WAITROSE FOOD COMPANY CASE STUDY

Its objective is to offer a superstore via expertise as well as a high quality food shop. According to Spence, the restaurants have increased to a significant degree since the opening of other 150 branches in the United Kingdom, Scotland and Whales. The main principle that govern the organization is to provide high quality products, as well as high-end products through refining local British farming products. As a result, there has been a significant and continuous development and growth of the firm, with the management aiming at ensuring the provision of high products at all times. With the highly competitive United Kingdom food industry, Waitrose has lured and earned the trust of most customers, with most of the customers understanding that the firm’s products stand for quality.

Internal and external governance mechanisms Free, C. (2008) argued that, corporate governance is necessary for the strategic management of any organization. According to Free, the firm has a framework of rules and practices by which the board of directors ensures there is accountability, fairness, and transparency in the company’s relationship with its stakeholders. The stakeholders in Waitrose include the financiers working staff, management, customers, government, owners, and the community where the company is situated. Waitrose Company has set various internal governance mechanisms to control its processes. The company has to ensure that the cost of their products is directly proportional to the financial and economic state of the nation, as this helps their customers to cope with their price levels. Environmental factors are also a dominant external controller of the organization’s daily processes.

Most people go to shopping centers using cars. Consequently, they have to ensure that they provide ample parking. The management must also offer parking relief to their customers, to encourage them to shop from their supermarkets. The strategy involves minimizing the cost of most of their products to levels slightly lower as compared to their close competitors. Through this, most customers are attracted to this company, as they will spend less to acquire more as compared to other companies (Bratton 2017). To minimize the costs of their products while maintaining their profit levels, the organization strives to ensure that they minimize the cost of production. As a result, the company obtains most of the raw materials required in the production process directly from the British farmers.

Products obtained directly from the farm are of high quality and are sold at relatively lower prices. Services that act as supplements of the goods offered such as free and convenient parking and offers on new products and on customers who order high amounts of goods is also a technique employed by this company to instill a feeling of the money that customers pay. Also, the company offers incentives to loyal customers, such as taking them on trips and recognizing them by inviting them to take part in promotion competitions. The company has also formulated proper advertisement strategies that lure customers to purchase from the company. These advertisement strategies are more advanced as compared to other food companies. Through this, customers are satisfied and are willing to buy any product provided the Waitrose Company has produced it.

Such achievements are contributed by the application of working and effective strategic management theories by the company’s management. Value chain analysis on the sources of the competitive advantage in the Waitrose food company. Allee, V. (2008) pointed out that the fundamental law of any business organization is its competitive advantage. According to Mont (2015), a competitive advantage is the conditions that enable an organization to produce a service or good of equal value at a lower price in a desirable fashion thus putting the company in a favorable business position in comparison to its competitors. Waitrose has a common mission that is shared by all workers in all its branches; production of top quality products by refining raw materials from the British farmers.

As a result, all workers are committed to this call and work towards achieving it. As a result, they always offer their best in the production industry, thus producing the best products, beating other products available in the market. A productive culture in the company ensures that all workers in the company focus their energy and abilities toward successful results. Production processes and practices. They include ample parking, offers and home delivery services. As a result, the company stands a higher chance of attracting more customers as compared to their competitors. Excellent management team and operations. A flexible, creative and innovative management team always has strategies to make its organization the most competitive in the industry to maximize on profit levels (Rohrbeck, 2009).

The Waitrose management system is such. The products are of high quality and are not a threat to human health as Waitrose does not offer any genetically modified foods. They obtain the products at a friendly cost since they get them directly from the farm, different from other organizations who import most of their raw materials. The company then refines the product to obtain different products from different raw materials. An example of such products is yogurt, butter and drinking milk acquired directly from raw milk. Some of the raw materials are used to create new products, as a result of innovations by the working staff. As a result, the community is willing to sell their farm products to this company.

Furthermore, good relations with the outside community attracts more customers since the community will also advertise the company. Recommendations for the development of strategic resources to increase the competitiveness of the Waitrose Food Company. There is room for improvement in any business organization (Barney 2014). Improved development and exploitation of strategic resources in any food company will help increase the level of competition, thus creating room for more profits. The case study of Waitrose Food Company indicates that through proper strategic management, an organization gains a competitive advantage over its correspondents. It is through the appropriate governance mechanisms that are set up in the strategic management plan that the company can control its internal and external market factors. Also, this planning helps conduct a value analysis to determine the direction of a business organization.