McGuffey's Business - Case Study Example

McGuffey’s Case Study COMPONENT ONE McGuffey successfully formed its chain of restaurants in many towns and cities. The owners wanted to plan a business that would off set the other big companies running, the only difference was that the owners of McGuffey started off the business with another approach (Whetten and Cameron, 2011). According to the case study, the business gained immense success and profit throughout its initiative years. The owners were proud to have such managers, profits and team efforts that lead to the success of the business. Later, the tables turned and everyone was unhappy including the employees, customers and the owners. Something went wrong somewhere and it took a while for the owners to understand what it was. Dunn was the owner who initiated McGuffey with some great ideas to come up to the levels of the leading businesses. He was successful, until some problems raised and he was unable to find the solutions to it. Apart from the drop in sales and profits, the major problem that he faced was with his employees. His managers and employees started to work with a de-motivated style which was unacceptable for the business. They started serving the customers with unhappy faces and delayed services. The food was not served as tipping hot as it was before. The unhappy and de-motivated workers have been the main problem with McGuffey according to the analysis of the business. It clearly shows how the attitude of the workers has changed and their expectations shattered. And the worst part was that the owners of the business were not ready to accept the blame, and rather kept blaming other factors for the fall in sales. This disturbed the workers even more and resulted in a workforce who did not want to see their owner anymore. They way Dunn was running after success and finding new places for his restaurants showed how much he focused on making more money and fame rather working in a healthy organization. Dunn kept on accepting new offers for his business without the consent of his partners or managers, and moreover without much of market research. This fact leaded to something going wrong, as they say too much sweetness can cause diabetes. Dunn should have made every move after consulting and critically analyzing the situation he was in. no wonder he was in the perfect situation to start off his new restaurants, but what is more important is the long term running of those restaurants. Dunn’s success was time being. The way he treated his employees in the beginning of his business was remarkable, but later he started to treat them worse. Dunn had involved his workers in his business and treated them like friends. He gave them incentives and excellent working conditions which made them love the place. They used to be thrilled by the plans of expanding the business but sooner the ideas did not please them. Dunn was so busy with his business expansion and tours that he did not have time to talk to the employees with whom he once sat and made decisions. He no longer gave them good working conditions, incentives or allowances. This greatly disturbed the workers who now did not like working under his ownership. Dunn was so egoistic that he did not accept his mistake of treating them and motivating them like before, and rather blamed the employees for not being able to pay back the gratefulness he showed providing their health insurance. This is a natural phenomenon that can take place in any business. The way Dunn carried out his business clearly showed what he is going towards. Not any businessman in the history has shown long term success after such a lousy attitude towards his employees. Moreover, Dunn did not tend to work much for the solution of this problem. He rather took out solutions that were interesting, but until they were dragged. They did not turn out to be helpful. An owner who shows immense concern towards his employees and them simply ignores them after walking on the path of success will surely have to face problems in the long run. This problem may have many solutions that could be performed to motivate the employees towards their work. Dunn could have taken measures that would have avoided this problem greatly and helped him to handle the success. Rather than running after the money and fame, Dunn could stop and think for a while to be able to set his priorities. If his employees were his priority, he could have worked out with them well, and they would have understood even when he didn’t have the time to meet them. When Dunn wished to expand the business, he should have noted some points to remember. He should have known that the more restaurants he will have, the more difficult it would be for him to visit each and take care of the employees. Thus, he should have delegated the task to his managers around the restaurants to focus on the employee motivation. Furthermore, he could hire regional managers who head all the restaurants of one area and taking care of the managerial system of those restaurants. Dunn could also adopt some strategies that would have helped him to keep in touch with his employees. In a business, when the employees feel wanted and involved, they love to work for it. Dunn adopted this strategy of involving the employees in the organization, but his ego did not let him handle it for long. If not involve, he could at least send an e-mail to all the employees once in a month asking them what they want to share. This would have avoided the problem of employee de-motivation that the business was facing, and not only facing this problem, but because of this they were suffering other problems as well. I recommend Mr. Keith Dunn to take a new start on prioritizing the assets of the company. Although at the moment, the case study shows that the employees are much outraged and they do not want to listen to their owner, but you can always win their hearts. There is a keen need to focus on the employees and their position in the business. The restaurant business is a labor intensive business and thus the employees can not be ignored. There are some actions that need to be taken. It is very important to adopt a more creative approach rather than analytical. An analytical approach includes the process in which the problem is identified and brought own to its root to solve it. The analytical approach would break down the problem into the simplest elements and then solve it. But this approach is usually critical because most problems can be easily solved without this process. It also includes making all the employees sit together and come to conclusions, which is however not possible as in McGuffey’s business the employees are not ready to do so. I think that the creative problem solving tools and techniques are also very important, especially when it is related to the employees. The creative techniques include the motivation of employees in ways that they feel special and appreciated. There can be many techniques that can be used. Although you have used the competition technique in which you gave monetary rewards to the best employees, and the feedback that you asked for. These techniques are good and creative enough but first the important thing is to win the employees’ attention because very few are present in the meetings that are called. You can go to each of the restaurant, or at least try to with the help of your managers, and call all the employees to one place where you can talk to them. You can send letters or e-mails telling them what it is that you want to talk about. Still if they do not appear, you can plan an outing for them like a picnic with their families so that they can get to know each other better. Involvement of the employees is also very important, know their problems and solve them so that they can see that there is action being taken. Provide them with good and friendly working conditions. COMPONENT TWO The problem that the McGuffey is facing is a very common problem in businesses where owners fail to motivate the employees. At the same time, this can be one of the biggest problems faced by a labor-intensive business. In this business, the problem has reached the height and it should be solved now otherwise it will be a threat to the business. The solutions provided should be used and made sure that they are effective. There are preliminary solutions offered so that the owner does not repeat the same mistake again. Other solutions involve many techniques that could be formed. The problem at McGuffey was quite clear because of the case study. The problem was clearly mentioned and by the events it was identified that the major problem is the de-motivation of employees that further caused reduction in profits. There was no need of performing brainstorming as the situation clearly showed the problem. It is true that there was need of using creative problem solving techniques as the problem was related to the employees. Employees in a business do not only work for money, or get motivated by money; most of the times there are other factors that are considered. To join with the minds of the employees, creative techniques should be used in order to make them happy. These creative problem solving techniques hold immense value than the analytical techniques as the problem is regarding the employees. There are several motivation techniques that are creative and that can be used in this case to solve the problem McGuffey is having. Techniques such as appreciation, team work and providing employees opportunities would greatly help in recovering the problem that McGuffey is facing rather than analytical problem solving techniques which include a systematic and time consuming approach. The owner can alone not work on this problem. Since the business is large and spread across cities, the owner needs to take help and coordinate with his managers to be able to reach to all the employees and know their problems. Managers should be hired or there should be a separate human resource department that makes sure that the employees of the business are motivated towards their work. Working in a group is much more valuable and will prove to be more effective than working alone on this project. McGuffey’s can overcome these problems and continue to make huge profits and sales if they set strategies and plan out their assets. References Whetten, D.A. and Cameron, K.S. (2011). Developing Management Skills, Eighth Edition. London: Prentice Hall Read More