California Pizza Kitchen

CALIFORNIA PIZZA KITCHEN TUI University Instructor: MGT599 Module 1 Case Study The purpose of this report is to identify and give feedback on the company’s current mission and vision statements as well as its values and goals as stated (or not) by the founders and management. The need to have a clear vision and a real mission statement is fundamental and vital for all businesses. The values that make the company what it is and the end state or goals that it wishes to achieve are equally important.

In looking at these factors I will identify the following where possible: What is California Pizza Kitchen’s vision statement and is it relevant? What is CPK’s mission statement and is it effective? What are the values and short and long term goals and what is the company doing to clarify and refine them on a continuous basis? Hildy Gottleib of the Community-Driven Institute has an excellent way of differentiating and explaining what vision and mission statements are. She says the simplest way of doing it is using three little letters and they are “ARY. Used in this way, Vision and Mission look quite different and are much easier to understand. (Gottleib) She goes on to say that written in this way it is easy to understand that when someone is a visionary they are able to see what it is they want to do and as a missionary they are able to execute their vision. She used the analogy of Jesus. He was the visionary and his disciples were the missionaries. (Gottleib) A good majority of organizations have websites like CPK’s. On these websites most companies will give their mission statement if you will.

This statement is important for many reasons. It is stated so that potential clients and or investors can learn what the company is about when it comes to business. This is what helps draw people to the business. When people have a clear understanding as to what a company does or wishes to do in regards to customer service, it causes them to take stock of the company and determine if the company is a right for their consumer needs. My research of the company shows that the company has no mission statement as of publication of this report.

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The closest mission statement (if one were to call it that) that I could potentially identify was “CPK’s strong brand awareness has been developed primarily through full service restaurants and through the expansion of our high quality fast-casual, CPK/ASAP concept”. (Smith) I believe another way of saying this is that it is California Pizza Kitchen’s mission to be a “leader in authentic California-style cuisine” (all the while) being widely known for diverse and innovative menu items. This is no clear mission statement as given by the company but rather this person’s interpretation.

If you read their website you will not find much of anything except their personal story. Although this is nice, it tells neither the customer nor the potential investor anything as to what the company is striving towards in clear language. It does nothing to spark or draw interest to the company. California Pizza Kitchen has no clear or discernable mission statement and their vision statement is just as absent. On their company website is stated the founders intent but not their vision “Having always wanted to get into the restaurant business; they traded in their legal pads to serve hearth-baked pizzas. (California Pizza kithen) Their unspoken business vision was to create pizzas that were an interpretation or a culmination of food with an international flair on a global level. Their pizzas include such creations as a Jamaican Jerk, Thai, and shrimp pizza. This flair has served the company well. Although the company has gone through a rough patch while under the ownership of PepsiCo which nearly ran the business aground due to what some may say was an overly aggressive business model , the company is now back on track with the original founders put back in control of the company.

This has allowed CPK to right itself and grow at a more realistic pace. The founders have been allowed to lead the company as they intended at the start and the brand name is flourishing. It is because of this vision that the company is again succeeding. So, it is fair to say that the company has a vision but that vision is shallow and has no clear long term ambition other than serving specialty pizza. I have made numerous inquiries both by email and phone calls to the main office and other places within the company to clearly state their values and goals.

I finally received a reply from a Mr. Locksley who is a member of their marketing and relations department. My request to him was simple; tell me what you understand the company’s values and goals to be. He simply regurgitated in an email his company’s web page statement. This is not good. Either he is unable to clearly communicate the company’s values statement as well as their goals or, there are none. It is my findings that the company has no values or goals statements. The company is simply operating on a loose configuration of statements given on a webpage or in an employee handbook.

The company touts respect, opportunity, communication, and kindness (R. O. C. K) for all just like all other companies but, there is nothing that I could locate in my search for the employees to get behind other than that. (California Pizza kithen) The company has not given its employees a set of values that all can get on the same page with or real sustenance and purpose. There is an employee handbook but it is more like a generic/vanilla document that covers employee benefits, requirements for uniform standards, and other HR issues. No wonder the employees have no clue.

You can’t enforce company standards or values if you don’t ensure that all have access to them in order to read and comply. This is totally unsatisfactory. Goals, the company has no clear or identifiable set of goals in its current state. While under PepsiCo the company had a goal to grow at a stated pace over so many years, while under the current leadership they are focused solely on repairing the damage to the brand name caused by PepsiCo. This could be a goal of sorts but it does or says nothing to the effect of what the company’s future overall end state is.

The company must look at its current situation and develop a set of goals that will enable it to better move forward and grow. Although the company will either continue to survive or eventually wither and fail, a good set of goals will enable everyone to work smarter and more effectively toward success. This aspect is of great importance to company shareholders in that it affects their profits. If the company can’t define a clear goal for the company in regards to profits then the stakeholders in the company suffer and will eventually sell out.

Stakeholders want to make money as in any organization and if they don’t, they will revolt on management until it responds. Some things that I would recommend to the company in general are: 1. work aggressively to develop a short and long term vision for your company. 2. After you have your vision identified, develop a team of individuals to recognize your mission and then implement it by sending company leadership out to the employees to articulate it. Once everyone knows what it is the company wants it can begin to implement that vision by working to achieve it. . Take a consensus from across the entire work force in what it deems is or is appropriate values that you want the company to follow. This can be done by online employee surveys or management at each store location polling workers on site. You can gather results either way and decide on those values that are important to all workers at every level and exemplify the very best traits and characteristics of your business. This will allow workers to feel good about where they work and give customers a more positive attitude about the business they are frequenting. . Develop a goal for your business. You can have a goal for employees in regards to customer service and one for the future growth and development of CPK franchises. Both will reap huge rewards for you business. I recommend that you place your vision, mission, values, and goals in high visibility locations throughout the organization. This allows everyone to read and understand what it is they are working towards. Place them in the company board room so that the CEO and board of directors can see it every time they meet.

Use them as a gauge to see if the senior leaders are using them to make decisions which support your various statements. If their not then either replace them or hold them accountable for their failures by withholding bonuses or other perks. In conclusion, the company has no set vision, mission, or values statements. There are no clear and defined goals for the organization. The company must do the following in order to begin the process of changing: 1. Develop a vision statement in order to allow everyone to understand what it is the company wants or intends to do. 2.

Develop a mission statement that supports that vision. Then, with the vision, begin to work aggressively to realize that vision. 3. Access your company as a whole and determine those values that will support your vision and mission from those that are within your employee base. Tweak and revise constantly in order to ensure that your company reflects the very best and important aspects of your employee base and that they genuinely feel like a part of the team effort. Your employees are your business and the most important part at that. Without them you are out of business.

Hold management (CEO, Board of Directors) accountable in ensuring that they make decisions based off of various established statements. 4. Lastly, strongly impart to everyone what the overall goal(s) are for the organization and give them the tools and support to achieve it/them. The company must ensure that it effectively incorporates and uses the first three legs of the support (vision, mission, values) to realize the final result or goal. A goal is nothing without the latter three. With these recommendations you will find that the organization will function and flow far more efficiently than before.

It will take determination and real effort on the part of California Pizza Kitchen to achieve the recommendations as laid out in this Summary. I thank you for your attention to this assessment summary. Works Cited California Pizza kithen. California Pizza Kitchen. November 2010. 30 November 2010 . Gottleib, Hildy. 3 Statements That Can Change the World: Mission/Vision/Values. 2007. Creating the Future. 28 November 2010 . Smith, Richard M. Rolling In Dough. 25th June 2007. Harmon Newsweek LLC. 30 November 2010 .

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