By Ian Ortega
2024 has been a special year, I have grown a special liking for fried crispy chicken. And by some goodness of luck, I also have four places to compare against. Three of those are in Naalya while the other is outside this jurisdiction. There is Krunchix at Metroplex Shopping Mall in Naalya, Chicken Xpress just after Naalya Senior Secondary School as one heads to Kyaliwajjala. Chicken Tonight in Kyaliwajjala and KFC in Banda. Of these, Chicken Tonight is the oldest brand in the local context while KFC is the oldest brand in the Global Context.
These four places are better understood when one orders online. You know that a business has its processes in control when they can deliver an online order in time, in full, with no errors. KFC without a doubt will always do this 99.9% of the time. Everything will always arrive in-tact. Krunchix too will do the same (but perhaps at 95%) of the time, Chicken Xpress at also around 96% of the time, while Chicken Tonight comes in 85% of the time.
And increasingly, I keep getting drawn to Chicken Xpress because of an ever-growing, demonstrated operational efficiency and effectiveness. They are an aspirational brand, right from the packaging, from the setup, they have this idea of becoming a Ugandan Jollibee or perhaps something close to KFC. One can say, they are positioning themselves as KFC’s alternative in Naalya.
What’s their strategy? Perhaps none in the grand definition of strategy. But when you contextualize it in the Ugandan Environment, then sheer Operational efficiency and effectiveness is a strategy. It is a differentiator.
The great strategist, Monsieur Porter had spoken of the Productivity Frontier. It was an argument against Operational Efficiency and Effectiveness as a strategy. He said, when everyone works on getting better and efficient, improving their processes, it gets to a point when all businesses look the same, and at that point, could get involved in cost-cutting games.
But now, upon observing the Ugandan context, in precapitalist, pre-industrialist contexts, I will now argue that operational efficiency and effectiveness is a reliable strategy in these kinds of environment. In environments where the formal and informal sectors are blended, then operational effectiveness and efficiency are strategies. Why, because most of the competition is yet to go beyond the operational stage. It’s not yet on a strategic front.
If three business players are involved in the business of window fabrications, the one that will reliably get you a window on time, on quality, on cost will win the market in our environment. That’s why Café Javas has remained on the top in the Ugandan Environment, they have continuously improved and kept mastering their operations. You buy chicken from KFC because of this consistency, this reliability, this assurance that it will always taste the same way from January to December. You’re sure how the food is always packed. You can’t say the same of Chicken Tonight, a restaurant that can’t yet pack its food in a reliable and consistent manner.
The Productivity Frontier is a big myth in the Ugandan Environment. In markets where mediocrity takes the day, then the effective and efficient person will differentiate themselves, they will win. The productivity frontier is not yet a reality in Uganda and it won’t be in the foreseeable future. Businesses can comfortably bet their constrained resources, time and energy at efficiency and effectiveness improvements. Chicken Xpress is doing that, Chicken Tonight is not able to do this.