Discusion Questions:
1. Has Jim Adamson been successful in changing the corporate culture at Avantica?
Yes. Jim Adamson has been successful in changing the corporate culture at Avantica. He refused to allow the company to explain away its discriminatory practices with excuses; instead, he chose a well-known former colleague from Burger King, Ray Hood-Phillips who has a big success guiding Burger King to become a more diverse company, to lead Advantica. Adamson knew that by appointing Hood-Phillips as the company’s Chief Diversity Officer she would not just be well suited to the job, but worked on diversity training, new purchasing contracts, marketing, franchising, and performance evaluations. She was the kind of Chief Diversity Officer which dedication and tenacity would help to implement the new policies at Flagstar. He has confidence on her tenacity and he also thought that she would change the corporation’s culture through her continued dedication. As he expected, changes at Denny’s comprised a drastic change in the image of the company. As direct result of these changes at Flagstar, Jim Adamson received the 1996 CEO of the Year Award from the NAACP. In 1998, the company deserve CBS 60 Minutes story for its positive results and in 2000 Denny’s was named number one “50 Best Companies for Minorities” by Fortune’s.
2. How effective is the diversity strategy Advantica has put in place? The diversity strategy Advantica has put in place was very effective. First at all, they understood they have to utilize intensive diversity training as a means to change the culture of the company. Everyone was required to participate in varying levels of training: from the board of directors to every cook, hostess and server. Any cook and all the servers were required to watch a video on diversity. The board of directors received a full day of training, and restaurant managers received two, non-consecutive days of training lasting seven to