...Case 6 A: “Perfect Pizzeria, or Not?” Case 6 A: “Perfect Pizzeria, or Not” Case Summary Perfect Pizzeria is located in Southville, Illinois. Each operation has one manager, an assistant manager, and from two to five night managers. Employees were mostly college students, with a few high school students that usually performed less challenging duties. The Perfect Pizzeria system is devised so that food and beverage costs are computed according to a percentage. If the percentage of food unsold or damaged in any way is very low, the manager gets a bonus. The chain manager in the case is forced to make decisions in order to receive his bonus. The chain manager is tasked with trying to identify a way to reduce the waste percentage by motivating employees to not waste supplies. In the case study, the manager found that the more he retaliated against employees the higher the percentage became causing him to receive regular wages without the bonus. Apathy grew within the pizzeria as the relationship between the manager and workers further separated because the attempts to alleviate the problem began to make the percentages even higher. With high turnover and even higher waste percentages, management must find a solution to motivate employees to reduce waste so he can receive his bonus in return. Analysis Question 1: Consider the situation where the manager changed the time period required to receive free food and drink from six to twelve hours of work. Try to apply...
Words: 3912 - Pages: 16
...Case Study #1 1 Perfect Pizzeria – A Not-So Perfect Organization In the case study Perfect Pizzeria, the area supervisor has many problems that need his attention. The largest appears to be the organization. In this case study I will assume that the area supervisor has the authority to affect change within his organization (i.e. he is the franchise owner). Being in an area with few job opportunities should give him the perfect opportunity to recruit bright, ambitious, and motivated people to staff his pizzerias. How can the area supervisor change his organization to achieve a more fluid corporate culture? I think this change can be achieved by human resource changes, structure changes, motivational changes, and reward for good performance as well as accountability for poor performance. Each one of these areas will require a change from the corporate level. For the sake of my case study I am going to assume that the area supervisor (franchise owner) can lobby to achieve this change within the organization. The first area to look at would be the human resource changes needed in the business. Perfect Pizzeria must have a clearly defined and documented process of Recruiting, Hiring, New Associate Orientation, and Associate Retention. Let us first look at Recruiting of new Associates. This would be criteria established for all levels within the organization (manager, assistant manager, night manager, and pizza maker). The process should explicitly state that the company...
Words: 2328 - Pages: 10
...Case Analysis: Perfect Pizzeria I. Statement of the Problem Perfect Pizzeria has no formalized training nor was there any systematic criterion for becoming a manager. This led to a low effort to performance expectancy as the managers doubted their capability to perform the duties as a manager effectively. Hence, the managers lacked the confidence and knowledge to take initiative in solving certain problem that occurred during business operations. Also, the employees are not motivated to perform their respective roles unless they are under constant supervision. How will the company prevent itself from having incompetent and untrained managers and employees? II. Objectives ▪ To be able to keep the company prospering despite employee and managerial problems ▪ To be able to have a clear and definite basis for hiring managers and employees ▪ To be able to improve manager-employee relationship within the company III. Areas of Consideration 1. Vague Corporation Policies The whole set of policies seems to convey the message that the corporation is very important, while the individual is practically expendable. Therefore, this communicates a clear message as to the value the corporation places on the managers. Moreover, the ultimate indignity comes when managers are told that if they want to advance beyond managerial position, they must invest in the corporation. 2. Performance incentives are very limited. Performance for...
Words: 1064 - Pages: 5
...Week 2 - Case A - Perfect Pizzeria 1. Consider the situation where the manager changed the time period required to receive free food and drink from 6 to 12 hours of work. Try to apply each of the motivational approaches to explain what happened. Which of the approaches offers the most appropriate explanation? Why? The manager’s retaliatory approach to lower the loss percentage was not a motivational factor for the employees at all when he changed the number of hours employees had to work to receive free food from 6 hours a day to 12 hours. Evidently the employees did not respect his authority as the change did not seem to have an effect on them nor did it give them any motivation to do better. These jobs where minimum pay jobs with little to no intrinsic reward or job satisfaction. He ended up with a high turnover in employees which in turn caused him to violate company policy because he lost key personnel and had to work in the food preparation himself until new hires were trained. 2. Repeat question 1 for the situation where the manager worked beside the employees for a time and then later returned to his office. During this time the employees seemed to become motivated by the fact the manager was not beyond working and doing the same tasks they performed each day. In other words, he was not presenting himself to be better than his employees and was not asking anything of them he was not willing to do for himself. This resulted in the percentage being low enough...
Words: 584 - Pages: 3
...Olympia Lewis 11-02-2014 Professor Kenneth Lewis HRM 530 As CEO of Donatos Pizza, I am going to compare 2 positions from Undercover- Boss season 5 episodes 3 and perform a job analysis of each position. Also, I will describe my method of collecting the information for the job analysis, create a job description from the job analysis. Lastly, I would justify my belief that the job analysis and job description are in compliance with state and federal regulations. My name is Olympia Payne Lewis, CEO of Donato Pizza, a family owned business that’s been operating for over 50 years. Donato pizzas vision is “To give a good thing”, and our Motto is to “Treat others the way you want to be treated” Our brand was so good that McDonalds bought our brand as a subsidiary. Today, I decided to link up with a reality show called Undercover Boss to see exactly how our brand is being represented by our employees. In this episode, I went undercover as a geeky like worker named Cathy. The purposes of my assignments are to see what level of customer service each employee offers to customers, to see if employees are doing their assigned job descriptions, and to find out if any employees are breaking rules or representing the brand in a inappropriate manner. I went to 4 locations to see how things were running. I am going to critique the following positions that I encountered; Delivery driver, & The Cashier. JOB POSITIONS Day 1 Delivery Driver- is responsible...
Words: 1158 - Pages: 5
...Sean Pack BUS 101 OCA Donatos Pizza 1. We decided to use a total of 3 employees for cooks in the kitchen at Donatos. The number of 3 would not only help us with making orders, but also with the clean duties after the rush hours. In the year or so, HR will extend our cook employees to 4 per shift for better efficiency. 2. As a Pizza/ Fast Food chain, yes we do compete for employees. We feel that the atmosphere, our salaries and benefits, interest our potential employees more than our competition. 3. After a year of being with us, we sit down with the other managers and grade an employee’s performance on a scale of 1-10. The next day we call in the employee, and let him know how he/she did last year, and how he/she can do better in the coming year. 4. First we look internally. If there isn’t an employee that fits the criteria for that particular position, we check our other stores that are close by. If all else fails, then we advertise employment. 5. Yes. Donatos wants every piece of diversity it can muster. We believe that different people bring different ideas that can help this company grow and be more successful. We do not discriminate against any race, background, or family history. Everyone has a fair chance to be a part of the Donatos family. 6. We would sit down with that employee, and try to understand his reasoning, if we can’t come to an agreement; he/she would be moved to either a different dept. of a new store entirely...
Words: 337 - Pages: 2
...1. What are the characteristics of a perfectly competitive market? What are the implications for accounting profit in a perfectly competitive market? What about economic profit? Perfectly competitive markets are characterized by low sunk costs, perfect information, no entry or exit costs, no search costs, identical products and an infinite numbers of sellers. In a perfectly competitive market there are many firms and many buyers, all of which are price takers, meaning they have no control over prices. As price takers, firms face a highly (perfectly) elastic demand curve, meaning that they can only change revenue by changing the quantity produced. Firms in a perfectly competitive market will produce where MR = MC. Since firms are price takers, MR = Price. As a result, when marginal cost is equal to marginal revenue, it is also equal to price. If firms are realizing positive economic profits, other firms with similar cost structures will have an incentive to enter the market: one competitive firm’s economic profits indicate that production of that good is more profitable than any other available allocation of resources, causing other firms to invest. Once new firms enter the market, there is an increase in the MARKET, or AGGREGATE supply which will change the price that individual firms face, causing a reduction in the price. Firms will enter until economic profits are zero, at which point the intersection of the price and the marginal cost intersects the minimum of...
Words: 2756 - Pages: 12
...for its day to day operations, marketing and promotional efforts, and competing with the industry rivals (Loudon, Stevens, & Wrenn 2004). The key factors of the business environment that affect the business operations of a company include political, economic, technological, environmental, cultural, and demographical factors. This essay will explain various markets structures which are monopoly, oligopoly, perfect competition and monopolistic competition. The purpose of this paper is to discuss the impacts of different environmental factors on the business operations of Barclays. The discussion has been made in the light of international accepted microeconomics concepts and practices. Market structures Monopoly is a market structure, where only a single seller producing a product having no close substitutes. This single seller may be in the form of an individual owner or a single partnership or a Joint Stock Company. Such a single firm in market is called monopolist. Monopolist is price maker and has a control over the market supply of goods. On the other hand, Perfect competition a market structure characterized by a large number of firms so small relative to the overall size of the market, such that no single firm can affect the market price or quantity exchanged. Perfectly competitive firms are price takers. Moving on, in an oligopoly, there are only a few firms that make up an industry. This select group of firms has control over the price and, like a monopoly, an oligopoly...
Words: 1600 - Pages: 7
...Strategy Simulation Game Name: University: Course: Section: Instructor: Date: Table of Contents Introduction 2 Pure Monopoly 2 Oligopoly 3 Monopolistic Competition 4 Perfect Competition 4 Relation with Porter's Five Force Model 4 Conclusion 6 References 7 Strategy Simulation Game Introduction This paper explains the use of economics in managerial decision making based on the simulation. It describes decision making process of management in different market structures. The main objective of an organization is to maximize the profits in each type of market structure. Quasar Computers has done extensive research for the development of optical notebook. In the Year 2003, the company launched the first all-optical notebook computer branded as 'Neutron'. Neutron uses energy saving optical technology that established it as the market pioneer (Tata Interactive Systems, n.d.). The following pricing and other decisions are taken for this product in the different market structures. Pure Monopoly Quasar was the sole seller for the new and unique computer technology that established monopoly market structure for it. In the monopoly, profit maximization occurs at the point where marginal cost and marginal revenue equate to each other (Baumol & Blinder, 2005). In this scenario, Quasar objective was to maximize the profits because of its monopolistic situation caused by the patent rights on all-optical technology valid for three years from 2003. Quasar was able to control...
Words: 1550 - Pages: 7
...the key consideration. A oligopoly firm actually can have a large number of firms, approaching that of any monopolistically competitive industry. However, the distinguishing feature is that a few of the firms are relatively large compared to the overall market. A given industry with a thousand firms, for example, is considered oligopolistic if the top five firms produce half of the industry's total output. The hypothetical Shady Valley soft drink market contains 20 firms, but it is oligopolistic because the four largest firms account for over 60 percent of total industry sales and the top eight firms account for almost 80 percent. Identical or Differentiate Products Some oligopolistic industries produce identical products, like perfect competition in this regard, while others produce differentiated...
Words: 690 - Pages: 3
...Similarities and Dissimilarities between[pic] Monopolistic Competition and Perfect Competition [pic] Vs [pic] Presented to: Sir Zahid Presented by: Muhammad Bilal Hussain Registration # K1f12mcom0009 Date:15 January 2013 Definition of 'Perfect Competition: [pic] A market structure in which the following five criteria are met: 1. All firms sell an identical product. 2. All firms are price takers. 3. All firms have a relatively small market share. 4. Buyers know the nature of the product being sold and the prices charged by each firm. 5. The industry is characterized by freedom of entry and exit. Definition of 'Monopolistic Competition: [pic] A type of competition within an industry where: 1. All firms produce similar yet not perfectly substitutable products. All firms are able to enter the industry if the profits are attractive. 3. All firms are profit maximizes. 4. All firms have some market power, which means none are price takers. Similarities and Dissimilarities between Monopolistic Competition and Perfect Competition [pic] The two market situations have the following similarities. 1. The number of firms is huge under perfect competition and monopolistic competition. 2. The freedom of entry and exit of firms is there in both the firms. 3. Firms compete with each other. 4. The break even point is established where marginal cost and marginal...
Words: 790 - Pages: 4
...be a “price maker”. They can use their market power to control price and raise it to a level where price is greater than marginal cost (Sloman & Wride, 2009). Average cost Marginal cost Average revenue Marginal revenue Output Price 0 Q1 P1 Average cost Marginal cost Average revenue Marginal revenue Output Price 0 Q1 P1 Source: Adapted from Sloman & Wride, 2009. Fig.1. Diagram shows that a profit maximizing monopoly has the ability to profit maximize where marginal cost equals marginal revenue, and will therefore produce at output (Q1). Hence they will charge price (P1) that consumers are willing and able to pay for Q1. At price P1, the monopolist is making excess profit (highlighted). In perfect competition firms are “price takers” and will therefore charge the market price, whereas a monopolist will charge a relatively higher price and produce lower output. Therefore it can be seen that a firms’ aim of profit maximization under a monopoly market structure, leads to higher prices being charged to the consumer (Fig.1.). In practice it is difficult to be certain at which point profits will be maximized...
Words: 1173 - Pages: 5
...8/28/2012 Why Advertising Research? Introduction to Advertising Research Ying Xie MKT 6335: Advertising Research Fall 2012 Naveen Jindal School of Management University of Texas at Dallas What is advertising? What is good advertising, in your opinion? 1 2 Why Advertising Research? How do we create an advertising campaign? 1. creative strategy: a statement or concept of what a particular message or campaign will say – a big idea Absolute Vodka MasterCard “there are some things in life money can’t buy” 2. advertising appeal and selling proposition 3. creative execution: art direction and copy Why Advertising Research? Advertising research contributes throughout entire advertising planning process Short history of advertising research 1960’s vs. today 3 4 Process of Research Contribution The Market Successful advertising planning builds on research-driven analysis of the marketplace Current and potential future trends Forces shaping the marketplace How market forces affect own and competitive brands and advertising 5 6 1 8/28/2012 The Consumer Effective advertising based on thorough understanding of Forrester Segmentation: Involvement With Social Technologies target audience Three dimensions of target audience analysis: Consumer trends How consumers interact with brand/product/service Relationship between consumers and brand/product/service 7 8 Creative: development...
Words: 771 - Pages: 4
...Differentiating Between Market Structures in Kudler ECO/365 Differentiating Between Market Structures in Kudler Kathy Kudler started Kudler Fine Foods out of La Jolla, California, in 1998 (Apollo Group Inc., 2011). With the success of the original store, she the opened stores in Del Mar and Encinitas California. Kathy Kudler came up with the idea for these high-end food stores as she has a fondness for cooking gourmet food. Kudler thought others might share her passion if they could conveniently locate the ingredients for these gourmet recipes. The first Kudler store was a complete success and turned a profit within the first year. As with any businesses some of the Kudler Fine Food stores were struggling with the declining economy. The Kudler store in Del Mar was having difficulty with expansion, higher wage costs because of unique work positions, and slow operations. The goal of any business is to increase profit. The company must have good oversight, smart marketing, and useful marketing survey results to determine if there are adjustments that could change the businesses profit. The monopolistic competition market structure include a large number of companies selling slightly similar products. There are very few barriers to enter into this market but there will be high costs for initial start-up. There are multiple dimensions of competition market structure including distribution outlets, advertising, and product attributes (Colander, 2010). ...
Words: 960 - Pages: 4
...Week 7 assignments Task 1: Consider the following table of costs for the Winsome Widget Factory, which operates in a perfectly competitive market. The market price faced by this firm is $6.00 per widget. a. Fill in the formula for AFC, AVC, ATC, MC, TR, MR, and Total Profit at the top of the column in the gray section within the table. b. Fill in the missing values for TFC, TVC, AFC, AVC, ATC, MC, TR, MR, and Total Profit in the blue sections of the table. | Winsome Widget Factory | |Output |Total Fixed Cost | |Barnes & Noble books |-4.00 | |Coca-Cola |-1.22 | |Cigarettes |-0.25 | |Beer |-0.23 | |Gasoline |-0.06 | In your project, address the following questions: Using the elasticity estimates in the table above, classify the price elasticity demand as elastic or inelastic. Explain your reasoning. Explain the implications of those classifications on tax revenue collections when the per-unit tax increases as opposed to decreases. Using those classifications, make some assumptions regarding tax incidence. For instance, will buyers...
Words: 1770 - Pages: 8
