Title: Decision making processes of IHOP Pakistan Name: Eglaim Pervaiz Student ID: 261039400 Course: BUSN 170 Section: B Submitted to: Maám Laiba Yousaf IHOP (International House of Pancakes) is a renowned American restaurant that mostly serves breakfast items such as pancakes. The restaurant has just expanded to Pakistan, where it implements many decision-making processes aimed at improving customer happiness, decreasing costs, and increasing profitability to ensure the success of its operations in Pakistan. Bounded rationality is one of the decision-making processes that IHOP restaurant management uses. To make menu item selections while launching a branch in Pakistan, the management team lacked full knowledge of local tastes and preferences. While the managers had some awareness of the local market, they were not experts, and their decision-making abilities were restricted by their knowledge and previous experience in the Pakistani food business. By applying bounded rationality, the team made decisions based on their own knowledge, such as continuing to sell pancakes as their distinctive product regardless of the fact that Pakistanis prefer desi cuisine in breakfast to American-style pancakes. This resulted in lower sales in this country as compared to other international areas where pancakes are a common breakfast item. Another method of making decisions is programmed decision making. This method requires following established norms and processes while making routine or recurring decisions. A restaurant management must hire employees such as waiters and chefs. To make recruiting decisions, the manager can follow an established hiring process that includes examining applicants, conducting interviews, and verifying references. The hiring managers are able to make these choices quickly and efficiently by applying programmed decision making as they already have a pre-programmed set of rules to follow. A manager frees up time and resources by this type of decision making process. Furthermore, the restaurant management had been closely monitoring the country's growing inflation rates and recognised the impact it was having on the everyday lives of their staff. As a result, some employees considered transferring employment for better benefits. So, in order to show gratitude for their hard work and commitment, the management intuitively made the decision to give a festive bonus to all employees based on accumulated judgment. The bonus was considerable and was provided over the Easter holiday season, which added to the employees' excitement and gave them hope of obtaining such perks in the future. It was also reported that this was the first time that the staff had received a holiday bonus. The management was well aware that the bonus would not resolve all of the financial challenges created by inflation, but it not only was a visible gesture that conveyed to employees that their efforts were valued but also highlighted the manager's great intuitive decision making abilities.
