People look up to exclusive and classy brands with trust, quality, and the best experience. Brands that are built on these solid foundations create a unique legacy of respect and garner an instant personal appeal. Driven by visionary entrepreneurs, these brands are nurtured with commitment, innovation, and dedicated efforts.

Having built a reputation as its kind of classy French bakery, L’Opera, Christine Samandari, its Co-founder has guided the team towards offering the finest of French delicacies.

Looking beyond the paradigms of the conventional bakery business, Christine ventured to embark upon a unique brand of authentic French style that presented the best-in-the-class French delicacies that gave an awesome and enjoyable experience. The class created by L’Opera differentiates it for its outstanding and sterling French patisserie.

In her engaging interview with the Insights success team, Christine elaborated on the saga of L’Opera, inspirations, challenges surmounted and code of ethics. She further unfolded on her advice to the budding professionals and her vision for L’Opera.

The excerpts of the interview are mentioned as follows.

Christine, please tell us about the saga of L’Opera since its inception.

Saga usually contains some element of fantasy or wishful thinking. Our story at L’Opéra is far from that. It is more of a novel idea, a pioneering concept, total commitment, plenty of hard work, determination in the face of challenges and difficulties and endless perseverance. Admittedly, the result has been impressive with L’Opéra now being considered widely as the foremost brand in the fields of Bakery, Pastry and the new concept of the very French Salon de Thé (French Tearooms).

What was your inspiration behind venturing into the business arena?

Our son Laurent’s idea and commitment to this project which gradually attracted several family members into his new venture. As far as I am personally concerned, I had completed working for several decades in the field of social and human development which was more in line with my background as social anthropologist and sociologist and was open in late 2008-2009 to new challenges in a totally different arena. Though, I must confess that my nearly 30 years of involvement with the various activities of the Baha’i International Community in Europe and other continents came very handy when I moved to the field of a business which was service-based and needed human touch and sensibility.

What were the initial challenges that you had to surmount to ensure L’Opera’s success rate reached greater heights?

We were trying to implement an authentic French concept which had no precedent in India. From the selection of the name of the company to its logo, to the design of its outlets and the development of its product range, we were chartering totally new territories.

Once this phase was completed, we still needed to create the right atmosphere to transport our patrons to the heart of Paris. Those who have travelled to France and were served in its Boulangerie Pâtisserie and Salon Thés can well imagine how difficult it was for us to train the staff and maintain a high level of service and relying on consistently high product quality which was yet another challenge and continues to be an everyday concern for founding family.

What professional values and qualities do you think your clients value in you and L’Opera the most?

We are trying to bring as much as possible the two closer to each other. I would like to state that from the onset, unlike many other brands which first build the brand and then define their values, we at L’Opéra had a clear idea of what the Core Values of the company should be, being aware that it needed time, continuous training and persuasion to translate them into action. Those defined Core Values are: Commitment to Excellence and Quality, Truthfulness, Honesty and Transparency, Gender Equality, Meritocracy and Equal Opportunity, Courtesy, Collaboration and Mutual Respect, Consultation, Ownership and Accountability, Spirit of Service and finally Responsible and Sustainable Growth.

We are often told by our clients that they appreciate the high quality and consistency of our products and service.

As far as I am personally concerned, our customers appreciate my constant presence in the outlets, my vigilance and my sincere commitment to implement the ten core values of L’Opéra.

What are the USPs that highlight L’Opera’s uniqueness in the industry you are catering to?

Its genuine and authentic French nature, its uncompromising high quality and excellence and our attention to aesthetics which is not only limited to the look of products, but which also is reflected in the decoration, furniture and setup of the outlets, the appearance of our personnel and their interactions with the patrons.

As an experienced professional, what would you like to advise the budding aspirants willing to enter the business world?

Define your objectives, prepare a solid plan, gather the necessary resources – which you will always fall short of – and then work hard, hard, hard with passion and persevere in the face of difficulties and setbacks until you have achieved your goals.

How do you envision L’Opera’s operations with the emerging technologies and automated tools that are revolutionizing the business world by enabling innovations?

Risking for sounding old-fashioned, I would like to believe that we operate in a sector of industry which highly appreciates the human touch and contact. I have rarely seen a new pastry, bread or savoury dish developed by a machine. Imagine the complexity of creating devices and writing algorithms which would simulate the human pallet and differentiate between different tastes and citizens of different countries or the regions of the same country… It would appear that this may be a no-go zone.

On the other hand, using technology to optimise sourcing, ordering, warehousing, production planning, logistics, inventory management and financial planning and control is obviously a must for any serious business. I do not know how we could achieve the desired outcomes if we (our architects) would not use CAD and 3D software to render their design proposals.

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