Hudson's Seafood Corporation (a)

Abstract

This case is appropriate for use in courses in operations, leadership, strategy, and managing a small business. A founder is faced with several issues concerning the service operations of his two restaurants. The immediate problem is how to resolve an employee-relations issue between the servers and their assistants. But the more comprehensive and perplexing problem is whether to change the service-operations package at one of the restaurants where personnel problems have adversely affected the quality of the food, and where customers appear to be confused as to what kind of restaurant it is. These problems have forced the owner to examine the fundamental strategies used to deliver services at the restaurant, and to analyze its target markets. There is also a question regarding future business investment in the restaurants. This case is followed by a B case (UVA-OM-1391) and both cases are supported by a teaching note (UVA-OM-0875TN) that features video from the era when this case was written.

Excerpt

UVA-OM-0875

Rev. May 17, 2023

Hudson's Seafood Corporation (A)

Brian Carmines, president of the Hudson's Seafood Corporation on Hilton Head Island, South Carolina, met with two restaurant managers from Hudson's Seafood House. They described growing tension between their servers and servers' assistants over the division of tips at the Seafood House. Carmines wondered whether the same situation was a problem at Hudson's Landing, his other restaurant adjacent to the Seafood House. These discussions also prompted Carmines to reassess Hudson's Landing's recent problems—decline in food quality, tense staff relations, and even a fall-off in the number of customers; therefore he thought it was time to examine the strategies used to deliver the services at Hudson's Landing and analyze the markets the restaurant was targeting.

Background

Carmines learned of the opportunity to go into the restaurant business while at a party. Although a banker by profession, his interest in banking had waned as the industry changed, and he had made a New Year's resolution the previous January that he “wouldn't be at the bank next year.”

. . .

Keywords: service operations, business strategy, leadership, operations, video