Kutler Fine Foods

Leveraging Values-Based Service Quality for Sustained Growth at Kudler Fine Foods

MGT 521

Leveraging Values-Based Service Quality at Kudler Fine Foods for Sustained Growth

Kudler Fine Foods is a gourmet foods shop with three locations in Southern California. Kudler Fine Foods was founded in 1998 by Kathy Kudler; its mission “is to provide its customers the finest in selected foodstuffs, wines, and related needs in an unparalleled consumer environment” (Kudler Fine Foods, 2003, 2005, 2008).

The problem with Kutler Fine Foods lies in the amount of work that is dependent on one individual, Kathy Kutler. Kathy does all of the buying and makes most of the decisions. She has hired specialists in key areas – bakery, meat and seafood, produce, cheese and dairy, and wine. These specialists are fairly expensive in FTE, but do not have the power or authority to contribute to their specialty areas to justify their expense. In addition, Kathy’s level of involvement in the day-to-day business of all three stores is disenfranchising for the management staff she has hired. None of the staff at Kutler Fine Food are empowered in any way to contribute significantly to either the short- or long-term well being of the stores (Kudler Fine Foods, 2003).

The end-state goal would be to have a clear plan for moving power down the organizational chart from Kathy Kutler to her employees at various levels. Decision-making should be made at the appropriate level. The manager and assistant manager for each store needs to be empowered to handle ALL of the day-to-day decision-making for their stores. They should also be responsible and accountable for the profitability of each store. The specialists in each department should be empowered to do all of the buying for their departments either as individuals or as a team buying for all three stores at once. These specialists should also be heavily involved in training the staff below them in each department so that expertise in...