||- Wil’s Grill -||

By Group 12

1. Discuss the resources and capabilities of Wil’s Grill and identify its core competencies in the
street food market segment using VRIN framework.

Passion

John had “learned on the fly;” he worked hard and wasn’t discouraged by challenges. Feelings he
experienced when customers told him how much they enjoyed his street food and his passion for
clean food outweighed any discouragement. Street food was fun and fast-paced. John loved it.

Building Brand Name

Wil's Grill is known for Clean Food with a reasonable price. Wil’s Grill received encouraging reviews
from local customers and event organisers. This all because of their consistency, on spot cooking and
quality. John believed that getting food out quickly was most important, and food quality was more important
than presentation or quantity.

Transportable: Wil’s Grill was highly portable which gave it high end advantage over many street food vendors
who served manufacturer prepared and processed food. This enabled Wil’s Grill to target two main markets: 1)
NAU students who were tired of chain-based fast food and wanted good, reasonably priced, late night food, and
2) community events, where organizers and customers wanted reasonably priced, clean, high quality street
food .

Employees:
John always ensured that all employees working with him are given fair treatment. He firmly believes
that in doing so these people would be willing to work for him again. This in turn acts the employees to
serve the customer well and faster without compromising quality.

Social Presence:
Wil’s Grill created a website that included their “clean food” menu, a mobile app and a social media presence (on
Facebook). This provided them a competitive advantage over their competitors and helped them to propagate
the idea of Clean food.
 2. What are the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats for Wil’s Grill? Identify various
strategic options for Wil’s Grill by creating a SWOT matrix.

Opportunities
Reasonable Clean Food
SWOT Analysis With
Intrested customers in Clean Food
Strategic Options
Above market Margin%
Can Gain unaware 72% Respondent
Threats
New entrants
Presence of large, well established competitors
Changes in customer trends & preferences
Unpredictable numbers of customers

Understanding of local supply chain Clean food with good Quality Maintain price & Quality
strengths

Social Presence Match product to customer preferences Use technology for latest trends
Portable Grills Forecasting Spend more on marketing
Quality,Presentation & Quantity New restaurants Update products with changing customer trends
Excellent reviews & Awards Extensive promotions & marketing
Publicity in events Franchises Model
Zero debt Forecast customers for high profits

Improve business strategies to match

No permanent restaurant Open new restauirants/ Franchise
competitors
weakness

No standardized prices Hire skilled man power

Year round oppurtunities to increase Hire focussed marketing managers to attract
No permanent employees
sales more potential customers
Use high margin incomes to boost
Low budget for new kitchen equipment
profits
No presence in Local catering market

3. You have identified the resources, capabilities and core competencies of Wil’s Grill developed in
the street food market segment while answering question 1. Now, discuss the transferability of
those resources, capabilities and core competencies to the catering market segment in terms of
the following:
a) Which of those resources, capabilities and core competencies are transferable to the
catering segment?
Clean Food: Wil’s Grill had a
strong focus on clean food at
reasonable prices.

Suppliers: Relationships that John

had established with the local
supply chain gave them an
competitive advantage in the
external sector. Hence, the
suppliers Wil’s Grill have can be
transferred to use in the Catering
segment effectively.
Brand Equity: Catering business
needs more familiarity of the
brand name which needs to be
worked upon as most of the
respondents of the survey had
never heard of Wil’s Grill.

Pricing strategy: Since, the

catering segment is not as price
sensitive as street food
consumers,
hence the pricing strategy of
street food business can be
transferred to catering industry by
slightly increasing the prices to
increase profit margins.
Clean Food: Wil’s Grill is promoting clean food at reasonable prices and has a strong focus
on it.
Local Suppliers: He established relationships with five local food sources -- including John’s parents’
Happy Mountain Farms. John believed his relationship with farms and producers “allowed me to
have a unique understanding of the local supply chain which gave them an competitive
advantage over other competitors.

Building Brand: Wil’s Grill business needs to spend allocated budget for marketing and has
to work more on building name as most of the respondents in the survey had never heard of
Wil’s Grill.

Standardising Pricing : As the catering business is not as price sensitive as street food
consumers, hence standardising the pricing strategy of street food business can be
transferred to catering industry by slightly increasing the prices to increase profit margins.

b) What gaps exist in terms of resources, capabilities and core competencies if Wil’s Grill
enters the catering segment?

Permanent Employee : Wil’s has no permanent employee. In the current scenario, John
employed only one permanent part time employee, but catering is a highly labour intensive and
need skilled manpower to cater specific group of people attending an event.

Customer Preferences: Wil’s Grill gained popularity with focused Clean Food movement In the
street food business. Wil’s Grills tried understanding the customer through a survey. It knows its
customers who were mostly students and guests at the public events. But the a guest’s
preference can’t be predicted in a catering business as in parties like Weddings and Birthdays
guests prefer mostly premium foods than clean foods.

c) How will Wil’s Grill acquire and or/develop the missing resources, capabilities and core
competencies if it decides to enter the catering segment?

Employees- Wil’s grill can collaborate with local event management teams to acquire future
orders and hire hotel management professionals with experience of catering industry to
manage big catering events.
 Customer Preferences- Wil’s Grill should get details of guest’s preferences and the type of
crowd to understand their taste better. Wil’s can also promote its “clean food” in these big
events to build a base of repeating future customers.

Contributors:-

Jaydeep Bachal- EPGP-11-050

Milind Gapchup- EPGP-11-062
Partha Vijaysenani – EPGP-11-074
Rajendra Parmanik – EPGP-11-195