Buffalo Wild Wings Mission Analysis

Gavin Thomas

Introduction

In 1982, Jim Disbrow and Scott Lowery opened up their first restaurant and called it “Buffalo Wild Wings & Weck” near the campus of The Ohio State University. The two entrepreneurs grew the restaurant to thirty-five restaurants over the next twelve years. Unfortunately, the cost of the growth was potentially bankruptcy-inducing debt. In 1994, Sally Smith became Chief Financial Officer and two years later became Chief Executive Officer. Under Smith’s leadership, Buffalo Wild Wings escaped the throngs of debt and prospered for almost a decade before going public in 2003. In an effort to target a larger audience and build their brand, Buffalo Wild Wings revamped its restaurant in 2012. This meant removing “Grill & Bar” from its name in addition to a refreshed logo and redesigned restaurant (Buffalowildwings.com). Today, Buffalo Wild Wings is the premier sports-bar in America for sports fans, but also a great option for families eating out. This paper will analyze current remote and external environments that shape the business strategies that have led, and should lead to another decade of excellence.

Company Mission Analysis

Mission Statement

Buffalo Wild Wings states their mission as: “Our mission is to WOW people everyday. We are guest-driven. We will WOW our guests every day by achieving the highest level of satisfaction with an extraordinary focus on friendly service, food, fun, and value. We are team-focused. We will WOW our team members by providing the same respect, positive encouragement and fair treatment within the organization that we expect Team Members to share externally with every guest. We are community-connected. We will WOW the communities where we do business by practicing good citizenship and helping to make these communities better places to live, work and grow. We are dedicated to excellence. We will WOW our stakeholders with outstanding, industry-leading financial results and operational performance. We attribute our success to the hard work and dedication of our team. While our famous wings spun in our signature sauces, diverse beer selection, and unsurpassed audio-visual experience may bring customers to Buffalo Wild Wings in the first place, it's our people who ultimately give them a reason to keep coming back” (World Wide Wings).

Mission Statement Analysis

There are three indispensable components of the mission statement: Basic specification of the product or service, specification of the primary market, and specification of the principal technology for product or delivery. Buffalo Wild Wings delivers all three, although they could be more specific about their target market.

The statement explains that they sell a product augmented through their service and experience. BWW sells famous wings, beer, and other menu items that should appeal to customers, but the atmosphere created by the restaurant “give[s] them a reason to keep coming back.” The atmosphere is created by their focus on friendly service, food, and “unsurpassed audio-visual experience” (World Wide Wings). The specification of the product is extremely straightforward. Buffalo Wild Wings clearly states their focus as selling beer and high-quality wings. Although food is the physical product sold, they also specify how they augment their product; through the service and the unique experience provided through large televisions and sound systems.

Buffalo Wild Wings tacitly defines their target market throughout their mission statement. Combining an emphasis on an excellent audio-visual experience with a focus on selling beer and wings in the mission statement places Buffalo Wild Wings’ primary target market as young men who frequent sports-bars.

Workers are the avenue through which the product is delivered to the customers in the restaurant industry. In other words, workers are Buffalo Wild Wings’ technology for product delivery. They extoll their staff as the principal reason for returning customers and acknowledge that their treatment of the employees must remain as good, or better, than the employees are expected to service the customer. The employees are seen as one of the most important stakeholders.

Buffalo Wild Wings makes the shareholder part of the mission statement as well. Their mission is to deliver “industry-leading financial performance and operational excellence.” Many companies don’t include goals like this in their mission statements, yet BWW puts the pressure on themselves and has delivered by more than doubling the NASDAQ over the course of the last five years (Yahoo Finance). It is interesting that they don’t just plan on giving this to strictly their shareholders, but to all their stakeholders. At quick glance, the local community wouldn’t have a vested interest in the financial performance of the company, but they do care about operational excellence as they are the customers. Indirectly, the community cares about the financial success of Buffalo Wild Wings because that allows the company to sponsor fundraisers and to be charitable.

Aside from the employees and shareholders, Buffalo Wild Wings ensures that the customer and local community are seen as a major stakeholder throughout the mission statement. To the restaurant, the local community is seen as existing and potential customers, so they aim to treat them in a similar fashion. It is a corporate mission to help make the local community a better place to “live, work, and grow.” They achieve this through consistent fundraising efforts that envelop and support the area and that will be discussed in the Corporate Social Responsibility section.

The company creed is found in the “WOW[ing]” theme throughout the mission statement. They plan to treat four different sections of the company and achieve the same result: happiness. The happiness created is not the child-like happiness at an amusement park, but the happiness that creates loyal employees, returning customers, supportive community, and content stockholders. The company views the treatment of employees as important as their employees’ treatment of customers, perhaps acknowledging the link between motivated workers and loyal customers. A strong link between company and employee and employee and customer will make the company stakeholder ecstatic though corporate profits and the local community benefits through Buffalo Wild Wings sponsoring teams, and helping out with fundraisers with schools and churches.

The three new trends in mission statements are customer focus, quality focus, and a vision statement. Buffalo Wild Wings is ahead of the game and incorporates all three.

The company self-professes to be “customer driven.” Not only this, Buffalo Wild Wings continues to say that they will “WOW” the customer and that through their unique combination of quality food, service, and atmosphere, that customers will want to come back. The whole restaurant theme is planned for their customers and the company does a good job of making sure that they include this in the mission statement.

Like many food companies, Buffalo Wild Wings includes quality and value of their food as a key component of their mission statement. Unlike many companies, Buffalo Wild Wings considers that atmosphere of the restaurant to be part of the quality of the good/service that they provide. They aim for the customer to have the highest quality experience possible through friendly service, and an unforgettable atmosphere during the games.

“While our famous wings spun in our signature sauces, diverse beer selection, and unsurpassed audio-visual experience may bring customers to Buffalo Wild Wings in the first place, it's our people who ultimately give them a reason to keep coming back” (World Wide Wings). This seems to be Buffalo Wild Wings’ Vision Statement because it focuses the company’s resources directly to the customer through the food, audiovisual entertainment, and service.

Corporate Social Responsibility

Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is the actions of a company that benefit society beyond the requirement of the law and the shareholders. CSR can be split into four categories of responsibility: economic, ethical, legal, and discretionary.

Buffalo Wild Wings addresses CSR throughout their mission statement. They make very clear their economic responsibility to their shareholders by promising “industry-leading financial results and operational performance.” This particular part is as bold and blunt as economic responsibility will surface in any other company’s mission statement. They also address their ethical responsibility through their treatment of the employees. The corporation’s mission is to treat the employees with the same respect that they treat the customers. Happy workers make profitable businesses. Buffalo Wild Wings doesn’t explicitly state any legal responsibilities as far as CSR is concerned, but it is rare for companies to include legal promises within mission statements. Discretionary responsibility is specifically addressed in the blurb about the community: “We are community-connected. We will WOW the communities where we do business by practicing good citizenship and helping to make these communities better places to live, work and grow.” Their mission to help the community is longer than many companies’ entire mission statements.

The economic responsibility of Buffalo Wild Wings is to maximize stockholder wealth. Over the last five years, the stock price of Buffalo Wild Wings, NASDAQ ticker BWLD, is up nearly 500% while the NASDAQ is up nearly 200% (Yahoo Finance). By beating the market by more than double, Buffalo Wild Wings has more than upheld their economic responsibility.

Corporate Buffalo Wild Wings hasn’t faced any recent major lawsuits recently. In fact, they won the 2013 VIBE Vista Operator Award for Best Responsible Alcohol Service Program (NRA). With many restaurants, such as Applebee’s, facing lawsuits about serving customers dangerous amounts of alcohol, this is quite a testament to the legal responsibility of the company. In May of 2013, an Applebee’s in New Mexico served a patron too much alcohol and let him leave the restaurant. Soon after leaving, the customer drove intoxicated and killed a pedestrian crossing the street (Insurance Journal). By winning the award, Buffalo Wild Wings has showed a dedication to uphold the legal expectations of serving alcohol at their restaurant, and a responsibility to keep the community safe.

Buffalo Wild Wings has upheld their ethical and discretionary responsibilities as a company. Fundraising is essential to Buffalo Wild Wings because they want to be the destination spot in the community. In 2013, the Boys and Girls Club of America will have received $600,000 from Buffalo Wild Wings’ donations. Other successful promotions have yielded more than $1 million to “local organizations that assist youth and families in need, military veterans, and disaster relief efforts” (BWW). In addition to the corporate fundraisers, franchises and corporate stores alike are expected to contribute within the community. This entails school fundraisers, sponsoring local youth sports teams, and sponsoring local professional teams among others. CSR is not a forced concept for Buffalo Wild Wings because as a sports bar, it is already vital to interact within the community that they reside. Fundraisers and sponsorships are a great way to comingle with the locals and helps them reach markets outside of their target market. Through constant connection to the community, Buffalo Wild Wings has established itself as a positive, giving presence.

Csrhub.com is a website that researches companies and gives them CSR rankings based on their actions. With over 8,900 companies in the database, it is a valid source for CSR analysis. The average overall CSR rating for United States companies is a 52. Buffalo Wild Wings is slightly above average with a score of 56. In the subcategories, only their community rating was below average when compared to the US average. Employees, environment, and governance ratings were all above the US average (CSRHub). While Buffalo Wild Wings is not perfect in CSR terms, it appears that they make an earnest effort and are above average when compared to other United States companies.

Remote Environment

Background

“The remote environment comprises factors that originate beyond, and usually irrespective of, any single firm’s operation situation: 1) economic, 2) social, 3) political, 4) technological, and 5) ecological factors” (Pearce). While the firm doesn’t have any influence on it, the remote environment shapes a firm’s opportunities, threats and constraints.

Economic

Buffalo Wild Wing’s remote economic environment is impacted the most by two recent events: the Federal Reserve bond-buying stimulus program and the minimum wage law debate. In order to create stability and encourage economic growth, the Federal Reserve has been buying back bonds at a rate of $85 bill a month. This kept interest rates artificially low to encourage borrowing money for corporate growth. Now that the economy has rebounded, the Federal Reserve has announced that the buy-back program will be tapered throughout the year, slowly taking the economy off life-support and letting the markets function normally (Lee). Because Buffalo Wild Wings is a publically traded corporation on the NASDAQ, they are directly impacted through the bond-stimulus program. Since 2008, the stock market has produced exceptional returns despite moderate economic growth. Throughout history, the stock market and economic growth have paralleled, but: “The general consensus, which is likely accurate, is that the Fed policy is the reason for the disconnect” (Thomas). Essentially, the stock market might normalize when the tapering is done and the Federal Reserve ends the stimulus. A normalized stock market would result in an incrementally lower stock price for Buffalo Wild Wings. This would bring down their market capitalization and possibly lead to a slight change in capital structure and impact future financing.

President Obama has made minimum wage law a point of emphasis in his most recent State of the Union address. The president will sign an executive order to increase federal minimum wage to $10.10 from $7.25. A recent study found that “71 percent of Americans [are] in favor of raising the minimum wage – including more than half of the Republicans polled” (Fox News). Increases in minimum wage will have a substantial impact on the restaurant industry because many workers earn minimum wage, or less depending on if they earn tip money. Increasing minimum wage would bite into Buffalo Wild Wings’ earnings as they have to pay more to most employees. Because the hourly workers will see an increase in compensation, the rest of the workers earning slightly higher than the minimum wage hourly worker will seek a raise to stay above their economic subordinates. With nearly a 40% increase in salary for many workers, Buffalo Wild Wings can expect to see shrinking margins.

Political

The political remote environment of Buffalo Wild Wings is comprised of minimum wage law, potential marijuana legalization, and the Affordable Care Act. The minimum wage reform is part of the political environment because the president is advocating for a countrywide increase and is leading the way by increasing the federal minimum wage. It originally started as a social issue with the Occupy Wall Street movement among other cries from the United States despondent lower and middle class and has grown to the political level after a couple years (Occupy Wallstreet).

Marijuana legalization has been a social topic in the United States for decades. It had never really gained any political steam until recently when Colorado and Washington legalized recreational marijuana sales. With smoking marijuana illegal in some states and legal in others, it raises a dilemma for companies that operate in both precincts. An issue that Buffalo Wild Wings and all companies will have to figure out is whether or not they will allow their employees to possess or use marijuana on company real estate despite it potentially becoming legal.

The Affordable Care Act will have a substantial impact on Buffalo Wild Wings, as it will raise the price of health care coverage for the employees. CEO Sally Smith responds to the act: “I think we’ll continue to refine our labor model…I think you’ll see labor software coming out to help restaurateurs and retailers meet the demand for the hours, as well as what our team members need” (Coombs). Basically, Buffalo Wild Wings will try to ensure that the minimum number of employees work more than the thirty hours per week threshold that locks in required healthcare. The Affordable Care Act will lead to less full-time workers and potentially slimmer margins because of the cost increase.

Social

Buffalo Wild Wings’ social remote environment is comprised of marijuana legalization and the social media explosion. As stated above, the push for legalized marijuana started as a social idea from “hippies” and grew into a political debate. Two states have already decriminalized the substance and other states could potentially follow suit.

In the mid 2000’s companies started to realize the impact social media could have on their marketing departments. Buffalo Wild Wings took full advantage of a way to socially spread their brand. Now, the company has over 12 million “likes” on Facebook and 387,000 followers on Twitter. They frequently post pictures of food and interact with customers about current sporting events, such as the Super Bowl. In this past year’s blowout, they tweeted “Sorry fans, we don’t have a button for this.” The tweet alluded to their previous marketing campaign where a Buffalo Wild Wings patron would wish the “big game” would go into overtime and an employee would press a button to spark an event that causes the game to reach overtime. Tweets like this symbolize Buffalo Wild Wings’ social presence and their ability to positively insert themselves into the center of social America.

Ecological

Participating in the “green” movement is the main ecological remote environmental factor for Buffalo Wild Wings. CSRHub gives the company an Environmental Social Responsibility score of 62, 10 points higher than the company average (CSRHub). This results from the company’s willingness to become more sustainable. In order to have a smaller ecological footprint, a recent store opening in Milwaukee had a sustainable mission. The end result: electricity usage down twenty percent due to solar panels, waterless urinals conserving up to 140,000 gallons of water a year, and hand dryers that erase the need for 1,000 paper towel rolls (Hutt). Though Buffalo Wild Wings will have a marginal impact on the growing “green” movement, they can and have joined it. By joining the movement, the company is staying on the socially “cool” curve, saving money, and saving the environment.

Technological

The technological remote environment of Buffalo Wild Wings is comprised of evolving entertainment systems, data security, alternate payment methods, and 3-D printing. The televisions and sound systems get better every year, which is a key technological factor for a company that prides itself on offering an outstanding audio-visual environment. The state of data security is coming under increased scrutiny after breaches at Target and Schnuck’s were millions of customers will find their credit cards compromised. The actual breach doesn’t wreak havoc on the companies, but the ensuing media and consumer backlash could break a company. Alternate payment methods such as mobile commerce, or portable cash registers could creep into the restaurant industry as well. 3-D printing is another potential technology that could infiltrate the industry, but it remains to be seen if a high-quality product could be printed and eaten comfortably by the consumers.

Porter's Five Forces

Background

Harvard professor Michael Porter created the Five-Forces Model to define the various forces that shape the competition within an industry. Essentially, this is the industry environment. The five forces are: barriers to entry, buyer power, supplier power, threat of substitutes, and competitive rivalry (Pearce).

Barriers to Entry

One barrier to entry within the restaurant industry is the effect of economies of scale. Large restaurants buy their supplies at wholesale prices because they buy in bulk. Startup restaurants can’t afford to buy that large of a quantity and haven’t built relationships with the suppliers resulting in higher supply costs and lower margins (Mack). In a competitive restaurant industry, low margins or high customer prices to offset supplier prices could prove fatal to infantile restaurants.

Product differentiation is another barrier to entry within the restaurant industry. Every restaurant strives to hold at least some control over a niche market within the industry. Buffalo Wild Wings has successfully done so in the fast-casual dining sector and more specifically, the sports-bar arena. While mom-and-pops sports bars and start-ups might command some attention within the area, it would be nearly impossible to replicate Buffalo Wild Wing’s audio-visual environment with inordinate amounts of television screens and other like-minded patrons watching the same game. Buffalo Wild Wings spends millions of dollars every year advertising and strengthening their brand. It would take years for any new competitor to compete with Buffalo Wild Wings’ brand strength.

In a survey of 700 restaurants, the average startup costs was $494,888 assuming the owner did not buy the land. In the same survey, the average number of months it took to become profitable was eighteen (RestaurantOwner.com). These costs offer limited barriers to entry as many people with decent credit could take out a half-million dollar loan. Essentially, they are paying for a house when they open a restaurant.

Entrenched companies, such as Buffalo Wild Wings, have advantages that are not available to newcomers in the restaurant industry regardless of their size or production capabilities. The real estate that Buffalo Wild Wings sits on is one of its biggest assets. With fewer good locations to expand to, Buffalo Wild Wings has turned to excess space in malls to expand. The company plans to open five restaurants on the parking lots of big-box stores (Jargon and Hudson). With established companies such as Buffalo Wild Wings forced to expand creatively, new restaurants will be hard-pressed to find suitable locations.

The capital barriers to entering the restaurant are relatively small, but the intense competition and abundance of competitors makes long-term entry very difficult. According to an Ohio State University study, sixty percent of new restaurants close within their first three to five years of operation (Hudgens). Statistics like this show that the barriers to entry within the restaurant industry are minimal on the surface, but extreme over a longer timeframe.

Buyer Power

With intense competition within the restaurant industry, one would think that buyers hold supreme power. In Buffalo Wild Wings’ case, this isn’t true. Because the audio-visual environment heavily augments their main product of beer and chicken wings, Buffalo Wild Wings is able to get away with price fluctuations to maintain margins. For instance, in the fall of 2013, the company raised prices across the board by four percent, yet sales were largely unaffected (Tuttle). This indicates that customers haven’t and potentially will not force down prices through lack of demand creating minimal buyer power. However, Buffalo Wild Wings must keep in mind that continued upward price movement isn’t unlimited and could have consequences.

Supplier Power

Buffalo Wild Wings’ suppliers have limited power. Because chicken is sold worldwide, the prices fluctuate. Under normal circumstances, this would force Buffalo Wild Wings’ margins to be at the mercy of the global chicken market. As stated above, Buffalo Wild Wings’ has managed to differentiate themselves so far away from most competitors that the supposed supplier power of chicken producers (an integral piece of their menu as chicken wings are the featured product) is non-existent because the price is merely passed through to the customer (who, as stated above, also doesn’t seem to mind the prices being passed to them). This could become problematic should Buffalo Wild Wings hit the price threshold at which the customer is no longer willing to pay.

Threat of Substitutes

The sit-down dining sector saw firsthand the substitutes that they face when the recent recession wave started to hit the restaurant industry. Fast food or home cooked meals became more popular, but Buffalo Wild Wings weathered the storm. With patrons no longer willing to spend their hard-earned money on expensive meals and competitors faltering, Buffalo Wild Wings managed to grow their business. In 2013, many restaurants experienced their same-store sales were “relatively weak through this past summer and fall, with many of the larger mainstream brands facing relatively anemic operating trends” (Yahoo). Same store sales for Buffalo Wild Wings increased between three and five percent in the second and third quarter of 2013 (Buffalowildwings.com). Obviously with same store sales increasing, Buffalo Wild Wings wasn’t affected by the threat of substitutes. For planning purposes, the company should continue strategizing to combat possible substitutes in the future.

Competitive Rivalry

Buffalo Wild Wings competes: ““Primarily with local and regional sports bars and national casual dining and quick casual establishments, and to a lesser extent, [the] quick service restaurants such as wingbased take-out concepts” (Buffalo Wild Wings). The national restaurant chains that they compete with are Hooters, Applebee’s, Houlihan’s, and other similar restaurants.

They manage to differentiate themselves from the competition through the quality of their food, service, atmosphere, and value (Buffalo Wild Wings). The atmosphere and brand that Buffalo Wild Wings has built differentiates them from any restaurant in the country. There are not many restaurants that serve food and drinks while also providing many television sets for sports and a continuous trivia game. Sally Smith told Nation’s Restaurant News that she believes that by giving customers the choice between a fast-casual service, where no tip is required, and full service, where the customer is waited on, separates them from the competition. A franchisee estimated that 90% of his lunch patrons opted for the fast-casual service while 50% opted for it at dinner (Walkup).

Positioning Map

Buffalo Wild Wings positions themselves on the basis of sports entertainment provided by the restaurant and food quality. While some competitors such as Olive Garden focus primarily on food quality, and other competitors focus on the entertainment side, like Hooters. Only Buffalo Wild Wings adequately provides both for the customer. This is the reason why Buffalo Wild Wings doesn’t have a competitive rivalry with any particular restaurant. Sure, small mom-and-pop’s bars might compete at an extremely local level, but jockeying with one small restaurant is not worth the nationwide chain’s concern. Buffalo Wild Wings has a positioning advantage over all of their competition; whether it is food quality, value, or audio-visual entertainment. Buffalo Wild Wings’ positioning is a substantial reason why they have experienced success the last couple years despite less than favorable economic circumstances.

S.W.O.T Analysis

Background

“SWOT is an acronym for the internal Strengths and Weaknesses of a firm, and the environmental Opportunities and Threats facing that firm” (Pearce). This analysis creates an overview of Buffalo Wild Wings’ strategic situation.

Strengths

Buffalo Wild Wing’s leadership is one of their biggest strengths. CEO Sally Smith started serving as CEO and President since 1996. When she joined, there were 35 restaurants and “the chain’s finances were on life support” (Koteff). As of December 2013, Buffalo Wild Wings owned or franchised 992 restaurants (buffalowildwings.com). Stable leadership gives the company a consistent vision, but also speaks to the success of Smith. If Buffalo Wild Wings had performed under expectations, they might have crumbled in 1996, or fired the CEO once the brand was established. Neither happened meaning that Buffalo Wild Wings and current CEO are a healthy unity for the restaurant.

The wings, beer, and experience that Buffalo Wild Wings sells is one of its greatest strengths. The Motley Fool believes that the product is so good and unique, that Buffalo Wild Wings could be one of their renowned “Rule Breakers” that disrupt current markets considerably, or create markets that don’t exist. “As wild (pun intended) as this may sound, Buffalo Wild Wings disrupted Hooter's and the prototypical sports bars. They did this by creating an environment the entire family could enjoy. By providing a clean and family friendly environment they fully capitalized on the beautiful union of wings and sports, and doubled their customer "net" (women and children actually are customers)”(Motley Fool). The sports-bar market historically has never been a family environment. Buffalo Wild Wings has done the unthinkable: they’ve captured the rowdy sports-bar market while ensuring that the restaurant can remain family friendly. This is a true point of differentiation, and the reason why The Motley Fool argues that they’ve become a “Rule Breaker.”

Buffalo Wild Wing’s greatest asset is their domestic brand strength. Through years of marketing and stellar service, the restaurant evolved into a neighborhood destination. As previously mentioned, Buffalo Wild Wings has a strong social media presence with over 12 million Facebook likes and 387,000 twitter followers. They have also gained recognition for their national advertising campaigns. The “Overtime” advertisements where a group of friends watching a game would wish aloud that it would never end was particularly successful. The Buffalo Wild Wings staffer would press a button that would radio a discreet worker at the game who would trigger an event causing the game to remain tied. In fact, the company recently received The International Foodservice Manufacturers Association Marketing/Service award at the Chain Operator’s Exchange. The award lauds Buffalo Wild Wings for: “Soar[ing] to unprecedented heights with marketing strategies that made them stand out within their category. From a store redesign that captures the stadium experience to the front-of-house greeters, the setting and staff create an inviting, warm and fun ambiance that keeps customers coming back” (IFMA). Buffalo Wild Wing’s strong domestic brand built through stable leadership, great products, and strong marketing is the company’s greatest asset.

Weakness

Buffalo Wild Wings is susceptible to fluctuations in wing prices, but they have found a way to pass those fluctuations onto the customer for the past decade. In the first fiscal quarter of 2013, Buffalo Wild Wings paid a record $2.10 for a pound of chicken wings. Restaurant Finance estimates that the company also pays thirty percent more than the initial cost due to the supply of large chickens contrary to their demand for smaller chicken wings (Restaurant Finance). In 2011, the chicken prices were “historically low,” yet in 2012 were “historically high” (buffalowildwings.com). Large fluctuations in chicken prices for a company that predominantly sells chicken wings create problems. It’s unrealistic to expect consistent margins with such variable cost.

An un-established global brand could derail Buffalo Wild Wings’ global expansion plan. With 992 restaurants in the United States and Canada, Buffalo Wild Wings has shrinking room to further saturate the domestic market. The brand strength in the United States is very strong; built through years of operational excellence and effective marketing campaigns. With the recent decisions to move overseas, the Buffalo Wild Wings “experience” is widely unknown. This makes local competitors stiffer competition within the sports-bar market. Consumer taste and spending habits will also be different in foreign markets.

Opportunities

Expanding their global brand is an opportunity for Buffalo Wild Wings to grow. They have already begun expansion to Canada and recently signed a deal to place twenty-two restaurants in Middle Eastern countries and four in Puerto Rico (Koteff). With 992 domestic restaurants, Buffalo Wild Wings real opportunity for growth lies outside the continental United States.

Buffalo Wild Wings aims to operate 1,700 restaurants in North America. With 992 current restaurants, the chain still has room for domestic growth. With a strong, established brand, opening new restaurants in the United States offers less risk than foreign expansion.

The company recently invested in PizzaRev, a small Los Angeles-based fast-casual pizza chain. Buffalo Wild Wings is acting as a franchisee for the chain and is opening up new stores in Minneapolis. The pizzeria sells customized fast-serve pizzas for $8 (Restaurant Finance). This is the company’s first attempt at domestic expansion through new concepts, and represents a low risk investment. With the lack of national competitors and Buffalo Wild Wings’ marketing channels and financial backing, PizzaRev has all of the ingredients for successful expansion. Because Buffalo Wild Wings has densely saturated the domestic market, the greatest opportunity for corporate growth in the United States is through acquisitions or investments in new businesses.

Threats

Any chicken crisis could hurt Buffalo Wild Wings’ earnings. When the Bird Flu hit China in 2013, KFC sales fell 36 percent from January to March (CBS News). A domestic outbreak wouldn’t cripple the company, but it would possibly allow for new entrants in the market, and loss of market share.

With 558 franchised restaurants, Buffalo Wild Wings could hurt its brand. Although there are strict guidelines to franchising, it’s very difficult to track 558 restaurants and ensure that they are strengthening and not diminishing the brand. With more expansion planned, Buffalo Wild Wings could lose partial organizational control over franchised restaurants and a weaker domestic brand could potentially result in lost market share.

With nearly all revenues coming from the United States, Buffalo Wild Wings is particularly susceptible should there be an economic recession. Established international restaurants can mitigate recession risk through successful overseas operations, but Buffalo Wild Wings has not achieved that status yet. If international expansion is successful, Buffalo Wild Wings will not be affected as much by United States economic affairs, but it might be a decade before that happens.

Buffalo Wild Wings menu is not particularly healthy – at least the main sellers: beer, wings, and other appetizers. Greater public education about nutritional value of food could lower the restaurant’s customers’ lifetime value, as they will be more careful with what they eat. Selling alcohol is a potential liability should a restaurant be irresponsible with service. As previously mentioned, Buffalo Wild Wings has displayed excellent responsibility in this regard, but it only takes one mistake for a public relations nightmare and family lawsuit.

Generic Strategy

Differentiation

Buffalo Wild Wings’ generic strategy is to build an economic moat between their competitors and themselves. They do this through differentiation. Companies that are successful through differentiation typically have strong brand stemming from an effective marketing department that builds customer loyalty. Pearce extrapolates that loyal customers allow a company to charge a premium for their product (Pearce).

The restaurant is different from other sports-bars because they offer a family friendly environment while simultaneously simulating a stadium atmosphere. The S.W.O.T Analysis describes the company’s points of differentiation. Their brand is extremely strong and the experience sold to customers is not easily replicated. As previously mentioned, The Motely Fool believes Buffalo Wild Wings to be a “Rule Breaker,” that is different in that it has created a market that didn’t previously exist: the family-friendly sports-bar (Motley Fool). Buffalo Wild Wings is not the low-cost producer within the fast-casual restaurant industry or the sports-bar sector, yet they charge a premium for their product. They are able to get away with this due to the loyal customers, which have allowed them grow to over 1,000 restaurants (Buffalowildwings.com)

Grand Strategy

Concentrated Growth

Buffalo Wild Wings benefited from favorable conditions that allow their concentrated growth model to be successful. This strategy works best when the industry is not particularly sensitive to technological advances. The restaurant industry serves food, thus technology doesn’t play a particularly large role. Another condition advantageous for Buffalo Wild Wings is that their product is so distinctive, that it “dissuade[s] competitors in adjacent product markets from trying to invade the firm’s segment” (Pearce).

Buffalo Wild Wings is at the tail end of a concentrated growth grand strategy. In seventeen years, Sally Smith focus has been growing the domestic brand. While serving as CEO, she has witnessed a company of 35 restaurants grow into a thousand restaurant empire (Koteff). As of the 2014 10-K, Buffalo Wild Wings has 992 restaurants in North America – which they site as their “domestic market.” Their goal is to reach 1,700 in the future. Realistically, Buffalo Wild Wings will reach that goal within the decade as they plan to open 95 more restaurants domestically this year (Buffalowildwings.com). Following the same trajectory, the company would hit domestic capacity in 2022.

Market Development

The restaurant recently signed a contract to place twenty-two restaurants in the Middle East and four in Puerto Rico (Koteff). They also are further expanding into Mexico and the Philippines (Buffalowildwings.com). Even though Buffalo Wild Wings has a proven track record expanding within North America, their intercontinental experience is lacking. Canada and the United States are close geographically and have similar consumer habits. The Middle East is an entirely new society that Buffalo Wild Wings will have to market towards, but with less brand recognition than they are accustomed to. With much of the value of the product derived from the stadium experience, Middle Eastern customers might not value or feel the same atmosphere that is created in North American Buffalo Wild Wings.

Product Development

Buffalo Wild Wings invested in PizzaRev, a small Californian pizza chain (Restaurant Finance). By agreeing to be a franchisee, they are leveraging their brand strength to exploring a potential new product line. Buffalo Wild Wings’ marketing channels, leadership, and expansion experience should enable the Buffalo Wild Wings-owned PizzaRevs to prosper. Because they are running out of North American space to operate the Buffalo Wild Wings restaurants, the company decided to develop their product and tap into the fast-service pizza sector as an alternate revenue stream.

Concentric Diversification

According to their 2014 10-K, Buffalo Wild Wings is “continuing to evaluate additional emerging restaurant brands for possible investment” (Buffalowildwings.com). This includes their previously mentioned minority investment in PizzaRev. While Buffalo Wild Wings still has some North American growth left, they are starting their concentric diversification grand strategy, transitioning from their previous concentrated growth model. In previous 10-K’s, Buffalo Wild Wings made no mention of looking at acquiring different restaurant brands to invest in. It is clear, now with the PizzaRev investment, that this diversification is a viable option for continued domestic growth. “Test driving” a restaurant brand such as PizzaRev by being the franchisee gives Buffalo Wild Wings a low-risk opportunity to determine whether an acquisition should be made. Look for Buffalo Wild Wings’ long term domestic strategy to fit the mold of concentric diversification.

Functional Tactics

Background

“Functional tactics are the key, routine activities that must be undertaken in each functional area – marketing, finance, production/operations, R&D, and human resource management – to provide the business’s products and services” (Pearce). The purpose of functional tactics is to translate the planning (grand strategy) into actions that will fulfill short-term objectives.

Marketing

Marketing is one of Buffalo Wild Wings’ greatest strengths. Over the years, it has helped shape, establish, and increase their brand strength. Initially, the advertisements targeted strictly the male sports fan. According to their 10-K, “Each marketing campaign has a theme that reflects guest lifestyles and behaviors” (Buffalowildwings.com). As the company has grown from a sports bar, they have made adjustments to encompass women and families. In 2012, Buffalo Wild Wings has made some corporate decisions such as removing “Grill and Bar” from their name to target this audience. At the time, CEO Sally Smith said: "The changes give us more flexibility in the use of the logo, and it appeals to our wide and growing audience, including women, while maintaining a sporty masculinity" (Landingham).

Buffalo Wild Wings has also made a concerted effort to market their combination of bar and family dining sector. During their recent “Bandwagon” commercials, a “regular sports fan” is watching an upstart team win a game. The “die-hard” fan of that particular upstart team starts bragging about he knew about the team and has been a lifelong fan. Then, a Buffalo Wild Wings referee comes in and pauses the commercial to remind the “die-hard” fan that he doesn’t need to sound so pretentious and should teach the “regular sports fan” the fight song for the team he is so proud of (Bandwagon). This commercial exudes the culture of Buffalo Wild Wings; one that is friendly, inclusive, and fun for all.

Finance

The dilemma facing many expanding restaurants is simple: franchise, or finance through their own corporation. Buffalo Wild Wings has expanded through both avenues, but franchising allows the company to grow utilizing other people’s money. The risk of financing their growth through franchising is that the franchisee might harm the brand, but Buffalo Wild Wings seems to have pretty rigid standards that are monitored by franchise consultants and regional managers.

Production/Operations

“We attribute our success to the hard work and dedication of our team. While our famous wings spun in our signature sauces, diverse beer selection, and unsurpassed audio-visual experience may bring customers to Buffalo Wild Wings in the first place, it's our people who ultimately give them a reason to keep coming back” (Buffalowildwings.com). In their mission statement, Buffalo Wild Wings explicitly states their activities that differentiate themselves within their market. The audio-visual experience, differentiated product, and outstanding service create the proper visit to the restaurant. Placing sixty high-definition flat screen televisions and three projection screens creates the audio-visual experience that is so revered (Buffalowildiwngs.com). The biggest advantage that Buffalo Wild Wings has is that the environment created through branding and customer management is compatible for stadium-atmosphere craving sports fan and the family dinner simultaneously. This makes them a Motley Fool “Rule Breaker” (Motley Fool).

Buffalo Wild Wings also has an extensive leadership program. They utilize regional managers that oversee restaurants and general managers within their territory. In addition, they also employ franchise consultants who oversee over twenty restaurants apiece (Buffalowildwings.com). This ensures that there is a uniform customer experience being sold at corporate and franchised stores strengthening the brand.

Research & Development

Research and development of restaurants consists of new ways to deliver the product, new products, and updating the restaurant concept. Buffalo Wild Wings has started introducing tabletop tablets for concentrated viewing at 45 locations. By the end of 2014, the company hopes to have tablets at every restaurant. They have also developed their own beer, Game Changer Ale, which was designed to be paired with wings. The new beer is in addition to their ever-changing list of new menu items and wing sauces introduced and experimented with every year (Buffalowildwings.com). The business concept has also been expanded with the previously mentioned venture into PizzaRev. Buffalo Wild Wings has hit all three key research and development areas and must continue to do so in order to maintain their competitive advantage.

Human Resource Management

Buffalo Wild Wings’ strong executive team has been a contributing factor in their consistent growth over the last decade. The fact that the majority of them have collaborated over the last decade contributes to their effectiveness as a management team. CEO Sally Smith has been with the company since 1994 and the CFO started in 1996. Kathleen Benning, Executive Vice President and head of Global Brand and Business Development, has served as an executive since 1997 (Buffalowildwings.com). With such a stable executive team, it’s no wonder the company has been so successful. By working together for the better part of the last two decades, the Buffalo Wild Wings management team is a well-oiled machine.

Organizational Structure

Functional Organizational Structure

Buffalo Wild Wings employs the functional organizational structure. This is the typical hierarchal corporate structure with the Board of Directors at the top and the Chief Executive Officer directly below running the organization. Sally Smith, the CEO of Buffalo Wild Wings, serves on the Board of Directors along with six other members with backgrounds ranging from business consulting, law, advertising, and capital management. Under Sally Smith, the management team is comprised of a Chief Financial Officer/Treasurer, Chief Operating Officer, Vice President of Global Brand and Business Development, Vice President of North American Operations, Vice President of Guest Experience and Innovation, Vice President of General Counsel and Secretary, and Vice President of Talent Management (Buffalowildwings.com). Each Vice President heads their own department with their own responsibilities that contribute towards a coordinated, unified corporate effort.

Restaurants take a risk franchising. Franchised restaurants that don’t follow corporate rules and regulations could harm the brand of the company. To ensure that this doesn’t happen, Buffalo Wild Wings organizational structure has regional managers and franchise consultants that closely monitor restaurants’ actions. Buffalo Wild Wings appears to have a good reputation as a consistent brand, which proves that franchised restaurants’ operations and management are aligned with the corporate vision.

Leadership and Culture

Leadership

Organizational leadership is “The process and practice by key executives of guiding and shepherding people in an organization towards a vision over time and developing that organization’s future leadership and organization culture.” Essentially, it is clarifying strategic intent, building an organization, and shaping organizational culture (Pearce).

Sally Smith joined Buffalo Wild Wings eighteen years ago. She started as the Chief Financial Officer due to her background in accounting (Koteff). Two years later, she was appointed Chief Executive Officer. From her beginning, the restaurant has grown from 35 units, to more than 1,000 (Buffalowildwings.com).

In a recent interview with FSR Magazine, Mrs. Smith clarified Buffalo Wild Wings’ strategic intent as “provid[ing] the ultimate social experience through restaurant brands worldwide” (Koteff). These words are evidenced through the corporate actions of expanding into the Mexico, the Middle East, the Philippines, and Puerto Rico (Koteff). The ultimate social experience built through constant brand marketing. Their commercials support the social experience being a positive one. As previously mentioned, their “Bandwagon” commercial illustrates that Buffalo Wild Wings supports comingling of casual and “die-hard” sports fans of all teams, even both sides of rivalries (Bandwagon). The social experience is also built through community involvement like fundraisers, sponsoring youth teams, and hosting events to watch the local professional team. Performance is the second part of strategic intent. Buffalo Wild Wings’ stock price has outperformed the NASDAQ by more than 2.5 times over the last five years (Yahoo Finance).

Mrs. Smith devotes a lot of time developing Buffalo Wild Wings’ future leadership. She looks to promote from within instead of outside hires for leadership positions. In order to make the best decisions, she tries to talk to as many people within the organization one on one. Smith comments on leadership development: “I believe that moving people around and exposing them to different aspects of the business is important. So if they are on the franchise side, I might want to move them to something different. We choose specific conferences, picking the best ones that apply” (Koteff). By moving potential leaders throughout the organization, Smith gives them different perspectives on the operations of Buffalo Wild Wings. These perspectives help shape the decisions that the potential leaders could make once they assume leadership positions. Sponsoring employees’ attendance at national conferences also gives the workers’ new perceptions on the industry as a whole.

Because Buffalo Wild Wings only had 35 units when she started, Sally Smith has personally been able to build the organization through perseverance and principles. When first taking over as CFO, Smith faced a daunting challenge. The restaurant was swimming in debt and was close to bankruptcy. The new CFO worked out a deal with the IRS for tax-payment. Getting out of the red and into the green became an organizational priority. Finally with a corporate plan, Buffalo Wild Wings started to move forward (History). Once the company was out of debt and growing quickly, the priorities and principles shifted from paying off potential bankruptcy inducing debt towards connecting and listening to customers. Smith places a lot of importance on customer feedback. This feedback has shaped how they target customers effectively increasing their lifetime value to the company (Koteff).

Culture

Shaping organizational culture is the final responsibility of a corporate leader. This culture is molded through their leadership, principles, strategic intent, and ability to build the organization. The final component that shapes culture is passion. After nearly twenty years with the company, CEO Sally Smith was asked if she was considering moving on: “I love what I do. I work with a great team and I am really lucky” (Koteff). She also mentioned that she eats at Buffalo Wild Wings more than once a week. It takes a lot of passion to have the same job for eighteen years and to be just as effective in year eighteen as year one. Because so many employees have witnessed previous employees rising up through the ranks to be a director, the hourly workers understand that success is recognized and could result in promotion. This hope pushes employees to do their best, and is a contributing factor to their increasing brand strength.

Controls

Strategic controls are “Management efforts to track a strategy as it is being implemented, detect problems or changes in its underlying premises, and make necessary adjustments.” There are four types of strategic controls: premise control, strategic surveillance, special alert control, and implementation control (Pearce).

Premise Control

There are two premise control factors: environmental and industry (Pearce). Although Buffalo Wild Wings has limited control over environmental factors, these factors shape its strategy. Technological advances with the Internet, smartphones, and social media have had a particularly large impact. Buffalo Wild Wings has taken full advantage with their marketing campaigns through social media to help build their brand. As previously mentioned, they have over 12 million “likes” on Facebook and 387,000 followers on Twitter. They have daily posts showing professional pictures of their food and frequently connect a promotion to an upcoming sporting event.

Buffalo Wild Wings’ industry factors are affected by the performance of the firms within their industry. As of June 2013, “casual dining restaurants are up 31.6 percent so far this year. This is beating out quick-service restaurants, which are up 24.2 percent, and fast-casual and specialty restaurants, which are up 21.4 percent” (Restaurant Finance). Buffalo Wild Wings has bested their successful competitors: “Over a 1-year, 3-year, and 5-year span, Buffalo Wild Wings has outperformed both the S&P 1500 and the restaurant industry, beating them in growth by over 20% for each time period” (Adaptive Global Strategies). During the recession and recovery, Buffalo Wild Wings thrived in comparison to the market as a whole, and their industry competitors.

Strategic Surveillance

“Strategic surveillance is designed to monitor a broad range of events inside and outside the firm that are likely to affect the course of its strategy” (Pearce). Buffalo Wild Wings is an active listener within the industry. As part of their leadership training, the company sends future managers to various kinds of conferences to learn from others within and outside the industry (Koteff). Also, CEO Sally Smith is on the Board of Directors of the National Restaurant Association (Buffalowildwings.com). Through sending its current and future leaders to worldwide conferences, Buffalo Wild Wings ensures that all parts of their organization are aware of their environment. The fact that their CEO is on the Board of Directors of the premier restaurant association is an added bonus and can only benefit the company.

Special Alert Control

Special alert controls are designed to shift corporate strategy in case of an emergency (Pearce). Buffalo Wild Wings has had limited negative interactions with law enforcement and hasn’t endorsed any athletes with negative personas, thus one can only speculate as to what the actual special alert controls are for the restaurant.

Implementation Control

Implementation controls assess the effectiveness of the company’s current strategy and determine if a philosophy shift is necessary. There are two types of implementation controls: monitoring strategic thrusts/projects and milestone reviews (Pearce). Because their restaurant concept in North America is an established brand, the company only needs to continue the actions that led to the excellence: marketing campaigns targeting the sports bar environment yet still welcoming families and women, continued product development, and brand controls through social media, franchise consultants, and corporate fundraisers. Buffalo Wild Wings doesn’t seem to have any milestone reviews for the public eye with the exception of opening 1,500 restaurants in North America according to their 10-K. They recently surpassed 1,000 restaurants globally and had a small corporate celebration with press releases to commemorate the special occasion (Buffalowildwings.com).

Analysis Summary/Concluding Remarks

Overall, Buffalo Wild Wings track record speaks for itself. Its stock price has outperformed both the market and the industry through economic recession and recovery. They continue to expand at a solid rate and have started expanding overseas. Recognizing the risk in global expansion, Buffalo Wild Wings invested in PizzaRev to ensure that their domestic sales continue to increase. Look for the company to continue looking for domestic investments to expand their business, and within the next decade should be a multi-concept business. Motley Fool characterized them as a “Rule-Breaker” meaning that they effectively have created their own market. This is important because many successful companies struggle when new businesses try to imitate their process and product. Through years of constant marketing, controlled business, and growth, Buffalo Wild Wings has built a brand that makes their restaurant a destination spot within the neighborhood to watch games while simultaneously inviting families to dine. That business is nearly impossible to replicate and justifies the economic moat that Buffalo Wild Wings prospers within. Should the restaurant catch on globally, there is little need to add various restaurant concepts within North America, but by starting to research and invest now, Buffalo Wild Wings is mitigating the risk that their foreign investments don’t pan out. The one thing that could hurt Buffalo Wild Wings is if CEO Sally Smith retires. She single-handedly brought the company out of the throes of bankruptcy to prosper, and the company should be well equipped to handle her retirement, but that is uncertain at this point.

Acknowledgements

I’d like to thank The Principia College business department for all that they do for us. I’ve learned a ton over the last couple of years and am sad to graduate the department. Dale Matheny taught me so many applicable lessons with regards to business and was always available to talk about possible career opportunities or class assignments. I always recommend Dale’s classes to underclassmen because I learned so much more than the course handbook and syllabus initially implies. Jim Bilsborrow is an unbelievable accounting and finance professor. I’ve enjoyed my many study sessions with him and that sense of humor NEVER gets old. Wes Powell’s classes rounded out my collegiate business pedigree. Wes taught me the human side of business. I’m grateful for the lessons I learned in leadership and how to treat people – with sincerity and a smile. Wes also gave me a reading list that I am slowly, but surely picking through, and if his classes taught me one thing, they taught me to never stop learning.

http://m.fsrmagazine.com/executive-interviews/sally-smith-riding-high-buffalo-wild-wings

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