfolio from the world. Don’t do this. Do a physical menu. Have have somebody talk to you about your you know what? This dish was good. Let them describe how the dish is.

Alaa Sayed

Yeah. What happened to the old days when when the waiter comes or the chef comes from the kitchen. Yeah. Tell you about the specials today.

Ashish Tulsian

No, but I’m still like that. Yeah. I mean, you know, my, my I mean, if I’m going to a restaurant. Well, of course, unless it is a  fast food, it’s a different thing. If I’m going to a proper dining restaurant, I am a customer who calls for chef.

Alaa Sayed

Yeah. I need him to explain to me what he is cooking today. And why it’s special.

Ashish Tulsian

Yeah. And I will. I will make sure that I first give the server a hard time. By making him explain every dish. Yeah. Yeah. And to the point where he is like, you know what you need the chef. Very good idea.

Alaa Sayed

Please give me the chef, because I want to hear from him when he talks about his ingredients it is completely different.

Ashish Tulsian

Yeah, that’s a part of experience for me. That’s. That’s like. That’s experience I already have, you know? Yeah. Some part of that dish is already there with me because he explained it.

Alaa Sayed

Exactly. Tell you about the herbs and where the herbs are being grown in and tell you about the, the cut of beef that he’s using. Is it which country, what part of you know, and telling you about how he cook it and what kind of garlic sauce of garlic bread, whatever he’s putting on it, it makes you already prepared mentally and physically to have this dish and this part of the experience but the QR code, It’s not delivering this experience.

Ashish Tulsian

But I think in the, in the QSR space, you know, if I think QSR is the efficiency that you’re continuously, you know, talking about thinking about, you know, as an operator are you still reacting to how customer wants to interact with you in the drive through in the store, online, or are you also thinking about it, you know, proactively that, hey, can I be ahead of? Can I be the reason why customers’ behavior changes with my brand? Where are you in the in that journey?

Alaa Sayed

So again, ServQuest’s Al-Baik the this they always doing things in a different way. We have a drive through normally when you go to the drive through, there is not a window there is like a box that someone speaking to you from and 90% you’re not sure about what he’s saying to you and he’s not hearing you correctly and you have to repeat yourself quite a few times until you get your order correctly right in Al-Baik we have a human touch in this part so we have an actual person. Obviously if it’s not really hot in Dubai, when the weather’s really good, we are very careful on having someone outside talking to you while you are in your car.

Ashish Tulsian

Like a person at a drive through, a person is roaming around?

Alaa Sayed

The drive thru Al-Baik in Saudi. We have the same system and they even provide people with AC, outside and everything to make sure that people outside are very protected.

Ashish Tulsian

Yeah in the harsh climate.

Alaa Sayed

Yeah, but at the same time have this human interaction with your customers. So this is how we do technology differently in ServQuest.

Ashish Tulsian

So using technology but not losing the human touch.

Alaa Sayed

Yeah, it should be there all the time.

Ashish Tulsian

And that’s how it’s going to be.

Ashish Tulsian

Alaa, my last but, but an important question. What’s keeping you excited, apart from your day job in the sense that, you know, you have your own roster of staff, you, you have your things on your mind. But what keeps you ticking? What keeps you excited?

Alaa Sayed

OK, sometimes I’m obsessed with the details and details makes me excited All the time. Details in a sense that I love to know the names of our staff. Like, I love when I go to a restaurant and I know their names and I call their names I do not just say, Hi, how are you? And just moving on. And if there is a chance to know a fact or two of his life is even better because when I see him next time and I say hi and I call his name and I ask him about this details, he told me a lot the last time, believe me. This is this is the key of how to manage people properly and make them attached to your goals and your objectives. You should be very, very genuine on all their details, not just from the surface. Hi Ashish or hi whatsoever his name without creating this this one. So details in this particular point is very important for me and makes me all the time, When I go and visit restaurants, I want to remember as much as I can who are there, what they do, details about their lives. Yeah. So this is this is the most exciting part.

Ashish Tulsian

I’m sure. Like, that’s beautiful. I’m sure that makes you a phenomenal operator. And no wonder no wonder you’re doing what you’re doing. Alaa, this is a great chat. A great journey. I think you have contributed to great brands and great brands have contributed to you. And that continues to have you.

Alaa Sayed

They built me up.

Ashish Tulsian

That. That’s that’s that’s beautiful. And this was enriching.

Alaa Sayed

Thank you so much. It was really wonderful conversation. Glad that you invited me to be with you here. Obviously, after I’ve seen a lot of fantastic people, I’m not comparable to them whatsoever. But giving me this space, it’s giving me even more rich experience about what’s happening. Thank you Ashish. Appreciate it.