Sample Report On Morrison’s Dilemma

1.0 Statement of the problem
The concern is brought about by the decreasing revenues of their business as evident in the preceding year of operation. Sales have dwindled over time due to decreased demand for services at the restaurant. Morrison observes that there has been a significant decrease in lunch demands and an overall reduction of sales revenues. Morrison also observes that despite the restaurant offering three services, the takeout, and catering programs have a very minimal share of revenues at about 9% each which is troubling given the fact that the two services are very popular in the general Canadian hospitality industry(Canadian Restaurant & Foodservice Association, 2012).
This points out to a bigger underlying problem in various segments of the establishment’s organization which might include marketing in order to attract demand for the services and consequently raise awareness and interest, and accounting discrepancies which might lead to a problem with correct financial reporting and sales accounting. This might lead to a notion where not all activities are captured in the accounting statements.
2.0 Analysis of the case
The weak marketing skills originated from the reliance of oral marketing by the business proprietors, though this involves confidence in the business by the management, it may not be effective enough especially in the Canadian society which promotes individualism in itself. The some services that can be a source of revenue like take out services and catering are not advertised in the popular NOW magazine is an indication of the negligence of these important revenue sources. The fact that catering services are the only service that registered increased growth is a sign that the service should be marketed as much as possible. 93% of customers reported not to have any knowledge about catering services and 96% of them are willing so as to use service.
The marketing is also undermined by the lack of concern for the local students’ community residing in the University of Toronto. The students can be used to drive up demand. The restaurant also appears to have adopted wrong strategies to attract demand and market themselves by sponsoring a local team and giving free lunch to students once a month in the hope of introducing them to new cuisine and eventually widen the market.
Morrison reports that there is poor accounting setback. There is missing documentation for sales activity for catering services and discrepancies in takeout service documentation. This informs that there is underreporting in the statements of finances for the business which can be misleading the business. There appears to be a problem with the physical business premises. This is because there is a problem with the washroom areas where patrons usually line on the stairway to access the washroom. There is also a problem with the interior building design of the establishment’s structure where most clients wait to get served at a counter supposed to be used to take orders. Moreover, the counter stands at the entrance of the establishment which may restrict the movement of patrons into the restaurant and cause time wastage for servers to take orders.
Another visible problem that might lead to decreased revenue and demands is the problem of staffing. The business management uses intuition to predict high and low seasons for the restaurant which has been reported not to be reliable as it leads erroneous forecasting. Lunch time usually comes with a time limit and delayed customers have little probability of coming back, and this might lead to decreased demand.
Therefore, the constraints of the establishment operation are usually in the accessibility of the establishment by patrons who drive. Another constraint is the lack of a recognizable signage at the entrance of the establishment and another constraint is the location of the establishmentto an area inhabited by Italians and Portuguese. The opportunities available to the business are the fact that the city has over one million residents of Caribbean decent and the popularity of the Caribbean culture which includes the cuisine.
3.0 Alternatives for solving the problem
These situations can be rectified in order to restore the business back to the path of achieving profitability in the long run. The alternatives are: relocating the business, employing a financial manager and investing more in marketing. The restaurant is situated in an area that is predominantly non-Caribbean; furthermore, the area is served by restaurants that meet the tastes and preferences of the local population. The business should, therefore, be moved to a residential area where most of the over 1m Caribbean residents reside in, in Toronto.
There is no financial manager in the business. The partners are both operations and administrative managers where financial management is not the main specialization of any of them. Financial management is the core to the success of any business, and no business can progress without it. The management should invest more in advertising and avoid reliance on contemporary oral narrative format. The advertisements in the magazine should also feature catering and take out services as much as the main service of eat-in is concerned.
4.0 Criteria for key decision
The main criterion for selecting the most suitable alternative revolves around improving sales revenue as well as the ease of implementation of the appropriate strategy.
5.0 Evaluation of the alternatives as based on criteria
The alternatives are changing of location of the restaurant to a Caribbean predominant residential area which stands at 1.2million according to Statistics Canada(2013). Employing a financial manager to keep track of accounts and offer financial advice and to do more marketing’s services through different media like Billboard, posts, and brochure.
Canadian Restaurant & Foodservice Association (2012) advises business managers to employ financial managers. Employing a financial manager would lead to better andtransparent activities and the data for catering and take out services that are often unknown can be brought to light. This can lead to the identification of underperforming services, and the business can, in turn, adopt strategies to improve sales. The will be ease in implementing this strategy due to the short time required to find a personnel and put the person to task. There would certainly be internal shake-ups, but the clients might never realize what is happening as they will not be inconvenienced.
Advertising on other media might not improve sales as the NOW magazine advertisements have a wide readership in the city. The most crucial thing would be to include the catering and take out services in the advertisements in the magazine. This will increase sales, and there is a lot of ease in implementation given that the cost and timing of the program will be predictable and effective.
Relocation to a residential area that is predominantly Caribbean might yield improvements in sales in the long run, but the ease of implantation is compromised due to legality, financial and time issues that come along with the process.
6.0 Recommendations
The most appropriate alternative to be considered is no single in this case. Employment of a financial manager would lead to a sound financial management which might recommend changes in the operations and administrative pattern establishment. There will be better record keeping which might shade light on underperforming services in the future and call for a change of strategy, like closing during lunch time and investing more in dinners, take outs and catering.
The partners should employ a financial manager for the establishment; the work specification would be mainly record keeping and financial reporting. The most important quality for the employee would be honesty and integrity. After streamlining the financial management, there should be the inclusion of catering and take out services in advertisements so that they can be significant contributors to the sales revenue.
7.0 Conclusion
The partners should advertise for a job specification of a financial manager in the magazine where they usually do advertising. They should be cautious enough in order to acquire an individual of integrity. The individual should be responsible for ensuring proper documentations of all sales and adhere to the principles of financial reporting. After finances have been streamlined, the restaurant should focus on inclusive advertising and feature more on catering and take out services that are promising and high rewarding. The management should be cautious enough to ensure that the cost and time aspects of the implementation plans are not overwhelming to the business.
8.0 References
Canadian Restaurant & Foodservice Association. (2012). Foodservice Operations Report.Retrieved on 14 April, 2016 from Canadian Restaurant & Foodservice Association Research: http://www.crfa.ca/opsreport/login.asp.
Fair Dealing Policy. (2006) Case studies dealings. Retrieved on 14 April, 2016 from
http://libguides.royalroads.ca/fair_dealing
Statistics Canada. (2013). City of Toronto: Census on Language, Immigration, Citizenship, Mobility/Migration. Retrieved on 14 April, 2016 from Toronto Census and Trends: http://www.toronto.ca/demographics/reports.htm.
Statistics Canada. (2014). Immigrant Population by place of birth, by census metropolitan area.Retrieved on 14 April, 2016 from Immigrant population by place of birth: http://www40.statcan.gc.ca/l01/cst01/demo35c-eng.htm.