The Strategic Levels of Planning in the Waffle House Corporation

The Strategic Levels of Planning in the Waffle House Corporation

Every corporation has to have strategic planning to keep on top of the competition and to be the best in their industry. Waffle House is no exception to this rule. A corporation has to first figure out what their strengths are, what they can offer that none of their competitors can. Secondly, they have to examine their weaknesses and try to find solutions to make them stronger in these areas. Opportunities are another facet that a corporation has to examine. Do they have high-quality opportunities for growth, or are they the underdog? Lastly threats and trends need to be considered because if a company such as Waffle House has had a lot of threats from other fast food chains they may not stay in business long and trends only last for a short period of time, you have to know when to start a trend and when the trend is ending. Therefore, you can be ahead of your market.

Waffle House has obviously implemented a SWOTT plan into their organization, or else they would not be one of the leading fast food chains on the East Coast. In the early 1950's the Waffle House Corporation openly minded marketing tactic aimed directly at families that began to grow, but not as quickly as planned. The founder's admitted the strengths and weaknesses of its centralized, one-size fit all strategy. Waffle House's planning campaign geared solely on the idea that if you bring the families in, all others will follow lead was quickly re-examined as the company began to realize that in that day in age quality and nutrition were an important step that had been neglected in the original planning; not just for children but for the parents also. This decision to take a look at their original plan, which was due in part to the increase in the adult workforce and the role of fast food chains, played in complimenting this increase. The slow increase in profits forced the hand of Waffle House executives to create a strategic recovering plan focusing on the working class family.

Waffle House's new back-to-basics turnaround strategy proved to be the beginning of an incredible financial turnaround. The new viewpoint for the corporation focused on home style meals and providing high quality customer service proved to be the most positive marketing strategies the company had ever implemented. The strength of this new plan which focused over hundreds of thousands of dollars in research and development included items such as freshly served eggs and homemade waffles, one of the corporations biggest selling food item. Thanks to the strategic planning by their executives at the time, the beginning of the new century was also the beginning of an even brighter future for the mom and pop style setting.

Due to not being an international company, changes in the global economy affects Waffle House's plans for international expansion. For example McDonald's top seven markets (US, Japan, UK, Canada, Germany, France and Australia) have helped to compensate for weaker markets during economic decline. However the principal markets now show a decline in demand. Due to the now health conscious consumers no one wants to eat all the fast foods. Many people now are on the back to the basic approach to eating and the sales at many fast food chains have gone down. The strength of the dollar makes things complicated when operating internationally, especially concerning developing countries. Fast food is a highly competitive sector. Due to a saturating market and slow growth, Waffle House's is attempting to differentiate itself from competitors by investing in the old fashion way of dining, small structural interior designs of restaurants and basic displayed menus. However, rivals are doing the same. With 300,000 deaths per year due to obesity (Jones, Carl), consumers are being more health conscious. Waffle House's needed to adapt with the market and continue to move in a healthier direction.

Since low-carbohydrate dieting has taken America by storm, it was only natural that fast food corporations would suffer from these trends. Now the