Le Petti Gourmet

Jim OConnor, President and Owner of Le Petit epicurean, received a shocking cry call while vacation in California, which sayed him that his business is going to shut down indefinitely due to the outbreaks of hepatitis A in his ply facility. Le Petit Gourmet was a family catering business that had been in operation(p) in the Denver metro area for more than 30 years. Le Petit employed between one hundred fifty and 200 people, 75 of whom were full time. Along with Le Petit was perceived as the most expensive and upscale caterer in Denver, OConnor also want his business to be known for good forage on all levels, from cookies to lobsters.Le petit Gourmets business had been on the ups march ong in recent years. On November 22, wellness Department notified OConnor that his kitchen manager infected by hepatitis A, and by Nov 30, the doctor confirm the case. Due to the elevate outbreak on Dec 30, Le Petit Gourmet is being shut down completely, and the health departments eat up ordere d food-service workers in metro Denver area to using gloves or utensils when handling food in prevention to hepatitis A.In addition, Le Petit Gourmet employees were forbidden to work as food-handlers anywhere else until January 31. When he returned from San Francisco, Jim OConnor found that his business and family were under siege. The media, his insurance agents, lawyers, and health department inspectors, Le Petit employees and customers were waiting for his explanation on how he going to handle the hepatitis outbreaks. Initially, he hired a public relations firm to help oneself him, but decided that he needed to take a more active role to allay his business.First of all, he personally called the victims of hepatitis and apologized for what had happened. He also meets with his employees to calm their fears. Afterward, he make sure that his high society will engage enough bullion flow on hands to handle this crisis by delaying remuneration to his vendors and negotiated a large r mortgage, because he realized that he doesnt have income for undetermined amount of time. To win back the public on their side, OConnor and his staff decided to dumped $45,000 of food products into the trash.Many of these items were unopened and glacial products, not part of the infected food. OConnor was capable to maintain his employees during the outbreaks, he honestly tell them that present cut was imminent in the future, but if your stand by me and help me, I will deplume to pay you back when the business is getting better. He also states to the employees that the infected person have been remaining Le Petit Gourmet, we are actually harmless working here in Le Petit Gourmet.When he have all the information he need, he held a password multitude at the Le Petit Gourmet facility and explained what had happened and what he and Le Petit Gourmet prepared to do about the crisis. During the outbreak point in times, other catering companies was worried that this crisis would e ffects their companies, so they mailed out letter to inform their clientele that this only happened to Le Petit Gourmet and will never happened against them.Due the OConnor and his staffs diligent works, Le Petit Gourmet ultimately reopened on January 11, and they have their first catering job on January 14. Main Issues The main issues for this case was how OConnor able to handle this crisis with ease and win back the reputation for his business. When the crisis first happened, OConnor is put in a very tough spot, not only that he has face the media, health department, employees, etc they all waiting for him to inform them what is really happened behind this mess that cost by Le Petit Gourmet.I think that OConnor did resplendent job step by step to get his business reopened and back to business as in brief as possible. First of all, he realized that he not going to have enough cash flow on hands to solve the problem, because he will have no income for long period of time due to t he out breaks. Smartly, he asked his vendors for a delay payment, and also negotiated a larger mortgage to make sure to have enough cash on hand to solve the crisis. Money could be use to compensate the victims or pay for attorney fees, and also need to pays his employees.Second of all, he was playacting as a public relations spokesperson, who called all the victims and apologized for what had happened. He also met with his employees to calm their fears by relation them that the individual to whom the initial outbreak had been traced had already left the community, we are in a very safe working environment. He honestly told his employees that pay cut were imminent in the immediate future and their long-term status at Le Petit Gourmet was cloudy, but if they can stay on his side during this troublesome time, he will make commitment to help them later on.In addition, he also dumped $45,000 dollars of food products into the trash, to inform everyone that everything that has to do with hepatitis A will be destroyed and nothing will be held. I am most impress with OConnor was that he didnt shy away from the media, after he gather all the information he needed and collected himself personally, he held a new conference at the Le Petit Gourmet facility and explained what had happened and what he and Le Petit Gourmet as a company were prepared to do about the crisis.Finally, due to the diligent works from OConnor and his staffs, Le Petit Gourmet was finally reopened on January 11, and got they first catering job on January 14. I believe that OConner manage everything very well during the crisis, he win back the reputation of his company by holding a news conference and inform everybody what has happened, and win back his employees by honestly tell them what is going to happened in the future, he didnt hide anything from anyone. He tells everyone what he thinks and what he going to about it.