Implementation, Strategic Control, and Contingency Plans

Strategic Choice and Evaluation

Lee’s Sandwiches

Strategic Choice and Evaluation

STR 581

Professor: Kenneth Kobus

Vincent Nguyen

Lee’s Sandwiches

Introduction

The performance of an organization is significantly influenced by its internal and external environment. The initial stages of operation require organizations to be cognizant of their environment to an extent that they can propose specialized strategies that can ensure the success of their ventures. The organizational strategies reflect the objectives that its aims to accomplish, considering the environmental factors that affect it. The attainment of organizational objectives is a process that takes perpetual gradual steps that are aimed at the general objectives after a predetermined time period (Tallon, 2008). The most important task for an entity is to entertain constant growth towards the objectives.

The company, in this case, is Lee’s Sandwiches that has attained a lot of success with its establishment in the early 80s. The business was founded by Chieu Le and Henry Le, who started by offering their sandwiches from a mobile truck (Lee's Sandwiches, 2015). The company has grown significantly since then and now offers a move diversified menu across seven states. This work plausible strategy that the company can utilize particularly to facilitate growth.

Best Value Discipline

The best value discipline model is aimed at highlighting the strengths of a company that can be utilized in a way to acquire a competitive advantage over its rivals. The basis of this is that the customers will be able to identify a specific company where they are prominent in a specific area. For an organization, this means that it has to it has to assess its environment and put emphasis where it is prominent and use that attribute to acquire a competitive advantage (Ashton, 2005).

The value disciple for the Lee’s Sandwiches is product leadership where the company will maintain very strong and innovative products. There is a lot of marketing required for an organization that adopts this technique. The way that a competitive advantage is acquired, in this case, is where the products that the organization offers are more innovative than those of the competition (Ashton, 2005). The organization is required to very innovate and keen on marketing its products. The reason this technique would be more effective for Lee’s Sandwiches is because its products are unique and innovative. The company has carved a market for itself in the industry although there is a lot that it can do to grow its operations.

There are three key value disciplines available for an entity. The other two are operational excellence and customer intimacy. Operational excellence focuses on effectuating operations within the workplace in order to offers high-quality products at reasonable prices. This is mostly applicable where the company offers similar products to those of the competition and hence not applicable to the case of Lee’s Sandwiches (Ashton, 2005). The other value discipline requires the company to form close relationships with its customers in order to encourage loyalty. Lee's Sandwiches should practice this value, but it would only complement the one on product leadership.

Best Generic Strategy

The generic strategy has many similarities with the value discipline and is aimed at providing the entity with a competitive advantage. The generic strategy model was proposed by Michael Porter and aims to specify the way that the organization will try to attract their target market (Ormanidhi, 2008). Every entity requires a strategy that will set it apart from the competition because that guarantees its existence. The most notable difference between the value disciplines and generic strategies is that the prior is more concerned with the internal workings of the organization while the latter focus more on the market that the company targets.

The most appropriate approach for Lee’s Sandwiches is the focus strategy. The decision to select this approach is based on the fact that the company mainly deals in Vietnamese and European cuisines. The focus strategy requires an organization to specialize in a specific segment and become best at it. Specialization means that the company will not have access to a wide market, but it will deter competitors from the market segment it will control (Ormanidhi, 2008). Lee’s Sandwiches specializes in these two cuisines that are unique to it. According to Porter, the focus strategy can either be cost focus or differentiation focus. The best generic strategy for the company is differentiation focus.

Other than the focus strategy, the two key strategies are differentiation and cost leadership. The differentiation strategy requires the company to set apart their products and a price to match. This strategy cannot apply to this case because the company does not serve similar menus to the competition. The cost leadership strategy also assumes that the competition produces similar products. The focused concept holds that the company has to select a specific market segment and strive to fulfill its needs. Focus differentiation requires that the product availed by the company to be unique (Ormanidhi, 2008). This is the reason for the selection of the differentiation focus generic strategy.

Grand Strategy

A grand strategy is a major principal strategy that is specifically aimed at shaping the course of a business. These types of strategies are aimed at the long-run objectives of the company and encompass all its operations. In order for an organization to come up with a grand strategy, it has to be aware of its objectives and how to get them attained. Different situations within a company require separate grand strategies (Tallon, 2008). For instance, the grand strategy in the initial stages of a company may be product development.

The best grand strategy for Lee’s Sandwiches is growth. The company has opened more than forty locations in southwestern states since its establishment, but this is still a dismal number when compared to the extensive market available across the country. Although the company has grown, it is still a relatively small company operating in just a restricted region of the country. The grand strategy would aim to grow its operations in the states that it already operates in with the goal of expanding into new markets. This would ensure that the company was able to reach its targets.

Combination of Strategies for Lee’s Sandwiches

The initial strategy that the company should implement is the product leadership value discipline. This strategy is exclusively aimed at enabling the company to secure its presence in the market by putting off competition. The sandwich company invented a product of its own and created a market of the loyal customer that is currently expanding. The product leadership value discipline encourages an organization to be inventive in the products it presents to the market, and ad adopts effective promotional techniques to secure the market. The way this would be achieved is where the competition would be put off because of the dominance of the innovative player (Ashton, 2005). This strategy suits Lee’s Sandwiches because the company offers exclusive products and has also shown its innovative side by incorporating European cuisine into its menu. Other competitors, despite the fact that the market is profitable, are likely to be put off by the presence of Lee’s Sandwiches.

Another strategy that can be influential in the growth of the company is differential focus generic strategy. Generic strategies focus on the manner of operations towards the market. The nature of the operations and products that the sandwich company deals with is the key factor in the decision to select this strategy. It is the merger between two technique; differentiation and focus generic strategies. The key technique between the two is focus strategy. This technique requires a company to choose a unique product for a specific market segment and aim to deter any new entrants (Ormanidhi, 2008). The merging of this approach with differentiation is the aspect that adds the use of unique products. Cost focus would have emphasized on the cutting of costs.

The final technique is that of growth grand strategy. This approach is taken based on the need for the company to expand its operations. Lee’s Sandwiches has increased their locations, but there are more opportunities across the same regions as well as across the country. The grand strategy of growth encourages the selection of most efficient operations that will facilitate growth and the attainment of the overall organizational objectives (Tallon, 2008).

Conclusion

Lee’s Sandwiches has grown from very humble beginnings. The company is currently a successful player in the industry, but restricted by some drawbacks. The implementation of these strategies is aimed at facilitating growth for the attainment of this objective. The key strategies selected include product leadership value discipline, differentiation focus generic strategy, and growth as its grand strategy.

References

Ashton, R. H. (2005). Intellectual Capital and Value Creation: A Review. Journal of

Accounting Literature, 24, 53-134.

Lee's Sandwiches. (2015, March). Retrieved from Lee's Sandwiches.com:

http://www.leesandwiches.com

Ormanidhi, O. (2008). Porter's Model of Generic Competitive Strategies: An Insightful and

Convenient Approach to Firm's Analysis. Business Economics, 43(3), 55-64.

Tallon, P. P. (2008). A Process-Oriented Perspective on the Alignment of Information

Technology and Business Strategy. Journal of Management Information Systems, 24(3), 227-268.

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Vincent Nguyen