Case study: Levendary Caf
Course: Global Enterprise and Competition
Professor: A. Mehta
Student: Yi Xu
Date: 11/28/2013
Introduction:
Howard Leventhal, the founder of the Levendary Caf, had grown a small Denver soup,
salad and sandwich restaurant into a $10 billion business in 32 years. In the quick casual
restaurant segment, Levendary Caf was distinguished by two elements: wholesome soups,
salads and sandwiches using high-quality ingredients and a commitment to service in a
comfortable, friendly environment, as well as its willingness to take risk.
In February 2011, Mia Foster was named as its new CEO. In spite of Foster’s strong track
record, analysts in Wall Street were till skeptical of her ability to build a multi-national
brand due to her lack of previous international management experience. Moreover,
Levendary’s domestic business had become matured and was nearly tapped out, and it only
had international business in Dubai, so that its recent entry into the fast-growing China
market was closely watched. Mia Foster had to focus on the expansion in China market.
Louis Chen was chosen by former CEO to enter China market first and had opened 23
restaurants. But Chen made many changes in menu and store decoration, which didn’t
follow the brand position. And he used non-GAAP numbers from China in financial
reports, which bad been a potential risk. What’s the worse, Chen didn’t make any future
