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Nathalia Jones

The fifth annual Pizza Hut Olympics pitted the best teams from the country against one another in stiff competition to see who would bag the top slot in the area of customer satisfaction.

To the family trio who'd stopped by for a quick-bite at one of the outlets of Pizza Hut in Chennai, the restaurant sure must have presented a curious sight that sunny Monday afternoon. Crowds of cheering staff serenaded to some rap-sounding refrain, while a few others sauntered briskly around the restaurant campus with what looked like Pizza delivery pouches cradled in their hands; a few settled cosily under the cool shadow of colourful sunshades. And from where they stood, the family could catch fleeting glimpses of an apparent bustle inside the restaurant, whose doors were closed shut. "What's happening," they uttered in bewilderment, their eyes taking in the scene with mounting curiosity, while a couple of attentive staff ushered them to the row of seats nearby, and placed cans of iced Colas in their hands.

Now, to answer their question, it was finals of the fifth annual Pizza Hut Olympics at the Chennai outlet. The event pitted the best against the best, in a teeth-clenching five hours of pizza making frenzy. The four finalists from the various Pizza Hut franchises across the country — FFPL, Mumbai, Dodsal, Bangalore, Devyani, Delhi, and Pizzeria, Chennai, — competed with one another, in areas of cleanliness, hospitality, accuracy, maintenance, product quality and speed; qualities best summed up in the crisp acronym `The CHAMPS Challenge'. "The competition is a simulated operation of these six expectations from customers. At the same time it creates a sense of excitement around routine, and shows what it takes to drive operations excellence," said Manish Tandon, General Manager, Pizzeria Restaurants, just out from a hectic two hours of supervising the participants in the restaurant.

Customer mania was the term one picked out from the managers, to signify an almost fanatical obsession with making sure your customer stayed happy. Well, any `customer' of this party would have left the restaurant smiling, and extended at the girth. So sinfully cheesy and generously topped were the `spoils' of the contest. One could do with a lot more of the same at the restaurant on ordinary days too, one could not help thinking.

The maniacal customer drive extended to vigilant checks made on uniform, team spirit in the kitchen and at the delivery counter; there was even a monitor supervising the act of ladling ketchup on the pizza base. In the meantime, each team divided into order takers, dispatch boys and pizza makers who churned out pizzas in a snap. The spectators caught the action on television screens that were set up outside the restaurant. Each team made a total of close to 12 pizzas in record time. But, pointed out Tandon, it wasn't just speed alone which pushed a team into the top slot, and drew a line across the long list of qualifying criteria for the big win. "They are being judged on every aspect of their performance - from team-coordination to the way they interact with the customers while delivering the orders, and right to the way they sprinkle the toppings over the pizza," said Kersi Marker, Area Manager, Pizzeria, Chennai, even as his eyes darted keenly from one television screen to the other, scrutinising his team's performance.

Well, the judgement criteria didn't seem to intimidate the teams one bit; they flashed confident smiles when asked how sure they were of winning. "Of course we will win," said Angalis from the Chennai team. So how different was this from the daily scenario? "Well we could feel the pressure all the time on us, as expectations were high," said Jeevarathnam, one of the participants.

Five hours later and it was obvious that the judges were having a hard time deciding which team should get the gold. "It's hard to say," said Tandon mulling over the list of points scored so far. "Then again, every one emerges a winner," he said.

Later in the day, over dinner and cocktails at the Park Sheraton, the Bangalore team walked away with the trophy. But the winning doesn't stop here; they will now have to polish up their act to represent Pizza Hut for the forthcoming Regional Challenge that is to be held in Singapore later this month.

Picture by Shaju John

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