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CASE STUDY: Who’s the Boss? Leon has been head chef at the Elite Café since it opened 25 years ago. The little restaurante a landmark in a small seaside resort town and up to a year or so ago had always been crowded customers who came back to enjoy the same fresh seafood dishes they remembered from years balion from several new restaurants that feature nouvelle cuisine, gluten-free offerings, and ethnic wines Leon’s boss, Dennis, the restaurant manager is an eager young man fresh out of a collect hong Tefity program. He sees what is happening and wants Leon to change the menu, but Leon tao, refuses. He says that the food is as good as it ever was the best food in town–and that Dennis simply isn’t promoting it properly and is probably making a lot of other mistakes, too. Leon makes it clear that he has no respect for college graduates who haven’t paid their dues and “gotten their hands dirty”–a figure of speech that is all too appropriate for Leon, whose sanitation practices are old-fashioned, too. The other employees are aware of this ongoing situation between Leon and Dennis and are beginning to take sides. Dennis is aware that he must do something quickly. But what? Dennis sees his main problem as regaining the café’s share of the market and putting it out front, where it has always been. He can see only the following alternatives: 1. Fire Leon for insubordination. This is what he would like to do. But Leon is an excellent cook and no one on his staff can duplicate his chowder, his lobster bisque, and some of the other classica, and there are no recipes to follow. – Try it Leon’s way—a marketing program emphasizing an old-timey image and ambience the good old days, tradition. Dennis’s heart is not in this approach he does not believe that Leon is right and knows the other employees will protest. 343 Key Points Discuss the problem with his boss, the owner of the café. She is an older woman who really doesn’t understand the restaurant business and besides, Dennis doesn’t want to admit to her Get some expert advice on market trends and how to make a market study: Hire a consultant or tup in ad that he has a problem. pay a visit to his favorite professor at the hospitality Institute Case Study Questions 1. What do you think of Dennis’s four alternatives? What are the pros and cons of each? What are the consequences? 2. What do you think is the real problem? How would you define it? 3. What should Dennis’s objectives be? 4. Is Dennis himself part of the problem? If so, does this make it harder or easier to solve? 5. Are there other alternatives besides those Dennis has listed? Suggest as many as you can, and give pros and cons for each. 6. Who do you think is right about the menu: Dennis or Leon? 7. Is it possible for Dennis to change Leon’s opinion of him? If so, 8. Do you think Dennis and Leon might ever get together using the win/win problem-solving method? Would it be appropriate in this situation? how? KEY POINTS mana alternative course