Scribd
Upload
170 views

Business Strategy Tutorial 4 Question

The document discusses evaluating the resources, capabilities, and competitiveness of companies using two examples: 1) ABC Kindergarten, a stable kindergarten business that wants to expand through franchising. It excels at basic requirements but lacks a unique education and distinguishability from competitors. 2) Crystal Restaurant, a 20-outlet Malaysian restaurant chain known for high quality food and service. It controls procurement and production tightly but relies little on technology, an area for improvement. The document examines these companies' threshold resources, unique resources, strategic capabilities, benchmarking methods, value chain activities, support activities, and strengths and weaknesses.

Uploaded by

YeeWern Wong
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
170 views

Business Strategy Tutorial 4 Question

The document discusses evaluating the resources, capabilities, and competitiveness of companies using two examples: 1) ABC Kindergarten, a stable kindergarten business that wants to expand through franchising. It excels at basic requirements but lacks a unique education and distinguishability from competitors. 2) Crystal Restaurant, a 20-outlet Malaysian restaurant chain known for high quality food and service. It controls procurement and production tightly but relies little on technology, an area for improvement. The document examines these companies' threshold resources, unique resources, strategic capabilities, benchmarking methods, value chain activities, support activities, and strengths and weaknesses.

Uploaded by

YeeWern Wong
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
You are on page 1/ 4

Tutorial 4 (Week 5) Lecture 4: Evaluating a company’s resources, capabilities &

competitiveness

Question 1

ABC Kindergarten

Cindy founded ABC Kindergarten (ABC) five years ago. The business is stable now but Cindy is
ambitious. She wants to expand the business by way of franchising. Together with some of her trusted
staff, Cindy evaluated the ABC’s current position based on the feedbacks from parents, students,
teachers and local residents. She gathered the following information:

• ​Parents and students are generally happy with the facilities, system, teaching and curriculum of
ABC. ABC excels in providing the basic requirements of a Kindergarten. However, parents
want to extend the pick-up time from 6.30 pm to 7.30 pm.

• ​Parents and students are particularly satisfied with the extra-curricular activities offered in ABC
to develop non-academic skills such as art and craft, cooking, baking, gardening, and singing.

• ​A benchmarking with a top-notch Kindergarten in Malaysia reveals that ABC is stronger in


maintaining parents-teacher-student relationship but it is lacking in providing a unique
Kindergarten education and distinguishable from competitors.

• ​A review of comments in a social network of the area’s residents showed that ABC is ranked
the top 5 choice for Kindergarten in the area. ABC is generally complimented for its efficient
service and committed teachers.

Required:

(a) Using ABC Kindergarten as an example, explain ​threshold resources​, ​unique resources ​and
strategic capabilities​. (12 marks)

(b) What is benchmarking? Comment on the benchmarking method used by Cindy to evaluate ABC
Kindergarten. (8 marks) [Total: 20 marks]

BBDM2043 BUSINESS STRATEGY 4-1


Tutorial 4 (Week 5) Lecture 4: Evaluating a company’s resources, capabilities &
competitiveness

Question 2

Crystal Restaurant

Introduction
Crystal Restaurant (Crystal), a halal-certified Malaysian restaurant chain company was established in
1980. Crystal serves Malaysian food in a restaurant environment. Currently, Crystal has about 20
retail outlets in Malaysia.

Crystal’s Business Operations and Activities


Crystal acquires its raw materials and ingredients from local farms. Supplies are transported to the
storage sites and subsequently sent to the distribution centres which are company owned. To ensure a
high quality standard of food, Crystal hires a group of agents who travel to different parts of the
country for the procurement of high grade raw materials and ingredients. Company standards are
communicated to the suppliers directly by the agents who establish a strategic relationship and
partnership with the suppliers.

Crystal does not engage any intermediaries in product selling. All products are sold in their own or
licensed outlets only. Crystal does not also engage in aggressive marketing. The company undertakes
need-based marketing activities for launching its new products, mainly in the form of giving away
food samples in surrounding areas. Crystal emphasises on superior quality food products and aims at
building loyalty by providing a high level customer service. The waiters and waitresses are well
trained to ensure an excellent service. Outlet managers highly value the feedback from customers and
give immediate responses to them. To provide customers a unique dining experience, Crystal gives
customers a small souvenir, which is a name tag with its logo. Customers like the design and
ambience of the retail outlets. Crystal uses pastel colours, soft lighting, artistic paintings and
ergonomic furniture to provide a good dining experience. In addition, Crystal provides free and
unlimited Wi-Fi access in all retail outlets.

Crystal has a group of loyal and committed employees who are highly motivated in their work. The
company is known for its flexible compensation and benefits packages, which take care the needs of
every employee. Furthermore, Crystal provides a series of job training and personal development
programmes to keep its employees motivated and efficient. The training is not only offered to waiters
and waitresses, but also kitchen and administration staff.

In its current operation, Crystal does not rely much on technology, including information technology,
which is one area in which Crystal should improve to maintain its competitiveness in the industry.

Most of its outlets are located at strategic or unique locations, such as at a hill top, which offers an
outstanding view of the town or city centre. However, Crystal keeps the interior design of the
restaurant simple. According to one of the outlet managers, the outlet design and layout have been
kept unchanged for almost all the years.

Crystal maintains high quality food through a tight control over the production and procurement
processes. Outlet managers believe that the quality of food products is the most important factor to
attract and retain customers; hence, they strive to keep a tight control on the food production. With its
excellent procurement process, Crystal is able to use high quality and fresh local produce in their
menu. There are also special events such as birthday parties that usually require a customised set of
menu.
BBDM2043 BUSINESS STRATEGY 4-2
Tutorial 4 (Week 5) Lecture 4: Evaluating a company’s resources, capabilities &
competitiveness

Question 1 (Continued)

Required:

(a) Using Porter’s value chain model, explain the ​FIVE (5) ​primary activities of Crystal Restaurant.
(20 marks)

(b) Explain the support activities of Crystal Restaurant in terms of procurement, technological
development and human resource development. (12 marks)

(c) Identify and explain ​THREE (3) ​strengths and ​ONE (1) ​weakness of Crystal Restaurant. (8
marks)
[Total: 40 marks]
BBDM2043 BUSINESS STRATEGY 4-3

You might also like