Overview of Tim Hortons
The study is focused towards understanding the intrinsic elements of organizational management through essentially considering the example of a corporate enterprise. The organization selected for the study is Tim Horton’s restaurant. The functional aspects of Tim Hortons are analyzed in the context of the Canadian market. Tim Horton’s Inc. is the largest fast food restaurant in Canada. The specialized items of the company are coffee and donuts. The restaurant has more than 46 hundred restaurants in 14 nationalities. The headquarters of the company is in Toronto. It was founded in 1964 in Ontario by Canadian ice hockey player Tim Horton (Tim Hortons, 2019). The company is currently a subsidiary of Restaurant Brands International which in turn is owned majorly by 3G Capital of Brazil. The Canadian operations of the organization are significant towards generation of revenue. The themes that are focused in the study are management, environment, leadership and strategies that concern the effective functioning of the organization. The essential aspects of the company like customer base, mission and core values, vision, corporate strategies and business strategies. The functional ability of the organization is further evaluated with the help of SWOT analysis. Hence, the internal and external environmental factors of the organization have been considered for the essential analysis of the entire organizational functionalities.
The company has customer base across the world. However, a significantly large portion of its customer base is in Canada. The restaurant chain operates 38 hundred restaurants in Canada. The restaurant primarily targets young and middle aged people. The age group it normally focuses on is 15 to 45 years. The customer research should hence include preference of the youth and the general acceptability of coffee among the public. In Canada, most of the customer base of the company is concentrated in urban and sub urban areas. Moreover, the company uses sports sponsorships to promote themselves among the target audiences. The company also increasingly focusing on children for promoting their products.
The mission of the organization is to deliver products and services that are superior in quality to the consumers (Tim Hortons, 2019). Moreover, the company values serving the community both through their products and their initiatives through effective leadership, partnerships and innovative approaches. The core values of the organization is to represent the people that they essentially serve.
Tim Horton’s vision is to become the leader in quality in the industry. The company is striving towards sustainable growth in Canada and the world. Moreover, the company is focused towards continuing to be in its current position concerning the market of Canada.
Mission, Vision, and Core Values
Tim Horton’s as a company is always focused towards growth and development concerning its corporate operations. In order to maintain their number one position in Canada they focus on making effective partnerships. This is evident from a number of mergers and acquisitions that the company went through in the past. In the 1990s the company changed its name to TDL group limited and diversified into markets other than simple coffee. In the years between 1992 and 95 the company got into a merger with Wendy’s from USA. From 2002 to 2006 the company overtook McDonalds as the number one restaurant chain in Canada. Subsequently, the company announced that it will sell around 15 to 18% of the operations (Tim Hortons, 2019). In 2014, the company again merged with Burger King. Additionally a holding company 3G Capital also got into the same merger. Hence, the company focuses on constant change to improve their significant corporate functions (Burger King and Tim Hortons to merge, 2019). The company has hence been able to take advantage of the corporate performances of the various companies with which it had traditionally merged towards improving their own performances. The company however, keeps on changing their corporate strategy for obtaining better results from time to time. Internationally it gets into partnerships with companies that can help to grow its market in a given location.
Concerning business partnerships, the organization focuses on achieving great product quality. The company through its quality oriented strategies concentrates on providing healthy foods to its customers. Product differentiation is also a significant business strategy of the company. Tim Horton’s provides specialty hot and cold beverages to the customers. The specialized items are coffee, French vanilla, mocha, latte, etc. An important aspect of the strategy is that the company keeps the prices within an affordable range. This means that the larger part of their product offerings can be afforded by the masses (Berkowitz, 2015). The price range for coffee remains largely within 1.15 dollars and 2 dollars. The prices of cookies are around 0.89 dollars and the sandwiches are priced at 2.5 dollars. The larger part of the business of the company is concentrated in the North America as this is the biggest market. The company offers valuable and popular promos and offers to attract customers and keep the existing customers. It can be said that focus and differentiation are the majorly used strategies. Budget friendly rates also make them favorites among the consumers (Akter et al., 2016). The strategies combines have helped the company to garner the support of a large customer base in Canada and North America.
Strength
Corporate Operations and Strategies for Growth
The company has a strong market share especially in Canada (‘It’s genuinely beloved’: Why Canadians continue to crush on Tim Hortons | CBC News, 2019). The brand value of the organization is great. The financial strength is also significantly growing as it is realizing greater profitability. The financial stability is consistent and this causes the organization to have a strong financial backing. The company also has significant market share in Canada. There is effective backing from the capital investors. There have been good investment towards newer stores in Canada and there have been renovations in 1400 shops located across Canada.
Weakness
A significant weakness has been the declining profitability rates of for various franchises and store owners for the organization. The company has also witnessed very slow growth and market loss in the United States. The company initially planned to open new 300 stores. However, the same has now been affected by uncertain future. There have been significant decline in the sales of the same stores in Canada. The company have been negatively affected by legal issues recently concerning restaurant operational costs.
Opportunities
The company is testing newer designs and techniques to attract the customers. There is a huge scope for enhancing future profitability through better technology usage (Grinblatt & Titman, 2016). The company has proposed an all-day breakfast option which is being favorably considered by many. The company can bank on healthier diet campaigns that are taking place across Canada. The healthier options are being widely accepted by the target consumers. The political scenario in Canada is stable enough for better operational functions. The technological advancements can help it to manage customers better. The company can take on large coffee shops like Starbucks as it offers much more product variety.
Threats
There are some essential threats concerning the growth of newer restaurants in Canada. Especially, there is the rising popularity of food trucks in Canada. Moreover, the competitors are gaining much ground in the market like Starbucks and Burger King. Moreover, the legal issues faced by the organization have a chance of being further escalated in the future if not effectively tackled. The competition for restaurants in the country is increasingly steadily.
Conclusion
It can be said that the company is firmly placed especially in the market of Canada. However, there are significant challenges like the recent legal issues and the growth in competition that need to be addressed significantly. It can be said that the business prospects of the organization in the future are good.
References
Akter, S., Wamba, S. F., Gunasekaran, A., Dubey, R., & Childe, S. J. (2016). How to improve firm performance using big data analytics capability and business strategy alignment?. International Journal of Production Economics, 182, 113-131.
Berkowitz, S. E. (2015). Providing flexible food portions in a restaurant setting: Impact on business operations, food consumption and food waste.
Burger King and Tim Hortons to merge. (2019). Retrieved from https://www.bbc.com/news/business-28939538
Grinblatt, M., & Titman, S. (2016). Financial markets & corporate strategy.
‘It’s genuinely beloved’: Why Canadians continue to crush on Tim Hortons | CBC News. (2019). Retrieved from https://www.cbc.ca/news/business/tim-hortons-why-the-coffee-giant-is-genuinely-beloved-by-canadians-1.2748530
Tim Hortons. (2019). Retrieved from https://www.timhortons.com/ca/en/index.php
Zhu, D. H., & Chen, G. (2015). CEO narcissism and the impact of prior board experience on corporate strategy. Administrative Science Quarterly, 60(1), 31-65.