Product Proliferation
The Bottom Line
BBC
4.6 • 606 Ratings
🗓️ 27 October 2011
⏱️ 28 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
The view from the top of business. Presented by Evan Davis, The Bottom Line cuts through confusion, statistics and spin to present a clearer view of the business world, through discussion with people running leading and emerging companies. The programme is broadcast first on BBC Radio 4 and later on BBC World Service Radio, BBC World News TV and BBC News Channel TV.
This week Evan and his guests serve up a smorgasbord of topics, from Swedish business and the IKEA model, to the crisis in the Eurozone crisis. They also discuss proliferation - how many different products should a company sell?
Joining Evan in the studio are John Vincent, co-founder of Leon Restaurants; Helena Morrissey, chief executive of global asset manager Newton Investment Management, part of BNY Mellon Asset Management; Peter Jelkeby, senior vice president of Swedish chain store Clas Ohlson.
Producer: Ben Crighton. Editor: Stephen Chilcott.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Thank you for downloading the Bottom Line podcast. |
| 0:03.1 | It's a smorgas board of topics this week, |
| 0:05.2 | as Evan Davis and his panel discuss everything from Swedish business |
| 0:08.8 | and the Eurozone crisis to product proliferation. |
| 0:13.5 | Hello and welcome to the bottom line. |
| 0:16.2 | A smorgas board of topics today from the Eurozone crisis |
| 0:19.7 | to flat pack furniture and meatballs. We're going |
| 0:22.5 | to talk about IKEA and its business model. And I'll also ask a simple question. How many different |
| 0:28.5 | products should a company sell? Offering one flavour of ice cream isn't enough, but 450 is surely |
| 0:34.7 | too many. What's the right balance? But before any of that, let's meet the guests. |
| 0:40.1 | First up is John Vincent, who's co-founder of a chain of fast food restaurants called Leon, |
| 0:45.4 | and John, the pitch is sort of high-quality fast food. It's if God owned, if God did fast food. |
| 0:51.5 | I knew he said another brand name there, but yeah, if God did fast food, is the idea. |
| 0:55.4 | Right. So it's still quite small. How many have you got now? We've only got 11 restaurants, but we're hoping to be on a bit of a growth path. Trading profitably? Trading profitably? Yes. The company makes money. Like everyone, we're battling the banks, but we're trading profitably. Am I right in thinking you did look at the traditional fast food model, |
| 0:53.1 | it's the sort of burger, the burger model, |
| 0:54.8 | and you said, we want to do this, but with sometimes organic food and... Exactly. I remember lying on my back as a kid, I'm kicking my legs and my hands in the other, because my mum had booked me into McDonald's for my birthday party. So I remember the attraction and the |
| 1:27.6 | excitement and entertainment value of fast food. And then I think you grow up and you realize that it |
| 1:31.4 | sort of makes you fall asleep and wake up fat. So you try and sort of come up with an alternative. |
| 1:36.4 | And that's what we're trying to do really to say, you know, in the good life, you know, in heaven, |
| 1:39.8 | what would McDonald's look like? Invoking all this religious imagery for your fast food joint. |
| 1:46.5 | Yeah, interesting. |
| 1:48.0 | My second guest is Peter Jelkeby, senior vice president of Class Olson, which is a Swedish chain store, branches in quite a few countries, Peter. |
... |
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