University of the Philippines Cebu

Business Management Cluster

Case Analysis on
Tri Nova Catering Services: Well-Fed or Fed Up?

In partial fulfillment
of the requirements in
MGT 101 Introduction to Management

Submitted to
Dr. Mary Gretchen F. Chaves
2 December 2014

Group 5
Dupal, Rica Isabel

Tri Nova Catering Services: Well-Fed or Fed-up?

The Tri Nova Catering Services owned by Julia Dy Mendoza has been operating for
sixteen years and had expanded to include canteen operations which involve providing
canteen facilities and on-site meals for employees and guests of the company hosting the
event. With Cebu City being the companys base, Tri Nova benefits the economic status of
Cebu being ranked at 8th place in Tholons 2013 Top 10 Outsourcing Destination Rankings.
Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) is believed and expected to drive further economic
growth in Cebu. Tri Nova then entered into BPO (Business Process Outsourcing) canteen
concession and recently complied a request for proposal (RFP) with a large BPO firm. These
canteen concessions work in contracts thus, when a contract is expired, so did revenues
which leads Mendoza maintains a minimal number of her staff during the off season causing
employees to jump off to other catering services firms. With all the recent repeated service
mistakes of her catering supervisor, Vera Francisco and the catering crew, Mendoza was
also weighed down by the prospect of finding another business location since Elise de los
Reyes planned to sell the ancestral home that Mendoza is renting for Tri Novas
headquarters making her consider this as one of the reasons in selling Tri Nova.
How would Julia Dy Mendoza manage the repeated service mistakes of her catering
supervisor Vera Francisco and its crew? How would she avoid this major irritant of high
turnover of workers due to irregularity of demand?

Opportunities and Threats

Julia Mendoza recalled that there was an offer made for short-term training courses
for catering personnel that could help her manage the effectivity of her catering personnel
and could allow her to continue to grow the catering operations of Tri Nova. In addition, there
are also newly established BPO firms that need 24/7 canteen operations on site which is a
new business opportunity for caterers.
Aside from the anxiety Mendoza is facing with her catering crew, she is also
burdened of the fact that she needs to find another location for Tri Novas headquarters.
Mendoza should also consider the competitors as threats especially in the case that her
employees jump off to other catering services firms.

Strengths and Weaknesses

Mendozas philosophy of the 3Ps palate, price and perception is indeed the
strength of Tri Nova. She has been able to put measures in ensuring the quality of the menu
items making Tri Nova survived for over sixteen years. Subsequently, before BPO canteen
concession came, Tri Nova had been providing canteen facilities in some offices and
companies in Cebu City.
While Mendoza was able to ensure quality of menu items, she still needs to develop
measures to ensure her catering crews service quality and to give satisfaction to her
employees.
Critical Success Factors
In managing repeated service mistakes and the jumping off of other service catering
firms of her employees, Mendoza should give training programs and seminars for her
employees to be able to effectively and efficiently do their work. Mendoza should also give
extra compensations to employees she had recalled when needed:

Financial status of the company

Resources (speakers and places for forums)
Time allotted for training programs
Threats such as competitors that might
get potential employees

---------- 10
---------- 8
---------- 7
----------- 5

Alternatives for the effectivity of employees:

Provide trainings and seminars could be done by Mendoza herself

Providing trainings and seminars to the employees increases the

employee productivity and gives the employees the chance to hone their skills
and abilities. These trainings and seminars that will be done by Mendoza herself
could be more specific since she would be able to express what quality of work
she needs from the employees and is less costly because she ned not give
budget for a speaker, though her field of expertise might limit the discussion.

Provide trainings and seminars done by expert speakers

Again, providing trainings and seminars to the employees increases the
employee productivity and could make the employees develop more their
skills and abilities. These trainings done by an expert of the field as the

speaker could explain thoroughly how they would be able to become effective

and efficient employees.

Have month-end Evaluation for the employees
Evaluation of employees helps Mendoza know how employees work
based on factors listed in the evaluation form but she could not assure the
results since biases within the employees exist.

Alternatives to avoid high turnover of potential employees to another company:

Give appropriate compensations to potential employees

By giving appropriate compensations to potential employees,
Mendoza maintains minimal number of potential employees where high
turnover to other companies could be avoided.

In managing the repeated mistakes of the employees, Mendoza should give trainings
and seminars with a speaker that has his/her fields of expertise for her employees for them
to be able to learn more about the job and to be able for them to develop more their skills
and abilities that could benefit both the employees and the company.
In avoiding high turnovers of employees to other companies, Mendoza should give
compensations to the potential employees that do their job effectively and efficiently.