In the present globalized era, challenges have increased for the companies. The economic conditions around the globe demand that companies should focus on strategies to achieve sustainable competitive advantage. Now we need to understand what is meant by competitive advantage and why sustainability is essential for companies in developed and underdeveloped countries.
As discussed earlier in recent articles, the food industry of Pakistan is very competitive and investors are continuously investing a large amount of financial capital to achieve high market shares. According to a new market trend, customer spending has increased to obtain higher quality food products from international food chains. The trend indicates that customers have a strong purchasing power.
Hence, domestic food chains and restaurants need to invest to increase product differentiation and especially to develop new innovative products and services that are compatible with the requirements of customers. Resources invested by competitors can contribute towards the achievement of high market share and main challenges and problems are faced by small domestic companies that do not have the relevant resources to compete against the big food giants.
Therefore, the question arises on how small businesses can differentiate their offerings, attract more customers, and increase profitability in the presence of large companies?
Let us discuss the example of the Dagwood food chain located in Lahore, Pakistan. A small food chain like Dagwood is successful to achieve sustainable competitive advantage in the fast-food segment. Dagwood’s strategy was simple but effective. They have developed a strong product portfolio that includes sandwiches and burgers to attract diversified customers from different market segments. The success of fast-food chains like Dagwood reflects that opportunities exist for new restaurants, although, suitable technology-based like RMS is required to support the activities for the achievement of organizational objectives.
A Solution in the form of Restaurant Management System Offered by Agile Leaf POS
Agile Leaf POS suggests a solution within a small investment on offered Restaurant Management System (RMS) for businesses in the food industry. Our R&D department has developed RMS by conducting proper research, especially by considering the opinions of new entrepreneurs and start-up owners.
The start-up culture in Pakistan has experienced a high growth rate in recent years and it is observed that individuals with low financial capital have decided to invest in the food industry to generate high returns on investment. The RMS provides an opportunity to start-ups in the food industry to invest a small financial capital to collect data associated with the company’s operational activities and customer purchasing behavior.
We suggest that new entrepreneurs should consider a Restaurant Management System, ours or any other similar in features, because it helps to identify errors, improves ordering process and employees productivity, reduces day to day expenditures by identification of less revenue-generating activities, identifies the activities that contribute most to the profits and helps to increase the product differentiation. If small businesses become successful to achieve the mentioned objectives, then it is easy to establish that sustainable competitive advantage is achieved by the utilization of less amount of resources.
New entrepreneurs are passionate, determined, and enthusiastic but professional experience has its value for achievement of success within a short time. Therefore, Agile Leaf POS presents a solution that is cost-effective and helps to identify areas of improvement.
Entrepreneurs need to understand the dynamic and complex challenges which exist in market conditions. The nature of challenges demands that strategic business decisions are taken by small businesses for optimal results otherwise large companies have more resources, expertise and technical skills to achieve competitive advantage. It is also important to mention that large companies do invest hugely in marketing the products and services. So, it becomes difficult for small businesses to compete against the big giants despite the high-quality products and more innovative approaches. Any capable RMS, presented by Agile Leaf POS or other companies, will provide opportunity for new entrepreneurs to collect data for development of more effective marketing campaigns.
Predictive marketing analytics is also a new trend that emerged in recent years. To conduct these types of analytics, companies require a lot of data associated with every aspect of customers and organizational activities. These types of analytics optimize the results of the company’s marketing campaigns. Collection of data on a timely basis is necessary because the market trends tend to change at a rapid pace and if businesses don’t adapt appropriately, then it becomes difficult to sustain competitive advantage.
Let’s discuss an example. Suppose, the internally generated reports by the RMS reflects that customers prefer to purchase the product of Chicken Biryani at lunchtime. Based on this identified information, the restaurant can develop a unique campaign for social media marketing. Such as; the restaurant can offer a discount of 30% on Chicken Biryani to attract more customers from social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter.
Selection of Restaurant Management System is a Practical Approach
No one can deny the significance of a business idea, the importance of financial capital, or even the capabilities, skills, and knowledge of the teams involved in the development of business. Agile Leaf POS appreciates the efforts of entrepreneurs for developing the new food products according to the customer’s expectations and recommends an additional investment in a Restaurant Management System that can help to improve the effectiveness of invested resources. If entrepreneurs get equipped with basic tools and business solutions, then it becomes relatively easy to achieve the organizational objectives and sustainable competitive advantage.
A comparison of the internally generated reports with the competitor’s performance also helps in the evaluation process. Monthly reports comparison and evaluation provide support to identify the variances among the performances in different months and then new strategies can be implemented to expand profit-generating activities and discontinue high-cost activities. Suitable decisions for the restaurant are the ones that generate benefits, and investment in a competent RMS is one of the most promising assets that can add economic value to the business over its lifetime.