Alicia and Arlene run a successful eatery called AA Café. After expan

QUESTION

Alicia and Arlene run a successful eatery called AA Café. After expanding their operating hours and hiring more workers, their business suddenly dropped off.

Upon reevaluating their decision, they feel they should do something. What should be their plan of action?
What will be an ideal response?

ANSWER

Answer: They should try to figure out why business dropped off and then base their subsequent decisions and actions on that reason. They have the choice to wait a bit longer to see if business picks up, go back to their original hours even if it means laying off people they just hired, or tweak their original decision. Tweaking might mean keeping some, but not all, of the additional hours and/or additional employees.
Explanation: In reevaluating, they will need to assess why the decision isn’t working. Usually managers do this by looking at their original assumptions and then ascertaining if something has changed. Perhaps the drop in business is temporary due to external conditions, such as a construction project on their street lasting a week or two. If, however, that construction project is scheduled to last for several months, they may not want to continue to pay the extra staff that long until business picks up again.