Overview of Caf Laura - Location, Uniqueness, Daily Operation, Challenges - Research Paper Example

Company overview Intuition: Company Overview Café Laura, Mateer Building , First floor Park, PA 16802 Phone: 814-865-1853 Reservations Student Run Café Laura is a student based run nonprofit making organization. The café is a partnership between the Penn State University and the school of hospitality management. In essence the whole operation of the café is carried out by the students themselves who are making their own plans to organize for the marketing of their product packages, prepare meals and serve meals that leave many clients wondering about the uniqueness of the café.

The café prepares and make delicious meals available in a 24 hour system (Stecker & Zimmer, 2004). The school students are seen to be performing everything from meal preparations to serving and hotel management. This has been described by others as students’ menus to décor. Non profit Based on the management of the café by the student, the prices are thus seen to be subsidized and are thus manageable even for the low income earners. Rigidity is a foregone feature of the café as flexibility, consistency and rationality-in regards to customer service-have stand tall in the daily operation of the café resulting from the quality of schools skill offered to students from the school of Hospitality management in the Penn State University (Stecker & Zimmer , 2004).

The Campus Catering thus offers one stop shop cafeteria services. Location The café is strategically located in the University Park and this enhances its accessibility hence minimizing time cost of having to walk looking for the café. The café is situated in the first floor of the Mateer building, a short walk from various campus attractions such as the Paterno Library. Parking Deck called Nittany has also been conveniently located across the street, on the Fisher Road. The central location of café-mostly around many densely occupied areas-has enabled it to receive a lot its clients with a lot of ease.

Uniqueness The distinctive features of Café Laura are inevitable. The does not serve beer liquor but this does not bar the enjoyment of such commodities. Apart from the fact that beer is not served in the cafe, one is allowed to carry his own and then be served in the café. Another form of uniqueness is a free wireless internet offered by the University that ensures customers are at will to benefit from such offers. Late night is also available in the Hub- Robeson Center where the customer can watch live concert streaming and other forms of entertainment (Vernis, Iglesias, Sanz, & Saz-Carranza, 2006).

Many reviews done by the customers have stated that once you are at Laura Café, you feel like prolonging your stay as it comes with lots of good packages. Daily operation The café operates on a full week basis. During the week days, the coffee station is opened between 8:30 A.M to 1:30 P.M and the lunch is served between 11:00 A.M to 1:00 P.M. A variety of menu options are offered at the Café for lunch and the popular theme dinners are served as well. Challenges The café’s main challenge is the growing demand for its products.

In addition; There has been a steady growth in income for the Laura Café, but being a nonprofit making organization funds are poorly managed due to lack of accounting officers who can manage these fund well. This results to limitations in the management of the café. There is also a need to separate the management role from the student based to engage high level managers with better knowledge on financial issues. This is because the students are only hospitality management student who may have very little skills on management of funds.

Problems to be solved by RBC The café is therefore looking forward to work with RBC. This strategy is aimed at assisting the café to help manage its funds appropriately. In so doing, the café will make more revenue that will be used to expand the services as well as ensuring the wellbeing of the clients served. Additionally, the management will also be transformed from student-based to professional based. In this regard, the Café will developed a proper established chain of command hence improving on the current condition of the café.

References Stecker, C., & Zimmer, A. (2004). Strategy mix for nonprofit organisations: Vehicles for social and labour market integrations. New York u.a.: Kluwer Academic/Plenum Publ. Vernis, A., Iglesias, M., Sanz, B., & Saz-Carranza, A. (2006). Nonprofit Organizations: Challenges and Collaboration. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.