Strategic Analysis of Papa John's International, Inc. Case Study

This case study provides an in-depth analysis of Papa John's International, examining its current situation, environmental and competitive landscapes, and strategic models. The analysis employs the VRIO framework to evaluate the company's resources and capabilities, assessing their value, rarity, imitability, and organizational aspects. The study also explores strategic models like Porter's Five Forces and SCP model. It highlights the company's strengths, such as its focus on quality ingredients and customer satisfaction, while also addressing its competitive position against rivals like Domino's and Pizza Hut. The study recommends areas for improvement, including menu modifications, online service enhancements, and adapting to demographic and cultural trends. The conclusion emphasizes the importance of strategic planning and market analysis for the company's continued success, positioning Papa John's as a popular brand with a global presence.

Running Head: Case Analysis
Contents
Introduction................................................................................................................................3
Current Situation........................................................................................................................3
Environmental and Competitive Situations...............................................................................3
Strategic Models.........................................................................................................................4
VRIO......................................................................................................................................4
Recommendations......................................................................................................................6
Conclusion..................................................................................................................................7
References..................................................................................................................................8
2

Running Head: Case Analysis
Introduction
John Schnatter is the founder of the Papa John’s International and the organization is selling
pizza in more than four thousand locations across the globe. The main task of the firm is
serving the people across the world with its large variety of food products and drinks. One of
the most important factors of the firm is that, the firm is using best quality of ingredients and
fresh dough for its manufacturing purposes. By serving the best quality of products the
growth of the company is improving day by day (Papa John's International, 2016). In the
category of restaurants, the Papa John’s International is one of the highest with respect to the
return on the invested capital, thus the firm is following various strategies for the growth
through upcoming years.
Current Situation
The base of the Papa John’s International is to provide best quality of pizza to its customers
using a good quality of ingredients. The firm is still working on the single base for more than
twenty years, which is the only reason of making the firm best regarding to the customer
satisfaction. The firm is using making use of social media channels to get connected with
more and more people across the world. The company also provides the facility of ordering
the products online to its customers. All this social media channels help in diverging or we
can say in the expansion of the business.
3

Running Head: Case Analysis
Environmental and Competitive Situations
According to the several requests of the customers, the Papa John’s International introduced
Papa’s sweetreats and according to that, they made various modifications and additions to
their menu. The firm is also taking care of the various environmental factors for the sake of
the quality manufacturing of the products. The management of the company is taking several
actions for the sake of the quality measures for the well- being of the customers to whom the
products have to be delivered as well as for the sake of the company’s business and
popularity among the people of the country (Wardhani, 2012). The Papa John’s International
has various competitors like Domino’s Pizza Inc., Pizza Hut, Inc., CAESAR LITTLE
ENTERPRISES Inc., etc., and the company is competing well with all the competitors and
has been awarded by the Guinness World Record in the year 2006, regarding to the ranking
of customer satisfaction. By delivering a good quality of food products and its popularity the
Papa John’s International became the official sponsor of the NFL. With its world-wide
popularity the Papa John’s International is working in more than 37 countries across the
world by operating approximately 4700 restaurants, which includes nearly 1200 international
restaurants (Arias, 2014).
Strategic Models
According to the data given in the case study, a detail case analysis can be done depending
upon the various strategic models like Porter’s 5 forces, S-C-P model, VRIO framework, etc.
For the detailed case analysis of Papa John’s International we will make the use of VRIO
Framework which is as mentioned below.
4

Running Head: Case Analysis
VRIO
It is a framework which helps the management in evaluating the various resources of the
company. VRIO framework stands for Value, Rareness, Imitability and Organization. VRIO
framework helps us to completely analyze the various internal factors of the organization
responsible for the various operations being performed within the organization.
Value: - In this phase of the VRIO framework various resources of the company are
examined critically that whether the resources being used are beneficial for the company or
not. If the resources are beneficial for the company than all those resources can be
accumulated as the strength of the company’s business. For the successful accomplishment of
this phase the Papa John’s International is making several efforts by providing good quality
of food products to the customers made up of the rich quality of ingredients. The company
should introduce various training programmes for the training purpose of the new employees
in the company. The management of the company needs to follow a strong marketing plan for
increasing the growth as well as the popularity of the brand across the world (Andjar, 2015).
Rarity: - In this phase of the VRIO framework, the company is completely focusing upon the
various resources which are rare in the market and are very beneficial for the company’s
business. Making an effective and efficient use of these types of resources helps the
management of the company in various forms at the time of competing with others. The Papa
Johns’ International works according to the quality control center, which is one of the major
factors helping in achieving the customer satisfaction. Layout of the restaurants should be
well organized in each and every part of the country, which helps in achieving an eco-
friendly environment. Technology being used for the manufacturing and sell purposes should
be latest for the sake of the people and the firm.
5

Running Head: Case Analysis
Imitability: - This phase of the VRIO framework helps the management by describing the
disadvantage of the various valuable resources that the company is not using. This phase
helps the firm in acquiring parity regarding to the competition with the other company’s those
who are making use of those types of resources. The Imitability can be occurred in two ways,
i.e., direct imitation and the second one is substitution (Team, 2017).
Organisational: - This phase of the VRIO framework helps in understanding the complete
organized structure of the firm across the countries in which it is carrying out its business.
The management of the company should introduce various types of policies, which helps in
managing the management controls over the complete structure of all the parts of the
organization. All this management control can be done by making an effective use of formal
management controls as well as by the use of information management control.
Recommendations
The company needs to focus on the working locations in the different- different markets of
the different countries across the world. The Papa John’s international needs to modify its
menu as there are very few items in the menu of Papa John’s International. The management
needs to introduce various offers regarding to the purchase of the products, i.e., they should
provide discount coupons, etc., for attracting more and more people towards them. They need
to follow various strategies for accomplishing the various opportunities successfully. Various
strategies will help the firm in managing their work regarding to the large menu of the
competitors. The company should make the use online sources for proving a large variety of
services to the customers at their doorstep. They need to follow the demographic trends
depending upon the people related to different age groups and their income. Cultural trends
also impacts a lot to the business of the company so therefore, it is the responsibility of the
6

Running Head: Case Analysis
management to work according to the cultural impacts of a particular region in which they
are working or wants to work.
Conclusion
The Papa John’s International is working world- wide and providing a large variety of
products to the customers. Various implications and challenges affects the complete working
of an organization therefore, for avoiding the bad impacts one needs to follow a particular
strategy and a market plan for a successful business. The VRIO Framework helps in
achieving the various goals of the company in the upcoming years. All the information
provided in the report provides a complete description about various resources being used by
the firm and about the various capabilities of the company. Therefore, we can say the Papa
John’s International is one of the most satisfactory and popular brands among the people
across the world, which provides a good quality of products to the people across the
countries.
7

Running Head: Case Analysis
References
Andjar, B. (2015, December 02). Papa John's Case Study (VRIO analysis). Retrieved from
http://docslide.us/documents/papa-johns-case-study-vrio-analysis.html
Arias, M. (2014, February 07). Papa John's Pizza: Analysis. Retrieved from
https://prezi.com/pzqq3n0a1cgk/papa-johns-pizza/
Papa John's International. (2016). Building a foundation of quality. Retrieved from
http://www.papajohns.com: http://www.papajohns.com/company/
Team, P. J. (2017). Papa John's International Inc. Fundamental Company Report Including
Financial, SWOT, Competitors and Industry Analysis. Retrieved from
https://pdf.marketpublishers.com/bac_swot/papa_johns_international_inc_swot_analy
sis_bac.pdf
Wardhani, R. (2012, January 04). Papa John Pizza Strategic Management. Retrieved from
http://www.slideshare.net/rikuwa/papa-john-pizza-strategic-management
8