Paradise Group turns up the heat on operational efficiency

Enhanced efficiency and seamless communication through unified digital tools connect teams across locations for streamlined operations. Image created by DALL·E 3.

In food and beverage, every moment of the dining experience counts. An overcooked meal, poor service, or a delayed order — any one of these can quickly lead to disaster, especially in an age where one negative review on social media can make or break a restaurant.

The key to delivering consistent food and service quality is a seamless connection between front and back of house, with management and staff maintaining a clear line of communication. For Paradise Group, which operates 150 restaurants worldwide, fostering innovation requires everyone to be on the same page. 

“At this scale, operations are complex. We encountered issues with information flow between headquarters, country offices, and outlets across countries due to language barriers and siloed teams,” noted Lin Sifang, Marketing Communications Director at Paradise Group.

No reservations

Starting as a modest 25-seater coffee shop in Singapore in 2002, Seafood Paradise has since grown into the Paradise Group in 2008, now featuring 14 distinct dining concepts. Alongside its Singaporean base, the group has expanded into Cambodia, China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, the United States, Thailand, and Vietnam.

Across this international footprint, culinary excellence must pair with exceptional service, Lin emphasised. Yet, this is challenging when communications take too long to address given the organisation’s scale.

“Team communication across different regions relied on various chat apps and platforms, which was time consuming and required employees to download multiple apps just to communicate with different regions,” Lin revealed.

To tackle this, the F&B group turned to productivity super app Lark to revamp their communication strategy.

Mark Dembitz, Lark’s General Manager for APAC, observed that managing information flow within a large, multi-tiered organisation like Paradise Group is inherently complex, leading to communication silos and slow decision-making.

“Implementing a unified digital workspace facilitates cross-functional collaboration, allowing headquarters, country offices, and outlets to stay aligned on operational goals and strategies,” he said.

Likewise, the lack of a platform that connects top management and frontliners can stifle business growth.

“Without a shared space to connect the workforce across countries and languages, it’s hard to celebrate achievements, boost morale, and nurture company culture. It’s essential to create a user-friendly interface that employees across generations, skill levels, locations, and languages find both easy to navigate and enjoyable to use,” Dembitz remarked.

Additionally, integrating or updating IT systems often brings two common challenges: organisational resistance and lack of after-sales support. During onboarding, Lark’s mobile-friendly, intuitive interface eased the learning curve, allowing Paradise Group employees to adapt quickly to the new system, according to both Lin and Dembitz.

To ensure that key projects stayed on track throughout the integration, Lark collaborated closely with Paradise Group’s IT teams to identify high-impact projects early on, providing targeted support and guidance. This collaboration, Dembitz shared, led to a smooth implementation and quick achievement of key objectives.

Chef’s kiss

Among similar products in the market, Paradise Group chose Lark for its unified platform that supports real-time communication and embedded translation, and empowers teams to create workflows without needing any coding skills.

“With Lark’s Moments and Group Chat features — which include translation and task lists — employees, regardless of location, can access the same information seamlessly and without language barriers  Lark has provided us with a direct channel to engage all employees in real time,” Lin said.

Specifically, Lark has transformed the restaurant’s operations in two main ways:

  • First, by making communication easier: Through Lark, Paradise Group now has a mobile-friendly, intuitive way to reach every employee, including frontline staff in outlets. Communication is streamlined, centralised, and faster.
  • Second, by boosting operational efficiency: With a centralised platform for communication, teams are collaborating much more quickly. Manual forms and approval processes are now digital, cutting down paperwork and creating an audit trail. Approvals that once took up to three days now take only a few hours.

“In an environment where teamwork and collective effort drive growth and success, Lark consolidates communication and collaboration into a single platform. This enhancement not only improves the work experience across departments and locations but also fosters a bottom-up approach to innovation, enabling every member, from the storeroom to the boardroom, to contribute to our shared success,” Lin said.

Last call

Moving forward, F&B businesses must prioritise collaboration to stay competitive, especially as new digital tools continue to emerge.

“F&B companies have two types of employees: desk and deskless workers. Desk workers are typically at headquarters, physically separate from deskless frontline staff in outlets. Their interactions are often limited or even non-existent due to a lack of shared tools across the organisation. Even simple tasks like approving a purchase can be delayed due to emails and various chat apps. Information doesn’t flow smoothly, leading to confusion and on-the-ground insights about customer preferences being lost, as there’s no structured way to share them,” Dembitz said.

To address this, businesses should build direct connections between HQ and frontline staff, enabling real-time insights from the frontline and faster access to essential resources.

Likewise, F&B companies are beginning to view technology as a strategic advantage rather than just an expense, unlocking new opportunities for growth, innovation, and improved employee and customer satisfaction.

“These companies aren’t just buying technology — they’re becoming tech-enabled to transform their operations and processes,” Dembitz continued.

As for Paradise Group, the plan is to keep leveraging Lark’s expertise to build a culture of continuous improvement and creativity across the organisation.

“By equipping employees with tools to enhance workflows and foster a unified, collaborative environment, we aim to uphold our long-standing mission to improve, enhance, and create memorable dining experiences for our customers,” Lin concluded.