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Entrepreneurial Innovation or Corporate Advantage?

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Entrepreneurial Innovation or Corporate Advantage?
The competitive advantages of Wegmans & how we can apply private innovation to public returns on investment.
By Garrett Macdonald, Corporate Finance Major at St. John Fisher College - 2014

Why is Wegmans ranked as #1 by consumers?
1. Their Employee Satisfaction – The “biggies”

a) Wegmans has a program called “Competitive Pay” that grants employees the benefit of often being the highest paid employees in their industry. This enables them to attract (in most cases) above average employees compared to their industry competitors! b) Wegmans uses vertical integration. They control almost every aspect of their business (don’t outsource normally) including their own; marketing, legal, engineering (design & building of stores and in-store fixtures), event services, store maintenance, & more. c) Wegmans gives generous scholarships for part time (min. hr. requirement) & full-time employees, including a double scholarship opportunity for full-time employee’s parents. d) Wegmans allows its employees the opportunity to participate in firm-specific investments whereby senior members of staff can exploit geographical trends in food, goods, & services to better serve their customers while being rewarded for their outstanding performance. This builds internal innovation between stores and thus between competitors. e) Internal promotion – often overlooked in a company’s policies, but can often speak to the company’s ability to promote individuals who have a sense of the company’s vision & can provide crucial feedback that’s necessary to increase production. 2. Their Consumer Gratification – A socially complex relationship between Wegmans & us a) Loyalty – you don’t need to ask a Western New Yorker where they shop for groceries. The majority of them are shopping at Wegmans and love every minute of it. Why? i. Wegmans is a huge

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