Case Study

ANDY’S RECIPE
E. KHISHIGMAA
Andy’s Recipe

Question 1: What accounts for Andy’s success in the restaurant business?

Every business has its challenges, but Andy Garafallo found his way to overcome those challenges. From

my research to run a restaurant’s business successfully, there are 7 tips from a successful business

owner. After analyzing both a case and article, it proved Andy’s restaurant has 5 out of 7 of those tips

worked successfully for his restaurant. The article mentioned, “7 lessons from successful restaurant

owner Cameron Mitchell which are set specific goals, start with culture and values, put your associates

first, make a milkshake toast, scale the culture, scale the concept, bridge the front and back of house,

and figure out how to make it works” (Terenzio, 2018).

Set specific goals. It is important to understand where you are going, especially when it comes to

business. Therefore, Andy’s specific goal was to serve people with great food. He didn’t want to try new

things, he just maintains what he has, and how to reach his specific goal.

Start with culture and values. He has a very important value which “You get business by being what you

should be.” In my opinion, this statement clearly defines his value of running a business.

Put your associates first. Andy is a great leader because of his way of leading his managers. He tries to

teach and coach his managers. Therefore, it has shown that Andy knows the worth of his managers, and

how to work efficiently together.

Bridge the front and back of the house. Since Andy knows the worth of employees, he has to take care

of his customers. Therefore, he has convenience and will to serve them as much as they want. It makes

his business more profitable because he knows that people want convenience when it comes to taking a

service.

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Figure out how to make it work. Although he has a good strategy to maintain his business, Andy still

faces some troubles. Some of his workers have a communication problem, some customers want

difficult things. But, he always finds a way of how to manage these problems.

Question 2: From a skills perspective, how would you describe the three managers, Kelly, Danielle,

and Patrick? What does each of them need to do to improve his or her skills?

Kelly has very good technical skills. She knows her duty and responsibilities of working as a kitchen

manager. According to Andy, she has a lack of human skills. Therefore, to improve her human skills, she

has to learn from her mistakes from her coworkers’ feedback and criticism, try to read other’s body

language and perspectives (Weinstein, 2010).

Opposite of Kelly, Danielle has incredible human skills. Same as Andy, she’s a very good relation with her

customers and tries to give them a good service. But, her problem is a technical skill. According to

Pavlina, “Strong technical skills can save you time, increase your income, and enable you to extract the

most bang-per-buck from your technology purchases” ("10 Ways to Improve Your Technical Skills",

2015). From his advice, Danielle has to take online classes, read technical books and hang out with

experts. It is always a good idea to get some help from experts.

Patrick has both human and technical skills, he can manage his coworkers and customers. But he still has

to improve his human skills. In my opinion, he has to understand psychology and human behavior due to

the need for an improvement in his human skills.

Question 3: How would you describe Andy’s competencies? Does Andy’s leadership suggest that one

does not need all three skills in order to be effective?

In my view, Andy has all three skills, he knows his business model, he has an ability to communicate with

employees and customers, and he has strategy to work effectively and efficiently. Although he does not

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take too much time on numbers, his business still gets a higher profit because of their convenience and

hospitality.

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References

Pavlina, S. (2015, November 4). 10 Ways to Improve Your Technical Skills. Retrieved from

https://www.stevepavlina.com/blog/2006/08/10-ways-to-improve-your-technical-skills/

Terenzio, O. (2018, August 28). 7 Lessons in Running a Successful Restaurant Company from Cameron

Mitchell. Retrieved from https://restaurant.opentable.com/news/qas/7-lessons-running-successful-

restaurant-company-cameron-mitchell/

Weinstein, B. (2010, September 7). Four tips for improving your people skills. Retrieved from

https://www.reliableplant.com/Read/26406/Four-tips-people-skills