Burger King the Real Story Case Study

Burger King Case Study

Burger King's global ambitions for growth haven't been as successful as the company originally planned, especially in nations where supplies essential to their business model were not plentiful. The case, Burger King Beefs Up Global Operations, (Daniels, Radebaugh, 2011) shows how the company struggled to re-enter Columbia. What Burger King did do very well was capitalize on its core strengths from a cultural standpoint, which led to their having success in Brazil. Headquartered in Miami, Florida Burger King understands the Latin American mindset when it comes to food. This, along with the ability to understand the Brazilian fast food market better than their American-based fast food competitors, led to their success (Wall Street Journal, 2004).

Analyzing Burger Kings' Success with Global Operations

At the center of what makes Burger King a unique business is how consistently each franchise and company-owned location is able to deliver consistently high quality food, grilled to order. Their core competency, or as the book often calls this aspect of businesses, their core competency (Daniels, Radebaugh, 2011) is delivering cooked-to-order burgers fast and inexpensively. Being able to make this core competency or strength of their business succeed in a variety of different nations is a challenge for all fast food companies (Patton, 2014). Burger King has been able to standardize the processes by which they produce burgers, fries, shakes and other fast food items while also working with local suppliers in the nations they are trying to expand into according to the case study. This approach to working with local suppliers, hiring local managers and executives to run operations, and being sensitive to the cultural differences in each nation they are trying to expand their business is why they are succeeding (Daniels, Radebaugh, 2011).

The value chain is mentioned often in our text shows how the primary and support activities of any business must all be aiming at generating gross contribution margin or profits over time (Daniels, Radebaugh, 2011). Burger King's value chain relies on a strong series of supplier relationships and supply chain, effective marketing to get customers into their locations, and the ability to deliver a high quality burger on a consistent basis. Burger King as designed its value chain around delivering an excellent quality made-to-order burger, from aligning its suppliers to making the in-store experience reinforce this view (Wall Street Journal, 2004). The reason Burger King has been so successful is that it has deliberately designed its value chain to meet and exceed customer expectations for a quality cooked-to-order burger.

Burger King also expanded later than its main fast food competitor into international markets, which turned out to be a very good decision. The advantages included the following: first, the Burger King was able to learn from their competitors;' mistakes: second, they were able to see where and how the local governments worked when it came to Foreign Direct Investment and most important, sending royalties back to Burger King headquarters in the United States (Daniels, Radebaugh, 2011); and third, nations where demand for fast food was not well-known, Burger King was able to capitalize on their competitors more clearly defining the market. Disadvantages included having to fight to get market share from competitors who are already established; second, trying to find additional suppliers in smaller nations where competitors may have already bought all their capacity; and third, competing for the attention of a smaller total available audience of consumers. Burger King did however have advantages relative to local companies in the international markets they chose to enter, and also experienced setbacks based on disadvantages of this strategy. Advantages vs.…