Chapter 3 - Case Study - Making Decisions

 

Exhibit 3.3

Hannah’s Ice Cream

Ike Telloni had dreamed of running his own business. He had taken business courses in high school and continued his studies in the Commerce program at the University of Ottawa. When he graduated, he became employed with the Waterloo Ice Cream Company and worked there for ten years. Working first as a sales representative, he then became a regional marketing director for southern Ontario. After ten years of travelling for his job, Ike wanted to settle down. With three small children of his own, he decided to go back to Elgin Beach where he had grown up so that he could live close to his parents and family. In Elgin Beach, Ike found a small business for sale that he thought would be perfect for him.

Located on Elgin Beach’s main street and close to one of Lake Huron’s finest beaches, Hannah’s Ice Cream sells ice cream cones, sundaes, milkshakes and other ice cream products. The business had grown into a thriving enterprise over the years, and it was now an icon in the town. Well liked by the community, customers, and her staff, Hannah’s business had always been successful, but after 40 years it was time for her to retire.

One of the reasons for Hannah’s success was her treatment of her employees. She paid her workers more than minimum wage, provided incentives, held employee improvement meetings, and listened to the staff’s ideas. This was very important because most of Hannah’s staff were teenagers. Her customers were teenagers too, as well as families with small children, who Hannah knew would not be intimidated by a teenaged staff. Because they were enthusiastic, motivated, and friendly, the teenagers provided great customer service and all customers responded well to them.

Hannah’s business was a great success. In her last year she earned profits of  $150,000.

 

Current Operations

Ike was glad to leave the large corporation. Owning a small business appealed to him because he could be in charge and not report to a boss. From his experiences in a large corporation, Ike felt his strengths were in purchasing, accounting, and long term planning. To get these things done, he often worked from home as the shop was hectic, crowded, and employees were constantly asking him for help. He promoted one of his sales staff to the position of assistant manager. Nafeeza Shafie had worked in the shop for five years, was studying management at a local college, and was extremely well liked and respected by the employees.

After taking over from Hannah, the business has struggled in its first two years with Ike as owner. Ike’s staff found him to be difficult to work for, describing him as cold, uncommunicative and short-tempered with them. When they made errors, even small ones, he would loudly criticize them in front of other employees and customers. Ike felt this was appropriate as, after all, they were only teenagers and needed to learn how the business world functioned. The employees reacted in several ways, all of them negative: being late for work, not showing initiative, and being disrespectful to Ike. In one instance, Ike screamed at an employee and called him “stupid”, while there were customers in the shop. The customers left and the employee quit. Ike knew that people in the town were talking because he was asked about the incident while at a Chamber of Commerce meeting. Turnover in the company had increased and this cost him money as it was expensive and time consuming to find and train new employees.

Another problem came to light when Ike reviewed the financial records; revenues were down 17 percent and profits had fallen 22 percent. Ike’s reaction was to immediately cancel the employee bonus program, the weekly improvement meetings, and the monthly picnic for the employees and their families. He felt they were just “extras” he could no longer afford.

Then Ike heard a rumour about another ice cream shop opening up in the town, and that Nafeeza had been approached about being the new manager of the shop. Ike was scared about losing Nafeeza because he knew she was critical to the success of his business. Their relationship had become strained over the past few weeks, however. Ike had asked Nafeeza for her help in developing a marketing plan for the upcoming Canada Day celebrations. Hannah’s had always been famous in the community for its creative Canada Day promotions. Nafeeza worked very hard and developed an innovative campaign that included flyers, newspaper advertising, and coupons. It was designed to attract customers into the store at the beginning of the busy season. She was very proud of what she had accomplished. Ike’s responsibility was to deliver the advertising copy to the local newspaper; however, he forgot. Nafeeza was furious when she discovered that the advertisement had not run in the paper and all of her work had been for nothing. And by not contributing to the Canada Day celebration, Hannah’s had disappointed to community too.

 

Question

1.      Using the decision-making process from the textbook, provide Ike with a solution to his situation. Use subtitles and provide details.

 The solution for Ike would be that the situation that he is in isn’t the end of the world, and he always can change himself and starts again from the beginning.  Ike has lost some of his employees, but he still has some of them and he should try to keep them.  A first step that he could do is to have a meeting with the workers and ask them about the situation that they think would work because they know more than Ike about the customers in that origin.  Then he has to motivate the workers in order to get the best from them. However, the most important thing to do for him is to change the way he deals with workers and he has to believe in time working`. Also he has to understand that he can’t be successful without understanding his workers and respecting them.                   

 

 Case Study Process

1.       Read the case (done)

2.       Read the case again. (done)

3.       Choose a position—a consultant to Ike.

4.       Analyze the case in point form.

• Ike studies the Commerce program at the University of Ottawa. When he graduated, he worked at Waterloo Ice Cream Company for ten years.

• first he worked as a sales representative, then became a regional marketing director for southern Ontario.

• Later he decided to move to Elgin Beach where he had grown up so that he could live close to his parents and family. 

• In Elgin Beach, Ike found a small business with a good location for sale that he thought would be perfect for him. 

• The reason for the business success was the old owner’s treatment with the employees (ex:  She paid her workers more than minimum wage, provided incentives, held employee improvement meetings, and listened to the staff’s ideas.)

• the year before Ike became the owner of the business; it earned a profits of  $150,000.

• Ike's first step was to promote one of his sales staff to the position of assistant manager “Nafeeza Shafie” who was extremely well liked and respected by the other employees.

• After Ike became the owner; the business has struggled in its first two years with Ike as owner. Ike’s staff found him to be difficult to work for, describing him as cold, uncommunicative and short-tempered with them. 

• The employees reacted in several ways, all of them negative: being late for work, not showing initiative, and being disrespectful to Ike.

• After a while Ikle discovered that the revenues were down 17 percent and profits had fallen 22 percent. Therefore Ike canceled the employee bonus program, the weekly improvement meetings, and the monthly picnic for the employees and their families.

• Ike asked Nafeeza for her help in developing a marketing plan for the upcoming Canada Day celebrations.

• Nafeeza worked very hard and developed an innovative campaign that included flyers, newspaper advertising, and coupons. It was designed to attract customers into the store at the beginning of the busy season. She was very proud of what she had accomplished.

•  Ike’s responsibility was to deliver the advertising copy to the local newspaper; however, he forgot.

• Nafeeza was furious when she discovered that the advertisement had not run in the paper and all of her work had been for nothing.

5.       Discuss the case with others.

6.       Type the case in sentence form, using subtitles. It must be no longer than four pages, double spaced, 12 point font.  

7.       Use formal writing style:

a. Third person

b. No contractions

c. Write clearly and concisely

8.       Proofread yourself.

9.       Have someone else proofread your work.

Case Study - Making Decisions

Since Ike Telloni had been a kid he had dreamed to be a businessman; therefore, he studied some business courses in high school and then he continued his studies at the University of Ottawa and finished his Commerce program.  When he graduated his first job was at Waterloo Ice Cream Company he worked as a sales representative, then became a regional marketing director for southern Ontario.  Ike was happy with his job, but after ten years he realized that he has to spend more time with his parents and his family; therefore he decided to move to Elgin Beach where he had grown up.  At Elgin he decided to work for his own pocket, so he began looking for the right business that he would be successful in managing it until he found an ice cream store for sale Located on Elgin Beach’s main street and close to one of Lake Huron’s finest beaches.  The store was owned before Ike by a lady named Hanna who was so friendly with her employees and she gave them some advantages that they couldn’t find anywhere else like paying them more than the minimum wage, providing incentives, holding employee improvement meetings, and listening to the staff’s ideas. Therefore they had been working as a team even though the customers were able to feel the happiness of the employees and because of that they have achieved a very good salary for the last year which was  $150,000.  However after 40 years of selling ice cream cones, sundaes, milkshakes and other ice cream products Hanna decided to retire.  Ike tried to use his ten years experience to help him manage his own business, so first he promoted one of his sales staff to the position of assistant manager “Nafeeza Shafie” who was extremely well liked and respected by the other employees.  Then he began being lazy by not going to the store and doing the work from his home and not listening to his employee’s problems, also he had been unrespected and mean to them.  Which led the employees to act the same with him so they began being late for work, not showing initiative, and being disrespectful to Ike.  Ike struggling has started since he had been mean with his employees and the revenues were down 17 percent and profits had fallen 22 percent. Ike decided to take an action to rescue his business so he asked Nafeeza to do her best to help him for improving the store for the celebration of Canada day; even if Nafeeza wasn’t so happy about Ike but she decided to help him, so she worked very hard and developed an innovative campaign that included flyers, newspaper advertising, and coupons. It was designed to attract customers into the store at the beginning of the busy season. Nafeeza had done everything in a professional way trying to help the business to stand up again and she assigned Ike to deliver the  advertising copy to the local newspaper. However, Ike forgot to deliver them which made all the employees and Hanna mad about him.          

                     

10.   Complete the checklist below.

 

Checklist

__Yes_____ No longer than two pages, double spaced, 12 point font

__yes_____Subtitles included

__Yes_____ Sentence and paragraph form

__Yes_____ Implementation at least ¾ of a page long

__Yes_____ Title page (not included in the page count)

__Yes_____ Proofread by you

__Yes_____ Proofread by someone else (Name: Maya Safar)