Kitchen City Pivots to the ‘New Normal’ with frozen food delivery
With the community quarantine put into place as a preventive measure against the global pandemic, Kitchen City partners Peejay Yambao and Jun Abelardo were looking for a way to introduce a new business model to suit the needs of the times. They were quite proactive about it, saying, “around the first week of March, we have been observing the behavior of other countries when they were in lockdown. The only things that were allowed to operate were groceries, drugstores and food delivery. So we had to pivot our business to food delivery to remain relevant.”
“We operate over 100 cafeterias and employ more than 1,000. Most of the cafeterias were closed for 3 months. We had to change business models to generate revenues so that we can keep employing our people,” Yambao says. “We have been fortunate that our change in business model yielded better than expected results,” Abelardo adds.
Helping the nation heal. The duo decided to launch Kitchen City Frozen Meals on March 17, packaging their well-loved commissary-made products into safe, delicious and convenient reheatable dishes. “We knew that this line of business would be needed to help our nation heal. We do not want people to go out, therefore we needed to provide affordable, delicious and safe sustenance while people are locked down. We decided to add “Family Frozen Meals” to the name since we are delivering direct to home and in a serving size that is good for the family.”
The entrepreneurs who started their cafeteria concessionaire business in 2011 soon found out that their products enjoyed a wide appeal. “We started with only 11 menus, now we have 60,” Abelardo said, “At first, we tried our concept of Family Frozen Meals to family and found out that the concept appealed to a lot more people: seniors, condo dwellers, non-cooks, people who were working from home and people who just wanted convenience. After a month on the lockdown, we realized that food safety was an integral part of people’s decision on where to buy their food, so we added our tagline, ‘Made Safe. Made Delicious.’”
Microsoft, LinkedIn to bring digital skills
Microsoft and LinkedIn have announced a new global skills initiative with the goal of bringing more digital skills to 25 million people worldwide by the end of the year.
The initiative will equip jobseekers with the skills needed in the new normal.
LinkedIn will launch 10 LinkedIn Learning paths available for free.
These Learning Paths are aligned to 10 jobs that are in-demand in today’s economy and are well-positioned to continue to grow in the future.
These 10 jobs were identified as having the greatest number of job openings, have had steady growth over the past four years, pay a livable wage, and require skills that can be learned online.
On opportunity.linkedin.com, current job opportunities and the different learning paths are available.
These 10 role-based learning paths include software developer, sales representative, project manager , IT administrator, customer service specialist, digital marketer, IT support/help desk, data analyst, financial analyst and draphic designer.
These learning paths can be useful in the top hiring industries in the Philippines, which, as of April and May 2020, are led by hardware and networking, construction, consumer goods and finance.
TESI helps businesses bounce back
Local tech company Transnational E-Business Solutions Inc. (TESI) recently launched “A tHRead of Hope,” to all businesses who are reopening their operations amidst the pandemic.
“A tHRead of Hope” is a two-month free trial version of tHRead, the company’s HR and payroll platform, which enables businesses to manage their teams easier without any added cost as they navigate through the new normal.
Through the trial program, businesses will be given access to the following features: E201 File Management, Timekeeping, Employee Self-Service, Payroll Processing, Income and Deduction Monitoring and Online Payslips.
There is no minimum number of employees required to enjoy these benefits, and after the free trial, customers may choose to upgrade to a paid subscription which allows for a more tailored fit solution for the organization.
