Wendy’s Hamburgers
- Dave Thomas may be considered as an entrepreneur since he’s not only conducting business, but tried to transform new business idea into reality, creating new ways of earning cash. Despite skepticism of the bankers and financial people he created a new type of a product, having employed all his experience. The main feature making him an entrepreneur is that he tried to implement new idea which wasn’t considered to be successful and run all the risk by himself.
- The main success with the first Wendy’s restaurant may be attributed to its idea. The restaurant was the first to provide new kind of hamburgers – fresh and quality. When all the other competitors offered burgers made from frozen beef, Thomas’ restaurant offered made-to-order hamburgers as well as fresh French fries and real fresh milkshakes. Hence, the idea of quality was greatly welcomed by the customers and eventually made the first Wendy’s restaurant profitable just in six weeks.
- Dave wanted to say that business is not an easy thing; it’s a permanent process which requires an entrepreneur to be patient and follow the market environment. Dave’s business was based on providing freshness and quality of their food, this was its comparative advantage, the feature that his rivals didn’t have. There were many sceptic talks before the business was launched, but customers liked the idea. This is very essential since Dave adjusted the menu according to their wishes. Hence, providing customers with exactly what their want became another crucial component of Thomas’ restaurants. However, it is not that easy to follow all the customers’ wishes because they do not always suit the current business situation. This is what Dave was trying to say. In other words, it’s hard to satisfy customers’ wants, but if you really want to reach success you have do it.
- First of all, I would advise Dave to keep providing customers with fresh and high-quality products. This is significantly crucial since the whole concept of Wendy’s restaurants is based on offering high-quality food. Thus, in case food quality will decrease the company will lose its competitive advantage and is likely to become one of numerous low-quality fast food restaurants.
Secondly, I would recommend Dave to further evolve the strategy of implementing customers’ wishes. Communication plays an important role between the customers and the company, and, thus, providing what customers want in a hamburger, means that the company is open to its customers and really wants to satisfy their needs, but not simply declare that. Very few companies can show such direct relations with the customers, so this advantage should be enhanced even more. The case doesn’t provide the way the customers leave their feedback, so I would advise Dave to launch a system which will manage the customers’ wishes, on one hand, providing them with an opportunity of expressing their views and, on the hand, will give the manager the opportunity to consider and implement them. This can be a web-site, a mobile app, etc.
Finally, the case doesn’t provide information about how the Dave’s business grew, so I can recommend Dave to think about his business expansion, for instance, by franchising. His first restaurant became profit just in six weeks which is a significant result. What is more, he has spent many years working as a Kentucky Fried Chicken franchisee owner, so he has a great experience of conducting business in such a way. Now he can try himself as a franchiser. This is the most common way of developing fast food restaurants chain which will help Dave to spread his business over the country and eventually increase profits.
