U.S. Based Company Concerned Earthquake, Tsunami Nuclear

¶ … U.S. based company concerned earthquake, tsunami nuclear power plant accident occurs Japan? 2. With rapid technology, boundaries industries redefined. What industry company Google ? Who Google's main competitors today competition ? 1 page 1 Reference Case 9: Panera Bread Company 2012 - Pursuing Growth a Weak Economy, Arthur A. Sources

First of all, all companies today operate in a global business environment, where local influences are often felt and have repercussions worldwide. In this specific case, there are several reasons why the American company should be concerned with such an event. It has a significant impact on the Japanese market, lowering the purchasing power of existing and potential customers.

At the same time, there are potential negative effects on the political and economic system in Japan. The government will need to invest in the saving operations, which will likely impact the budget and lower the chances that Japan can offer certain benefits for foreign investors. Another important argument is that the effects of the impact on the Japanese economy will have ripples on foreign markets, which could lead to problems on the stock exchanges of various countries, including the U.S.

2. Since Google has expanded since it originally started its business, it is difficult to point to an exact industry. It competes in the online advertising industry, its primary area of activity, where it is the leader by far (Efrati, 2013). However, it has developed more and more and has entered the mobile phone industry, the software application industry, the browser and navigation industry (with its Chrome browser). This process will likely continue in the future as well.

Google's main competitor in the online advertising industry is Facebook. There is no likely any new competitor or future competition in this industry, since Google and Facebook dominate the market, although Microsoft could be a viable player, particularly since it has its own search engine, Bing. On other markets, such as cell phones, competition is worldwide, particularly from Samsung and Apple.

Panera case study

1. First, one needs to consider, as primary factors driving change in the industry that Panera Bread is in, the factors that determine a potential location for opening a new shop. These include trade area, demographic information and information on competitors. These can be expanded into the larger PESTEL factors, which include political, economical, social, technological, environmental and legal factors.

Panera's strategy needs to change according to these factors: for example, its pricing strategy needs to reflect any potential changes in the economic factor from PESTEL, while the technological factors help increase the number of consumers. Technology is, indeed, a big element that drives change: Panera introduced Wi-Fi before Starbucks, in 2004 (Graham, 2012), having the visionary idea that technology can change the industry. As Dampier (2012) showed, this caused problems in the long run, but the idea is still relevant and worth praising.

Another important set of factors that produce change in this industry are the socio-psychological factors, primarily reflecting people's behavior and their preferences. People change their mind about food and how they buy their food. This reflects in changes in purchasing behavior, in the menus of the shops etc.

2. The official Panera Bread website (www.panerabread.com) mentions that the company serves fresh bread, among other similar artisan patisserie products, as well as salads, soups and sandwiches. The company includes high quality ingredients when making all these different food products. Overall, all these aspects contribute to creating the key success factor at Panera: excellent products, artisan-made, employing quality ingredients.

Another key success factor is the menu. As previously discussed and mentioned in the case study, the menu changed over the years to reflect new consumer preferences. In 2004, the company introduced products on the menu that reflected the new healthy consciousness that clients had. In 2005, it introduced artisan sweet goods, to complement its menu. In 2006, it added light entrees. So, a key success factor is menu customization, the company's capacity to dynamically change with its consumers' preferences.

Another key success factor are brand awareness and excellent word-of-mouth advertising, resulting from the quality of the products and of the whole Panera experience. As mentioned in the case study, 57% of the consumers at Panera Bread had been dining at the shop in the past 30 days. This percentage shows a large number of trial customers, willing to try the food because of the recommendations they received from their friends or acquaintances. This points to an excellent word-of-mouth advertising, whereby the company gains new customers by recommendations and good communication.

A fundamental key success factor is the additional perks that the company provides, which meet customer demand and particular requirements. The company introduced Wi-Fi in its stores, something that was thoroughly appreciated by technology-conscious consumers who depended on regular communication and access to the Internet.

Finally, franchising also appears as one of the key success factors. The case study specifies that this is a core component of the operational strategy. One of the strength of this approach was that the company required potential franchisee to open more than one shop (usually 15), which led to an accelerated build-up and increased market share.

3. Porter (2008), working on his previous theories about industries and markets, developed in 1979, has proposed the following five forces from the Five Forces Model of Competition: threat of new entrants; threat of substitute products or services; bargaining power of consumers; bargaining power of suppliers; and intensity of competitive rivalry.

Threat of new entrants is medium to high. The industry is capital intensive and highly competitive, which deters new entrants. However, a street vendor or a small family business is also a new entrant on the market and these can take away a significant number of customers from the established players such as Panera.

Threat of substitute products or services is medium to high. The problem is not that food can be substituted, but that the individual can always change his choice of food. While one day he would go for Panera products, on another day he could just as well select another cafe or a restaurant selling fish.

Bargaining power of consumers is significantly high. Brand loyalty is also difficult to build and customer retention rates are low. The reason for both these facts is that there is a large number of available options on the market, making the customer extremely conscious of his choices.

Bargaining power of suppliers is medium to low. The case study mentions that Panera can always switch between suppliers, as there are a large number of suppliers that provide similar ingredients. This gives the company a choice when it comes to selecting suppliers and these are less likely to be able to bargain.