Business Strategy: Panera Bread

In order to fully understand how Panera Bread implements their strategy we need to define what exactly a business strategy is. A business strategy is a set of guiding principles that, when communicated and adopted in the organization, generates a desired pattern of decision making. A strategy is, therefore, about how people throughout the organization should make decisions and allocate resources in order accomplish key objectives. A good strategy provides a clear message, consisting of a set of rules, that defines the actions people in the business should take and the things they should prioritize to achieve desired goals. The goal of the strategy is to get the job done as quickly and efficiently as possible.The five key competitive strategies

Panera Bread Company over the years has determined that there certain areas in America people are willing to pay for a product such as theirs. You have to be smart if you are competing against monsters like Burger King and McDonalds. What made them different was how they created the fast casual restaurant. They have healthier meals and they also appeal to many different customers with their wide variety of tastes and flavors on their menu. It is not a deli, but it is a fast food service that is aware that the consumer wants to know how many calories are in their food. Panera is gaining a competitive advantage by offering goods and services that rivals can’t afford to match.The other fast food giants are not able to increase their margins because their quality of the food would not compare to the price. Panera Bread offers handcrafted bread that is fresh daily; it is a huge advantage over other fast food

Panera Bread also uses integrate vertical integration into their business strategy. Quality food and fresh bread is Panera’s main draw into the store However, they are not totally vertically integrated. They still use other companies to get products such as meat, cheese, lettuce, coffee beans and other supplies that they may sell. If they were able to vertically integrate all their products the cost of their food would be much higher than it is now.

The fast food industry can be difficult to differentiate on a single product. Differentiation in this industry can be focused more on the atmosphere and unique menu items. Brand and product advertisement can be key factors in becoming a strong brand name used in households and bringing customers in the doors.Making low operating costs along with fast turnover for a fast casual industry will prove successful. In an industry that has many different options, it is essential to cut down overhead prices to make the most from your future sales. Vertical integration could cut operating costs making profit increase, but you have to weigh the pros and cons to help determine if that is worth doing. Panera is able to make their dough and sell it to many different franchisees, but is this enough money to offset the other costs? Location is a key success factor. If you are in a location where there tends to be a large amount of