Company Mis-Alignment

JB's Alignment Analysis

Link:

http://www.bizjournals.com/albuquerque/news/2011/03/07/jbs-family-restaurants-files-bankruptcy.html

Overview:

JB's Family restaurant's filing Chapter 11 bankruptcy. I chose this article because it is something I relate better with. We had a JB's in the town where I grew up and went there occasionally--always viewed it as a treat and loved going there as a kid. It turns out that they filed for bankruptcy earlier this decade as well, back in 2001 shortly after 9/11 and blamed that misfortune on the terrorist attacks. (However, this does not appear to be the case for all restaurants across their industry.)


Strategy:

To create a family-like atmosphere for people to enjoy.
Breakfast (the thing for which I most remember the restaurant) appears to have been their biggest advantage. JB's also had lunch and dinner menus.


Structure:

The company had a mix of franchised and corporate-owned restaurants, 48 total--half of which are closed or will be closing.

Systems:

Unknown, but they did have large amounts of debt for the amount of assets that they owned.

Shared Values:

Atmosphere of Family Values.

Skills:



Style:

It appears that JB's Leadership favored taking on large amounts of debt.
http://phoenixbankruptcynews.com/2011/03/jbs-family-restaurants-declare-bankruptcy-after-decades-of-business.html

Staffing:

The company had 300-400 houred and salaried workers.
http://www.azcentral.com/community/tempe/articles/2011/03/11/20110311tempe-jbs-restuarants-bankrupt.html


Mis-Alignment?

There may be a few areas where JB's exhibited signs of mis-alignment. For one thing, it appears that their competitive advantage was in their breakfast offerings--yet they continued investing in other meals. Perhaps they should have looked at lowering their investment in lunch and dinner and focused more heavily on their breakfast advantage.

Also, there may have been a mis-alignment with their strategy of operating company-owned restaurants as well as franchised restaurants. Trying to do both may not have played to their management strengths and in turn weakened their ability to do either one well.