Psychology
Introduction
There are several pizzerias in the United States that claims to serve the best and the most authentic Neapolitan pizzas in the country. Amidst the competition for the title of the best pizza in the country, or in this case, in town Tutta Bella sets itself apart from the rest of the competition for being true to the roots of the Neapolitan pizza according to its owner Joe Fugere. Before opening his first Pizzeria in his hometown in Naples Italy, Joe received certification as a Pizzalolo and remained in Naples to refine his skills and continue with the training. Joe’s roots can be traced down to his grate grandparents who immigrated to the Seattle from Italy in 1911. Upon establishing his name in Naples as a Pizzalolo, Joe Fugere moved to back to Seattle to bring the authentic Neapolitan pizza experience to the American customers.
Company Overview
Tutta Bella Neapolitan Pizzeria is located in 4411 Stone Way N, in Seattle and is considered as the first VPN certified Pizzeria in the Northwest and among the few certified in the entire United States. Currently, the company has expanded to three more restaurants in Washington, but its success has started from the idea of the owner’s grandmother about having no real Italian restaurant in the Seattle neighborhood that serves authentic Neapolitan pizza as good as what’s being made in Naples, which is the birthplace of pizza. During the 60s there were a large number of Irish and Italian immigrants that settled in Seattle and the concept of bringing Neapolitan pizza experience to the neighborhood has emerged. The interview with the owner Joe Fugere covers the topic of what sets his business apart from the other restaurants in Seattle. In addition, the interview will also determine the owner’s vision about his business and the future directions that it is aiming to take.
The Interview
Why choose to start your own pizza restaurant and not invest in existing pizza chains?
When I was a kid, my grandmother Corolina always misses Italy and the only means to feel closer at home is to at least get to taste the food back home. With that, I thought that to truly experience the true Italian taste and to share such experience with the America, the only way to do it is to make food exactly how Italians do it. This is how the idea about Tutta Bella has started; my goal is to bring the Italian pizza experience to America. If I choose to just serve pizza for the sake of just serving pizza, then I could have just taken a franchise of any pizza restaurant chain and that’s it, but it is not my goal.
Do you consider the restaurant as a small business?
In the sense of the word small, I guess I do consider myself as a small business owner. Besides, I could say I was successful in running my restaurant, but not to the point that I own long line of pizza restaurants, therefore, my business is relatively a small business.
If the restaurant is a small business, how many employees do you have?
Currently, we were able to hire 200 hourly employees that already include the part time and full time staff including the 20 salaried managers.
What do you consider as the biggest challenge for the business?
I believe I have already established my vision of a pizza restaurant and what is left for me to do is to maintain and build a cohesive team that respects one another and gives dedication and love to what they do. Besides, Tutalle Bella is not just about pizza is about the people that makes our pizza. We ensure that the business promotes professional and personal growth while keeping the best quality of our food and service, and that makes a difficult balancing act to undertake particularly because of new restaurants appearing everywhere from time to time.
What makes you get out of the bed and head to Tutta Bella every morning?
I always say this to my family and to my staff; Tutta Bella is not just about how we did as a business, our purpose is not just to serve pizzas, but to share authentic food experience made with love and nourished by tradition. With that in mind I always wake up in the morning and motivated by this kind of principle, and besides who don’t want to wake up in the morning to the smell of Italian espresso from a Victoria Arduino coffee machine.
What do you consider as the biggest threat to small businesses in America?
What will threaten the small businesses in America is the failure of the government officials in recognizing the role of small enterprises in shaping our economy. In fact, 80% of the jobs here in America were generated by small business, not by corporations. Therefore, it only makes sense if the government would actively build the foundation of this country’s economic force?
How do you compete with the larger restaurant, and how do you get the customers to come to your doorsteps?
It is interesting to know that the restaurant is VPN certified and in order to maintain the status of your Neapolitan pizza, how do you keep everything at par in order to maintain that status?
Well, it all began when I was in Naples and during my training, I consistently familiarizing myself with the ingredients and equipment needed to make the best Neapolitan pizza. For instance, the tomatoes being used in pizza making in Naples were grown in the soil of Mt. Vesuvius. In addition, we do not just use ordinary flour; instead we are using tipo “00” grade flour and extra virgin olive oil from Sicily. At first I had difficulties brining in these ingredients for Tutta Bella, but luckily we now have procurement managers that are doing a great job in sourcing these ingredients for us.
Given all the attention that you are giving to your products, how does your suppliers’ keep up with the demand and how often do you switch suppliers?
We are loyal to our suppliers, as we are loyal to our customers. However, we also ensure that we hold our suppliers accountable to our standards and expect only the best from them. Once they have our full confidence that they can deliver, we assure them of our commitment and dedicated relationship for years to come. Such relationship vital in ensuring that Tutta Bella will live up to the customers’ expectations and our suppliers’ commitment in delivering our demands will help the restaurant to fulfill its promise.
Personal Analysis
Based on the outcome of the interview, it is apparent that Tutta Bella is a small business that shares the common characteristics of a family-owned business. Despite having four restaurant locations under the name of Tutta Bella, the business itself is considerably smaller as compared to its mainstream competitions. There are five characteristics that define a family business one is creativity (Harms, 2014). Joe demonstrated the creative attitude in his vision about the product that is being marketed as authentic Neapolitan. Creativity in branding was apparent on how the owner describes the authenticity value of the product, which he boldly compares to the products from the birthplace of pizza, which is Naples. When it comes to growth orientation, Joe appears to have a reluctant attitude in the way he expressed his opinion about expanding the business. According to his response, he would rather listen to the customers than compete with the larger chains. In addition, Joe expressed the aspect of growth in the context of personal and professional growth of his employees.
Similarly, growth orientation is another business characteristic attributed to a family-owned business (Fairlie and Robb, 2008). The other characteristics of family-owned business also include future focus, adaptability, and self-determination, which Joe also expressed during the interview. In one of his statements, he mentioned that was a certified Pizzalolo or a master pizza maker, this accomplishment demonstrates self-determination in ensuring that the product he sells would be able to meet the traditions of pizza making, which he tries to associate with the brand. When it comes to adaptability, the family-owned business has its reasons to respect traditions, which in Joe’s case was to fulfill the Italian tradition by making the most authentic Neapolitan pizza. Such reason was also related to his memories of his grandmother who is longing to feel closer to home in Italy through food experience.
In terms of future focus, Joe mentioned that his goal is to share his Italian roots to the American customers, with that in mind, he ensures that the future of Tutta Bella is to maintain the traditions of his roots and at the same time, maintain the place of his restaurant among the best pizzas in America by adhering to the VPN standards. Because of the VPN certification that the restaurant acquired from the organization, Joe is striving hard to maintain the top quality of the products by ensuring the quality of the ingredients. This is also the reason that Joe is establishing a long-term relationship with his suppliers to ensure the highest possible quality of he ingredients that the restaurant is using for its pizzas.
Among the important matters to discuss about Tutta Bella is the brand’s strategy in competing with the market. Currently, the United States pizza market is worth $15 billion annually from the take category alone (statista.com, 2014). In terms of consumer spending combined with delivery and quick service, the industry market is worth $33 billion (statista.com, 2014). Considering the given figures, it is apparent that Tutta Bella can potentially expand the business in order to obtain a bigger share of the pizza market. By industry size, Pizza Hut leads the US market with 5.5% market share followed by Domino’s Pizza with 4.12% (statista.com, 2014). In Seattle alone where Tutta Bellas has four restaurants, its biggest competitor is Pizza Hut with 16 branches scattered all over Seattle while Domino’s Pizza has 18 branches. It is apparent that Tutta Bella is up against the two biggest brands in the Pizza industry when it comes to market saturation within Seattle. This represents the biggest threat to Joe’s business, but his attitude towards the competition is fairly different. For one, he does not want to get in a close competition with the popular restaurants because he feels that such decision will divert his focus from his customers and product quality.
Conclusion
The interview with Joe demonstrates the attitudes of a small business owner that aims only to serve the customers with the best possible product that he can produce. It is both an advantage and a disadvantage for Tutta Bella to some extent. It is an advantage because would be able to stay focus in maintaining the quality of the products and service and he can get his head out of the competition. On the other hand, Joe’s attitude towards the competition is a disadvantage because it hinders the possibilities of Tutta Bella’s growth.
References
Fairlie, R., & Robb, A. (2008). Race and entrepreneurial success. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press.
Harms, H. (2014). Review of Family Business Definitions: Cluster Approach and Implications of Heterogeneous Application for Family Business Research. Int. J. Financial Stud, 2, 280–314. http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijfs2030280
Statista.com,. (2014). Pizza restaurants: top chains by sales U.S. 2014 | Statistic. Statista. Retrieved 19 February 2016, from http://www.statista.com/statistics/261888/ranking-of-pizza-chains-based-on-us-sales/
Statista.com,. (2014). Topic: Pizza Restaurant / Delivery Industry. www.statista.com. Retrieved 19 February 2016, from http://www.statista.com/topics/1610/pizza-delivery-market/
