Westlake Lanes:How Can This Business Be Saved?

case study;Westlake Lanes:How Can This Business Be Saved? Order Description read the case study attached and answer the following two questions comprehensively: 1. Is WL a viable business? What is the required number of customers per day for WL to achieve breakeven in March 2010? 2. By the end point of the case, the business is cash flow positive. How should Givens evaluate whether to build, sell, or liquidate the business? What information does she need to make this decision? RICHARD G. HAMERMESH ALISA ZALOSH Westlake Lanes: How Can This Busmess Be Saved? Introduction Shelby Givens, general manager of Westlake Bowling Lanes, sat in her cramped office in downtown Raleigh, North Carolina. It was March 10, 2010, two weeks before the scheduled meeting of Westlake’s board-Givens’s uncle and two close family friends. During her 9-month tenure as general manager, Givens, working 70-hour weeks, reined in costs and gradually grew revenues. As a result, the business generated its first month of profit in over two years (see Exhibit 1). Yet Westlake was not on track to soon repay the funds the board had loaned it 16 months before. Givens was proud of her achievements, but she worried that they had been too little, too late. Would the board even consider a different path for Westlake if the loaned funds could not soon be repaid? Givens believed that lucrative opportunities were in Westlake’s future, but right now that future seemed uncertain. The board and Westlake’s employees were looking to Givens for guidance. Shelby Givens: Background Shelby Givens was raised in Charlotte, North Carolina, and attended the University of Virginia, graduating in 2005 with a BA. in English. For the next three years, Givens worked as a copywriter and creative director for a boutique advertising agency in New York City. She then moved to the Midwest to attend a highly rated business school, from which she graduated in May 2009. As graduation approached, Givens considered several employment options, including consulting. Said Givens, “I liked consulting’s focus on business strategy and general management. The pay and the perks were nice. But I knew I’d miss working in a small entrepreneurial environment where my contributions directly impacted the business.” While home for spring break, Givens’s uncle spoke to her about the ongoing financial challenges faced by her family’s bowling alley, Westlake Lanes, where she had worked for two summers while in college. Westlake was founded by Givens’s maternal grandfather, Dane Sugar, who died in 2008. The once profitable bowling alley was struggling with declining sales and increasing costs. Since HBS Professor Richard G. Hamermesh and writer Alisa Zalosh prepared this case solely as a basis for class discussion and not as an endorsement, a source of primary data, or an illustration of effective or ineffective management. This case, though based on real events, is fictionalized, and any resemblance to actual persons or entities is coincidental. There are occasional references to actual companies in the narration. Copyright © 2012 President and Fellows of Harvard College. To order copies or request permission to reproduce materials, call 1-800-545-7685, write Harvard Business Publishing, Boston, MA 02163, or go to http2//www.hbsp.harvard.edu. This publication may not be digitized, photocopied, or otherwise reproduced, posted, or transmitted, without the permission of Harvard Business School. This document is authorized for educator review use only by MARIOS KATSIOLOUDES, Qatar University until July 2015. Copying or posting is an infringem Introduction op yo Westlake Lanes: How Can This Business Be Saved? tC Shelby Givens, general manager of Westlake Bowling Lanes, sat in her cramped office in downtown Raleigh, North Carolina. It was March 10, 2010, two weeks before the scheduled meeting of Westlake’s board—Givens’s uncle and two close family friends. During her 9-month tenure as general manager, Givens, working 70-hour weeks, reined in costs and gradually grew revenues. As a result, the business generated its first month of profit in over two years (see Exhibit 1). Yet Westlake was not on track to soon repay the funds the board had loaned it 16 months before. Givens was proud of her achievements, but she worried that they had been too little, too late. Would the board even consider a different path for Westlake if the loaned funds could not soon be repaid? Givens believed that lucrative opportunities were in Westlake’s future, but right now that future seemed uncertain. The board and Westlake’s employees were looking to Givens for guidance. Shelby Givens: Background No Shelby Givens was raised in Charlotte, North Carolina, and attended the University of Virginia, graduating in 2005 with a B.A. in English. For the next three years, Givens worked as a copywriter and creative director for a boutique advertising agency in New York City. She then moved to the Midwest to attend a highly rated business school, from which she graduated in May 2009. As graduation approached, Givens considered several employment options, including consulting. Said Givens, “I liked consulting’s focus on business strategy and general management. The pay and the perks were nice. But I knew I’d miss working in a small entrepreneurial environment where my contributions directly impacted the business.” Do While home for spring break, Givens’s uncle spoke to her about the ongoing financial challenges faced by her family’s bowling alley, Westlake Lanes, where she had worked for two summers while in college. Westlake was founded by Givens’s maternal grandfather, Dane Sugar, who died in 2008. The once profitable bowling alley was struggling with declining sales and increasing costs. Since