Strategic Improvement3
Business Plan Assessment: Strategic Improvement
Strategic Planning & Implementation
9/6/2021
Strategic Improvement
The purpose of the strategic plan in week two assignments was to show how Mexican Chipotle plans to work towards its damaged reputation and earn consumer trust and confidence. As highlighted in the assignment, Chipotle has faced ethical blows in its operation, which led to its closure. However, after resuming its functionality, the company had lost its positive public image, affecting consumer trust and confidence. Therefore, developing a great and workable strategic plan is vital and paramount for Chipotle because it will restore its public image and improve its competitive advantage and attract more customers. Thus, Chipotle’s strategic plan aims to attract customers, increase the company’s competitive advantage, and increase the general productivity of the company.
The key objectives of Chipotles strategic plan are to maintain its existing customers and do the best it can to attract more customers. Such objectives can only be achieved if the company strategically plans and approaches market development aspects. For instance, after Niccol took over, he employed differentiation as a market development initiative in the company (Thompson, 2019). This is a strategy that targets a narrow market, hence improving the companys overall competitive advantage. Chipotle intends to give its customers variations of products to choose from with a target for a narrow market. This will increase the competitive advantage within the company and strengthen its overall operations in the business market.
The strategic plan reveals that Chipotle is focused on improving its processes to ensure the safety of both the people and the environment. The company intends to strategically differentiate its products, with a focus on the production of food with only natural ingredients. Initially, Chipotle used to process products from both natural and synthetic materials. However, after the ethical blow where many customers suffered from food poisoning, the company has learned its lesson and resolved to focus on the safety and health of the consumers (Thompson, 2019). Niccol has ensured that Chipotle sources its rice, beans, and cilantro from organic suppliers. This implies that Chipotle is focusing on having the best food quality instead of saving money on ingredients. This will eventually turn the company into a healthy living entity, which will change the narrative regarding the reputation of the company into what consumers love.
Chipotle has a performance culture based on employee development and promotion of employees from within the company. Employees are given a path of ascension and opportunities to advance their employment levels and job positions. More so, the company provides the workers with a balanced work-life and financial incentives to the employees.
The company has also resolved on trying things on a small scale before transitioning to a larger scale. More so, unlike the previous CEO, Ells, Niccol intends to give its consumers what they ask for. For instance, most of its consumers have asked for nachos and Quesadillas in their menu; therefore, Niccol has asked his team to experiment with this on the menu and in the recipes. The company has also worked on its product and service delivery by hiding consumers’ calls regarding the need to have a loyalty program. Niccol and his team tested the loyalty program in more than 150 locations, which ensured that by 2019, Chipotle had digital pickup points to allow people to pop up and picking their orders without queuing for long.
The key performance indicators at Chipotle include product mix performance value, which are the frequently ordered items on the menu; the rate of client retention; the rate of customers in house per hour; and the online order values and reward anniversaries. These KPIs will help the company to have robust marketing effort segmentation.
I would recommend that Chipotles management should carry out employee training and awareness to ensure that they work alongside the strategic plan. More so, the company should have a digital medium to diversify its customer base through reviews. The only means to adapt to the changing environment is by training the relevant stakeholders as well as recruiting talents that resonates with the companys vision.
In conclusion, Chipotle is working hard to restore its reputation, consumer trust and confidence after its 2008-2018 fallouts. Having a great strategic plan is essential to achieving these objectives. Therefore, Niccol, Chipotle’s CEO, is strategically doing all he can to ensure that the consumers are safe by using organic ingredients and giving them what they love instead of saving money.
References
Thompson, A. A. (2019). Chipotle Mexican Grills Strategy in 2018: Will the New CEO Be Able to Rebuild Customer Trust and Revive Sales Growth?
