Three years ago, Big Plc purchased the fast-growing restaurant chain Olivers Limited from their charismatic, innovative founder and award-winning chef Oliver Pratt. The restaurants were situated in excellent locations and normally in slightly unusual premises (converted pubs and banks). When Oliver ran the company, each restaurant had its own manager who worked carefully with Oliver to create the relaxed dining environment which gave the company its excellent reputation. After purchasing Olivers Limited, Big Plc restructured the company. Regional managers were appointed, and the company was split into four divisions each based in a different part of the country. The regional managers were given total control over their restaurants and are able to set their own prices. The performance of the regional managers is measured by two key performance indicators (kpi), which if exceeded resulted in the regional manager gaining a substantial bonus. The kpis the managers are measured against are the utilisation percentage (occupied tables/available tables) and the return on investment (ROI).

Despite positive financial results, the company is concerned, a recently commissioned customer survey showed that 35% customers rated the experience as disappointing and only 55% said that they would come again. The information below relates to the companys financial performance over the last three years:

a) Evaluate the unique resources and core competencies that were being used by Olivers Limited to achieve its competitive advantage before it was taken over by Big Plc.

b) Identify and calculate five relevant key performance indicators (kpi) with a justification of their relevance, which analyses the companys performance over the past three years. The key performance indicators chosen must not include return on investment (ROI) nor utilisation percentage.

c) Evaluate the potential causes of the poor performance after the takeover by Big Plc, use relevant key performance indicators to support your argument, including those from question b).