Empress Luxury Lines

1109 Words5 Pages
Webster University Space Coast Region Merritt Island Campus Case Study Report Of Empress Luxury Lines Amanda L Zuber MNGT 5000 Management Submitted to: Leo Lennon October 31, 2011 Synopsis Empress Luxury Lines is a cruise line company that has experienced recent financial troubles. In the 1990’s they increased the fleet of ships because of demand during the stock market bubble. However, this increased demand did not last long. The stock market plummeted, September 11 shocked the nation, and a recent outbreak of the Norwalk virus aboard ships made bookings decrease dramatically. Additionally, hurricanes plagued the Caribbean and Gulf ports in 2005 causing cruise lines to issue refund checks along with increased fuel costs. The decreased earnings meant Empress could not invest into a computer system upgrade that employee Antonio Melendez had been requesting for two years. During recent thunderstorms, a power surge struck their system, which caused damage to the underground wires and computer circuits. Kevin Pfeiffer, a new employee still on probation, was the computer technician who investigated the damage caused by the power surge. Kevin reported his findings to Phil Bailey, and his estimate was that the damage was only about $15,000 to repair. He thought this would be good news to Phil. Phil was upset by this news and immediately called Roger, Empress’s CFO, and Antonio’s boss. After the phone call with Roger, Phil instructed Kevin to dig up nearly all of the underground wire and cable and haul it off before the insurance adjustor arrived. Kevin knew that this would cause the repair costs to reach nearly $500,000, well above the initial damage estimates. As Phil pointed out, this money would go a long way to cover the cost of the new computer system upgrade they had been requesting. Even though Kevin was a new

More about Empress Luxury Lines

Open Document