Whenever I travel anywhere by car, my family must decide a place to have lunch. Almost all options are well -known fast food restaurants, such as McDonald’s or KFC. The only other options available between Russia and Lithuania – the two countries in which I live – are the small cafes, where food is not always the best.
I want healthier options! Just give me a bowl of brown rice with crisp chicken, lettuce, zucchini, cherry tomatoes and grated carrots-perhaps garnished with a refreshing mint sauce. I will take this on a burger and fries in a paper bag every day.
While waiting for food on campus
I had the chance to explore how to make changes to existing markets and products in the summer of 2024 as a student in the online business program (FBW), a two -week online program provided by the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.
During FBW, my project group (four high school students from Lithuania, China, the United States and India), made commercial simulations and learned the “copy and improve” method of product development – essentially identifying prosperous business practices and using them to improve something that already exists.
We were responsible for thinking about the improvements for Penn’s restaurants on the Philadelphia school campus, based on the various questions that Penn students expressed. We then had to present our innovative ideas to other groups. We had the opportunity to interview our educational assistants – all the students of Wharton and Penn – and we were able to use this information to identify the problems of problems to be solved.
The main problem with which Penn students had trouble was spent waiting for long line food. Our group began to imagine an application for Penn students in which they would be able to order their desired meals in advance. They could indicate the approximate time that they wanted to pick up their food, so that they can come at the specific time and catch their order without having to wait.
We have concluded from our research that time is a particularly important factor for cu
This project made me think about how to “copy and improve” fast food restaurants that are everywhere in Lithuania. How could healthier restaurants learn from the popular fast food model and work to improve customer service, improve convenience, popularity and brand loyalty?
During my time in the future of the business world, I talked about these ideas with my project group and I looked for the economy to guide our ideas. Here is how I see these concepts connect to my quest for healthy food options during my trips between Russia and Lithuania:
Accelerate
When you think of the scarcity of the economy, resources such as goods, services and time are limited, while demand is unlimited. Companies must make choices on what to produce and how to produce it in order to meet the continuous demand of their customers. We have confirmed in FBW that students want shorter lines and faster services. Of course, this is true for many of us. Think about it-How often have you considered the speed of food delivery or meal preparation in a restaurant while deciding where you want to eat?
Back to expanding restaurant options during my family trips. Healthy restaurants that seek to enter the market and compete with fast food restaurants should increase the speed of their food delivery. So I thought of adapting my research on FBW applications to the home market. To test the amount of customers would appreciate a high -speed service for healthy foods, I created an investigation for 40 of my friends, my family and my classmates of all ages. The survey results suggest that customers prefer to eat in a healthy restaurant if it had a time of delivery or fast service: 97.5% of the participants in the survey said that the main reason for which they settled for fast food instead of healthier restaurants was to save time. Accelerate and, at least in my world, the guests will choose healthy rather than fatty.
Highlight
Our FBW group has also discussed the concept of elastic goods or products that have a significant change in demand when their price changes. Many people choose fast food due to elements of the low -cost menu. So healthier restaurants should simply lower prices to succeed in a market crowded with fast food options, right? It is not always economically realistic, due to the higher cost of healthy ingredients and other factors. In the end, this comes down to the value. Even if the price of healthier options is higher than in the average fast food restaurant, people are more likely to choose healthy if they understand why they pay additional money for the meal. The lower prices were not a key determinant in the results of my survey: 12.5% of people would pay 20% more and 87.5% of people would pay 30% or more for healthier restaurants. The work of restaurants? Make sure customers understand and appreciate what stimulates higher prices – amplify added value.
These are just some of the ideas that started in FBW and came out of my summer with Wharton Global Youth. It was fun to think about how we could innovate to solve the problems we have observed in the world – and to do the real practical research that helped us understand the markets and meet the needs of our target audience. In my case, this problem is food deserts, where it is difficult to find healthy consumption options.
My new interest in the economy, innovation and market studies resembles a first step towards creating better quality restaurants in Lithuania and Russia. Maybe one day? But for the moment, the future of the business world helped me see my world differently.
Alena Z., 16, is a second year student at Crimson Global Academy and lives in Vilnius, Lithuania. She studied online in the future of the business world of Wharton Global Youth in the summer of 2024.
Image of the hero taken by fellipe ditadi from Unsplash