Executive Summary

Grand Metropolitan is a multi-industry company that originally operated in hospitality industry but later expanded into food and beverage. The firm later focuses on the latter industry. Due to the economic growth in developing countries, Grand Metropolitan has the opportunity to expand their target markets abroad. However, political and social factors pose some threats to the company to reach their potential revenue. The company’s strengths include the firm infrastructure, procurements, human resource management, and technological developments being valuable and costly to imitate. The firm’s weaknesses, however, are their support activities not being rare in the industry …show more content…

Labor union too is a threat to Grand Metropolitan since Burger King pays their store workers at minimum wage (Glassdoor). Unsatisfied employees like Willietta Dukes may protest against Burger King therefore lowering the productivity of the company (Dukes 2013).

Consumer preferences also pose some threats to the company. Some consumers prefer more affordable meals when compared to Burger King’s sandwiches. Religious laws that ban the consumption of certain meat products and alcohol also limits Grand Metropolitan’s target market, as most of Grand Metropolitan’s products include beef and pork meat and alcohol.

3. Internal Analysis
3.1. VRIO Framework Analysis

The framework of a firm’s value, rarity, imitability, and organization can determine the strengths and weaknesses of the company. A firm is able to have a competitive advantage if their products or services they offer are valuable, rare in the market, and costly to imitate.

Grand Metropolitan is able to exploit opportunities by introducing the four-plank strategy, which directs the company to (1) own the distributors, (2) develop new products, (3) maintain a heavy marketing spend, and (4) form alliances to aid geographic expansion. The company implements this strategy through the procurement of firms from the food and beverage industry, thus bringing them value. Their heavy marketing spending bears fruit after Smirnoff won bronze (CLIO Awards 2012) and silver (CLIO Awards 2008) from CLIO,