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Renee Kershaw, manager of BSB food services at a medium-sized Midwestern university, has just decided to expand her year-old pizza service on campus. However, she has just learned that a new food court will be constructed, which will permit operations from Taco Bell, Dunkin’ Donuts and Pizza Hut. BSB is a national food-services company that varies its level of service to suit client organizations. Demographic data for this campus:
| City Population | Faculty, Staff, etc. | Students |
| 200,000 | 3,000 | 6.000 |
The campus is not walking distance from any other retail shops or restaurant facilities. Supporting amenities (such as bookstore, bank, food service, etc.) are on campus. There are three food-service facilities managed by BSB. The biggest facility, the cafeteria, is located in the center of campus (the administration building) and is open for three meals daily. On weekdays there’s an upscale luncheon buffet upstairs in the administration building. The third facility is a small grill, open 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. daily and until midnight on Friday and Saturday nights, is in the recreational building near the dorms.
BSB has been operating food services on this campus for the past 10 years, and Kershaw has worked here for a year and a half. When she came, she did market surveys and found that students were somewhat dissatisfied with the food services. In fact, a large amount of food consumed by students was not from BSB:
| % Food prepared in dorm rooms | 20 |
| % Food delivered from off campus | 36 |
| %Food consumed off campus | 44 |
Students complained about lack of variety and inconvenient cafeteria hours. Kershaw also found:
| % Students with cars on campus | 84 |
| % Students with refrigerators/microwaves | 62 |
| % Students consumed food outside of BSB | 43 |
Kershaw’s response was to expand the grill menu to include pizza, and begin a delivery service (by bicycle). There were a limited number of toppings and combinations, and the grill equipment and personnel were adapted to the new product line.
As a result of the introduction of pizza, sales over the past 10 months had increased, along with profits. Students were happy with the quality of the pizzas and speed of delivery. However, with increasing demand, existing equipment was inadequate, and there were delivery delays. In the past month, sales had leveled off. There were also growing requests for toppings and combinations not on the menu.
Questions:
Describe the competitive position of BSB. Who are its competitors? What is the customer value proposition? How does BSB distinguish itself from its competitors?
Its competitiors are retail shops and restaurants off campus.
They launched a new delivery service alongside with the introduction of pizza. The three food-service facilities is also a feature that provide variety and give their clients many options.
2. What are BSB’s resources? Include both tangible and intangible resources.
3. Describe the processes of this company. What are the structured sequences of activities? What technologies are used? How is supply matched to demand?
4. What are the competencies of BSB? How are they related to cost, time, quality and flexibility?
5. Is BSB’s strategy well supported by its operations? If so, give examples. If not, give examples.
6. What impact will the new food court have on BSB’s pizza operations? Should its competitive strategy change? What changes in operations strategy, and operations (i.e. resources and processes) would be necessary to support the new strategy? What are your recommendations to BSB?
Expert Answer
- BSB food service is positively placed as far as competition from other food service companies are concerned.Food service companies like Taco Bell, Dunkin’ Donuts and Pizza Hut are main competitors for BSB.Although BSB was operating within the campus since last 10, years many students were dissatisfied with BSB due to lack of variety in product line and inconvenient cafeteria hours.Having understood this BSB introduced new product line for Grill menu (Pizza) and started delivery services. This two new things are Customer Value Proposition of BSB.By introducing delivery services and new product line, BSB tried itself from differentiating itself from others.
- BSB ‘s tangible resources are its staff( Human resource) and products while intangible resources Delivery Services.
4. Competencies of BSB are understanding needs and wants of customers and accordingly prepare strategies to meet the changing needs of Customers. Offering service delivery system to customers.
5. No, BSB’s strategy is not well supported by its operations. This is because with introduction of new product and delivery system, sales and profits of BSB are increased in initial periods.However with the increase in demand, it was unable to supply due to lack of equipment and service delays.
