...Study 4 Hard Rock Café Location Strategy 1.From Munday’s Standard Market Report Checklist, select any other four categories and provide three subcategories that should be evaluated? A) Demographics (local, city, region, SMS, with trend analysis 1. Economic indicators: - Changes in foreign currencies - Inflation rates- Unemployment rates B) Visitor Market 1. Hotels ` - Current number of hotels in market are - Age of existing hotels in market area - Occupancy rate of current hotels, as well seasonality of occupancy - Rates of new hotel construction (could indicates per year during last ten years) C) Political Risk - What type of government system is in place - Nationalization of major industries - Reduction of foreign interest in local business ventures D) Real Estate Markets - Liquidity of real estate - Current vacancy rates/occupancy rates - Number of real estate properties owned by global companies - Real estate turnover rates (how often are properties sold and converted to new business venture) - Cost of buying versus leasing commercial real estate 3. Why does the Hard Rock put such serious effort into its location analysis? Location decisions for Hard Rock Café begin with a global view which involves analyzing a country, then a region within the country and then finally a city location (Amer,1999). Specifically...
Words: 647 - Pages: 3
...Strategic Plan: The Cheesecake Factory STR 581 March 31, 2014 Dr. Patricia Dues Strategic Plan: The Cheesecake Factory Table of Contents Executive summary 3 Mission and Vision Statement 3 Company Overview 3 Environmental Scan 4 External Environmental Analysis 4 Internal Environmental Analysis 5 Value Disciplines 7 Generic Strategies 8 Grand Strategies 8 Recommended Strategy 9 Implementation Plan 9 Objectives 10 Functional Tactics 10 Action Items 11 Milestones and a Deadline 12 Required Organizational Change 12 Risk Management and Contingency Plan 12 Conclusion 13 References 14 Executive Summary Mission and Vision Statement The mission of The Cheesecake Factory is to create an environment where absolute guest satisfaction is the highest priority. The vision statement is as follows: Through a shared commitment to excellence, we are dedicated to the uncompromising quality of our food, service, people and profit, while taking exceptional care of our guests and staff. We will continuously strive to surpass our own accomplishments and be recognized as a leader in our industry. (The Cheesecake Factory, 2014) Company Overview “The Cheesecake Factory restaurants provide a distinctive, high quality dining experience at moderate prices by offering an extensive, innovative and evolving menu in...
Words: 3599 - Pages: 15
...required to develop and implement various strategies to deal with emerging issues in the business environment. Trends in the external and internal environment of the organization demand development of new strategies for the organization in order to ensure that the business remains viable. The strategic choice of the organization is critical for the achievement of both short term and long term goals of the organization. Organizational leaders and analysts must therefore conduct a thorough evaluation of various strategic alternatives by analyzing the risks involved, organizational capabilities, external environment, and whether the strategies form a good fit with the objectives and values of the organization. (Peng and Dess, 2013) A good strategy will ensure that the organization operates at its maximum potential and achieves exemplary performance. The strategic approach that the organization adopts will however depend on the organizational culture, organizational structure and leadership style. (Abu-Jarour, 2014) The bottom line is that organizations will design strategic plans that seek to improve customer satisfaction and service quality, gain competitive advantage, improve business processes, attract and retain employees and manage their costs. Strategic Alternatives In developing and adopting a strategic choice, an organization has to put into consideration various strategic alternatives that are crucial in making a decision on which strategy to adopt. An important step in this...
Words: 1606 - Pages: 7
...Kudler Fine Food (Problem Statement) The paper should examine Kudler Fine Foods existing issues and identifying current strategy. The paper should discuss Kudler’s marketing and Strategies for better positioning for growth. Kudler Fine Foods, founded by Kathy Kudler in 1998 with a vision to grow into several store in high end markets. In summary and as shown in the 2003 strategic plan illustrated that Kudler Fine Foods was founded by Kathy Kudler first in La Jolla – California area, followed by two additional stores in 2000 and 2003. While the KFF La Jolla location was doing well, there were some challenges on the second location in Del Mar – California in which consideration for merging the Del Mar store with the third location in Encinitas - Carlsbad, California. Kudler Fine Foods (KFF) vision “Kudler Fine Foods will be the premiere gourmet grocery store for those savvy shoppers who are searching for the finest meats, produce, cheeses, and wine” the vision statement automatically set the targeted customers with specific passion for gourmet cooking and fine wines from a singles source. Kudler Fine Foods important task is to understand to look outside the box and look into ways to how to reach the market and review their current position, marketing & strategy plans among few other issues and have a mission statement to align with base on some kind of key metrics to measure progress. KFF entire operations carried issues that became problems. Some of the issues also...
Words: 797 - Pages: 4
...addressed each. This critique should not exceed three pages when complete. 1. Situation Analysis – how well was the SWOT analysis completed? Was there any missing information? Did the students clearly label what was internal and external to the case? Overall, the team did a good job identifying the main points of the situation analysis. However, it did not clearly label which points are internal and which are external to the case. We would also recommend including the following missing points into SWOT: One of additional strengths that we would include is the high quality of the ice cream and “super premium” ingredients that Marble Slab uses in its products. Penny Thomas can use this strength to the benefit of her promotion strategy to stress brand differences to better position the franchise against its competitors. Another strong characteristic of a franchise is assistance with expertise in areas like financing, real estate and marketing. This is a major advantage for a startup company, where potential financial risks can be minimized due to backing by the head company. A weakness that was not pointed out is relatively high pricing of Marble Slab offerings. This weakness indicates that Penny Thomas will have to target a market of customers who would be willing to pay for “affordable luxury.” An additional opportunity that we would suggest to list is changes in tastes. While the rich and flavorful taste of original ice cream is still more appealing...
Words: 1582 - Pages: 7
...Strategies for Competing Internationally As a consequence of the two opposing pressures, reduction of costs and local adaptation, companies have four basic strategies for competing internationally: 1. home replication 2. multidomestic 3. global 4. transnational The strategy that would be most appropriate for a company, overall and for various activities in the value chain, depends on the amount of pressure the company faces to adapt to local markets and achieve cost reductions. Each of these strategies has its own set of advantages and disadvantages: 1) A home replication strategy centralizes product development strategy in the home country, and after differentiated products are developed in this home market, they are transferred abroad to capture additional value. This strategic choice is sometimes called international strategy. 2) A global strategy tends to be used when a company faces strong pressures for reducing costs and limited pressure to adapt products for local markets. Strategy and decision making is typically centralized, and the company offers standardized products and services. Value chain activities are often located in only one or a few areas, to help achieve economies of scale. There is emphasis on close coordination and integration of activities across products and markets, and development of efficient logistics and distribution capabilities. Global strategies may confront challenges such as limited ability to adjust to changes in...
Words: 508 - Pages: 3
...to over 400 individual store locations by combining their individual strengths. From the very beginning, Debbi’s focus has been to provide a “feel good product” and sell it “in a feel good way”. Randy clearly understood the value of Debbi’s commitment to quality products and the customer experience. He turned his vision of an MIS that “put as much decision making and intelligence into the store level PC as necessary to free the manager to do those things that uniquely people do” into a powerful strategic advantage for Mrs. Fields Cookies. The successful alignment of Mrs. Fields’ Cookies business and information systems strategies resulted in strong revenue growth and bottom line profits. The company developed an information technology platform that was more than just a business support tool. By collecting data, performing analysis and tracking results, Randy and the MIS Department created an expert system that routinely made day to day decisions for store managers. Suggestions related to daily production scheduling, sales strategies, labor demand and even hiring decisions were routinely generated by the company’s management information system. The sophistication of this tool allowed Debbi to maintain a strong influence on day to day store operations even as the number of locations exploded. From the beginning, Debbi committed herself to a strategy that would ensure each Mrs. Fields’ Cookies location would mimic the feel, operating strategy and customer experience of her...
Words: 1025 - Pages: 5
...Kudler Fine Foods: Strategy Discriminating palates demand the best, and Kudler Fine Foods is there to provide that for them. Kathy Kudler's vision of a one stop shop for everything gourmet, from locally grown organic produce to top-of-the-line cooking utensils has been resounding success. In just a few years she has expanded her business to three stores with future plans to add additional locations. The strategy for improving her business will now hinge on building customer loyalty. Kudler will also implement changes to their website which will allow them to access other markets by making a selection of their products available for online purchase, and they are implementing a plan to track their customer purchases to optimize their product choice for their loyal customers. Kudler's marketing department has devised four specific tactics they will use to implement their strategy, while keeping an eye on their competitors. “Strategic competitiveness can be attained only when the firm’s selected structure is congruent with its formulated strategy" (Gomez-Mejia, 2002). Businesses leverage competitive advantage acquired by use of new technology or implementing it in a new way. An example of such a business is British Airways, who implemented a IT solution to that proved to be a strategic advantage in the airline industry. Working with IBM, British Airways created a way for people to check in for their flights on a website or using their mobile device. (Turban, 2003) Kathy Kudler...
Words: 1417 - Pages: 6
...doing in reaching their goal. The goals of the two companies are really important because it will help us determine their business planning and strategies which will help them become a successful company in reducing competition. Nike Nike is planning on increasing its sales and will increase their sales by apparel investment, locations, and focusing more on the consumer. Nike plans to quadruple its apparel investment on the innovation side over the next five years (Ryan, 2010, p. 12). Nike wants to be able to overall boost sales and continue growing. The first step in increasing sales will be by the overall investment on apparel. From a strategy perspective, Nike has centralized its apparel team around the world and is reducing the number of styles, vendors and materials used to focus on top-selling items which include t-shirts, track jackets, etc (Ryan, 2010, p. 12). Apparel investment is one of the main goals for Nike; however, there are still many other growth opportunities that will help Nike with increasing sales. Furthermore, the company plans to grow the Nike brand through expanding it to more locations. Nike’s retail strategy in the U.S. is to run a small number of Niketown stores and sell mostly through national retail chains (Cendrowski, 2011, p. 23). Nike wants to be able to compete aggressively by developing new locations in different markets. Doing so, will really help the Nike brand grow and become broader. Nike will really allow them to target different consumers...
Words: 740 - Pages: 3
... Environmental scanning is very important to a company’s long term and short term run within a business. In this paper there will be two businesses being evaluated through the scanning process. The SWOT analysis is the tool of choice. The SWOT analysis will provide the strengths and weaknesses of each company. The environmental scanning monitors help companies evaluate information from the internal and external factors of a company. The two companies being evaluated is USPS and Wal-Mart. The USPS internal and external factors are as follows: market and economic conditions, competitor actions, regulations, seasonality, and trend (" Internal and External Factors", 2014). The Internal factors are maintenance concepts, pricing strategies, product change, changes in usage factors, and promotions and advertising for products or services"(" Internal and External Factors", 2014). The USPS has to have better pay than the competitors to keep the employees. The carriers are paid well with USPS and tend to stay until the time they are eligible to retire. The "Performance Measurement Systems" (2004) website "External First-Class Measurement System (EXFC) is not a system-wide measurement of all First-Class Mail service performance". The USPS has very effective guidelines and follows protocol to the "T". The USPS takes great steps when ensuring quality service and care to their customers. They provide different services to their customer who in return keeps the...
Words: 928 - Pages: 4
...Q1: my strategy is to (hopefully) expand the number of stores and eventually franchise, while focusing on serving only high quality fresh ingredients. What are three specific human resource management implications of my strategy (including specific policies and practices)? Answer: The expansion of stores and eventually franchising while focusing on serving only high quality fresh ingredients should include the following three resource management implications: (1) BUSINESS ENVIRONMENT ANALYSIS: This implication represents the importance of the company’s general and competitive environment. Angelo needs a good business strategy. A strategic plan is the company’s plan for how it will match its internal strengths and weaknesses with external opportunities and threats in order to maintain a competitive advantage. Angelo’s early attempts showed the pitfalls in rushing and making assumptions about replicating a viable business unit. Fortunately, Angelo has realized his lack of proper planning and the necessity to correct his errors before attempting to branch out into more stores and possibly franchising. The locations of the proposed new stores are paramount. These locations must be in areas where high quality ingredients are readily available. The supply of fresh ingredients does not meet all the needs for successful stores. The medium that serves the customer pays a vital role. (2) JOB ANALYSIS – All businesses want to attract and maintain good people. A job analysis is the...
Words: 282 - Pages: 2
...Historically, all of RLC’s shipments move from each production facility to all major US markets via daily direct air shipments. The data provided to this consulting team indicates that RLC’s customers are all located in the Southwestern United States, which means that their Midwestern production facilities are geographically distant from their customers; this distance issue means that RLC is not operating efficiently because their shipping is not cost effective. Please see Exhibit A, which indicates that the total cost of air shipping based on current demand levels is $10,515 per day. Transportation costs make up a majority of RLC’s distribution costs, and will be used in this study as the basis for evaluating alternative distribution system strategies. RLC’s goals are to (1) reduce transportation costs, (2) reduce transit time to minimize the risk of lost sales, and (3) improve overall customer service. To meet these goals, this consulting team ran multiple scenarios aimed at optimizing the supply chain. RLC has already made strides to improve their distribution system, but are currently challenged as to how to make additional enhancements. Their “desire for a distribution system characterized by high-speed transportation and low in-transit inventory levels” has driven them toward improvements such as reducing/removing lag time from their order cycle (including order processing), removing warehousing facilities from the equation to reduce holding costs on inventory and lower...
Words: 1160 - Pages: 5
...Europe expects to bring in demand for more products. These markets deeply affected by lifestyle changes ushered in by the new age of multimedia, economic growth, industrialization, and growth of personal income will power the expected growth for plastics and other consumer products. Competitive Advantages and Strategies Riordan is a company with business across the globe. Similar to companies like McDonald’s and The Gap, Riordan receives a great deal of pressure to maintain technological perks to the customer, treat the employees well, and support efforts to enforce the protection of the environment. As a global company, special interest groups sometimes have a louder voice than the public; these groups will request, almost demand, the support of the business within the community. For Riordan to remain competitive the company has been very supportive of special interest groups to include improved processes resulting in improved manufacturing processes that reduce their footprint left on the environment. Community and Market analysis is based on the global location of the business, some similarities in strategy exist, but there will be location-specific points that will require a spin on what is considered normal. Competitor Analysis will require local and...
Words: 1318 - Pages: 6
...more on quality and customer service more than anything else including price. In this paper, I will discuss Kudler’s quality strategies and strategic plan as well as identify and examine the process of improvement. Furthermore I will also talk about Kudler’s tools and techniques along with the significance of competitive intelligence as it relates to their organization. The History of the Company Kudler Fine Foods is an upscale specialty food store founded by Kathy Kudler in June 1998. The business offers their customers a wide selection of both imported and domestic products from bakery, meat and seafood, to produce, cheese and dairy products, not to mention their extensive assortment of wines. Presently, Kudler Fine Foods has store locations in La Jolla, Del Mar, and Encinitas, California. “Kudler’s mission is to provide their customers with the finest selected foodstuff, wines, and related needs in an unparalleled consumer environment” (Apollo Group 2008). A few years after opening, Kudler Fine Foods quickly began to experience substantial growth. Therefore, the company is currently concentrating their efforts on expansion of their services, improving the efficiency of their operations, and increasing their consumer buying cycle. In order to accomplish these plans, they must first identify the type of strategic plan, strategies and tactics that are required to achieve a successful launch of the company’s new services. Strategic Plan and...
Words: 1053 - Pages: 5
...Introduction: In this phase we have to arrange the data for three different stores which we have selected for our final project of retail. We have to analyze all those factors which are important to understand while we as marketers visits to any store for any purchase purpose and to determine the availability of all those things which works as the eye catching view and leads customer to purchase from that particular store. Saddique departmental store Saddique department store is located in Zahid Colony near dhula chunk. This is one of the oldest shops which started its business in 1999. Then they expand in 2010 into a large retail store have the 2 shops and various warehouse near the store where they store all that martial which consume more space like the bags of flour and rice. Their target consumers for that particular store are all those households near there shop which include the Kashmir road, colony, calimaxabad and its surroundings. They started their business with the purpose to reduce the efforts of the households by providing their products near to them and they are tended to charge the minimum margin on their products while they are serving both types of customers. One who purchase on the bulk and the 2nd category is for those individuals who purchase for in minimum quantity. Selected Product: A We have selected two products in FMCG’s sector which Colgate and Close-up. We have going to do a complete audit of these two products on the mentioned shops on the prescribed...
Words: 3723 - Pages: 15
