The Hindu Business Line : Ideas are like pizza dough

Ask Yogi Berra about pizza, and he’d tell you better cut the pizza in four pieces because he’s ‘not hungry enough to eat six.’ If you have appetite for more quotes about pizza, here is Anna Quindlen’s — that ideas are like pizza dough, made to be tossed around. And, this, from Kevin James: “There’s no better feeling in the world than a warm pizza box on your lap.”

But pizza is serious business, you’d learn from the recent statements from Donino’s Pizza UK & IRL Plc. “E-commerce accounted for 14 per cent of all delivered pizza sales in the UK…During June, e-commerce sales were 61 per cent ahead of the previous year,” announces Stephen Hemsley, the Chief Executive, in the company’s interim results for the 26 weeks ended July 1, 2007.

“The use of real-time technology in stores has resulted in dramatic improvements in customer service standards,” he says. “The technology we have introduced enables our franchisees to pinpoint how their team members can work together to make and bake a pizza as quickly as possible without compromising on quality.”

Hemsley is happy that his people have already achieved the 2010 target for improved service times, “with an average out-of-the-door time of 13.5 minutes (January 2006: 16 minutes).”

Let me wrap with one more wisecrack from www.brainyquote.com : “Obviously the number and shape of the pieces don’t affect the size of the pizza. And similarly, the stocks, bonds, warrants, etc., issued don’t affect the aggregate value of the firm.” (Merton Miller)

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Human resources info

Buzz Lightyear Laser Blast, The Little Book of Big Dreams, Cars Race Rally, Crush’s Coaster, The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror… Welcome to Euro Disney S.C.A., France. “We have taken Walt Disney’s advice to heart with the implementation of our growth strategy, ‘Get a good idea, and stay with it… work at it until it’s done, and done right,’” writes Karl L. Holz, the Chairman and CEO in the 2006 annual review.

Of special interest, in the accompanying financial report, is an exhibit about human resources, which begins with the number of employees, broken up into permanent contracts (10,933), fixed-term (922), and temporary (172).

A paragraph titled ‘problems in recruiting’ mentions the following: “Availability of employees for certain jobs (night shift, work on weekends and public holidays); linguistic competence of employees; and shortage of candidates for traditional catering.”

Dismissal reasons are categorised as ‘real and serious cause’ (108 employees), ‘professional misconduct’ (209 employees), and ‘other’ (none). Similarly, reasons are given for absenteeism, as follows: paid and unpaid holidays, illness, maternity leave, occupational or work-related travel accidents, and authorised leave.

Overtime accounted for 2,11,568 hours. Main subcontracting agreements related to security, room and theme parks cleaning, and maintenance of green spaces. More importantly, women constituted 46 per cent of total labour force, and on an average 350 disabled workers were employed during the fiscal year.

“Disneyland Resort Paris obtained, in 2004, the certificate ‘Tourisme & Handicap’ and is the only French site that qualifies for this distinction for the following handicaps: physical, mental, auditor, and visual.”

Good idea that Walt would be proud of.

D. MURALI

http://AccountSpeak.blogspot.com

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