Question

Jollibee foods corporation, a Philippine fast-food company, has achieved market dominance in three segments in its home country – burgers and chicken, pizzas, and Chinese food - beating such well-known international competitors as McDonald's and Pizza Hut. What is the key to its domestic success, and what are the lessons for its international ventures? JFC operates Jollibee, the Philippines ' largest and most successful homegrown fast-food chain. By targeting the niche Filipino market, Jollibee has beaten global players, including fast-food giant McDonalds, in the Philippine fast-good scene with its own unique menu and excellent service, Jollibee commands a 58 percent share of the quick-service restaurants market in the Philippines and some 70 percent of the burger based meals markets. To cater to the ever-changing needs of Filipinos, JFC has acquired a portfolio of complementary fast-good concepts, Greenwich Pizza, Chowking, and Delifrance (a French franchise). The company has been honored many times, being recognized for its entrepreneurship, as the number one food company in Asia as the best-managed company in the Philippines, and as Asia’s most admired company. It has also been consistently ranked among Asia’s best employers. To secure its leadership position, JFC intends to focus its efforts on increasing its presence in both local and international markets. However, it has not been particularly successful in establishing Jollibee and Chowking brands overseas. In 2004, it purchased the Yonghe King chain of Chinese fast-food restaurants in China and has high hopes for the future of this brand in the People’s Republic

Evaluate the JFC’s performance overseas. To what extent can the company transfer its core

competency to its overseas operations? Justify your answer by giving explanations and

examples.

b. Should it modify its consumer-driven strategies to suit foreign markets, even if that

means Jollibee becomes much less Philippine in nature? Justify your answer by giving

explanations and examples

Evaluate JFC’s performance overseas. To what extent can the company transfer its core

competency to its overseas operations? Justify your answer by giving explanations and

examples.

b. Should it modify its consumer-driven strategies to suit foreign markets, even if that

means Jollibee becomes much less Philippine in nature? Justify your answer by giving

explanations and examples

QUESTIONS (30 MARKS – 10 MARKS EACH)

1. Evaluate Jollibee’s Food Corporation’s performance in the Philippines. What is its secret of success in terms of:

i. Marketing

ii. Operations

iii. Human Resource Management

2. Evaluate JFC’s performance overseas. To what extent can the company transfer its core competency to its overseas operations? Justify your answer by giving explanations and examples.

3. Should it modify its consumer-driven strategies to suit foreign markets, even if that means Jollibee becomes much less Philippine in nature? Justify your answer by giving explanations and examples

Answer 1

Q.1. Evaluate Jollibee’s Food Corporation’s performance in the Philippines. What is its secret of success in terms of :

i.          Marketing

ii.         Operations

iii.        Human Resource Management

Ans-The case study of Jollibee’s Food Corporation is very interesting. The reason for this is simple as it not only gave tough competition to the foreign giant MNCs like MacDonalds but also successfully beaten them in the market. Jollibee is a Philippines based company which was established in 1978 by Tony Tan and his brothers. Soon they realized the available opportunities in the food sector and tried to harness it by expanding their menu and start offering them at a reasonable price with no compromise on the quality part. Their understanding of local food taste also gave them an edge over their competitors. Moreover, they also tried to make unique changes in their marketing, operations and human resource management strategies. These innovations can be explained as follows-

i.Unique Marketing Strategies of Jollibee’s Food Corporation –

Jollibee’s Food Corporation utilized their marketing campaigns very prudently. They knew the psychology and culture of the local people. Hence, they decided to plan their marketing strategies based on the traditional values of local people. Jollibee’s Food Corporation also opened its stores at those prime locations where people can easily come and enjoy food. They particularly focussed on the taste of food so that the local people can enjoy it. They also care a lot about the environment of the kitchen and restaurants. In addition to these innovative marketing strategies, they also included some game activities in their stores so that people can also enjoy this with their foods. All of these unique marketing strategies helped Jollibee’s Food Corporation to beat the giant MNCs like MacDonalds.

ii.Unique Operations Strategies of Jollibee’s Food Corporation –

Apart from implementing its innovative marketing strategy, Jollibee’s Food Corporation also focussed on the operations part. In order to effectively cater to the needs of the customer, it started using IT in its business process. It modernized its operations. It helped a lot in the effective utilization of the resources. Jollibee’s Food Corporation also decentralized its business outlets. So that decision can be taken easily. The concept of Strategic Business Units (SBUs) was used by them. They also focussed to resize the number of outlets each year that is they started closing those stores which were not generating the expected amount of revenue or were not performing as per the expectation. These were the secrets of Jollibee’s Food Corporation in the domain of operations.

iii. Unique Human Resource Management Strategies of Jollibee’s Food Corporation –

Jollibee’s Food Corporation gave a lot of emphases to hire the right candidate with the right attitude who can give a pleasant experience to the customers at their outlets. Its main instruction to its employees was to serve the customers in such a manner so that they can have a wonderful experience at its outlets. For this, Jollibee’s Food Corporation focussed a lot on the training of its personnel.

Q. 2.         Evaluate JFC’s performance overseas. To what extent can the company transfer its core competency to its overseas operations? Justify your answer by giving explanations and examples.

Ans- After the establishment of Jollibee’s Food Corporation in 1978, its early expansion in the 1990s was in countries like Hong Kong, Brunei, Spain, Vietnam, and Middle Eastern countries like UAE and Kuwait. But the most important expansion of its operation happened when it entered the very competitive market of the USA in 2004. Here in the USA, in spite of having a large presence of the Filipino population, it had only 17 restaurants. The reason was simply the dilution of its business strategies because of several independent brands. Moreover, it also acquired a wrong food company in this market (Teriyaki) due to which its resources got wasted and had suffer a lot.

So we can say that the overseas performance of Jollibee’s Food Corporation was of full of ups and downs.

The core competencies of Jollibee’s Food Corporation include ability to cater to a niche market, use of Information Technology in its business operations, fantastic customer service by its trained employees, and having its presence at prime locations. As far as the transfer of its core competency to its overseas operations is concerned, it should certainly try to harness these core competencies in the foreign markets. But it may have some issues in the transfer of some of its core competencies in the foreign markets like building its presence at prime locations as other established companies might have already captured those locations. But beyond doubt, it should try its best to replicate its home business operations in the overseas market with necessary altercations as per the requisite of the foreign market.

Q.3.         Should it modify its consumer-driven strategies to suit foreign markets, even if that means Jollibee becomes much less Philippine in nature? Justify your answer by giving explanations and examples

Ans- Beyond doubt, the brand image of Jollibee is of a Philippine-based food and it should honor this brand image by providing delicious and tasty filipino foods. It is evident from the fact that when it initially expanded its business operations in countries like UAE, Spain, the USA, etc, its main target was the OFW (Overseas Filipino Workers). So it should leverage its brand image by catering those customer bases. But it should also incorporate other food items so that it can also properly cater to the need of other customers as well. But one point should be noted that it should not compromise with its flippino foods as it is the very identity of Jollibee.