Tradition to Innovation: Simit Sarayi Case

The aim of this study is to investigate how a Turkish fast-food chain namely "Simit Sarayi" applies innovative entrepreneurship. Simit Sarayi was founded in 2002 and is the first local chain store in a "bakery-caf" format serving traditional "simit" and baked goods at modern and enjoyable settings. Until that time, simit used to be eaten standing up and then, with a new business model, it was transformed into a product eaten by sitting down. Simit Sarayi showed significant business growth in passing eleven years by serving over 400.000 people, more than one hundred types of products in a day with 226 stores and 4000 employees in Turkey and seven other countries. According to OECD Oslo Manual (2005), there are four types of innovations. They are; product innovation, process innovation, marketing innovation, organizational innovation. Simit Sarayi applies all of those four innovation types. In this study, applications of innovation types by Simit Sarayi are investigated. By way of that, theory and real life applications are compared and conclusions for both academicians and practitioners are given.