Case Analysis: Business Intelligence At CKE Restaurants

Business Intelligence at CKE Restaurants Nowadays, Business intelligence is becoming an essential tool for businesses to seek for strategic advantages; this is because it allows making more accurate and better decision based on current data, information and knowledge. According to Pearlson (2012), “Business intelligence is the set of technologies and practices used to analyze and understand data and to use it in making decisions about future action” (p. 345). This paper analyses case study 11-2 and provides an overview of knowledge management by answering three questions regarding CKE Restaurants’ (Hardee’s Restaurant parent company) decision to promote and distribute the Monster Thickburger based on insights derived from their business intelligence

According to Abas (2015), “Business Intelligence (BI) can be defined as the transformation of raw data into meaningful metrics reflective upon historical, current and predictive business operations and performance” (para. 1). In this case, CKE’s BIS known as CPR or CKE performance reporting adds value to the business by providing an overview of how well its products are impacting sales and profits based on other factors such as menu mixes, costs, average unit volumes and the store. In this case, the management found that the Monster Thickburger was responsible for the notorious increase on sales, so they used this information to implement strategic moves that could improve business operations and growth. CKE developed a marketing strategy that increased sales even more. According to Pearlson (2012), “CKE developed a $7 million dollar advertising campaign to launch its nationwide introduction. Monster Thickburger sales exceeded expectations, and Hardee’s sales revenues increased immediately, eventually growing by 8%.” (p. 348). All this information and decisions rescued the company form bankruptcy and increased sales at their restaurants notoriously. Finally, the BIS helped the company to make better decisions in regards to menus items, closing underperforming restaurants, the renegotiation of contracts to add value to the supply chain.

There are many benefits that the BIS can bring to an organization such as boost productivity, sales and market intelligence, the setting of more accurate and realistic goals, positive return on investments, gain insights into consumer behaviors, operational visibility and identification of key trends (Holley, A. 2015). Recommendations for developing and using the BIS described in this case, include the use of an effective BIS that incorporates different factors or circumstances in the internal and external environment of the organization such as sales, costs, weather, items or services offered by the company, and trends. Another reason to implement BIS is to reduce voluminous amounts of irrelevant data, poor data quality, and user resistance that affect the effectiveness of