Friends who have lived and worked in the United States must have heard of, seen and tasted such a unique Chinese restaurant-the appearance of warm colors, clean and refreshing floor-to-ceiling glass, and a cute panda staring at you on the signboard of the restaurant.
When you walk into the restaurant, you are waiting for dishes that can be taken at any time. The clean and bright storefront hall is completely different from the traditional Chinese restaurant.
Yes, it is panda express, the local strongman of American Chinese food! Today, it has more than 2,000 branches and more than 23,000 employees, and it has opened branches in 47 states in the United States. It can earn tens of billions a year and completely crush the American brand “Burger King”. However, “Panda” did not stop its expansion. On the contrary, it continues to open a new store every three days. …
The founder of Panda Restaurant is a China couple. Thanks to their success in the catering industry, they have successfully entered the list of the top 100 richest people in China, and their value has already exceeded 3 billion … However, in a recent interview, they made it clear that Panda Restaurant will be based in North America and enter Europe, Asia and the Middle East, but will not consider opening a branch in China! What’s going on here? How did Panda Restaurant gain a foothold in America? But why is it so popular in the United States, but you don’t plan to go back to your hometown for development?
In 1947, Cheng Zhengchang, one of the founders of Panda Restaurant, was born into a chef’s family in Hangzhou, Jiangsu. His father Cheng is good at cooking Jiangsu and Zhejiang cuisine and once cooked for Chiang Kai-shek. Although influenced by China’s traditional cooking culture since childhood, Cheng Zhengchang did not intend to follow in his father’s footsteps at first, but had a soft spot for mathematics.
Cheng Zhengchang in his youth.
Cheng Zhengchang went to the United States to study at the age of 18. He got a master’s degree in mathematics from the University of Missouri, and met his future wife, Jiang Peiqi, who also studied for a doctorate in electronic engineering at the University of Missouri. In 1973, Cheng Zhengchang immigrated to Pasadena, California. In order to establish a foothold in the United States and support a large family, Cheng Zhengchang and his father discussed it again and again, determined to give full play to the “family advantage”, and opened a Chinese restaurant called Jufengyuan in the local area, with his father and mother as chefs and managers themselves.
Today’s “Jufeng Garden”, as the “birthplace” of Panda Restaurant, is still preserved and renamed as “Panda Inn”. It took ten years to open the first branch.
Unfortunately, the newly opened Jufeng Garden could not attract many American customers, and the business was once very bleak. Cheng Zhengchang clearly remembers that in the first month of opening, the turnover of Jufeng Garden was only $12,000, which was almost nothing except the operating cost of the restaurant. At the worst of business, this restaurant didn’t even have a customer from morning till night. All this made Cheng Zhengchang begin to reflect on the traditional management of Chinese restaurants.
Who would have thought that the panda restaurant, which is very popular today, had a bleak business when it first opened?
Cheng Zhengchang, after investigation, found that compared with the traditional Chinese food flavor, American people prefer the unique taste of “sweet and sour with a little spicy”. He said: “Americans eat simply and like to eat meat, but there are not many kinds.” A few dishes are enough. ” In view of this feature, Cheng Zhengchang and his parents improved the Chinese food in Jufengyuan, and introduced some dishes that are very suitable for American tastes, such as tangerine peel chicken, sweet and sour pork ribs, spiced shrimp and Beijing beef. Among them, the dried tangerine peel chicken with sweet and sour taste and rich oil and sauce is the best seller, accounting for 30% of the total turnover.
Chenpi Chicken: Sweet and sour is me.
The dishes and tastes are localized, and the number of customers is gradually increasing. Cheng Zhengchang pondered that in order to realize the “differentiated management” with American competitors, he should also highlight the “people-oriented” feature of China culture, that is, the restaurant should have a strong human touch.
The guests who are visiting at present have gone to another restaurant because there are no seats in the restaurant for the time being. Cheng Zhengchang will chase after the parking lot to apologize to the guests. If there are many people having a dinner, Cheng Zhengchang will charge for the meal according to the head, and then “play freely”, serving them a table full of delicious food, and sometimes giving the guests two more dishes, which will surprise them.
The dishes in Panda Restaurant
The concept of “people-oriented” persisted for a long time, and Cheng Zhengchang and his regular customers became friends. If we meet in the street, we will say hello to each other. This concept has also been integrated into the corporate culture of Panda Restaurant, and it has become the first rule that everyone in the restaurant has memorized-“people-oriented”.
Panda restaurant emphasizing “people-oriented”
In 1983, with ten years of accumulation, Jufengyuan opened its first branch in a large shopping mall nearby. At that time, the diplomatic relations between China and the United States had been normalized, and the giant pandas Xing Xing and Lingling also landed in the National Zoo as precious gifts from China, which caused a “panda fever” in the United States. Feeling the friendly progress of Sino-US relations, Cheng Zhengchang simply changed its name to “Panda Restaurant”. Subsequently, one family changed into two, two into four, and four into eight. The pace of “Panda” conquering the intestines and stomach of the American people never stopped. …
With the opening of more and more branches, how to establish a unified standard and realize efficient management has become a new problem. Fortunately, Cheng Zhengchang has a wife, Jiang Peiqi, who obtained a doctorate in electronic engineering. Jiang Peiqi gave full play to her professional advantages, customized a set of backstage management system named “Panda Automatic Workstation” for Panda Restaurant, and applied for a national patent in the United States.
This weather-beaten old couple can probably be said to be the “condor heroes” in the catering industry.
Don’t underestimate this system. With it, not only daily ordering becomes simple, but also different branches can share information with each other. This system can also allocate dishes through big data analysis, estimate the sales and waste of the day, and automatically match the order demand. With this system, a new intern can manage a store alone within two months!
As a result, “Panda” became one of the earliest restaurants in the United States that used computer management, and it was also the only Chinese restaurant that used automatic information management system. It can be said that with this system, “Panda” has basically no worries in the process of global territory expansion.
Jiang Peiqi, a female doctor of engineering, vividly expounded what technology changed the world.
Today, Panda Restaurant has a good development momentum, with branches all over the United States and branches in Canada, Mexico, Japan, South Korea, Puerto Rico, Dubai and other countries and regions. Moreover, this is a “panda” full of social responsibility. Every time a new branch is opened, 20% of the daily turnover will be donated to community public welfare organizations to support community building and public welfare activities.
“Panda” will appear on TV from time to time to support charity.
However, in the expanded territory of Panda, China is nowhere to be found. In this regard, founder Cheng Zhengchang explained that the catering market in China is now very saturated and the competition is fierce. As a Chinese restaurant specially designed for foreigners, if you rush into China, you may not get good results.
After all, the panda is still a standard American Chinese restaurant.
From the strategic positioning, there is nothing wrong with the layout of “Panda”. After all, its Chinese food taste and business model have been “Americanized” and localized for several years, and people who grew up eating authentic Chinese food may not be used to it. Panda didn’t come to China on purpose, just as Shanghai chefs don’t go to Chongqing to open restaurants.
However, if one day we can eat American Chinese food in Panda Restaurant in China, it should also be a very interesting experience. Because it represents the dribs and drabs of the older generation of Chinese in the United States, it also brings the wisdom of “people-oriented” and “adapting to local conditions” in China’s traditional culture to the extreme.