Sandwich Blitz, Inc. Copyright Kaplan University Sandwich Blitz, Inc. is a small growing specialty sandwich shop chain in a large metropolitan area. The business is owned by Dalman Smith, who is the President and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) and Lei Lee who is the Vice-President and Chief Financial Officer (CFO). The company currently operates eight free-standing sandwich and beverage shops located near three universities, one hospital, and four high-traffic office complexes in the metropolitan area. The firm serves mostly upscale breakfast and lunch customers and specializes in organically grown food ingredients and health-conscious beverages. Currently, the firm employs a staff accountant, eight unit managers and forty employees. The corporate headquarters occupies rented space in an office park which houses Dalman, Lei, and the corporate accountant, Jayin Chopra. Each operating sandwich shop is staffed with a manager, a team supervisor, and four customer associates. Revenues from 2011 operations were substantial with a ROI (Return on Investment) of 30%. Beginnings Sandwich Blitz was the idea of Dalman Smith whose previous experience was in middle management for a wholesale food distribution company headquartered in a large European city. An ardent devotee of healthy food, Dalman received the inspiration for Sandwich Blitz while visiting the Mediterranean area on corporate business. Dalman noted the presence of healthy sandwich shops in that area of Europe and was surprised on his return home that no such models were in operation in his local area. After considering the idea for several weeks, Dalman approached his long-time friend Lei Lee, a CPA working within the insurance industry with his idea. Lei considered the idea a good one but was concerned with the overhead expenses involved in leasing and developing retail commercial space in the expensive urban area. One day, while driving to work, Dalman noticed a small, free-standing prefabricated building located on a piece of land adjacent to a shopping center. Sandwich Blitz, Inc. Copyright Kaplan University Suddenly, he envisioned the Sandwich Blitz model- small space, great location, negotiated low costs on small parcels of land unsuitable for most commercial purposes and most of all, great healthy food! Dalman couldn’t wait to show Lei this model. Within three weeks, Sandwich Blitz, Inc. was born. The sufficient start-up capital was evenly split between Dalman and Lei. Dalman was able to obtain a loan using his house for collateral and his personal credit line for most of his share. A gift from Dalman’s father completed his share of the funding. Lei was able to use her substantial personal savings to finance her share of the capital. The first lease of land was signed and a prefabricated unit was ordered on July 21, 2004. Both Dalman and Lei considered this date to be a good omen for the both of them Sa.

1. Sandwich Blitz, Inc.
Copyright Kaplan University
Sandwich Blitz, Inc. is a small growing specialty sandwich shop
chain in a large metropolitan area.
The business is owned by Dalman Smith, who is the President
and Chief Executive Officer (CEO)
and Lei Lee who is the Vice-President and Chief Financial
Officer (CFO). The company currently
operates eight free-standing sandwich and beverage shops
located near three universities, one
hospital, and four high-traffic office complexes in the
metropolitan area. The firm serves mostly
upscale breakfast and lunch customers and specializes in
organically grown food ingredients and
health-conscious beverages. Currently, the firm employs a staff
accountant, eight unit managers and
forty employees. The corporate headquarters occupies rented
space in an office park which houses
Dalman, Lei, and the corporate accountant, Jayin Chopra. Each

2. operating sandwich shop is staffed
with a manager, a team supervisor, and four customer
associates. Revenues from 2011 operations
were substantial with a ROI (Return on Investment) of 30%.
Beginnings
Sandwich Blitz was the idea of Dalman Smith whose previous
experience was in middle
management for a wholesale food distribution company
headquartered in a large European city. An
ardent devotee of healthy food, Dalman received the inspiration
for Sandwich Blitz while visiting the
Mediterranean area on corporate business. Dalman noted the
presence of healthy sandwich shops in
that area of Europe and was surprised on his return home that
no such models were in operation in
his local area. After considering the idea for several weeks,
Dalman approached his long-time friend
Lei Lee, a CPA working within the insurance industry with his
idea. Lei considered the idea a good
one but was concerned with the overhead expenses involved in
leasing and developing retail
commercial space in the expensive urban area. One day, while
driving to work, Dalman noticed a

3. small, free-standing prefabricated building located on a piece of
land adjacent to a shopping center.
Sandwich Blitz, Inc.
Copyright Kaplan University
Suddenly, he envisioned the Sandwich Blitz model- small space,
great location, negotiated low costs
on small parcels of land unsuitable for most commercial
purposes and most of all, great healthy food!
Dalman couldn’t wait to show Lei this model. Within three
weeks, Sandwich Blitz, Inc. was born. The
sufficient start-up capital was evenly split between Dalman and
Lei. Dalman was able to obtain a loan
using his house for collateral and his personal credit line for
most of his share. A gift from Dalman’s
father completed his share of the funding. Lei was able to use
her substantial personal savings to
finance her share of the capital. The first lease of land was
signed and a prefabricated unit was
ordered on July 21, 2004. Both Dalman and Lei considered this
date to be a good omen for the both

4. of them Sandwich Blitz opened its doors for business on
October 15, 2004. Dalman, Lei, and two
college students were the first employees. Each signed the first
currency note received during that
first day of operation. It is still proudly displayed in the
corporate office.
Operations
The Sandwich Blitz operational model reflects both Dalman
and Lei’s management philosophy
that allows each operating unit a great measure of autonomy.
This allows each location manager to
make the day-to-day decisions dealing with their unit budgets,
employee matters, and customer
service issues. Each location manager is carefully chosen and
given a compensation package which
includes incentives based on the performance of that location.
Each location manager is presented
with quarterly budgets and is accountable for meeting these
guidelines.
Each work team supervisor is responsible for ensuring good
customer service by making sure
that all customer associates adhere to the Sandwich Blitz Motto
which is proudly displayed over each

5. location’s counter: “Sandwich Blitz – Where our quality,
freshness, and customers always come first.”
Sandwich Blitz, Inc.
Copyright Kaplan University
Based on this motto, each customer associate is empowered to
resolve any customer-related
complaint. This allows the customer associate to refund
purchases, replace food, and take other
measures to satisfy the Sandwich Blitz customer. The original
location also serves as a training
center for the company and Dalman is a regular fixture at these
training sessions. Food recipes and
preparation techniques are of particular concern to Dalman
since he feels that a consistent product is
critical to the company’s competitiveness. Dalman considers a
few ingredients in their products to be
important enough to justify making them into private brands
that are owned by Sandwich Blitz to
protect them from potential competitors.

6. Lately, Dalman has mostly been visiting the operating locations
and dealing with problems and
issues that each manager requests help with while Lei has
concentrated on financial matters like
budget preparation, leases, taxes, and overseeing the daily
accounting process. Both Dalman and
Lei are pleased with Sandwich Blitz’s past performance but feel
that they are each unable to devote
their time and energy to expand the business significantly. All
of their time seems to be expended
taking care of these problems and issues within the existing
operation.
Evolution Management
NARRATOR: For centuries, scientists have been following the
behavior of workers and
managers. The understanding and analysis of this behavior
grew into a new field of
study, management thought. Management thought is a
relatively new discipline. Over
the past century, its modern practice has grown out of the
influence of social, economic
and political forces. It has also grown from the influence of
many researchers and
practitioners such as Frederick Taylor, Elton Mayo and W.

7. Edwards Deming.
NARRATOR: By the late 1800’s America had become the
manufacturing capital of the
world. Mass production techniques enabled companies to turn
out more products at a
lower cost than ever before. The sky was the limit!
Improvement in assembly line
technology led to large-scale production of a wide variety of
material goods. These
technological advancements came about at such an accelerated
pace that a certain degree
of chaos developed. Most businessmen of the time perceived
this chaos in terms of a
national productivity problem. Businesses weren’t as efficient
as they should have been.
Three issues formed the basis for the problem. First was the
problem of collaboration
between people and machines. Many factory workers were
afraid that substituting
machine power for human power would result in the elimination
of jobs. Workers were
also physically afraid of large, noisy, dirty and dangerous
factory machines. The second
obstacle was a general inexperience in running large size
factories and organizations that
could produce large volumes of products to lower the cost per
item. Because owners and
employees weren’t used to working in large groups different
authority structures were
needed. Standard operating procedures had to be developed and
implemented. Whatever
efficiencies these procedures brought about were off set in part
by an overall
depersonalization in the workplace. Bigger businesses were just
having bigger problems.

8. The more managers began to realize how costly these problems
were becoming the more
they searched for solutions.
NARRATOR: The search for solutions provided the basis for
the development of the
four major theories or approaches to management. The classical
approach beginning in
the late 1800’s, the behavioral approach in the early 1900’s, the
systems approach in the
1930’s and 1940’s and the contingency approach a theory that
gained prominence in the
1960’s.
INSTRUCTOR: “Let’s bring Taylor up in the 1890’s.”
NARRATOR: The classical approach to management
emphasizes the manager’s role in
the formal hierarchy of authority. It focuses on the task,
machines and systems needed to
perform the task efficiently. The classical approach has two
components scientific
management and administrative management. An effort to
blend the study and functions
of engineering with those of business economics came to be
known as shop management.
Shop management gave way to an entirely new discipline known
as scientific
management. Scientific management emphasizes improving the
efficiency of work by
the systematic and scientific study of work methods, tools and
performance standards.
Evolution Management

9. Page 2 of 4
NARRATOR: Frederick Taylor is remembered for his
contributions to management
thought in the first part of the twentieth century. As a result of
his experience in the steel
mills of Philadelphia, Taylor concluded that the productivity
problem of the day was due
to lack of management attention to workers. This contradicted
the beliefs of most
businessmen in the early 1900’s who blamed the productivity
problem on the general
laziness of workers. Taylor’s theory was based mainly on his
observations of soldiering
among steel mill workers. Soldiering is the systematic slow
down in work by laborers in
order to keep their employers ignorant of how fast the work can
be done. Taylor believed
that the deceptive practice of soldiering existed for three
reasons. First management
didn’t know how much work could be done. Second many
laborers thought if they
worked too fast, they would work themselves out of a job.
Third workers didn’t know
how to do their jobs efficiently to begin with. Taylor blamed
these problems on poor
management. According to Taylor, the role of management is
to: 1) Develop the one
best way to perform any task. 2) Scientifically select, train,
teach and develop each
worker. 3) Cooperate with workers and provide an incentive to
insure that the work is
done according to the one best way. 4) Divide the work and
the responsibility equally
between management and labor. The other arm of the classical
approach to management

10. theory is administrative management. This approach
emphasizes that management as a
function can be applied to any size or kind of organization.
Administrative management
theories focus on the coordination of the workings of an entire
organization not just
organizing the work of individual workers. Classical
management theories are broadly
grounded in the assumption that work is a rational undertaking
that is done in order to
make money and given that, the behavior of people at work will
be fairly predictable and
easy to understand. The trouble is that isn’t always true. Work
often isn’t a rational,
logical or reasonable process and to many people work is more
than just a means of
making money. The need study and understand human behavior
and look at management
in this light began to develop in the early 1900’s. The
behavioral approach is a view of
management that stresses understanding the importance of
people’s needs and attitudes
within formal organizations.
INSTRUCTOR: “What we will do is we will bring up the
Hawthorne studies if you
would that took place here in Chicago in the 1930s.”
NARRATOR: Beginning in 1924 a group of researchers from
MIT and Harvard led by
Professor Elton Mayo began conducting experiments at Western
Electric’s Hawthorne
Plant in Cicero, IL. They didn’t know it at the time but their
research would span nine
years before they could come to a conclusion.

11. Evolution Management
Page 3 of 4
VOICE OF MAYO: “We were trying to find out what
circumstances in the workplace
had the greatest affect on worker output. We experimented with
changes in lighting, the
number of hours the employees worked, rest periods, incentive
pay and hot lunches. It
seemed that none of these factors had any direct link to output.
But we found that when
being interviewed the workers lost their shyness and fear. They
began to feel valued by
their coworkers and supervisors. Our studies showed that good
social relationships in the
workplace is what produces more output.”
NARRATOR: The Hawthorne experiments marked a change in
the direction of
management theory and practice. The systems approach to
management theory views
organizations as sets of interrelated parts to be managed as a
whole with the purpose of
achieving a common goal. Systems organizations consist of
inputs, transformation
processes, outputs and feedback. One of the great management
thinkers of this half
century is W. Edwards Deming. Deming has been credited with
among other things
resurrecting Japan’s economy in the years that followed the
second world war.
INSTRUCTOR: “Bring up Deming.”

12. NARRATOR: He devoted much of his life to spreading his
message of continuous
improvement and statistical process control to improve quality.
Deming thought it was
necessary to integrate the theories that came earlier into an
approach in which all
dimensions of the organization and its environment are
considered as part of one system.
ROBERT RODNEY, PRESIDENT MARSHALL INDUSTRIES:
“About 3 ½ years ago
Gordon read an article in Harvard Business Review on Dr.
Deming and his 14 points and
he showed it to myself and Dick Bentley. We met with some
people and we attended the
Deming four day seminar and began to get a picture of what this
possibility could mean
for the company.”
NARRATOR: Some of Deming’s theories enabled Marshall
Industries, a California
electronics company to make a commitment to total quality
within their organization.
ROBERT RODNEY, PRESIDENT MARSHALL INDUSTRIES:
“We see the business
as very dependent. Each system in our company is dependent
on the next system. Both
our suppliers, our customers and our internal customer
relationships have a tremendous
dependency on one another. This requires everybody to work
together like an orchestra
or a football team where each person has a job to do but no one
job is more important
than the other.”

13. Evolution Management
Page 4 of 4
NARRATOR: During the 1960’s the phrase “it depends” began
to appear regularly in
management writing. It depends characterized the contingency
approach. The
contingency approach emphasizes identifying the key variables
in each situation
understanding the relationships among the variables and
recognizing the causes and
effects of managerial decisions. Generally, the contingency
approach is considered to be
an outgrowth of the systems approach.
NARRATOR: From the classical approach to the contingency
approach and from
Frederick Taylor to W. Edwards Deming, management thinking
has evolved and
improved. As ideas change and new theories develop, future
generations will benefit
from continued efforts to improve the quality of work and the
quality of life in the work
place.