According to Jack Schuessler, Wendy’s CEO, management is considering whether or not to begin offering the breakfast menu that was discontinued about 20 years ago. Schuessler did indicate, however, that if offered, Wendy’s breakfast menu would need to be significantly different from the sausage-and-biscuits or egg-on-an-English-muffin approach offered by competitors.

Some individuals support Schuessler’s new breakfast menu idea. Some believe that the best opportunity for Wendy’s to improve profitability is to introduce breakfast. In addition, Wendy’s owns Tim Horton’s, a chain dominant in Canada but sparsely located in the United States, that knows the breakfast business. Wendy’s should be able to use the knowledge and experience at Tim Horton’s to help in introducing a new, successful breakfast menu.

The competition in the fast-food breakfast segment is heavy. McDonald’s, the nation’s largest restaurant chain, began offering breakfast in the 1970s and is the market leader in the morning sales period. Burger King reportedly is testing new breakfast sandwiches and platters. In addition, California-based Carl’s Jr. recently introduced a breakfast burger topped with a fried egg at its 1,000 restaurants.

Although offering breakfast at Wendy’s could improve sales by making use of the restaurant during the hours it is currently empty, the company has found that breakfast can be disastrous if not done correctly. According to Schuessler, when Wendy’s offered breakfast between 1983 and 1985, breakfast was not a profitable activity. The restaurant operated inappropriately, and thus the breakfast offered was expensive, it wasn’t portable, service was too slow, and offering breakfast took away some of the focus on the company’s burger business.

Your instructor will divide the class into small groups and ask each group to arrive at a consensus in answering the following questions.

1. 13-10. Assume you are Jack Schuessler. As a leader at Wendy’s, how would you make the decision regarding whether to introduce breakfast?

   1. Simply make the decision and announce it.

   2. Make the decision but try to convince others it’s best.

   3. Present a tentative decision subject to change based on input.

   4. Present the dilemma and ask for input before making the decision.

   5. Allow a group to make the decision.

2. 13-11. Explain your answer to question 1. Be sure to focus on why you chose the option you did as well as why you did not choose the other options.

             

             

             

             

3. 13-12. As a leader, would you find making this decision at Wendy’s challenging? Why or why not?

             

             

             

             

You have just graduated from college and are interested in a career in government. In looking for your first job, you find out that the city manager’s office of the City of Sacramento, California, has recently begun to recognize the significant retirement projections among its Baby Boomer employees. According to the city manager, to deal with the impending retirements, Sacramento’s city government will start designing and offering leadership development programs to its employees. The programs will focus on helping young leaders understand how various parts of city government operate as well as helping them develop a broad network of relationships within city government as a whole.

Would this information about Sacramento’s city government raise or lower your interest in working there? Explain. How would you find out if other potential employers offer similar programs? Name another topic you would like to see covered in Sacramento’s leadership development program and explain its significance.

Your Management Skills Portfolio is a collection of activities specially designed to demonstrate your management knowledge and skill. Be sure to save your work. Taking your printed portfolio to an employment interview could be helpful in obtaining a job.

The portfolio activity for this chapter is Leadership Skill in a Special Situation.⁷⁵ Read the highlight about Martha Stewart and answer the questions that follow.

Homemaking icon Martha Stewart strolled outdoors with her dog and fed her horses, hours after returning from prison to the multimillion-dollar estate. Stewart’s release came one day shy of the one-year anniversary of her conviction in New York on charges stemming from her 2001 sale of nearly 4,000 shares of the biotechnology company ImClone Systems Inc. She was convicted of obstructing justice and lying to the government.

For the next five months, Stewart had to wear an electronic anklet so that authorities could track her every move. But she was allowed to receive her $900,000 salary again and could leave home for up to 48 hours a week to work, shop, or run other approved errands.

Leaving the women’s prison in Alderson, West Virginia, shortly after midnight on a Friday, Stewart flew in a private jet to the Westchester County airport and then was driven to the 61-hectare (153-acre) estate in Katonah, 65 kilometers (40 miles) north of midtown Manhattan.

Stewart hoped to turn around the fortunes of her company, Martha Stewart Living, which produces everything from television shows and magazines to bed sheets and bakeware. In 2004, the company suffered a loss and its revenues sagged, but the stock price rose considerably during her prison stint because investors bet on a Stewart comeback. Stewart’s contract with her company said her salary, which was suspended while she was behind bars, would be reinstated during home detention. While in home confinement, Stewart was free to entertain colleagues, neighbors, friends, and relatives as long as they weren’t criminals. (Convicted felons aren’t allowed to consort with other convicted felons.)

Martha Stewart’s background as a convicted felon would present special leadership challenges that she would have to overcome.

1. Definitely

2. Probably Will

3. Maybe

4. Probably Won’t

5. Definitely Not

Now that you have expressed your opinion about Martha Stewart’s possible new leadership challenges, in the following space explain this opinion in 50 words or fewer.

In the first few months after returning as top manager at Martha Stewart Living, should Stewart have portrayed a leadership style that focused more on low task/low relationships, low task/high relationships, high task/high relationships, or low relationships/high task? Why?

Using the life cycle theory of leadership’s four main leadership styles, how should Stewart have changed her leadership style over time, if at all? Explain fully.