Business Case Studies & Business Publications

Roger Weeks's Big Test (A)

Detert, James (Jim...

Case

Roger Weeks's Big Test (A)

Detert, James (Jim); Wedo, Anthony; Edmondson, Amy

OB-1477 | Published January 15, 2025 | 3 pages Case

Collection: Darden School of Business

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This disguised case puts students in the shoes of Roger Weeks, the leader of Family Food Restaurant’s (FFR’s) South Division, which is headquartered in San Antonio, Texas. RestaurantCo (RC), the corporate owner of FFR and several other large restaurant chains, saw the South Division thrive under Weeks’s leadership as he implemented a new culture, new management teams, and local marketing programs. Now, RC is launching a new product line called Healthy Dinner, a healthier alternative to and significant departure from the company’s usual offerings. The president of FFR asks Weeks to lead the test market for the product launch, and Weeks gathers the 250 restaurant managers in his division for a big kickoff meeting in San Antonio. As he begins to address the crowd on the morning of the meeting, he starts to notice that something is amiss—the managers in the audience seem distracted, disengaged, and even sad, and some are absent from the meeting altogether. What is going on? And what should Weeks do in this moment? At the University of Virginia Darden School of Business, this case is used by Professor Jim Detert in the core “Leading Organizations” and elective “Defining Moments” courses. It is also used by Professor Amy Edmondson at Harvard Business School in the elective “Making Difficult Decisions" ("MDD").