Sustainability And International Cooperate Citizenship

Define the problems facing pure

Discuss about the Sustainability and International Cooperate Citizenship.

Pure Organic Food and Juice Bar was established in May 2010 by Jacqueline Graham and Samuel Buob (Valente & Graham, 2012). In the business they incorporated the business strategy “With mission to provide exceptional nutritious as well as delicious food while growing their business in sustainable and ethical manner”. This organization was created on the following basis: founder’s personal and professional interest and values for healthy lifestyle, increase in the market awareness and demand for raw and organic cuisine (Ashraf, Ahmad, Nafees, Yousaf & Ahmad, 2016). Additionally, on the need to educate and at the same time transfer learning to wider clientele base on benefits of healthy living. Nevertheless, many ventures in the business are faced with both internal and the external forces that acts for and against the strategy of the business.

The problem the organization is facing is adapting its business strategy in order to increase on the profitability in low-margin restaurant industry without necessarily compromising on their product offerings as well as sustainable practices in the business (Benn, Dunphy & Griffiths, 2014). In order to offer recommendation on the possible approaches in addressing the problem there is a thorough examination of organic raw, as well as vegan market, and challenges along with internal and

Challenges facing pure organization

External pressures

These are the market challenges which the organization is facing these are as follows;

Loose regulation

In the organic industry it has received some critism when it comes to the regulation. The U.S. Department of Agriculture certified program only allowed up five percent of the product to contain the non-organic ingredients (Feldmann & Hamm, 2015). The Canadian government had established on the organic product regulation, which was a mandatory certification process aimed to protect the consumers from misleading labeling, consumer confusion and the support to the domestic organic market (Valente & Graham, 2012). There is a lot of skepticism on the part of the consumer which has remained high.

Attracting mainstream

There were various challenges to attract the mainstream population. Some individuals were unaware of the healthy living, they did not know how to replace these kinds of foods as well as maintain their current nutrient intake (Ashraf, Ahmad, Nafees, Yousaf & Ahmad, 2016). Another, challenge was that the consumers were attracted to the convenient affordable food. Moreover, there was on the issue of taste which was an important criteria which pertain to the choice of food (Valente & Graham, 2012).

Analyze the case data

Internal size up

This challenge pertain the strategy, performance and the capabilities of the organization. (Valente & Graham, 2012). On the strategy the organization has a challenge of adapting the business strategy of increasing on the profitability especially in the low-margin restaurant sector without compromising on the quality of the product they are provide and maintaining on the practices of the business (Ravindran & Jaiswal, 2016). The organization was previously performing well especially on their healthy food which attracted many customer, particularly during the peak summer season. Nonetheless, there was growing costs which were impeding on their profitability (Santhoshkumar, Reddy & Sangwan, 2017). The issue was on their business model which was not favoring them and they did not have the capabilities to expand to the other markets.

Goals and objectives of Graham and Buobo

• They aimed at providing the customer with the health benefit of raw, vegan and organic foods (Valente & Graham, 2012).
• Offer exceptionally nutritious as well as delicious food while growing their business in sustainable and ethical manner (Feldmann & Hamm, 2015).
• Build capitalize on the growing market demand for the raw, organic and vegan cuisine
• Utilize their restaurant as the vehicle of educating consumers on benefits of healthy living (Valente & Graham, 2012).

Pure competitive market

Pure market was very competitive. In the Blue Mountain Resort there was new resort café regarded as Royal Majesty Espresso Bar Bakery which provided the biggest competition to Pure since they served lattes, loose-leaf organic teas along with soups, sandwiches and the salads (Valente & Graham, 2012). Additionally, these restaurants were all open to the locals and this eroded the consumer base of pure restaurant (Steffen, 2018). At Downtown Collingwood there were also variety of cafes sit down as well as fast food restaurant that competed also with pure and they offered fresh lunches and gourmet dinners. The sit-down restaurant for example Kelsey’s, Pizza Pizza as well as East Side Mario’s they were also trying to tap to the health trend through the menu they offered weekend visitor s(Ashraf, Ahmad, Nafees, Yousaf & Ahmad, 2016). Thus, such competition seemed it was stiff for pure organization and they needed to change of their business model they adapted previously to enable them compete with these restaurants (Valente & Graham, 2012).

Pure’s current strategy

The current strategy used the organization is to capitalize on growing market demand for the raw, organic, vegan cuisine. They also focus on gourmet healthy food which has helped them to attract many clients (Schaper, 2016). They were also utilizing promotional strategies which would enable them to reach and educate the mainstream consumer the benefit to health living.

On the aspect of creating value to the customer, the organization educates them on the benefit of healthy living. The organization also provided consultation and cooking classes to many customers who had inquired about them (Benn, Dunphy & Griffiths, 2014). On the aspect of differentiating at pure the consumer enjoyed gourmet cuisine for example the warm meals, wraps and salad. They offered pressed juices, elixirs and smoothies which other restaurant did not provide (Meas, Hu, Batte, Woods & Ernst, 2014). The amazing thing with pure all their food were free of the refined sugars, meat, gluten or the dairy products. All the dishes which were prepared in the restaurant were one hundred percent certified of the organic ingredients even with the ketchup (Meas, Hu, Batte, Woods & Ernst, 2014). Another differentiating aspect is that they offered a small retail selection of the organic foods, books and supplements to the consumers.

Goals and objectives of Graham and Buobo

Strategic alternative available to pure

Price focus:

This is a market niche strategy where an organization competes on the cost. In the case of pure organization was growing costs which were impeding their profitability (Benn, Dunphy & Griffiths, 2014). On this aspect they needed to evaluate their business model to increase on the profit. The use of this strategy targets the organization need to have a low-cost structure compared to the rivals (Mariano, Velasco, Locading Jr & Fernandez, 2016). Since the organization wants to venture in the new niche market they could pursue this strategy. In the case of Pure it is also visible that there is differentiated customer segment with some of the rival restaurant providing non-organic products (Valente & Graham, 2012).

Adjacent businesses:

In this strategy it involves entry to the niche area where pure core business would be to operate at their full or even near their full potential and be able to generate surplus cash (Benn, Dunphy & Griffiths, 2014). They need to focus on the current customer preference to be able to seek growth opportunities for the business. Based on the case study Graham needs to focus on their existing customer and not exclude them eating healthy (Goetzke, Nitzko & Spiller, 2014). Since most of their customers were weekend and the summer residents who participated in the local ski and hiking activities they need to focus more on them and provide products which they want.

Criteria to Evaluate alternatives

Pure organization need to utilize decision criteria in making choice between the alternative strategy they will utilize and incorporate in their business model to enable them compete efficiently in this market segment (Crane & Matten, 2016). These criteria should be measurable and should be within the scope of the issue that the organization is trying to solve. Based on the problem that is affecting the organization there are some measurable characteristics to enable them choice the correct decision (Kolk, 2016).

One is on the cost; the organization needs to compare the two strategic alternatives and identify on the cost of each when implementing it. Another element is the increase in the customer satisfaction (Goetzke, Nitzko & Spiller, 2014). The main aim of the organization is focused on providing the customers with the best experience they ever had and this is ensuring that the products satisfy their wants. Therefore, on the two alternatives it is important to analyze which will bring more satisfaction to the customer and select it.

Generate alternatives

Based on the two alternatives is the adjacent business. This strategy overall benefit advocate the business needs to focus the current customer preferences to seek growth opportunities (Crane & Matten, 2016). It also highlights that when making adjacency move, they need to develop new distribution channels (Valente & Graham, 2012). The current customer should be the main focus since when they get best services and experience in the food they eat they could refer their friend on the experience they have had (Goetzke, Nitzko & Spiller, 2014). They should also an extensive promotional strategy better than the previous they had previously. In any business when you have regular company, it is because you are offering them their preferences and with time they could easily refer others to the restaurant when they get to hear the good things that are happening.

It is expected that when the organization implement this strategy in their business model, there would be an increase in the number of the customer in the long run (Crane & Matten, 2016). This strategy is like peer-to-peer marketing whereby you provide some with best service and in return they refer their friend due to the quality, customer service or satisfaction of that product (Crane & Matten, 2016). This strategy would be effective in the long run and Pure would enjoy an increase in the number of customers.

References

Ashraf, I., Ahmad, I., Nafees, M., Yousaf, M. M., & Ahmad, B. (2016). A review on organic farming for sustainable agricultural production. Pure and Applied Biology.

Benn, S., Dunphy, D., & Griffiths, A. (2014). Organizational change for corporate  sustainability. Routledge.

Crane, A., & Matten, D. (2016). Business ethics: Managing corporate citizenship and  sustainability in the age of globalization. Oxford University Press.

Feldmann, C., & Hamm, U. (2015). Consumers’ perceptions and preferences for local food: A review. Food Quality and Preference, 40, 152-164.

Goetzke, B., Nitzko, S., & Spiller, A. (2014). Consumption of organic and functional food. A  matter of well-being and health?. Appetite, 77, 96-105.

Kolk, A. (2016). The social responsibility of international business: From ethics and the environment to CSR and sustainable development. Journal of World Business, 51(1), 23- 34.

Mariano, M. F. G., Velasco, A. D., Locading Jr, O. H., & Fernandez, L. M. A. (2016). Market Study on Organic-Based Rice and Vegetables in the Province of Tarlac. Philippine   Journal of Arts, Sciences & Technology, 1(1), 62-71.

Meas, T., Hu, W., Batte, M. T., Woods, T. A., & Ernst, S. (2014). Substitutes or complements? Consumer preference for local and organic food attributes. American Journal of  Agricultural Economics, 97(4), 1044-1071.

Ravindran, R., & Jaiswal, A. K. (2016). Exploitation of food industry waste for high-value  products. Trends in Biotechnology, 34(1), 58-69.

Santhoshkumar, M., Reddy, G. C., & Sangwan, P. S. (2017). A Review on Organic Farming- Sustainable Agriculture Development. Int. J. Pure App. Biosci, 5(4), 1277-1282.

Schaper, M. (Ed.). (2016). Making ecopreneurs: developing sustainable entrepreneurship. CRC Press.

Steffen, A. (2018). Exploring the Benefits of Employing Market Insights and Consumer Trends   in Food Product Innovation: A Case Study from Germany. In Case Studies in the     Traditional Food Sector (pp. 209-237).

Valente, M., & Graham, A. (2012).  Pure organic food and Juice Bar Case study. Ivey Publishing.