California Pizza Kitchen Analysis Structure

California Pizza Kitchen Analysis Structure Tess Stynes. (2010, April 12). California Pizza Kitchen Board Authorizes Strategic Review. Wall Street Journal (Online). California Pizza Kitchen (CPK) has a highly decentralized organizational structure designed to support more regional levels of autonomy and marketing decision-making. The centralized functions of Information Technologies (it), Supply Chain management (SCM), Finance, Accounting, Marketing, Advertising and Public Relations (PR) are designed to support both CPK stores owned by the company and those that are franchised.

Over the last five years CPK has also experimented with providing individual stores with the freedom of defining their own merchandising and marketing strategies as well (McCaw, 2009). This approach to defining individual store accountability did work well for cost control and quality control. Since the initial efforts to create store-level performance measures worked so well, this accountability led to the development of entirely new key performance indicators (KPIs) of performance and profitability, in addition to quality levels (Stynes, 2010).

The Wall Street Journal did an excellent job of analyzing how the structure of CPK was going to change over time based on the store-level accountability and market focus becoming a major focus. It also did a good job of explaining how the metrics of measuring per-store performance also drove to the decision to divest the lowest-performing stores. Sources: JOSEPH ASCENZI. (2007, May 28). REAL ESTATE & RETAIL / / Indian Wells mixed-use project lands tenants. The Business Press, p. 4. Dennis K. Berman. (2010, April 10). California Pizza Chain Is Said to Be on the Block.

Wall Street Journal (Eastern Edition), p. B.1 Over the last five years, this enhanced level of accountability also has led to a make greater focus on real estate management within the corporate structure as well (Ascenzi, 2007). Based on real estate management and KPIs being aligned to each location, senior management was able to define minimum levels of profitability and rank each store according to its performance levels (Stynes, 2010).

This led to a review of the entire franchise and the eventual decision to begin selling off some of the less profitable stores, with the board of directors choosing at one point to sell the entire company if a buyer could be found (Berman, 2010). All of these factors were driven by the higher level of accountability into store performance and profitability.

During the period of time that the sale of the company was being considered, reorganizations were also completed to provide real estate management with greater flexibility in re-assigning or closing lower-performing locations while also opening new ones (Berman, 2010). This led to further levels of fragmentation in the organizational structure. The data provided from Real Estate & Retail (Ascenzi, 2007) validated that CPK does manage and measure each store and franchise separately.

The quality of the data about the sale the of the company however is not as clear with this source as it is with others. The Wall Street Journal had been a better source of information compared to the Real Estate & Retail analysis. Systems ZIOBRO, P. (2008, October 8). California Pizza Branches Out. Wall Street Journal - Eastern Edition, p. B3A. Retrieved from Academic Search Premier database. MacFadyen, K. (2010). California Pizza Kitchen Seeks Takeout. Mergers & Acquisitions Report, 23(16), 22. Retrieved from Business Source Complete database. Marcial, G. (2009).

Marcial: Pros Turn Cold on California Pizza. BusinessWeek Online, 4. Retrieved from Business Source Complete database. The planning process within CPK is designed to support rapid regional expansion in the U.S. with forecasting systems and processes in place for anticipating the effect of new stores on the supply chain (Ziobro, 2008). The planning systems are more oriented towards a growth strategy that can scale from just a few locations being opened to several in a given financial period.

This strategy of planning based on regional expansion, where stores have been more branding, marketing (Berman, 2010) was also seen throughout the information obtained about their planned sale (MacFadyen, 2010) (Marcial, 2009). The information produced from these sources, all gained through academic search engines, was excellent. The Business Source Complete database and Academic Search Premier database delivered excellent results. After looking for peer-reviewed articles featuring KPC, it was possible to find an abundance of information o n their planned sale of the company. People Daily Record Staff. (2006, October 14).

California Pizza Kitchen to donate 100% of Oct. 30 sales to Cystic Fibrosis Foundation. The Daily Record, p. 1. Marcial, G. (2009). Marcial: Pros Turn Cold on California Pizza. BusinessWeek Online, 4. Retrieved from Business Source Complete database.

The depth and quality of the people is seen in how readily they are willing to give up a portion of their pay for assist with the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation research and also how they rallied about improving store performance to gain greater potential freedom by keeping their stores profitable and free from the initial sales discussion (Marcial, 2009). The majority of the people within the company are below 30 years of age (Ziobro, 2008). The data obtained through ABI/Inform which was the database used for these two sources was also outstanding.

ABI/Inform is one of the most comprehensive databases available for managing multiple data sources about a topic. ABI/Inform also only concentrates on those areas where data can be verified. Culture Daily Record Staff. (2006, October 14). California Pizza Kitchen to donate 100% of Oct. 30 sales to Cystic Fibrosis Foundation. The Daily Record, p. 1. ZIOBRO, P. (2008, October 8). California Pizza Branches Out. Wall Street Journal - Eastern Edition, p. B3A. Retrieved from Academic Search Premier database.

The culture of CPK is altruistic and willing to volunteer to make life better for the less fortunate. The culture is also one that values directness and.