Introduction Youve been learning about how important it is for you, as a leader, to step up and manage changewhether its change that happens to your organization or changes you implement to make

The changes and challenges within Café Cupcake

Cafe Cupcake has three identifiable issues that seem to be holding back its growth and scalability across the country. Internally, Cafe Cupcake has struggled with employee dissatisfaction, inconsistent performance, and disagreement over what the company's next move should be. Their strategy and structure have nothing to do with employee concerns. The company's rapid growth and success overwhelmed the leaders' desire to expand, driving a wedge between them and the workforce. Despite their efforts to develop a comprehensive human resources plan, the three top leaders failed to agree on the future. The company lacked a clear vision due to three very different personal priorities. Despite growing rapidly with , multimillion-dollar revenues, Café Cupcake has experienced one of the most common norms in the restaurant industry: high turnover and disgruntled employees. “Constantly falling behind and not having enough time to complete all tasks and responsibilities.” "No overview of promotions and advancement." "A perfectionist mindset leads to a constant sense of failure." "Managers are overworked and underpaid." store managers complained desperately of being overworked and stressed. Frontline workers blamed differences in training and policies for their dissatisfaction and lack of attention to detail. When asked if they have an adequate training program and clear quality service standards, 50% of employees disagree. As expanded globally, Davis and Bisset relied on regional managers and directors to communicate company culture to employees. They tried several attempts to solve this problem, such as creating policies, and procedures manuals, re-evaluating staff, eliminating disgruntled and apathetic staff, and visiting each store to confirm their commitment to a team focused on customer service, reliability, and attention. Expect detail and pride. in effort. in the business. Between 2013 and 2016, their efforts paid off and they opened 20 new cafes. The bigger the company, the more it needs a better management team. They decided to appoint six (6) regional managers, each responsible for seven (7) stores and even created a separate bakery department. With the addition of multiple levels of management in the company and the adoption of rigid formal procedures, another problem of lack of flexibility and decision-making capacity arises. At that moment, Davis and Bissett knew they needed an expert in human resources and business management. Dr. Jonathan Patel is perfect for solving the Cupcake Café problem. He quickly understood the cause of the problem, as their HR system was too informal and uncoordinated to provide services on a global scale. Store managers have the power to hire staff and make them feel like the owners of the business, but they often hire their friends without in-depth interviews. Patel insists the company needs to improve key things like recruiting, selection processes, and promotions before expanding and adding more than 4,444 locations. As an expert in the field, Patel has that right, because we can form technical skills, but not values. Finding the right people who fit the company culture will reduce turnover and increase engagement. However, Bisset disagreed because they wanted to leverage the brand and product to maximize their market share.

The Internal or external challenge, source of challenge, and the cause.

There are four main internal weaknesses of Café Cupcake and two major external threats that need to be addressed. First, the management team was wondering what to do with the direct business" as mentioned earlier, one wanted to expand nationwide, and the other wanted to develop the product. with healthier foods and a third person wants to focus on maximizing IPO funds (Mayo & Beckham, 2018, p.7). Second, Dr. Patel rolled out new guidelines, emphasizing quarterly meetings, roundtables, and weekly webinars for managers. While this improves business operations, it takes time to validate these changes; therefore, the IPO option is not ideal for concurrency. Third, managers and employees are not satisfied with their jobs; "managers are overworked and underpaid" and front-line workers feel "not motivated enough" (Mayo & Beckham, 2018, p.11). Employees feel a lack of compliance with the policies outlined in the handbook, and managers feel that the limitation on flexibility and innovation stems from the handbook. Fourth, managers are known to hire friends, leading to workplace bias and ineffective one-time bonuses. Finally, external threats include poor customer reviews and the trend toward a healthier menu market. Blaine Schreiner's comment: This is a much better topic sentence. The rest of the paragraph should follow this guideline and indicate whether a weakness or threat has been identified. Blaine Schreiner Comments, a decision point of differing opinions is not a weakness unless it creates an inability to move forward. We are far from this point as we should develop a plan to address this challenge. Blaine Schreiner Comments: It is not considered a weakness. He said the new guidelines need more time. Blaine Schreiner Comments: These are the main issues in the case. The biggest problem facing the company is this one — expansion, product development, and an IPO will only succeed if hiring, training, and evaluation issues are resolved. The challenge yet to be identified is that the three main leaders are also overwhelmed and do not have enough time to conduct a background check. There is concern that the quality of products and services will decline without this oversight.

Opportunities in the International Markets

Opportunities are macro-environmental factors and developments that Cafe Cupcake can capitalize on to strengthen its existing market position or expand further. Opportunities can arise from various factors such as political developments and policy changes, technological innovations, changes in consumer preferences, increases in consumer disposable income, and economic growth. The rise of machine learning and artificial intelligence is changing the technological landscape in which Cafe Cupcake operates. According to Anthony J. Mayo and Heather Beckham, Cafe Cupcake can leverage these developments to improve efficiency, reduce costs and transform processes. Globalization offers opportunities in international markets. Cafe Cupcake is in a great position to capitalize on these opportunities and grow its market share. Anthony J Mayo and Heather Beckham said growing international markets could also help Cafe Cupcake diversify risk, as it would reduce its reliance on local markets for revenue.

Café Cupcake and their response to change

Cafe cupcake's success didn't come overnight, their strong social media presence took time and effort, which helped them reach new audiences. Through a well-executed social media strategy, Cafe Cupcake was able to connect with customers on a deeper level, driving loyalty and word-of-mouth marketing. Cafe Cupcake responds to change by taking on challenges that allow the business to grow and become a successful organization.

Preparing for change

After bringing Dr. Johnathan Patel, which is a new addition to the board who had to receive his doctorate in organization and management and help consulted many high-growth companies to develop solutions, he was able to map out a solution for café Cupcake taking on the new changes and challenges that the company faced. Patel could not pass up the chance to help lead the organization to its next level.

Doing things differently from Café Cupcake

I would delay national expansion and focus more on improving manager and employee satisfaction, improving the selection, and hiring process while introducing healthier food options to stay competitive with the global trends market. I will also implement HR processes for new results as this will help improve the business. Providing employee surveys will help assess their satisfaction needs and provide feedback while keeping owners informed.

Conclusion

Cafe Cupcake is one of the leaders in this industry. Over the years, it has changed the business landscape not only in their field but in the industry. The ability to lead change enables Cafe Cupcake to enter new markets, reach new customers, and deliver different value propositions to different customers in international markets. Cafe Cupcake's ability to deal with the adversity that many businesses can face will help them grow and evolve as they do, providing solutions to problems and using the four components of digital transformation, embracing the technology to explore new products and market opportunities.

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