Easyinternetcafe

Logistics and Project Planning at easyInternetcafé Ltd.

By David A. Menachof, Ph.D. And Tanmay Kedia Cass Business School City University London

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Logistics planning at easyInternetcafé Ltd.

Introduction

After Internet investment bubble burst, the original concept of easyInternetcafé (eIc) was just not working out. The management decided to retrench, closing and downsizing some of the original cafes. Their new philosophy was to franchise the operations. So far the company has created about 20 franchised cafes, mostly in Europe, with 5 in the New York City area. Right now, they are basically operating off the cuff, with no real operating plan for how to supply and open each new franchise. In order to address this problem, they have hired Tanmay, an MBA student from a highly regarded business school to analyse their current operations and give recommendations as to the way forward.

A brief history and background of easyGroup

easyInternetcafé Ltd. (www.easyinternetcafe.com) founded and promoted is by part the of the easyGroup Greek (www.easygroup.co.uk), well-renowned

entrepreneur Stelios Haji-Ioannou (www.stelios.com). Other companies in the group include easyJet, easyCar, easyCinema, easy.com, easyMoney and easyValue. He is also in the process of launching new companies such as easyBus, easyPizza, easyCruise, and easyDorm. Stelios calls himself a serial entrepreneur. He acts as a venture capitalist, founding and funding his ideas into businesses with a long-term intent to take them public. Stelios, the son of a Greek shipping tycoon, joined his father’s shipping business after graduation. A few years later, he borrowed some money from his father and founded his first venture, Stelmar Tankers in 1992. He soon achieved success with this company and it is now listed on New York Stock Exchange. Later in 1995, he founded easyJet, the first company of easygroup. easyJet is a no-frills, low cost airline company. He took advantage of the high...