What Is Chipotle Core Competencies

Chipotle Case Analysis
Introduction
Tell the reader what the case analysis is going to discuss. There should be very little background information here as the reader is already familiar with the case.
Analysis

Core Competencies
A core competency in Chipotle lies in their vision to ‘Change the way people think and eat fast food’. Chipotle was able to draw a much different concept than most other fast food chains. Through leadership and guidance of their founder Steve Ells, Chipotle has been able to grow into a large multinational corporation trading on the stock exchange and having thousands of locations in North America and many more in Europe. Their competency lied in commitment to provide research of of their food ingredients. organically
The concept of customized, friendly and healthy fast food has never been seen across the chain or franchise. There are more strengths and opportunities than weakness and threats indicating that the company has the potential to even grow and expand further based on the principles and planning that it has followed.
Part of Chipotle’s lofty stock price was due to belief of investors that hundreds and hundreds of its units as well as ShopHouse and Pizzeria Locale were to be opened in domestic and international markets. The stock price reached an all time high of $611 in March 2014.
Future prospects of Chipotle and its subsidiaries/partnerships of Shophouse Southeast Asia Kitchen and Pizzeria include diversifying into foreign markets. Expanding beyond Chipotle’s current North American and European demographics into regions such as South Asia and the far the East if the expansion is deemed viable through marketing and understanding foreign markets.
Expansion of suppliers is extremely important because it helps open options and can improve procurement costs. Even though Chipotle's suppliers are fairly few, they are taking considerable steps to improve suppliers relations and quality
Out of the rivals, Moe’s Southwest Grill, and Qdoba Mexican Grill has very similar results as Chipotle and is probably going to have a very good financial performance.
Chipotle seems to have a very different strategy than Taco Bell. Taco Bell is more of a low cost fast food restaurant while Chipotle is trying a differentiation strategy in the fast food industry. Taco Bell seems to be actively bringing in interesting products that attract people which Chipotle is trying to perfect its quality in products. Chipotle definitely has the resources to compete with Taco Bell. They seem to trying a completely different marketing campaign than Taco Bell and they definitely have a different set of competitive capabilities to compete with Taco Bell.
Issues
Chipotle has done a great job staying competitive, however three issues should be noted. First thing to note is that both Moe’s Southwest grill and Qdoba Mexican Grill are very similar to Chipotle. They are all competing in similar spots in the competitive strategy spectrum. Some of the first mover advantages Chipotle has are wearing off. Chipotle has to decide between whether or not they want to stay strong in their specific market and take an offensive or defensive strategy against it’s competitors or try to diversify the