You’re new to the management staff of Cedar Point, a large amusement park in Sandusky, Ohio. Cedar Point is renowned for its 14 roller coasters and dozens of other exciting rides. Each ride can accommodate many people at once, so the lines don’t stand still for very long.
Even so, on summer holidays and weekends, the wait for Cedar Point’s most popular rides, such as the Millennium Force roller coaster, can be lengthy. In fact, when Wall Street Journal reporters sampled the midday waiting time at parks around the United States, they waited one hour for the two-minute Millennium Force ride. At the other end of the spectrum, the reporters waited only 11 minutes or less to jump on rides at Coney Island in Brooklyn, New York, an old-fashioned park where the lines lengthen after dark.
Your boss, Cedar Point’s top operational offi cer, has asked all employees to submit ideas for a system that would make the wait less onerous for customers. One employee suggests that parents with strollers be allowed to go to the front of the line, on the theory that this policy reduces the likelihood of noisy scenes with fussy kids.
You believe that other customers would resent this system; you also don’t believe that it would dramatically affect either the wait or customers’ perceptions of it. You decide to reject this idea. Write this memo, using your knowledge of bad-news replies (making up any details you need).