California Pizza Kitchen

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Nathan Thompson

December 18, 2010

Dr. Donald Reinhart

MGT 599

California Pizza Kitchen

  California Pizza Kitchen Inc. was created in 1985 by attorneys Rick Rosenfield and Larry Flax. The company operates more than 150 full-service restaurants and 24 ASAP quick-service locations in 27 states and five countries. California Pizza Kitchen's menu was innovative from inception, offering unique pizzas topped with everything from barbecued chicken and duck, to grilled shrimp and Jamaican jerk chicken. It also serves a variety of salads, soups, pastas, sandwiches, appetizers, and desserts. California Pizza Kitchen's pizzas can be found in grocery store freezers as well, thanks to a partnership with Kraft Foods.

The founders of California Pizza Kitchen are Larry Flax and Rick Rosenfield. Flax, a native of Los Angeles, California, was educated at the University of Southern California Law School and served as an Assistant United States Attorney during the early 1970s. In that capacity, Flax worked as Chief of Civil Rights and as Assistant Chief of the Criminal Division for the United States Department of Justice. Rosenfield, a native of Chicago,

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worked as an attorney for the U.S. Department of Justice in Washington, D.C., and as Assistant U.S. Attorney for the Central District of California. Having met while pursuing their respective careers as assistant federal prosecutors, the two men struck up a friendship during the early 1970s and decided to form their own law firm. Concentrating on criminal defense cases, in 1984 the two partners found themselves arguing a case before a Superior Court Judge in San Francisco. Flax and Rosenfield strongly believed that the facts of the case were in their favor, but the jury was unable to reach a verdict. Disillusioned by the hung jury, the two young men decided to leave the legal profession to seek a more rewarding career.

The strategy behind California Pizza Kitchen was simple. The owners...