Case StudyTwo: Skills Approach
Andy’s Recipe
Andy Garafallo owns an Italian restaurant
that sits in the middle of a cornfield near a large Midwestern city. On the
restaurant’s far wall is an elaborate mural of the canals of Venice. A gondola
hangs on the opposite wall, up by the ceiling. Along another wall is a row of
real potted lemon trees. “My ancestors are from Sicily,” says Andy. “In fact, I
can remember seeing my grandfather take a bite out of a lemon, just like the
ones hanging on those trees.”
Andy is very confident about his approach
to this restaurant, and he should be, because the restaurant is celebrating its
25th anniversary. “I’m darned sure of what I want to do. I’m not trying
different fads to get people to come here. People come here because they know
they will get great food. They also want to support someone with whom they can
connect. This is my approach. Nothing more, nothing less.” Although other
restaurants have folded, Andy seems to have found a recipe for success.
Since opening his restaurant, Andy has had
a number of managers. Currently, he has three: Kelly, Danielle, and Patrick.
Kelly is a kitchen (food prep) manager who is known as very honest and
dependable. She loves her work, and is efficient, good with ordering, and good
with preparation. Andy really likes Kelly but is frustrated with her because
she has such difficulty getting along with the salespeople, delivery people,
and wait staff.
Danielle, who works out front in the
restaurant, has been with Andy the longest, six years. Danielle likes working
at Garafallo’s—she lives and breathes the place. She fully buys into Andy’s
approach of putting customers first. In fact, Andy says she has a knack for
knowing what customers need even before they ask. Although she is very hospitable,
Andy says she is lousy with numbers. She just doesn’t seem to catch on to that
side of the business.
Patrick, who has been with Andy for four
years, usually works out front but can work in the kitchen as well. Although
Patrick has a strong work ethic and is great with numbers, he is weak on the
people side. For some reason, Patrick treats customers as if they are faceless,
coming across as very unemotional. In addition, Patrick tends to approach
problems with an either–or perspective. This has gotten him into trouble on
more than one occasion. Andy wishes that Patrick would learn to lighten up.
“He’s a good manager, but he needs to recognize that some things just aren’t
that important,” says Andy.
Andy’s approach to his managers is that of
a teacher and coach. He is always trying to help them improve. He sees part of
his responsibility as teaching them every aspect of the restaurant business.
Andy’s stated goal is that he wants his managers to be “A” players when they
leave his business to take on jobs elsewhere. Helping people to become the best
they can be Andy’s goal for his restaurant employees.
Although Andy works 12 hours a day, he
spends little time analyzing the numbers. He does not think about ways to
improve his profit margin by cutting corners, raising an item price here, or
cutting quality there. Andy says, “It’s like this: The other night I got a call
from someone who said they wanted to come in with a group and wondered if they
could bring along a cake. I said ‘yes’ with one stipulation…I get a piece!
Well, the people came and spent a lot of money. Then they told me that they had
actually wanted to go to another restaurant, but the other place would not
allow them to bring in their own cake.” Andy believes very strongly in his
approach. “You get business by being what you should be.” Compared with other
restaurants, his restaurant is doing quite well. Although many places are happy
to net 5%–7% profit, Andy’s Italian restaurant nets 30% profit, year in and
year out.
Questions
1. What
accounts for Andy’s success in the restaurant business?
2. From
a skills perspective, how would you describe the three managers, Kelly,
Danielle, and Patrick? What does each of them need to do to improve his or her
skills?
3. How
would you describe Andy’s competencies? Does Andy’s leadership suggest that one
does not need all three skills in order to be effective?
Assignment requirements and format style
The following format is applied for this assignment:
- You need to have a minimum of (2) and
maximum of (3) pages excluding cover page, references, any diagrams or appendix
- 12-point
font, double-spaced, normal margins, page number, and font type: Times New
Roman
- No
TYPOS or spelling errors
- Hand
written papers will not be accepted
- Please
number the pages in the lower right hand corner
- All
paragraphs must be indented 5 spaces
- All
assignments must be submitted with the correct APA formatting and all sources
cited according APA standards
- Subheadings
should be used to break up topics in the paper, helping to organize the flow
and facilitate reading.
