Business Strategy

Business Strategy:

The competitive strategy that the Tropicana Diner follows is focus differentiation because they offer a better quality product and service within the Union/Elizabeth industry segment. Their great appearance both inside and outside the restaurant makes it more appealing for customers and their service is much better than that of its surrounding restaurants. It addresses the following threats from the five forces:

Bargaining power of suppliers- If Tropicana Diner’s main suppliers decided to increase their prices or provide less quality products, there is a myriad of different fresh food markets in the Union/Elizabeth segment we could purchase from.

Rivalry- Since the other main competitor is the Mark Twain Diner, the Tropicana Diner would address this problem by maintaining good quality menu items, competitive prices and excellent customer service.

Threat of substitutions- To compete with the threat of substitutions, the Tropicana Diner continues to provide quality service and products. The servers provide excellent service to the customers as well as providing quality food.

Value Chain

Inbound Logistics - third party supplier. They do not grow their own food.

Manufacturing/Operations - prepare and store the final products.

Outbound Logistics - distributing the final products to the buyers.

Marketing/Sales - online website, applications through Apple and Google Play

Customer Service - attitude, cleanliness and helping.

Business Process - is a collection of related,structured activities or tasks, such as sales, that produce a final product or service.

Order-fulfillment process - involves preparing the final products, marketing, and customer service. They generate direct value to customers.

Porter's Five Forces: 

Bargaining power of customers	Weak	As a restaurant, the Tropicana Diner must have set prices for their menu items and there is not much room for bargaining prices per say with customers.
Threat of substitutions	Medium	Consumers may opt to purchase from lower-cost restaurants in the area that may have a less quality product but better prices.
Bargaining power of suppliers	Medium	The Tropicana Diner is supplied by local food markets so they could certainly purchase their products from other places.
Threat of new entrants	Low	There are many other similar restaurants within a mile radius that already compete with the Tropicana Diner.
Rivalry	Medium	The only other big competitor is the Mark Twain Diner about a mile down the street which offers similar menu items, prices and functioning hours. Other diners on Morris Ave exist but are not as popular as these two.

Business Process

The business process that we are focused on is the order-fulfillment process because we focus on outbound logistics, marketing and customer service. Our focus is on generating direct value to customers. The value chain that our company focuses on is customer service which deals with assisting customers use of the product and maintaining and enhancing the product's value. For customer service, the focus is outward to customers, the dynamic process is peer- to-peer support and the risks include loss of control. Social media supports the dynamic process for customer service by having peer-to-peer support while using social media. Tropicana uses Facebook and this is a type of peer-to-peer support by Facebook being a large online community that involves peers communicating with each other regularly. The associated risks for customer service is a loss of control which can be supported by social media because on the internet as well a social media there can be a lack of control due to the amount of individuals that have access to social media and the web. Tropicana uses social media to gain peer-to-peer support because it gains support and feedback from Facebook and social media users on customer service, experiences at the restaurant and comments or suggestions via social media.

Information Systems Supporting Strategy

The POS information system supports their strategy because it is a unique system that other similar restaurants may not use. Having such a complex information system that provides the Tropicana Diner with services such as allowing the communication between different areas in the diner and other financial services. The POS information system makes the order fulfillment process more effective and efficient. This information system allows the diner to provide better quality service to its clients by reducing any order product mistakes.