DOSA KING: A STANDARDIZED MASALA DOSA FOR EVERY INDIAN

Indian Foods Fermentation Limited (IFFL) was established in 1992 by Narayanan to develop an expert dosa maker that will be used in fast food restaurants, "Dosa King". According to market research carried out by IFFL in 1992, on any given day, 20 million dosas were consumed in India. Narayanan and his colleagues at IFFL decided to develop an automatic dosa delivery system that would deliver standardized dosa at an interval of 30 seconds. The system requirement was that the dosa should have the same size, color, crispiness, and taste. The project was funded by venture capitalists and Narayanan had to take several decisions during the design and development of automatic dosa delivery system. The Dosa King was intended to be a mass-distributed item, and the number of retail points across the country was meant to be in excess of 10,000 within 5 years from its launch in 1992. The IFFL realized that their largest stakeholder would therefore inevitably be the retailer or franchisee who invested in dosa machines, batter, and masala, and also interfaced with the customer. The IFFL conducted a market survey to capture the "voice of the customers" for the dosa delivery system and identified various system requirements. At various stages of product development, Narayan had to take several key decisions related to the design and development of machine, decision on inputs for preparation of dosa batter and other accompaniments, etc. In 1992, India did not have any western fast food chains. India went through a period of major economic reform in 1991 and the economy started growing much faster after the nineties. Narayanan expected the demand for fast food to grow in all major cities of India. Equipped with his experience at Coca-Cola and Nestlé, Narayanan was confident that he could change the restaurant industry in India.

• Going public
• Business lifecycle
• Product development
• International business
• Quality management