Assignment title: Management
Vivienne comes from a well-off family that had immigrated to Australia from
Hong Kong when she was small. Her parents had worked hard and become well
established in Sydney's Chinese business community. Despite their success, they
believed their children should learn for themselves how to work hard and how to
value money.
Vivienne and her brothers had all worked in restaurants part-time and over the
holidays while they were studying. Vivienne was just about to graduate with a
Bachelor of Commerce degree, majoring in human resource management and
management. Her two brothers had done degrees in accounting and law.
Vivienne's hobby was cooking – she was a keen follower of MasterChef but also
enjoyed other cooking shows, and read recipes and books about food and travel
to relax. Now her parents had come up with a great idea – they would set
Vivienne and her brothers up in a restaurant in Newcastle when they graduated
at the end of the year!
It was a big challenge. Vivienne, Walter and Stephen had talked about what
type of restaurant they would like. They decided on a restaurant that would
have excellent food – a Chinese restaurant that would specialise in seafood, have
great Hong Kong style dumplings and yum cha. They also wanted the service to
be really professional – friendly, knowledgeable, efficient. They wanted their
restaurant to be a little bit 'hip', to attract young people, particularly the
overseas students in town; but also to be a place where people would be
comfortable bringing their families. So - great food, great service, but good
value.
Where would they begin? The three of them decided that Walter and Stephen
would be in charge of setting up the business and accounting arrangements,
ordering systems and so on. They would all agree on the design and location;
they had decided to find some premises that would take about 30 tables – about
80 people – plus a small bar. But Vivienne's job was, in the first instance, to
think about some of the most important issues in what sort of workforce they
should find. Usually owners begin by employing a chef to be in charge of the
kitchen, but Vivienne wanted to be very careful and not make any mistakes. She
wanted the staff to be really engaged in making the restaurant a success. How
was she going to achieve the dream that she and her brothers shared?
YOUR TASK:
What steps must Vivienne and her brothers take to successfully decide on
and then fill the jobs in their new restaurant?
Where might they source employees?
In what ways might they attempt to design the jobs to make them as
interesting and challenging as possible