Great Italian Cuicine Without Wait free essay sample

It needed a domestic avenue for growth. Alessio had persuaded Porcini’s senior executives to consider opening limited-menu outlets, Porcini’s â€Å"Pronto,† to serve interstate highway travelers. Most competitors serving this market were fast-food or low-end outlets. Alessio believed that Pronto could offer a quality difference that travelers would value, but the challenges were substantial. Could Pronto’s profitably provide a limited selection of Porcini’s standard menu at moderate prices without jeopardizing the company’s reputation for excellent food? Could it maintain Porcini’s famously high service standards? Could it profitably break into a market occupied by established competitors? Food and service quality were only two aspects of the challenge. Porcini’s—a slow-growing, privately held enterprise—would need to roll out its new restaurants quickly in order to establish itself as a powerful brand. With limited capital and access to prime real estate sites, however, that seemed unlikely unless it adopted either a franchising or a syndication model of ownership. We will write a custom essay sample on Great Italian Cuicine Without Wait or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page The first risked the company’s quality reputation; the second might produce a pace of growth that the company was ill-equipped to handle. Working with VP of Operations Kurt Jensen, HR director Wanda Halloran, and Chief Chef Mariana Molise, Alessio had sketched out tactics for facilitating Pronto’s quality goals. These included an innovative process for selecting, appraising, and rewarding employees, and the use of wireless technology to eliminate time from customer billing. Meanwhile, Chef Molise had begun formulating menu items for â€Å"great Italian cuisine without the wait. † In Alessio’s mind, all parts of the Pronto concept—service quality, food quality, pricing, branding, location, and ownership form—had to be coordinated and mutually supportive. Copyright  © 2011 President and Fellows of Harvard College. To order copies or request permission to reproduce materials, call 1-800-545-7685, write Harvard Business Publishing, Boston, MA 02163, or go to http://www. hbsp. harvard. edu. This publication may not be digitized, photocopied, or otherwise reproduced, posted, or transmitted, without the permission of Harvard Business School. 4277 | Porcini’s Pronto: â€Å"Great Italian cuisine without the wait! † Company Background Porcini’s, Inc. , had begun in 1969 as a family-owned restaurant in Boston’s North End—a largely Italian-American neighborhood. Over the next two decades it opened new Porcini’s restaurants in Hyannis, Massachusetts, Providence and Newport, Rhode Island, and Hartford, Connecticut. In 1989, the family (the Ventolas) sold a controlling interest in the enterprise to a group of private investors. The new management expanded to a number of downtown and shopping mall locations in the northeastern United States, competing with equivalently priced full-service restaurant chains. Except during the recession of 2008–2009, Porcini’s had increased revenues and earnings every year. By yearend 2010, Porcini’s, Inc. , operated 23 locations, employed 954 eople (many part-time), and generated $94. 3 million in revenues. Its profit margin had risen to 4% from less than 3% the year before. Even as many competitors were suffering, Porcini’s was doing well. The company’s senior executives attributed Porcini’s success to uniformly high-quality food and service at each location. That quality could be traced to the long experience of individual restaurant managers, supervisory personnel, and chefs, a relatively stable workforce, and to the recipes of Chef Mariana Molise, who had won the coveted James Beard award while running the kitchen at New York’s Catania Grille. On joining the company in 2006, Molise applied her culinary principles to Porcini’s less-pricey menu and personally trained each outlet’s chef in her â€Å"flash cooking† techniques. Her signature vitello ala Mariana and pan-seared scallops with mushrooms had become favorites throughout the chain. â€Å"Twenty-three restaurants,† one restaurant critic told readers, â€Å"and each makes almost everything from scratch, using fresh ingredients and artful presentations. † And yet the average entree cost only two or three dollars more than those of Olive Garden’s, a near rival. As management saw it, attention to quality differentiated it from Olive Garden, and from more formulaic competitors such as Unos, Bertucci’s, and Buca di Beppo. Also, each Porcini’s created the ambiance of a unique, family-owned restaurant—in keeping with its North End roots—unlike the â€Å"Italian theme park† atmosphere of many competitors. Customers valued the difference and made Porcini’s a powerful regional brand. Table service matched the food in quality; in 2010 a prominent New England restaurant guide gave Porcini’s its â€Å"Best Chain Service† award for the fourth consecutive year.

Lyndon Johnsons Effect of AMerican Foriegn Policy Towards Isreal essays

Lyndon Johnsons Effect of AMerican Foriegn Policy Towards Isreal essays The following is a discussion of American foreign policy towards Israel, and the Middle East. In it I will show that Lyndon Johnson changed the regional position and opinion of the United Stated by adapting a pro Israeli stance, categorized by excusing many unadvised forceful actions taken by Israel. It will be shown how Johnsons response to the outbreak of the 1967 War was the major factor in the change. These changes took the first steps in developing the close friendship between America and Israel. Other factors will be discussed. The cold war had a major effect on policy decisions. This will be shown through a historical account of his predecessors policies in their dealings with the region. I will show that American some presidents had pro Israeli feelings, but aimed at staying neutral, and keeping the broadness of American influence in the Middle East. In all dealings, American presidents tried to appease both sides, and keep the peace. It was not until Lyndon Johnson came to power that policy took such pro Israeli turn. His predecessor John F Kennedy set the stage, but its roots lie in the Truman presidency, when Israel was not yet a nation. The analysis next leads to Eisenhower, his stance during the Suez Canal Crisis, gained America a good standing amongst Israelis and Arabs. The foundations for the 1967 war are built on this crisis. Harry Truman looked at the issue through Humanitarian eyes, as did his predecessor, Franklin Roosevelt. The two both truly felt sorry for what had had happened to the Jews and wanted to see some reparations made. These two men had their cabinets, state department and foreign affairs to consider before making a public stance on their Jewish feelings. Truman had a very bureaucratic, and anti Semitic state department to deal with. He called them the striped pants boys. These boys saw no reason to stress the urgent creation of a Jewish state, and were in no hurry...