Rapid Car Wash is a franchiser of car wash companies across the northeastern United States. It has grown from simply owning one car wash to now having more than 100 franchisees. Lately, top management has been getting complaints from customers about the cleanliness of their cars after the car wash, the cost of the car wash, and the attitude of employees. Rapid does not directly own 99 of the 100 shops bearing its name, but these results can clearly damage the reputation of the franchise and hurt good and bad franchisees alike. Robert Kingsley, owner of Rapid Car Wash, has asked you to come in and make some recommendations about how he can use different types of controls to ensure more consistent performance. He does not have a vision or mission statement, so you are going to have to dig deep to help him out.

REQUIRED:

a. What type of measurement is the company relying on right now to run the business?

b. Can you develop several action controls that might help the company?

c. On the other hand, results measures might be more useful. Can you suggest two or three potential results measures?

d. Do you think Rapid Car Wash is too large to rely on personnel and action controls? Why or why not?

e. What would you recommend to Robert as he thinks about the next wave of growth in his business? In other words, do you think he can continue on without a mission statement, vision statement, and strategic plan even though he does not directly own and operate 99% of the business? Please draft a one- to two- paragraph memo to Robert with your recommendations.