Panera Bread Company and The Tata Group

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Panera and Tata Discussion

Discussion Questions - Panera:
1. What corporate, competitive, and functional strategies is Panera using to realize its goal of turning the concept into a national brand under the Panera Bread name? Be as specific as possible.

Business model of providing excellent food in an informal setting that encourages customers to sit back, relax, and enjoy their meals. Understands the needs of consumers wanting to reward themselves with quality products, but do not want to have an overwhelming choice selection, and capitalizes on this need. They focus on building customer loyalty by evolving menu offerings to conform customer's taste. Panera uses a best cost provider strategy by offering high quality foods such as artisan breads at lower cost to consumers. To offset this cost, they re-engineer the cost to the company through using existing market ingredients so as not to increase labor cost by hiring additional employees to prepare these foods. Panera Bread targets value-conscious customers; provides a competitive edge with its ability to give consumers more value for their money; and, appeals to consumers by providing quality dining without the hassle of lengthy decision-making because of large menu offering. It also uses a centralized location for making the bread, thereby, eliminating additional bakers in the stores and cutting down on time.

2. How would you recommend Shaich and his management team evaluate whether the company is accomplishing its corporate strategy?

By consistently reviewing its strategic marketing plan for gaps, since the market climate is always changing.
By reviewing management objectives to see if they are being met; is management meeting the objectives of the stockholder, i.e., customers and employees? By reviewing goals - are they being met? How is Panera performing in comparison with those goals? Basically performing a strategic analysis based on the mission and values to determine where the company is at any given point.

3. Panera Bread was on BusinessWeek's "hot growth companies" list for several years. What problems might arise if the company grows too fast? How might they know whether they were growing too fast?

Problems that might arise include the inability of the company to keep up with its financial output; losing touch with employees because of the incapability to understand and/or remain aware of their needs; erosion of customer service level; unable to stay up-to-date with internal systems because the company is growing so fast until systems become outdated more quicker than usual trying to accommodate the growth pace; taking advantage of market opportunities before strategically planning for expansion.

Some indications that the company is growing too fast include:
- More temporary than fulltime employees
- Low employee morale and high turnover
- Lost touch with competitors and understanding market advancements
- Losing control of company inventory

4. The company depends heavily on franchising to fuel its growth. Do some research on franchising. What advantages and drawbacks might it present?

Advantages
- Avoiding the unnecessary trial and error period in starting and operating a new business.
- Lower financial risk, compared to other ventures, because investment costs are lower and profit margins are higher.
- Business Format Franchising complete packages ensure a ready to go "turn-key" franchised unit.
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