McGuffey's Restaurant Case Analysis

This assignment discusses a case study of McGuffey's restaurant, analyzing symptoms, problems, causes, alternatives, proposed solution, and implementation. The restaurant was initially successful but faced issues with employee dissatisfaction and loss of profits. The proposed solution involves valuing employees, involving them in decision-making, and improving communication.

McGuffey's restaurant
Case Analysis
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Contents
Contents.......................................................................................................................................................2
PART: 1........................................................................................................................................................3
Synopsis...................................................................................................................................................3
Symptoms................................................................................................................................................3
Problems.................................................................................................................................................4
Causes.....................................................................................................................................................5
PART: 2........................................................................................................................................................5
Alternatives.............................................................................................................................................5
Proposed Solution...................................................................................................................................6
Implementation.......................................................................................................................................7
References...................................................................................................................................................8

PART: 1
Synopsis
In this assignment, we are going to discuss a case study of a restaurant that was doing well in its
initial years of commencement that the friends of the owners started asking them to buy fancy
cars or the private jets. Of late the restaurant has been performing not so well or we can say the
sales are not as per the expectations and the losses incurred are going beyond imagination. At
first Keith Dunn, (the main person behind the idea of setting up this restaurant) didn't understand
about what is going wrong in the organization that is leading to all such losses. Keith was sure
that no matter what but his employees will always be by his side. So in the process of just
gathering a shot of confidence, Keith decided to send a random questionnaire to his 230
employees to check, what these employees think about their owners and the organization. Now
let's go in the past to understand, why Keith decided to open up this restaurant. Well, there was a
time when Keith himself uses to work for big chain restaurants, after spending almost 15 years of
his life into these food chains, he felt that he was undervalued and never got enough
appreciation. Until one fine day when he met, David Lynn, they both decided to open up a place
that was more about the employees. Where the most important assets were the employees. Now
when Keith opened up the questionnaire, he comes to the realization that it was his employees
that are becoming the issues that needs to be resolved for the harmonious growth of the
restaurant.

Symptoms
In this section, we are going to discuss the symptoms that showed up and resulted in the causes
of the problem that McGuffey's restaurant is now facing. The early symptoms occurred when the
new or the second restaurant was set up in the Hendersonville. It was opened up with least or no
market research at all. Both the restaurants were not far away from each other, due to this reason,
one restaurant was pulling away from the customers of the other restaurant. In the first year of
the opening up the first restaurant, the marginal loss was only of about 16000$, which reached to
95000$ after setting up the second restaurant. The blame was thrown on the drinking age and the
alcohol rules. Despite incurring these losses both the restaurants were running into huge profits,
these profits were drifting the owners apart from their roots of maintaining an organization that
considered it employees as an asset.
Problems
This section contains a discussion about the problems of McGuffey's restaurant. The McGuffey's
restaurant was the result of two experienced employee of big food chains that were feeling
undervalued and unappreciated for their efforts. Both these people decided to open up a place
whose main values were to keep its employees' happy no matter what. The main objective was to
make the employees feel more appreciated than they both had felt at their workplaces. In the
initial years of the setting up of the restaurant, this was indeed working in the favour of the
owners; no doubt they were keeping their employees happy by giving the employees free drinks
and a meal after every shift. Problems started when the talks for the second restaurant were going
on. The owners became so busy that they forgot about their roots and the main objective behind
setting up of the restaurant. The owners have pulled in so many directions that they forgot that
the only purpose of setting the restaurant was to have a workplace where it is the employees who

are the king. In short, the main problem was that the owners forgot about their main commitment
to keeping the organization people oriented.
Causes
The main causes of the above mentioned problem was that the employees of the restaurant were
feeling unappreciated that demotivated them. The restaurant was unable to keep their employees
happy.
Another main cause for the problem was that the employers became busy with their another
restaurant that they forgot about their employees.
PART: 2
Alternatives
After going through all the symptoms, causes, problems of the McGuffey's restaurant, here in
this section we have presented 3 alternatives, each with its advantages and disadvantages. These
3 alternatives can surely help the McGuffey's to revitalize their organization and can help them
understand the dynamic environment of the business (Koralak, 2018). The alternatives are as
under:
1. The very first alternative is to surprise your employees. Now you need to take a note here
that not every surprise needs a monetary value. Suppose an employee has done a very
good job at his work, now you just can't pay him for every little effort he/she puts in but
yes of course you can leave a surprise note saying him/her "good job" or anything that is
meaningful and help him/her to work more effective..
 Now this alternative is the most required one in the organization as it has many
advantages connected to it such as Employees may become more conscious about their

work and there will always a fight within their own self to win that surprise note
appreciation, which will ultimately help the organization is doing well.
 Every decision in the business world has two faces, the one face has advantages while the
other one has disadvantages. The disadvantage of this alternative is that such a surprise
note may lead to jealousy amongst the employees. Which will ultimately be going to
deteriorate the organization?
2. Spending time with your employees is something that all the employees expect from their
employers. It is the healthiest way of rejuvenating employee-employer relations. It has its
own advantages and disadvantages such as (Antony, 2017).
 The employer may come to know more about their employees by spending time with
them, this knowing each other session will develop cordial and healthy relations between
the employee & the employer.
 The disadvantage of this time spent is that the employer may miss out on some important
meetings, and most of the time it has been seen that employees do not get open up in the
presence of the employer.
3. Open Communication is the most important alternative that the McGuffey’s needs to
adopt in order to bring the situation under control (Kruse, 2017).
 Its advantages are, by open communication the employees feel valued and heard. They
will develop a feeling of belongingness in them.
 Disadvantages are, this alternative may not work on the employees that are shy to open
up. They may not be able to talk openly as they feel shy in front of everyone. Which may
result in the failing of this alternative?

Proposed Solution
The proposed solution for McGuffey's to understand the prevailing situation and to come out of
it strongly is been given here. Keith Dunn and David Lynn need to come back to their roots and
need to re-examine their own vision and mission of setting up this organization. The vision was
to come up with an organization that is meant for the employees and not for the profits on the
primary front. Hence the proposed solution is that the owners need to start value their employees,
involve them as much as possible, and make them feel appreciated, listen to their smallest of the
issues and try to resolve each and everything they are complaining about.
Implementation
After going through all the causes, problems, symptoms, proposed solution, here in this last
section, we are going to discuss that what needs to be implemented in order to bring the things
under control at McGuffey's. The first thing to be done is make the employees part of every plan
and prospect of the organization and the second most important thing is to leave the profits aside
for a moment and start interacting with the employees again, spend time with them, make them
feel connected and stop treating the McGuffey's as a business unit and not a family.

References
Antony, K. (2017). Employees: An Asset. Forbes Journals of Business , 12 (2), 6.
Koralak, R. (2018). Restuarant Fails(And how to Avoid them). Retrieved Feburary 11, 2019, from
www.bluecart.com: https://www.bluecart.com/blog/restaurant-failure
Kruse, K. (2017). Why Employees Needed to Be Valued. Journal of Business and Technology. , 5 (2), 4.