MAM
KFC rewrites rules, delivers to your cars and bikes
MUMBAI: In a pandemic situation the last thing you want is to go out and eat! And the restaurant industry has obviously been hit. Severely. So, the only way for the dine-in industry is to rewrite the rules of the business with Innovations, contactless deliveries, cloud kitchens, and by maintaining the highest standards of safety and hygiene.
KFC has upped its existing operational protocols with 4X safety promise of sanitization, social distancing, screening (of temperature) and being contactless. Of these, there are three ways in which KFC is going contactless: delivery, takeaway and with KFC to your car/bike.
An extension of contactless takeaway, KFC is now delivering to your car/bike, the first-of-its-kind service in India in which food is being delivered to your vehicle.
The new service is being launched at KFC restaurants across cities including New Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore, Pune, and Chennai, among others.
KFC India chief marketing officer Moksh Chopra told Indiantelevision.com: “Those already on the road can place a takeaway order on the KFC app or website, pay online and then walk into the restaurant at the pre-decided time to collect the order. All this while, following all norms of social distancing – proper queuing at the takeaway counter, floor stickers for guidance, etc. We are amongst the few brands in India to launch a curbside takeaway service with KFC to your car/bike.”
Following the same process of placing a takeaway order, customers can opt for this service at checkout. They have to arrive at the designated spot near the restaurant and their order will be placed on the hood of the car or on the back seat of the bike. Thus, the order delivery is completed hassle-free and without any contact.
He adds, “Intensified sanitisation at the restaurant includes all surface areas including tables, counters, doors, and door handles that are sanitized every 30 minutes. The delivery teams wash and sanitize their hands and bags after every order.”
All team members, including delivery riders, are regularly screened and undergo daily temperature checks, wear masks and gloves. He points out that with limited menu on delivery, they are able to operate with a smaller kitchen team maintaining all norms of social distancing.
Apart from this, the food packaging is further secured with a tamper-proof seal to ensure that nobody has touched or accessed the food from the time it was packed until delivery. The food is cooked at a high temperature of 170 degrees.
Chopra elaborates about exploring meal kit options to suit the preferences of different customers in India. “We observed how fans have turned home chefs and are experimenting with their KFC favourites in their kitchens. Some are trying to replicate the hot and crispy chicken, while most are seeking ways to incorporate KFC into their everyday meals. Our recent campaign on ‘home kitchen’ helped consumers do just that: play around with ingredients and pair KFC with their home meals,” he added.
Chopra adds that digital ordering and payment will continue to be relevant. Consumers have various digital payment options like KFC app, website and mSite. They can even avail various offers and deals through mobile wallet partners.
KFC will be increasing focus on online, not only as an ordering channel but also as a medium for enhancing customer experience. This would translate into infusing more efforts and resources, including talent, technology, etc. into enabling better access for the customer.
“While we continue to develop our own ordering assets as the app or website, even elements inside the restaurant as menu boards, alternates as kiosk ordering, etc. will also undergo a technology refresh.”
Brands
Tessolve lands a semiconductor veteran to drive its next big push
Ravi Kumar Chirugudu, who started his career at ISRO and has spent 35 years building chips and companies, joins the Bengaluru-based firm as president and chief operating officer
BENGALURU: Tessolve has never been shy about its ambitions. The Bengaluru-based engineering services firm already counts 18 of the world’s top 20 semiconductor companies among its clients, employs more than 3,500 engineers across 12 countries, and last year pocketed a $150m investment from TPG. Now it has hired the executive it believes can turn those assets into something bigger. Ravi Kumar Chirugudu, a 35-year semiconductor veteran who once built satellite payloads for ISRO and has since scaled engineering organisations across three continents, joins as president and chief operating officer, effective immediately.
THE MAN AND THE MANDATE
The appointment is, by any measure, a serious hire. Ravi Kumar Chirugudu comes to Tessolve after senior leadership stints at HCL Technologies, Altran and Wipro, where he managed large profit-and-loss portfolios and oversaw cross-regional teams. Over the course of his career, he has been instrumental in bringing more than 1,000 new products to market across the high-tech, energy and manufacturing verticals. Before the private sector claimed him, he began his working life as a scientist at the Indian Space Research Organisation, contributing to research and development in charge-coupled device technology and satellite payloads, a foundation that shaped everything that followed.
In his new role, he will lead Tessolve’s global growth strategy: expanding its engineering capabilities, deepening customer relationships and accelerating innovation across semiconductor and high-performance computing domains. The brief is broad, but the context is specific. Tessolve operates in the $550 billion global semiconductor market, and its recent moves, the acquisition of Germany’s Dream Chip Technologies and the TPG funding round, have sharpened both its reach and its expectations.
Srini Chinamilli, co-founder and chief executive of Tessolve, is characteristically direct about why Ravi Kumar Chirugudu was the choice:
“As we scale our global semiconductor and system engineering capabilities, Ravi’s appointment marks an important step forward. As global semiconductor demand continues to accelerate across industries, it is creating significant opportunities across the semiconductor lifecycle, from design, packaging, validation and systems integration. Ravi’s deep knowledge and leadership in this ecosystem brings the right mix of industry expertise, customer connect and execution capability, which will play a key role in strengthening our position as a trusted global engineering partner and reinforcing our market leadership.”
THE NEW ARRIVAL SPEAKS
Ravi Kumar Chirugudu, for his part, frames the move in terms of timing and culture, two factors that veteran executives tend to weigh as heavily as title or compensation:
“I am happy to join Tessolve at a time when the industry is rapidly evolving towards more complex, AI-driven systems. What stands out to me is its strong people-first culture and its commitment to bringing value to its customers. The strength of its global team, combined with its deep expertise in semiconductor innovation and next-generation product engineering, creates a solid foundation to build differentiated, scalable solutions. I look forward to working closely with the team to drive strategic growth and strengthen its role in shaping the global semiconductor ecosystem.”
The reference to AI-driven systems is not incidental. The semiconductor industry is in the midst of a structural reshaping, driven by the insatiable compute demands of artificial intelligence. For engineering services firms like Tessolve, which offers end-to-end capabilities from silicon design to packaged parts and invests in high-performance computing, high-speed interfaces, photonics and 5G, the moment is both an opportunity and a test. The company says it is well positioned to capture the next wave of industry growth. Ravi Kumar Chirugudu is now the person who has to prove it.
He came in from outer space, literally, and spent three decades learning how the semiconductor industry works from the inside out. Now Tessolve is betting that accumulated knowledge can help it cross the next frontier. In the $550 billion global chip market, the gap between ambition and execution is measured in engineering hours and leadership quality. Tessolve has just gone shopping for both.
