Analyzing The Budget Of William Blue Dining: A Business Report

Strategies to Overcome Budgeted Deficit

The purpose of this paper is to analyse the budget of William Blue Dinning. There is a difference between the actual and the budgeted amount that has created difficulty in the future objectives of the company. The organization aims to purchase a $2000 wine refrigerator but due to difference in the budget, William Blue Dinning failed to attain this objective. Looking at the actual and budgeted performance of the company, it can be evaluated that the company expected to attain revenue of $ 225, 000 but due to change in the expenses of the company, the revenue of the organization decreased. There are some expenses that reduced while some increased than the expected budget like, the cost of equipments was expected to be $6000 but the company expended $4600 in this field. The cost of rest expenses increased that resulted as changes in the budget. In the current situation, it can be said that the company needs to analyses their expenses and cut the irrational one because it is subsequently reducing the profit margin of the company (Klarner, Phillips & Muckler, 2012). Resulting in which management is facing difficulty in completing the defined objective. So, it can be said that the current situation of the company is not according to the expectations.

• Determination of spending choices: The company should determine their spending choices in the environment so that they can effectively monitor the areas where the company is spending excessively. It is important to determine the areas of excessive expense so that the company can control them and grow. Further, if the company will effectively monitor their choices then they will effectively save money for future expenditure that will result in the growth of the company. The strategy of determination of spending choices will make the organization spend on the places where they have to and not on the activities that provide unproductive results to the company(Cogan, Taylor, Wieland & Wolters, 2013).
• Development of accurate plan: There might be a possibility that the company had not created an accurate plan due to which at the end there was a difference in the expected and the actual budget. So, the restaurant should strategies their activities in such a way that the create the expected budget in the most reasonable and actual way. Under this process the management should look at all the present variable that can change the functioning of the company and then record them in the budget plan.
• Preventing future financial challenges: many times unexpected situations occur due to which the management faces difficulty to run their business smoothly according to the defined strategies. So, the experts should study the external factors at a proactive basis and tackling the challenges by initiating flexibility. If there is increase in expenses in one category, the management should reduce the expenditure from another category so as to equalize the end result according to the expectations. Overcoming the financial problems is not difficult but setting clean priorities for the business and preserving the plan is the most difficult part that the companies find now a days(Milkman, Mazza, Shu, Tsay & Bazerman, 2012).
• Professional Assistance: In case of changes in the actual as well as budgeted plan, the organization should attain professional assistance and guidance of the experts so that they can smoothly run the business in the market. Professional assistance will help the management in successfully initiating the actions so that the company can save themselves from the external changes. Professional experience will help the management to analyse the depth of the issue, look at the important facts, and initiate actions accordingly. Further, professional assistance will also help in accurately preparing the expected budget for the company.

For a restaurant business like William Blue Dining, the most significant factor for its success in operating the business is leadership styles and skilled used by its managers. As mentioned above, this fine dining restaurant has faced the issues related ineffective leadership approaches and skills. The waiters complained about the leadership and administration during their service hours. The comments of TripAdvisor stated that customers do not find management whilst they were dining at William Blue Dining. It has a huge impact on budget deficit and overall outcome of this restaurant setting. There are various leadership and supervisions approaches that a restaurant setting can practice to overcome different challenges (Prowle, 2014).

One of the most significant leadership styles is Laissez-Faire leadership style. By using this style, the leaders will be able to delegate most of the responsibilities to subordinates. At this restaurant, the top managers are not available in service hours so this leadership style can help to overcome different issues. The manager at William Blue Dining needs to know that when to let the staff by themselves and when to control the things. To apply use this leadership style, it is important for this restaurant to train the employees effective so they will need less supervision. This type of leadership approach will allow the restaurant’s staff and servers to work their own, having higher level of confidence. They will be more committed to fulfil their duties (Sun & Anderson, 2012).

Another leadership style is democratic leadership style that can assist this restaurant to overcome the challenge of budget deficit and negative outcomes. By using democratic leadership, restaurant’s managers can give some authority to its middle level employees and its floor staff during service hours. It can help them in managing the dining operations in restaurant. Under this, the managers can take the opinions and ideas of subordinates in its decision making process. This style will help the leaders to supervise its employees regularly. At William Blue Dining, democratic managers can let the staff handle irritable customers or have their style of taking food orders and deliveries (Pettinger, 2017).

Using above approaches, this restaurant will be able to deal with different issues and manage its budget for different operations.

Service experience is the most important aspect for the business as it helps the business in analysing the expectations of the customers and effectively acting upon them as well. Further, there are many ways with which an organization can effectively increase the spending of the customers on the services of the restaurant below mention are the pre, current and post service experience of the dinners:

• Pre service experience: As it is said that first impression is the last impression so it is important for the management of the restaurant to initiate good first impression. If the initial impression of the restaurant is laid good on the customers then they will expect the restaurant will definitely provide good service experience to them(Imran & Anis-ul-Haque, 2011). The expectation of the customers is built on the basis of pre service experience only. So, if the staff treats the customers with care and give them attention then the customers will also form good pre service experience.
• Current service experience: Current service experience of the customers is formed by the food and drinks that the take. On the basis of the quality and the delivery time of the order, the customers forms an impression of the restaurant. If the initial dish served is good then the customer will willingly spend more but if the first dish ordered is not served properly then the customers will not give any further orders to the restaurant. Attention of staff and management is very important when the customer is attaining current service experience.
• Post service experience: post service experience is mostly dependent on the above mentioned two service experience. If the staff treated the customers properly when they entered in the restaurant and while delivering the order then the customers will attain good service experience and will initiate repeated sales in the environment. After attain the current service experience, it is important for the staff to ask for the feedback so that they can understand the customer point of view and make changes accordingly(Long and Welham, 2016).

Conclusion

Thus, in the limelight of above mentioned events, the fact should be noted that the above mentioned report discussed about the budget of the company William Blue Dinning. The details explained that there was a difference in the expected and the actual budget due to which the company failed to achieve the defined objective in the target market. This appeared as a problem for the company because it reduced the retained earnings of the company and increased the expenses as well. Thus, the further part of the report included strategies with which the restaurant can effectively minimize the difference between actual and the expected budget. With the help of such strategies, the company can effectively prepare and authentic budget for the restaurant that is feasible and reliable as well. Along with this, the leadership styles are also discussed that would help the company to eliminate the identified challenges along with recommendations to the company to manage the service experience of the customers at three different stages.

References

Cogan, J. F., Taylor, J. B., Wieland, V., & Wolters, M. H. (2013). Fiscal consolidation strategy. Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, 37(2), 404-421.

Imran, R., & Anis-ul-Haque, M. (2011). Mediating effect of organizational climate between transformational leadership and innovative work behaviour. Pakistan Journal of Psychological Research, 26(2), pp-183.

Klarner, C. E., Phillips, J. H., & Muckler, M. (2012). Overcoming fiscal gridlock: Institutions and budget bargaining. The Journal of Politics, 74(4), 992-1009.

Long, C and Welham, B. (2016) Organising a strategic phase in the budget process. https://www.odi.org/sites/odi.org.uk/files/resource-documents/11065.pdf

Milkman, K. L., Mazza, M. C., Shu, L. L., Tsay, C. J., & Bazerman, M. H. (2012). Policy bundling to overcome loss aversion: A method for improving legislative outcomes. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 117(1), 158-167.

Pettinger, T. (2017) Policies to reduce a budget deficit. Retrieved from: https://www.economicshelp.org/blog/6011/economics/policies-to-reduce-budget-deficit/

Prowle, M. (2014). The role of budgeting systems in supporting strategic management in the public sector. In Developments in Strategic and Public Management (pp. 21-40). Palgrave Macmillan, London.

Sun, P. Y., & Anderson, M. H. (2012). The combined influence of top and middle management leadership styles on absorptive capacity. Management learning, 43(1), 25-51.