...4277 APRIL 4, 2011 JAMES L. HESKETT RICHARD LUECKE Porcini’s Pronto: “Great Italian cuisine without the wait!” In January 2011 Tom Alessio, marketing vice president at Porcini’s, Inc., of Boston, was pondering issues raised by a potential expansion of his company’s restaurant business. The domestic market for full-service chain restaurants was nearing its saturation point at both in-city and shopping mall locations. The big chains were looking overseas for growth, but as a small regional player, Porcini’s had neither the resources nor brand power to pursue that option. It needed a domestic avenue for growth. Alessio had persuaded Porcini’s senior executives to consider opening limited-menu outlets, Porcini’s “Pronto,” to serve interstate highway travelers. Most competitors serving this market were fast-food or low-end outlets. Alessio believed that Pronto could offer a quality difference that travelers would value, but the challenges were substantial. Could Pronto’s profitably provide a limited selection of Porcini’s standard menu at moderate prices without jeopardizing the company’s reputation for excellent food? Could it maintain Porcini’s famously high service standards? Could it profitably break into a market occupied by established competitors? Food and service quality were only two aspects of the challenge. Porcini’s—a slow-growing, privately held enterprise—would need to roll out its new restaurants quickly in order to establish itself as a powerful brand. With...
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...Executive Summary Porcini’s, an Italian-American full service restaurant, has the vision to rapidly expand in the market. The restaurant’s executive team, which includes the VP of marketing- Allesio, the VP of Operations- Kurt Jensen, HR Director- Wanda Halloran, and Chief Chef- Mariana Molise, all collectively developed Porcini’s mission to leverage its strengths for growth. Considering Porcini’s strengths and options available, the organization’s overall strategies are to launch the Pronto’s concept and adapt a company owned-and-operated model. Porcini’s is looking for new opportunities to establish its brand into new markets within the Northeast region. One of the challenges about this is that the markets for full service restaurants are nearing its dissemination point in shopping mall locations and within cities across the US. Motivated by this truth, Porcini’s is strongly considering opening limited-menu outlets at interstate highways, called “Pronto’s”. In an effort to increase their footprint, Porcini’s is considering the options of franchising, syndication, and company-ownership models, all while attempting to maintain its reputation for exceptional food and service. After a careful examination of all of the ownership models and how they affect the operations and service management for the restaurant, it is gathered that the most comprehensive model for Prontos would be syndication; primarily because it allows the restaurant to preserve its brand image and have full...
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...4277 APRIL 4, 2011 JAMES L. HESKETT RICHARD LUECKE Porcini’s Pronto: “Great Italian cuisine without the wait!” In January 2011 Tom Alessio, marketing vice president at Porcini’s, Inc., of Boston, was pondering issues raised by a potential expansion of his company’s restaurant business. The domestic market for full-service chain restaurants was nearing its saturation point at both in-city and shopping mall locations. The big chains were looking overseas for growth, but as a small regional player, Porcini’s had neither the resources nor brand power to pursue that option. It needed a domestic avenue for growth. Alessio had persuaded Porcini’s senior executives to consider opening limited-menu outlets, Porcini’s “Pronto,” to serve interstate highway travelers. Most competitors serving this market were fast-food or low-end outlets. Alessio believed that Pronto could offer a quality difference that travelers would value, but the challenges were substantial. Could Pronto’s profitably provide a limited selection of Porcini’s standard menu at moderate prices without jeopardizing the company’s reputation for excellent food? Could it maintain Porcini’s famously high service standards? Could it profitably break into a market occupied by established competitors? Food and service quality were only two aspects of the challenge. Porcini’s—a slow-growing, privately held enterprise—would need to roll out its new restaurants quickly in order to establish itself as a powerful brand. With...
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...provides maintaining total control and brand identity, second is franchised which benefits include franchisees paying to buy outlets thus there would be no responsibility for financing new locations and easy expansion capital, third option is syndication which provides Porcini more leverage, operational control, and reduced risks as investors would pay for the build out and property but Porcini’s management would still maintain its full operational control. Background Porcini’s Pronto is a family-owned Italian restaurant founded in 1969 out of Boston, United States. The restaurants are mainly and strategically located on interstate highway exits, with the purpose of targeting individuals pursuing high quality services and food at a reasonable price. To avoid problems with competitors such as Olive Garden and Sbarro, Porcini locates it restaurants as far away as possible from these franchises. By the end of 2010 Porcini Pronto had 23 restaurants in the Northeastern United States, 954 employees, $94.3 million in revenues and a gross profit margin of 4% (Heskett & Luecke, 2011, p. 2). Porcini’s main focus relays on maximizing customer’s satisfaction. To...
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...Executive Summary – Porcini Pronto: “Great Italian Cuisine without the wait!” Problem Identification Porcini’s is a full-service Italian food restaurant that is looking to expand their business beyond their domestic market which is currently saturated. As a small private company, Porcini’s does not possess the capital or brand recognition compared to their big chain competitors who are capable of expanding their business abroad. The company is currently assessing the viability of a new concept, Porcini’s Pronto, which will need to meet the company’s 6% hurdle rate. Key Decision Criteria Porcini’s will face several challenges with this new venture and will need to analyse several factors before deciding to proceed. One of the most crucial choices will be the location of the Pronto restaurants since this will define the restaurant’s target customers. The decision to build Pronto in high traffic locations requires catering the service to meet the demands of the customers who are looking for convenience, but at the same time, quality food. This will pose a challenge as the two are hard to achieve together without incurring significant costs. Currently, Pronto does not face significant competition for full-service Italian restaurants serving in-a-hurry diners. However, the choice of locations for Pronto puts the restaurant in direct competition with fast-food chains. Pronto will need to convince customers that their value proposition of quality and service is greater than...
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...N1670844 15901 Collins Ave. apt. 1104 Sunny Isles beach, FL. 33160 786 314 2223 Date of Submission: 10/13/2015 Title of Assignment: Individual Case - Porcini’s Pronto CERTIFICATION OF AUTHORSHIP: I certify that I am the author of this paper and that any assistance I received in its preparation is fully acknowledge and disclosed in the paper. I have also cited any sources from which I used data, ideas of words, whether quoted directly or paraphrased. I also certify that this paper was prepared by me specifically for this course. Student Signature: _________PBL__________________ ******************************************* Instructor’s Grade on Assignment: Instructor’s Comments: Executive Summary This paper analyzes the situation of Porcini Inc. a family-owned Italian restaurant founded by the Ventola family in Boston. Since its foundation in 1969, Porcini’s success relies on the uniformity of great quality food and superior service in all their locations. Porcini’s reached a point where growing the business and increasing brand awareness is stuck due to market saturation. The challenge for Porcini is to find an alternate operational system that allows them to expand their market share without compromising their values of great quality food, excellent service and uniformity. After...
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...Report On “Porcini's Pronto: Great Italian cuisine without the wait!" Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirement of Course in Strategic Marketing Management Submitted by: Under the Guidance of: Name: Sitaraman V Iyer Prof Yim Bennett Chi Kin Roll No. 2013963031 MBA Full-Time Batch 2013-14 University of Hong Kong INDEX Serial No. | Topic | Page Numbers | 1 | Executive summary | 3 | 2 | Topics | Introduction | 4 | | | Business Model to select | 6 | | | Porcini Pronto’s business projections under various business models | 7 | | | Analysis | 8 | | | Recommendation | 9 | Executive Summary Porcini's is a full service restaurant chain service chain which operates across 23 locations employing over 900 people generating $94 million in revenue at a profit margin of 4%.Although porcini had been growing consistently over the past few years the management believed that the full service restaurant business was nearing saturation and thus the time was ripe to look at other business models to achieve growth. Given that the focus was to grow domestically Mr Tom Alessio, marketing vice president at porcini, influenced senior executives to consider opening limited menu outlets called Porcini's Pronto to serve interstate highway travelers as most outlets serving this segment were either fast food or low end outlets. The problem in the hands of the management was to identify the right format, locations and overall strategy...
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...1. How has Porcini’s maintained high product and service quality and how does it plan to do so for its new Pronto concept? Firstly, Porcini’s is a people processing service and it requires the active cooperation of customers. It has always thought about the process and output in the customer’s point of view. It did not adopt a franchising or a syndication model of ownership and did not risk the company’s quality reputation and avoided the pace of growth that the company was ill equipped to handle • Quality could be traced to the long experience of individual restaurant managers, supervisory personnel and chefs, a relatively stable workforce and to the recipes of Chef who had won the coveted James Beard award • Chef Mlolise applied culinary principles to Porcini’s less pricey menu and personally trained each outlet’s chef in her “flash cooking” techniques • Each Porcini’s created the ambience of a unique family-owned restaurant in keeping with its North End roots, unlike competitors who had “Italian theme park” atmosphere • Table service matched the food in quality and New England restaurant guide gave Procini’s its “best Chain Service” award for the 4th consecutive year • Brought unsalaried annual turnover down to an eviable 42% from 75% 3 years earlier through experimenting with recruitin, pay and perks • “Pathfinder Team” would form the staff core at each Pronto, bringing experience and the company’s quality culture in tow. Each team receive a full week of training and...
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...February 17,2012 HB Case #1 Porcini’s Pronto A successful business is about creating value for its customers and it could be done by the intent or plan to create more value than the competitor. The process involves matching the business resources and capabilities with the opportunities challenges of the marketplace. The Porcini’s new approach is unique in the way it is being developed and analyzed. Expending the company involves critical points and tactics that need to be sketched out in order to meet its goals for success. Because the basic nature of the competition faced is determined, the competitive advantages are therefore developed through these steps: Location determination, targeted customers, operation strategy and selecting the right form of ownership. This gives the Pronto concept a competitive advantage over its rival The Porter’s Value Chain Model is used in this case. A qualitative evaluation is performed with specific activities in order to create value and competitive advantage to deliver the same benefits as competitor at lower cost. T o achieve the competitive advantage, The “Pronto Concept” must perform on ore more value creating activities in a way that creates more overall value than do competitors. In this case superior value is created through service quality, food quality, pricing, branding location and ownership. Such activities are connected or interlinked and trough multiple processes The Porcini Pronto Concept delivers a finish product...
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...February 11, 2012 Porcini's Pronto - Harvard Business Case What is unique about the “new” approach being considered and how does it tie in with the competitive advantage being sought? Porcini’s “new” approach is unique both to Porcini’s and the restaurant business. Facing a saturated restaurant industry, Porcini’s is striving to differentiate their business by providing excellent quality food at moderate prices to customer’s looking for a quick eating experience. Great service is also expressed as being an essential item for success. Porcini’s feels that restaurants have been unable to accomplish these four functions into one experience. This strategy attempts to make the competition irrelevant. Porcini’s Porto creates a new segment outside of the three major segments: fast food, single location full-service restaurants and full-service chain restaurants. Porcini’s “new” approach creates a new uncontested market space (Blue Ocean Strategy, W. Chan Kim and Renée Mauborgne). Any alternative means for a person to eat is Porcini’s competition. Porcini’s experience differentiates in an advantageous way from the three major segments. Porcini’s wireless technology creates a quicker eating experience for the customer that is not available at competitors in full-service restaurant chains. It’s also important that this innovative strategy does not decrease the value of the product/service offered. The project team identified fast food to be the primary competition. Porcini’s quick service...
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...Examine the reasons how Porcini’s has maintained high product and service quality? What are Porcini’s plan for maintain this quality for its Pronto concept? Porcini strived hard to maintain its product and services quality. Porcini has created its high quality as a differentiating factor. Porcini set out a unique ambiance of family-owned restaurant, differentiating itself from others. Addition to that, they put experienced managers as in charge at individual restaurants. They hired services of award winning chef, Mariana Molise, and she was in charge and responsible for training chefs in each of the outlets to make sure that quality is not deteriorating. It is made sure that all the ingredients used in cooking are fresh and meet high quality standards. Furthermore, special attention was paid to artful presentation of dishes, no matter if they cost more. Employees were kept motivated thorough various initiatives, as a result, they had a stable workforce in high turnover industry. In order to maintain its product and services quality, the chef, Mariana Molise will be developing new recipes, keeping in mind, the speed for preparation and serving. Addition to that Porcini has developed proper plans to hire and recruit employees that will be dedicated and will ensure consumer satisfaction and services quality. They planned for compensating employees with different techniques and training. To ensure quality congruency, Porcini will be connecting these branches to the central branch...
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...1. Should Porcini get into the 'Pronto' format at all? Yes, Procini can get in to Pronto format. Procini is looking to expand overseas, but option not feasible. So they are looking to expand in the domestic Market. Their Choice is High way travelers looking for table served meals at reasonable price. Current Highway restaurant are not dine in fast food restaurants. Pronto will offer Dine in experience with more seating options that the competitors and also dine in with no wait time. This is unique in offering. Procini brand strength will be an added advantage Unique list of specialized menu for highway travelers at lower price. This segment of customers is not saturated. There is a potential to grow beyond the industry 2. What are the service components that would enable Porcini's to develop a unique value proposition different from their regular restaurant? Below are the options for value drivers. Quality Food: Innovative recipe, Fresh Ingredient, Artful presentation. Meal Quality High speed rapid service: Hiring the right people, 1 week Quality training program, Wireless technology, Very Quick service. Value and Convenience: Location of choice Price lower than Procini Cleanliness of restroom Restaurant appearance and Cleanliness 3. Which among the three franchising options should Porcini choose to establish the new concept? Calculate cash flows to back your decision. There are three concepts 1) Company owned and Operate 2) Syndicate ...
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