Quest's Profitable Moment
How on earth does a fast food restaurant that specializes in chicken run out of ... chicken?
This week
KFC temporarily closed up to 800 stores in the UK and Ireland after a failure in its supply chain for chicken.
KFC had recently switched delivery and logistics suppliers from Bidvest Logistics to DHL (DPW). It was a massive win for DHL: Britain is KFC's largest market in Europe, and one of its top five globally. For its part, DHL promised to set "a new benchmark for delivering fresh products to KFC."
new benchmark was achieved — just not the one either company anticipated. It all fell apart. (The service, not the chicken.)
There's a simplicity to this story that makes it fascinating. No doubt dozens of people were involved in this massive transfer of contract. And no doubt there is a sophisticated explanation for the "operational issues" that DHL cited.
Yet it still went spectacularly wrong. This is a sharp reminder to guard against hubris. If it can go wrong, it will.
I guess we finally know why the chicken crossed the road: Because KFC was closed.