Research report (1)

School of Architecture, Building and Design
Foundation in Natural Built and Environment
English 2 ENGL 0205
Research assignment - Business Comparison
Group members: 1. Herbert Liew Fung Zhean (0316133)
2. Kimberly Wong Jin Siew (0315145)
3. Liong Shun Qi (0315942)
4. Sherny Liong Xin Yie (0316600)
5. Valentine Hew Hui Ling (0316236)
6. Yvonne Chin Yun Miin (0315662)

Lecturer: Cassandra Rashika Wijesuria
Submission date: 5 June 2014

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Contents
Key summary 3
Acknowledgement 4
Part 1: Company Profile
1.1 Brief Description to the Businesses 5
1.2 History of the Businesses 6
1.3 Introduction of the Businesses 8
1.4 Comparative Analysis of the Businesses’ 11
Competitive Traits
1.5 Strategies and Conditions 13
1.5 New Seafood Restaurant Today 15
1.6 S.W.O.T. 18
1.7 Summary 21
Part 2: Appendices
2.1 Survey Questionnaires 22
2.2 Photos and Captions 23
Part 3: References
3.1 References 26

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Key Summary
The analytic and comparative information of the two businesses and the
competitive challenges and obstacles faced is shown in this report. The type of
business we chose was the Chinese restaurant while the two respective
restaurants we interviewed was Tsunami Village Cafe and William’s Crab
Restaurant. The Tsunami Village Cafe is located at Tanjung Bungah, Penang,
and the interview was done during the class trip to Penang. While William’s Crab
Restaurant is located in Sri Kembangan, Selangor Darul Ehsan. This report
consists of the history and introduction of both restaurants. Other than that, it
consists of the comparative analysis of the businesses’ competitive traits and
S.W.O.T of the restaurants. A brief summary of both restaurants concludes the
whole interview analysis and report. Appendices is included with the minutes of
the meetings and photos of the restaurants as preferences. Provided references
are also included in the report.

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Acknowledgement
Running a business is not easy nowadays. Not only you need to promote and
advertise your own business, but you also need to have human resources and
good public relationship with your partners, workers and even the customers, just
to boost up the popularity. Other than individual business challenges, there are
also other competitors around the area, fighting to get more customers by having
new ways to attract customers by having package promotions and refurbishing
the location and having some activities and events to encourage customers to
come regularly.

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Brief Description to the Businesses
Chinese seafood restaurants are favored by many populations especially the
Chinese. Fish is a very important Chinese cuisine which it is the symbol that
represents abundance and prosperity. The cooking of this dish is very delicate
and it is all on the cooking skills and styles of the chef of the restaurants.
Sometimes, new taste of this dish is also created by the chefs. The restaurants
will be well known by the cooking of the chefs. There are many well known
Chinese seafood restaurants allocated in Malaysia, and the peak hour of these
restaurants is from the evening till late night, which will be crowded with many
customers craving for seafood dishes. Some of the famous Chinese seafood
restaurants in Malaysia like Tien Tien Seafood Restaurant, Tsunami Village Cafe,
William’s Crab Restaurant and so on are usually packed hungry people during
the weekends. Chinese seafood restaurants around the world nowadays still
keep the tradition and meaning of the seafood dish that was originated from our
ancestors from China, which represents and keeps the Chinese seafood cuisine
culture.

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History to the Businesses
Tsunami Village Cafe
Tsunami Village Cafe is located in Tanjung Bungah, Penang where it is right
at the beachside of the island of Georgetown. This restaurants was opened since
2004 after the Tsunami incident in Penang. The founder of Tsunami Village Cafe,
Mr. Tek, had gone through a lot of hardship and was a victim of the tsunami. He
was a fisherman, supplying seafood sources to the dealers and markets around
that area. After the incident of the Tsunami, Mr. Tek decided to start a business of
his own by supplying himself with his own source of food. At first, his business
had only a few staffs, one fisherman and a chef. Everyday before dawn, he will
go down to the market to buy fresh ingredients for his restaurants dishes and
after he returns, he and his other fisherman would go to catch some fresh fishes
and shellfishes just outside his restaurant.
After the years go by, he changed his chef which this current chef has served
him for three years. Staff amount also increased and now he has 22 staffs and 3
chefs. He has never thought of doing any partnership and he does not feel stress
about it. Over the years, his chefs have invented new tastes and dishes to attract
customers from all around the place, and it worked. Even though his restaurant
has not refurbished over the years, the place is still neat and tidy, and it is located
right at the beach where you can actually feel the sea breeze of Penang.

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William’s Crab Restaurant
William's Crab, the business of two generations, which is a four year old
seafood restaurant on numerous of seafood restaurants in Selangor. Four years
seems to be short, but previously, in the first generation, they are actually joining
venture with a famous crab specialist restaurant (Fatty Crab) and it was firstly
introduced in the market at The Mines Resort City for thirteen years.
As time goes by to the second generation, in the year of twenty-eleven
(2010), they subsequently divided its business and this is when the journey of
William's Crab Seafood Restaurant started. William's Crab was created for a new
fresh look and had replaced the previous one.
At the beginning of the business when is also 4years ago, they only had like
four waitresses, two chefs and only one supervisor to run their business, people
could not recognize them at a glance, even though they are still running the
same business in the same location. To make some improvement, they tend to
cook out with the taste that are unique, special, nice and unforgettable to attract
new customers and to pull back their old customers who thought that they've
moved to another place. And for now, they have headway to 15 staffs to work for
them.

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Introduction of the Businesses
Tsunami Village Cafe was opened for business since 21st
August in the year
2005, and was named after the Tsunami incident in Penang back in the year
2004. It was named after Tsunami because the owner Mr. Tek was the victim of
the tsunami. Since the background of Mr. Tek, is a fisherman himself, he provided
fresh supplies of seafood for his customers. The famous dish in this restaurant is
the Helicopter Dish - a dish of fresh oysters which is a must-have-dinner when
you are dining there. Other than that is the Fried Nestum Prawns and thumbs up
for the Deep Fried Soft Shell Crab.
Tsunami Village Cafe is currently located in 543-A Tanjung Bungah, 11200
Penang, where you can contact them at 012-4872718 or 019-4472718. They are
closed on Mondays and usually packed with people during weekends, which is
best to make reservations before dining there. They have 22 staffs and three
chefs without any partnership and has only one outlet with him supervising them
everyday. Mr. Tek is planning to retire after a few more years and thinking to pass
the restaurant on to someone trustworthy.
Mr. Tek has promoted some of his dishes from time to time. Although he did

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not spend much on advertising, customers that come over made some reviews
and shared it on the website of his restaurants locations and famous dishes
found in his restaurant. In spite of the simple but tidy and sea-view restaurant, his
individual business is still running smoothly and successfully over the years and
soon will be the 9th
anniversary of the restaurant. After a few years, Mr. Tek is
planning of retiring from this business and continue his life with his own activities.
Whether passing it on to another trustworthy person and closing it down is still a
question going on in his mind.
William's Crab Seafood Restaurant, which named by the name of the founder
William. The name of the restaurant is William's Crab is because they're crab
specialist. They mainly cook and served crabs to all the seafood lovers. It is
located at No. 5, Jalan Tasik, The Mines Resort City, 43300, Sri Kembangan,
Selangor Darul Ehsan, where is before the Sapura Agency Sdn. Bhd building.
Currently they have only one branch, the manager (Mr. AJ) of the restaurant
claims that they will yet temporarily concentrate on their present restaurant.
However, in the future intend on opening a new branches are always in their
planning arrangements. For the employees, they have employed fifteen
employees, which including 3 chefs, 7 waitresses, 2 cleaner, and 3 supervisors.
Next, is the signature of William's Crab - Chili sour crabs and Steamed crabs.
Their crabs are mainly imported from Indonesia, to ensure the freshness and the

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quality of the crabs, they go to choose and pick by themselves from suppliers. In
addition to seafoods, William's Crab also have serve packages meal. Other than
food, they also provide their own website to let people know more about them.
For example, they provide their address and a map to make it easier for
customers to reach William's Crab, they also provide their telephone number for
bookings, orders, and more details. In order to prevent customers worry about
what to eat, they have put some recommended menus on their website to allow
customers to reference. In addition to the services above, they also have
promotions such as Mother's Day, Christmas, Valentines, buffets and so on.
According to Mr.AJ, they started their business under William's Crab in the
year of 2010, from an obscure restaurant, each day only have less than 10 tables
of customers, till now become a superior restaurant which each day have around
50 tables of customers come and go. Before they divided their business with their
partner, they used up roughly about RM250, 000 to rebuild a whole new seafood
restaurant, which is actually included hiring a designer to design their new logo,
new signboard, to renew some kitchen equipment, do some advertisement stuffs,
renovation and employing new employees. Compare to the past, they are now
the seafood restaurant that can be full house almost every day.
As we mentioned earlier, the name of the restaurant William's Crab is named
by the name of the founder. Throughout the interview, we found that the founder
William is a seafood lover, he said it is difficult to find delicious seafood in Kuala

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Lumpur, especially crabs. Based on his love of food, he decided to invest in a
seafood restaurant, first can give more opportunity for this seafood restaurant
and make it progress, second is that they are letting more and more people to
have nice seafood meal.
Comparative Analysis of the Businesses’ Competitive Traits
Since this is an individual business and the owner is the supplier of the restaurant
himself, Mr. Tek sees not much competition around his area but the only
challenges he faced are the government taxes and Goods and Service Tax
(GST). He has to do and check his invoice and accounts even during his only off
day on Mondays.
Speaking of seafood, there are a lot of seafood restaurants in Selangor. To do
comparison of seafood restaurant is not an easy thing to do, but to make it easier
for us to do the survey and compare, we have chosen the similar seafood
restaurants for comparison.
Competitors for William's Crab:
1. Fatty Crabs
The first seafood restaurant we are going to compare with is 'Fatty Crabs', which
everyone mistakenly thinks that they are under a same group of seafood industry.

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They were partners before, but later they divided their business to Fatty Crabs
and William's Crab. After the divestment, Fatty Crabs has moved to Petaling Jaya
to set up a new business and menu. Their menu might be slightly similar, their
restaurant is also popular for serving big and fleshy crab, but they have their own
signature dishes, Nextly, Fatty Crabs has 2 storeys, air conditioned at the upper
floor and no air conditioned at lower floor which can fit more customers.
2. S.K Seafood Restaurant
The second seafood restaurant that we are going to introduce is S.K Seafood
Restaurant, which located at Lot LMS A2001, Jalan Persiaran Serdang Perdana,
Seri Kembangan, right across the road directly facing the plaza’s main entrance.
However, this restaurant different compared to the previous two because it serves non-
halal food. They also provide live entertainment such as karaoke and alcoholic beverages
to customers. S.K seafood restaurant is more focused on chinese cuisine.
3. Big Eyes Seafood Restaurant
The third competitor would be Big Eyes Seafood Restaurant, which located at
1120 Jalan SK 4/1 Kampung Baru Seri Kembangan. According to the reviews,
they have lack of parking space, customers have to park far away from the
restaurant, but they are famous for their fish so their customers are willing to walk
quite a distance just to taste the fish and their signature sauce.

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Strategies And Conditions Of The Business
According to the interview with Mr. Tek:
First, he chose that location because of limited choice and he rented that location
from his cousin. The location was also near to the sea which it will be more
convenient for him to catch his own supplies.
Second, at first he only had eight big round dining table but after the business
increased, he had increased the number of tables to 20 and hired more staffs
and waiters to serve the customers as the few staffs from before cannot handle
that much of customers after the years.
Third, his chef has invented much tasty dishes over the years for the customers
to try something new. Other than that, good dishes comes from good supplies,
which he wakes up at 2 a.m. in the morning to buy fresh vegetables and other
ingredients from the market and comes back in a fast pace to go fish for fresh
delicious fishes and shellfishes.
According fo the interview with Mr. AJ:
Firstly, he chose this place because of the environment, it is facing the beautiful

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lake and a nice view of the The Mines Resort City which he thinks that this place
could attract more customers and this is one of the benefits for the business.
Nextly, Mr.AJ says that building a good relationship with customers is very
important, because of that, he sustains many loyal and long-term customers who
come often to eat their seafood.
Besides that, he has a special menu of imported crabs from Indonesia. He often
creates new menus to recommend the customers to try something new. After
that, he will ask feedback from the customers to know whether the recipe is
suitable to be on the menu. He accepts challenges to improve the business and
always find a way to impress the customers.
Their customers such as tourists would go online to search for special menu for
famous restaurant would come across their website. Their website is for
customers to review and to check whether the menu is suitable for them. The
person in charge will also update about any changes in their menu or any latest
news about their promotions.

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A new seafood restaurant business today:
It is difficult to build this business in the seafood industry, because there are
many considerations and marketing strategies before this business is created.
One of the consideration they need to think about is that they must have enough
capital to set up the business.
For the first example at the back of the restaurant, they need some kitchen
equipment such as cold storages to keep the raw meats fresh, refrigerators to
keep vegetables, seasonings or sauces kind of stuff, gas stoves, cooking
equipment, plates, bowls, glasses, spoon and forks, washing basin, even a non-
slip floor tiles is necessary for the kitchen staff to work more efficiently and also to
avoid accidents happen. Secondly, for the front of the restaurant, dining tables
and chairs, refrigerators for drinks and desserts, reception counter, spoon and
forks are the basic least stuffs they needed.
In addition of those equipments stuff, the signboard is also one of the main
points of a restaurant. The signboard is like the business card, it introduces the
business to the public and prospective customers. It gives a introduction and a
creates a mental image of the identity of the seafood restaurant in the minds of
people and customers. If necessary, they will need to find a designer for their

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logo and sign board design, which is an additional cost for them again.
For the arrival of the customers, most of them won't simply patronizing on
those seafood restaurants they are not familiar with, or some of them do not dare
to try in new seafood restaurant out of their familiar one, then that is why the new
seafood restaurant need to advertise to attract new customers, but anyway, these
advertisements may not necessarily works or attract a lot of customers, so this
way of attracting customers is actually kind of an adventure that can't guarantee
as much good feedback as we expected.
In this business, customers are constantly complaining about employees bickering
with one another, serve times, incorrect orders and the foods. So the character of the
employees is one of the energy to run the whole business. It’s important to recruit
employees such as waitress who fit with the culture and environment of a the restaurant,
by creating an environment where teamwork is one of the top priorities, restaurant can
retain valued employees, increase customer satisfaction, and exceed sales goals. Then
employees will feel like they’re part of something and be excited to come to work. Most
importantly, the boss or whoever in charge in human resources has to make the
right choices such as where to find a specialize chef who is full of experiences
and who can also create a new menu that to impress customers, because the
foods can create repeat customers.
Throughout this section, the obstacles faced by new businesses who wish to

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enter seafood industry today is quite difficult, but the key of a business running
smoothly is customers, so if the restaurant has something unique and special to
impress customers, then they will have regular customers, and also customers
will do free publicity for them.

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S.W.O.T.
Strength:
They have their famous dish of Nestum Fried Prawn, Deep Fried Soft Shell Crab
and Helicopter Oyster Dish. They are right at the beachside where there is also a
floating mosque along the beach where customers can see from the retaurant.
Stunning view of the beach and natural sea breeze from the sea.
Weakness:
Not enough parking lots for customers. Customers have to park from afar and
walk over to restaurant which is very inconvenient especially at night.
Opportunity:
If the dining area can be upgraded and expanded, more customers can come to
enjoy the food here.
Threat:
Hard to do business if there is heavy rain because the restaurant is an open
space and some part of the dining area is not roofed.

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William’s Crab Seafod Restaurant
Strength:
They have their signature menu - Chili Sour Crabs and Steamed Crabs. Which
attracts new customers and regular customers. They also have a chilling
environment which located just by the lake of The Mine Resort City. There are
many live fishes in the lake so it is quite an entertainment for families to dine at
William's Crab Seafood Restaurant with such a beautiful view.
Weakness:
From the reviews of William's Crab, they need to improve their front service and
also they might need to add more parking space. Other than that, their crabs only
have 3 choices (Chili Sour Crabs, Salted Egg Crabs and Steamed Crabs) which
is actually quite little for customers to choose.
Opportunity:
They are exactly next to the lake which give a nice lake view at evening time, but
at night time is just plain darkness. They should install some lights so that
customers could view the beautiful view even it's already at night time. They can
also add some entertainment such as karaoke at the corner of their restaurant to
entertain customers.

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Threat:
Since they are seafood restaurant, they often can't avoid the natural disasters
such as storms, hurricanes, red tide and so on, and all these will cause imported
products reduced due to the nourishment of the seafoods. Besides, also because
of these natural disasters cause the product delayed sending, and causing loss
to the restaurant.

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Summary
This report is all about the interviews that we did in Tsunami Village Cafe
and William's Crab Seafood Restaurant. The interviews were basically
about how and when the business was founded, how they run their
business, what products and services do they provided, what is their
historical background and so forth. This report also mentioned what their
strategies are of running a seafood restaurant.
Other than the information of Tsunami Village Cafe and William's Crab
Seafood Restaurant, we did some comparative analysis of Tsunami Village
Cafe and William's Crab Restaurant with three other seafood restaurants in
the respective area. Also, some online feedback and reviews are inevitable
to be in this report. Last but not least, there is the S.W.O.T analysis of both
restaurants in the end of our report which all has done by the information
we got.

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Appendices
Survey Questionnaires
1. What is the restaurant’s name?
2. What does the name of the restaurant represent?
3. Who is the founder of the restaurant?
4. What inspired you to start this restaurant?
5. When did the business started? How did you start your business?
6. What type of business is your restaurant?
7. Why do you choose this location as your restaurant?
8. Do you have any partnership?
9. How much capital did you need to start up this restaurant?
10. What is your current development?
11. Where do you get your seafood supply?
12. What is this restaurant’s specialty?
13. How many staffs and waiters do you have? Do you change your chef often?
14. How long do you change your menu? What inpsired you to do so?
15. What challenges have you faced over the years?
16. What kind of promotions do you have?
17. Do you have any future plan?
18. What is your strategy?

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Photos and captions
Group photo with Mr. Tek

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Dining area of Tsunami Village Cafe

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Tsunami Village Cafe sea view

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William’s Crab Seafood Restaurant

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Group Photo with Mr. AJ Yummy Famous Crab Dish
References
Tsunami Village Seafood Restaurant at Tanjung Bungah, Penang. (2014, 13
January). Retrieved 2 June, 2014 from
http://www.whattwoeathere.com/2014/01/tsunami-village-seafood-restaur
ant-at.html
My Tasting Out Loud. Tsunami Village Cafe, Tanjung Bungah, Penang. (2012,
30 September). Retrieved 1 June, 2014 from
http://mytastingoutloud.blogspot.com/2012/09/tsunami-village-cafe-tanjun g-

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bungah.html
China Highlghts. Chinese Food Type. (2014, 27 May). Retrieved 1 June, 2014
from http://www.chinahighlights.com/travelguide/chinese-food/chinese-
food-typ e.htm
William’s Crab. (2014, 5 June). Retrieved 5 June, 2014 from
http://williamscrab.wix.com/williamscrab

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