The Cooks, a married couple who attended chef school together, opened their first restaurant in Venice, CA two years ago. Called “Café HAT” (for “healthy, affordable and tasty”), the restaurant has become very popular and profitable. The Cooks recently opened two new Café HAT restaurants in Southern California, and they plan to open five more in the next two years (in Northern and Southern California and Las Vegas, Nevada).
The business currently has 44 employees, made up of 5 managers; a total of 35 chefs, wait staff, hosts, dishwashers and bus-persons; the Cooks (who manage the operations), an accountant and a bookkeeper. The business currently uses outside vendors to provide Human Resources (HR) and Legal services.
Given its growth in size and their plan to open stores in new geographic areas, the Cooks have decided to hire a Chief Compliance Officer (who will, at least in the near future, be the company’s only Compliance employee). Based on your experience, references and educational background, you’ve been hired! You start your job next week.
The Cooks have asked you to complete the following tasks in your first 60 days:
Identify the major compliance risks the company faces.
Prepare a Code of Conduct just for their company. (The Code provided by the outside HR vendor strikes them as too generic.)
In your response, please:
Describe the steps you will take to i) identify the company’s major risks, and ii) determine what topics to cover in the Code.
Discuss what review process you will utilize after you draft the Code, but before it is finalized and implemented.
(For the purpose of this Assignment, you can assume the Cooks operate their business as a partnership; you do not need to address any risks or issues relating to Board governance.)
Feel free to use other publicly-available information if you would like, and please cite any such information.
Your answer may not exceed 500 words and/or 1.5 pages, double-spaced using 12-pt. Times New Roman font.
