October 16, 2013
Question 1
Strategy is creating a plan in order to meet the company goals. This can become confusing
for some firms. For example, a firm’s management decides they want to “increase brand
awareness” to improve the firm’s revenue—that’s not a strategy. A strategy is developing
the steps you will take to increase brand awareness, not brand awareness in and of itself.
Before coming up with an appropriate strategy, you need to fully understand the real
problem your firm faces, as they may not always be what you initially perceive. There are
several important internal and external analyses I will perform (in no particular order) to
discover where the weaknesses of your firm lie, an appropriate goal we can set, and the
strategy that will bring your firm to this goal:
•SWOT: lays out the strengths and weaknesses of a company, as well as its
opportunities and threats in the industry as a result of those strengths and
weaknesses
•Porter’s Five Forces Analysis: an external analysis of the competitive rivalry within
an industry by looking at the threat of new entrants, threat of substitutes, supplier
power, and buyer power
•Value Chain Analysis: an internal analysis of a firm’s resources, analyzing its
primary activities (inbound logistics, operations, outbound logistics, marketing and
sales, service) and support activities (firm infrastructure, HR management,
technology development, procurement)
•PESTEL: an external analysis of the political, economic, social, technological,
legal, and environmental affecting the industry
Question 2
•LLR has “plenty” of excess capacity to expand roasting operations—currently
roasting 3,900 pounds per week
•LLR has access to free marketing through Mr. Gordon-Green’s marketing
company, that they can take more advantage of
•LLR only spends approximately 2% of its gross sales on advertising—utilizing the
excess capacity will allow for increased advertising spending
•Overall competitive rivalry within the industry is high—it’s time LLR make a
bigger impact
•There’s low buyer power and low switching costs in the coffee industry—again,
LLR needs to make a bigger impact, make themselves more available to customers
•London’s high commitment to revitalizing the downtown core area has created a
recreational area matching the characteristics of LLR’s other two retail store
locations—potential new location for LLR
Question 3
I believe LLR has the potential to thrive in the catering business, especially for smaller
business/events, so I propose that LLR focus on expanding the catering portion of its
business in the immediate future. You would start small by catering for Mr.
