jack jinxes the new menu (Case study) The 800 member thornvalley country club wa
ID: 364708 • Letter: J
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jack jinxes the new menu (Case study)
The 800 member thornvalley country club was on a path of slow decline. For years the older member, through their control of the club's board, had maintained the status quo in the face of mounting evindence that thornvalley would have to change if it was to become a vital, growing club again. However, in the last election control of the board had passed to a younger generation of club member who were eager, even impatient, for change.
The general manager, who had run the club for the past 15 years and was near retirement age, let it be known that she would be willing to spare the club some unpleasentness and resign if the severance package was right. The new board quickly accepted her offer, approving a generous severance and throwing her a farewell banquet before she could change her mind. just a month later, Jack silverton was hired as the club's new GM.
Jack was a long time friend of Michael bennet the board president. Michael made his views clear to jack during their first meeting after jack was hired. "This club is dying on the vine", MIchael said. "We've got to shake things up, act decisively. Membership is down, member participation is down, revenues are down, YOu have got my support to do whatever it takes to turn this place around.
Since nothing much could be done until the revenue pictur improved, Jack first turned to ways to increase rvenue, which naturally led him to the club's food and beverage department and to the club's chef, Louis Friedlander. LOu had been with the club for 18 years and was known for his excellent but traditional cuisine. "He'd deep -fry the hot fudge subdaes if he could figur out how, "Michael told jack, and it didnt take long for jack to realize that michael didn't care much for Lou.
But the regulars in the club's dining room seemed to enjoy the meat-loaf, steaks, fried chicken, bread clam cakes and other trditional dishes on the menu. The problrm as Jack soon Discovered, was that there weren't very many regulars. They wer mostly men and womwn in their sixties, seventies and eighties who had been club member for over 20 years and complained more about the menu prices than what was on it. Night after night, two-thirds of the dining room was empty while these older club members sat at their favorite tables and ordered the favourite dishes, The younger club members ate in the club's grill room after a round of golf , but rarely came to the club's dining room. However , jack often saw them in local resturants that served trendier, healthier food. Looking at the club's membership records, Jack saw that about 65 percent of the club was made up of this younger, more health-conscious group; the remaining 35 percent of the members werein their 60s or older, and the food Lou was serving appealed to a small but devoted following from this older group, Clearly, the vast majority of the club's members were choosing to eat elsewhere, and the outdated menu was a big reason why.
Armed with his knowledge, Jack decided to take decisive action. Jack knew that it would be hard for Lou to change his ways. Bypassing the house committee and backed by a slim majority of the boar, he fired Lou over the protests of the dining room and grill room managers. With the money he saved by not giving Lou a severance package, Jack out a whooping salary and benefits package together to lure the head chef, Marisa Chernoff, away from a popular gourmet resturant in the local area.
Other than to add a few gourmett hamburgers and some "light" menu items, Marisa left the grill room's menu alone, but no time in completely transforming the club's dining room menu. "Chicken fried steak? Please!" she sniffed, and deleted all of the "heart attacks on a plate" (as she described them) from the menu. Her new menu featured fresh produce delivered each day by local suppliers for service that night; fresh herbs; olive and other vegetable oils; and steaming and baking preparation methods rather than frying. There was no need to put little hearts next to the healthy munu items, because all of the menu items were healthy. Menu prices had to go uo a bit because the club was using more fresh items, but every dish was a picture--- Marisa's plate presentation was flawless.Jack was proud of all the changes and waited confidentaly for his and Marisa's hard word to bear fruit.
And bitter fruit it was. Here is what happened in the weeks following Marisa's hiring and the menus's overhaul.
The dining room's "regulars" stopped coming to the club. " What happened to the meatloaf I love?" "I have been ordering fried oysters here for 20 years--- what do you mean you dont fry them anymore?" "I'm 80 years old---I dont care about healthy food" were some of the comments that the regulars mumbled before they stopped showing up entirely.
The dining room servers encouraged the mass exodus by undermining the club's new approach. "Lou always let us taste things and asket our opinion before he added items to the menu, " they confided members. "This new chef didn't ask for suggestions from anybody. "
The younger members Jack was hoping to attract to the club were not dining at the club , either. They didnt know about the new menu; Jack was so busy helping Marisa plan and roll out the new menu that he faile to promote it.
The dining room and the grill room managers took turns telling each other, "I knew this was going to happen. We know more about what members want on the menu than anybody, but did Jack or Marisa ask us for any advice? Noooooooo. And the way they treated Lou? "Terrible!"
Marisa was hurt and frustrated by the club's response to her efforts. "I'm not appreciated here, "she sighed.
Members of the club's house committee assured everyone who would listen that "this wouldn't have happened if we had been consulted,"
Board members----especially the older members who were now in the minority on the board----started rumbling about Marisa's high salary. "If Jack wanted to ruin the dining room, i could have done it for nothing, "Bacame a favourite refrain.
Now that the new chef seemed to be a bust, the younder, impatient-for-change board members rediscovered their consciences and started worrying that an injustice had been done to Lou. "This is what we get for treating Lou shabbily, " one of them whimpered. "He put in a lot of good years here. He not only cooked for my high school graduation party at the club---he baked my wedding cake, too! And llok how we trated him!"
Club F&B revenues, which were already down, took a nosedive.
At the end of the second month with the new menu, Jack saw Michael eating dinner with his family in the almost-deserted dining room. When Jack approached the table to say hello, Michael said hello glumly and gestured toward the sea of empty tables. "This is terrible," he said to Jack. "We're in worse shape now than we were before. What a disaster!"
Hi chegg team this is a case for our assignment need answer out of these case. questions are given below. Every answer should be of between 200-250 words. There should be no plaigarism.
Q1. What went wrong? How did this "Disaster" happen? (5 marks)
Q2. What could jack have done differently? USE trait theory or models from leadership and mangement to frame your response? (this question is very important as this contains 30 marks)
Q3. What should happen now? How can the situation be fixed? (15 marks)
Q3.
Explanation / Answer
1 - In the above case of Thornvalley Club, which was witnessing downfall, as their revenue were at all time low and no new memberships were there. Due to this New manager, Jack was hired, who was a confidant of a Board member. To increase revenue Jack turned to Clubs Food and beverage department which had few patrons of the Chef and contained tradition cuisine. After research, Jack found out that the club had 65% young population who rarely came to clubs dining room and they eat at a local eatery where healthy food was served. Hence he fired Lou and replace with Marissa, a local gourmet chef who gave a makeover to Clubs menu.
Here Jack showed no care to Lou and fired him, even when managers of dining room protested it. Plus when the new menu was designed none of the employees were involved. Jack was busy with Marissa assisting her in redesigning menu. Jack, however, failed to promote the new menu to the young crowd, who were not aware of the new menu. Nor Jack cared about the few regulars who loved some of the dishes served at the club. This actions of jack lead to the disaster.
2 - In the above case Jack had good intentions to increase the revenue of the club from the Food and Beverage department, which served some traditional cuisine and there were regulars who used to love eating it. But while making the change he overlooked the fact club had regulars and chef had worked hard for 18 years. Rather than firing Lou, Jack could have arranged for a meeting with the restaurant manager and the chef about the nose-dip in revenues from the dining hall. Here if Lou could redesign the menu he should have given thumbs up and if not then only he should have hired Marissa.
Even after hiring Marissa there was no employee engagement. Here jack could have asked Marissa to redesign the menu with the suggestion of employees of the dining hall, plus considering the few speciality dishes which regulars loved and at the same time, Jack could have arranged to promote the new menu to the young crowd by speaking and handing a copy of the same in person. This could have averted the crisis and may be jack could have succeeded in turning around the clubs dining hall.
Let's use trait theory of leadership to understand it systematically
Achievement drive - Here Jack could have tried best with the resources which he has rather than investing in new one, which would have helped him in achieving goals optimistically.
Leadership motivation - Jack should have given motivation to all employees in the dining hall and should have encouraged in suggesting new ideas rather than not involving them.
Honesty and integrity: A severance package should have been given to Lou, in return, he could have taken his recipes which regulars had.
Self-confidence: HE had confidence in his ideas but he was hesitant of sharing it with his team, he should have been team player
Cognitive ability: - Although he found out that the young people make up the majority of the clubs member, he did not make effort to convert them to eat at the clubs dining hall, he could have made efforts to promote the new menu.
Knowledge of business: He had knowledge of business, hence he knew which part of the club can increase the revenue of club, but he did not execute his idea properly, rather he could have been a situational leader to tackle problems according to the situation.
The above are the things which Jack could have done differently.
3 - Currently the clubs dining room is in despair and is in urgent attention is needed to make sure that they don't make the loss. A joint meeting of all dining hall member is to be called and the whole situation is to be explained. There would be a question on Jack for not listening to the employees, for which he should apologise. Open forum to be established and employees should give suggestions as they directly converse with the customers and know what they would like to eat. Marissa should be asked to involve employees in the new additions to the menu, this would increase bonding between them, resulting in honest reviews of the food served. At the same time, Jack should ask Marissa to incorporate a small section of traditional cuisine which would bring back the Patrons back to the dining hall. There should be a dining hall event where all members would be informed about the new menu at the dining hall, which would inform young crowd about the new healthy menu as well as the reintroduction of traditional cuisine for elder members. These are some small changes which would help Jack not only to revive the dining hall but also make a bonding with employees.
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