“Say Cheese” Pizzeria
“Say Cheese” was opened in 1973 as a family owned pizza shop in West Roxbury, MA. It’s founder, Michael Camuso, was first generation Italian American whose parents emigrated from Naples, Italy. Over the years, Say Cheese built a strong reputation and customer following around town. By the early 1990’s, the Camuso family owned pizza shops in six neighborhoods in both Boston and beyond. If you were driving through Newton or Brookline, you could stop by a Say Cheese shop to get a slice or two of your favorite pizza! But what was the secret behind their success? What was it that created their amazing and loyal following? The secret was in the sauce! Michael and his family had the most amazing pizza sauce that could not be beat. It was a little sweet, a little spicy, and everything in between. His secret recipe was truly the envy of his rivals. Today, Say Cheese has been in business over 40 years, and the Camuso family is extremely proud of the small business they have created.
Now, the Camuso family was at a crossroads. After so many years in the business, and the fact that Michael was, well, getting older, he had to think about how the business was going to go on without him when he retires. He and his wife called all of their children together and they had a family meeting. They unanimously decided that his youngest daughter, Helen, was going to take over the business. Helen had been working in the different pizza shop locations since she was a little girl, and she loved everything about it. Unlike her older brother and sister who had other interests, Helen loved her family business. And she knew every aspect of it. She knew how to work the registers, make the pizza, do the bookkeeping and payroll…you name it. Helen had done every job there was at Say Cheese.
Helen had a Bachelors degree from Suffolk University’s Sawyer School of Business in Information Systems and Operations Management, and she had big ideas for her family business. Now that her father left her the legacy of Say Cheese, she wanted to do something big to make her own mark. Helen saw a great opportunity to grow the business, but not though expanding their presence in the local market. Helen wanted to grow by acquisition. Her strategy was to double in size in the next 3 years by expanding into resort communities in Vermont and Cape Cod. To start, she wanted to expand by two locations to be exact, and that would increase their number of pizza shops from 6 to 8, or 33%...and she wanted to do it by the end of next year.
Over the past three years, Helen was quietly doing some research and found two locations where there was a great opportunity to acquire pizza shops already established. As her idea and philosophy was to find two pizza shops in resort communities where the infrastructure was already built, she believed it would be a faster and easier way to establish a presence. She sought locations where the customers were transient, so that “pizza loyalty” was not so much an issue. And her objective was to find local owners looking to sell their establishments.
Last summer, she found two locations. First, a fantastic pizza shop in Woodstock, VT, right in the center of town on your way to Killington. The owner only had the shop for about 5 years, and despite their success, he was looking to sell so that he could move back to his hometown of Jackson Hole, Wyoming. The second shop was in Stowe, VT. There was a somewhat similar situation…a local owner looking to sell her establishment to re-locate. Helen was able to negotiate fair deals with both of these owners, and Say Cheese was going to expand its footprint to Vermont, the green mountain state!
Now…the work begins! Helen was going to have to move quickly once the deals closed to change the existing pizza shops to Say Cheese. Once they passed papers, time would be of the essence. Same look and feel, same menu, same delicious sauce that made them famous in Boston, same everything. Her dad was of course going to stay involved and help for the duration of this expansion.
The Engagement
Say Cheese Pizzeria has hired you for a 6-week engagement to deliver a high level analysis on two key points: 1) the company strategy, and 2) their online presence. She would like to have the following:
1. Say Cheese Website – a new website for customers to find menus, locations, directions, place orders, etc.
2. Say Cheese Smart Phone App – an app for customer to find menus, locations, directions, place orders, etc.
As a recent college graduate and an experienced IIBA academic scholar, Helen Camuso is relying on you to bring your expertise to the team. You are familiar now with many of approaches, tools and techniques from the BABOK, our lecture content, discussion board conversations, lecturettes, and webinars. You are in a very influential position to drive the direction of this family owned business.
Please answer the 6 questions below in this assignment, and pay close attention to the minimum number of words required for each. Answers that have fewer than the required number of words will be penalized.
As we discussed in class:
· Your answers must flow logically and make sense grammatically. I will not, however, be grading on your writing skills, per se.
· You can work together, but you must write this paper on your own. The same work cannot be submitted by more than one student – this is an individual assignment.
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Question #2– Communication and Change Management |
Number of Words |
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As a BA on this project, how would you plan to communicate your progress, plans and questions with Helen Camuso during the 6-week project? Please describe what you would do, how often, and using what methods of communication. |
225 or more |
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Question #3– What would you do? |
Number of Words |
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If you were Helen Camuso getting ready to assume the responsibility of ownership of Say Cheese Pizzeria, what would you do to get started? |
100 words or more |
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10