LA NAPOLI CASE STUDY

La Napoli Case Study

La Napoli Case Study

Introduction

The purpose of this paper is to expand the boundaries of our knowledge by taking the role of a management consultant who has been hired by John Clarke to advise him regarding the current situation at La Napoli. In this paper, we as consultant will prepare a report for John Clarke addressing the issues being faced by management. In this paper, we will critically analyse the cultural issues facing the 'La Napoli' restaurant. Furthermore, we will also identify the problematic symptoms that we have observed in the case study material. These are indicators of underlying issues and challenges facing management. After critical examination of cultural issues at La Napoli restaurant, we will diagnose one key managerial problem facing management. Finally, we will provide specific recommendations for action to address this problem.

Identification of Problematic Symptoms

Case Overview

La Napoli is an Italian restaurant located in one of Hong Kong's rising shopping centres. Compio, the developer of La Napoli's restaurant idea, is an Italian-American chef who is looking for one last project to 'make his mark' in the world of cuisine. He had studied Italian cuisine for many years and was widely acknowledged as an expert in the field, having earned the accolade 'Master Chef' some years earlier. For investment back up, Compio has approached Tom Brown's in search of financial backing. The restaurant would not fit naturally with the rest of the chain which was mid-priced, as opposed to Compio's plans for a top quality, fine-dining experience to appeal to the higher end of the market. Tom Brown's restaurants were vaguely international in nature, serving a sort of Hong-Kong version of European food, with an emphasis on British styles of service with a Chinese flavour, again very different from a specialist and authentic Italian cuisine. The board saw this as an opportunity to diversify their portfolio and were easily convinced by Compio of the lack of serious competition they would face from what he perceived to be the rather pathetic existing Italian restaurants.

Underlying Issues

Following are the issues and problems faced by the management of La Napoli before and after the restaurant officially opened for guests and customers.

The first problem due to which it becomes difficult for the management to retain its employee is positively associated with Compio's attitude. He was highly ill-tempered. He always wanted to control his employees as he wanted him to be.

Secondly, Compio's view on reward was to pay as little as possible, there was no fairness or equity in rewarding staff.

Compio was more leaned towards hiring Italians only

Many of these problems involved dealing with municipal bureaucracy. The management team found the demands on their time dealing with the challenges of opening a restaurant business in a country that was foreign to most of them minimised the amount of time available to train their new staff.

Waiters had faced difficulty communicating in English while often being unable to describe the content of, or translate the Italian names for unusual ...