Kudler Fine Foods Case StudyStrategyKudler Fine Foods is a local gourmet food retail company in the San Diego metropolitan area. The company was founded a few years ago by President Kathy Kudler and has three stores located in La Jolla, Del Mar and Encinitas. Kathy Kudler's vision is "to create a store that features a wide selection of the freshest ingredients and all the tools a gourmet cook could want" (Kudler, n.d.). Kudler would like to expand services, improve efficiency of operations and increase customer purchasing cycle in the next year. To achieve these objectives, Kudler will have in-depth insight into how technological changes have created business opportunities and will be interested in identifying generic strategy and tactics. Management would also like to know how to continuously analyze the quality food sector for ideas and update the company strategy. The answers to these questions are described in this document. Technological Changes The key question in this section is how technological changes have created business opportunities for Kudler. There are many technological changes. It's a broad spectrum. There are changes from the suppliers' side, from the internal organization and from the customer's point of view. Examples are information technology such as the Internet, enterprise resource software systems, manufacturing innovation, and information technology. Research learns that “today's information systems…generate new challenges in organizing, analyzing, and protecting information” (Gomez-Mejia & Balkin, 2002, p. 386). Information is important to Kudler because it is useful for decision making and the supply chain. Table 1 provides an overview of some general changes by technology. Table 2 provides an overview of the business opportunities arising from best practices. From a technical point of view Kudler has the possibility to start with online business in the business-to-consumer and business-to-business market. One opportunity is to start with an online shop for consumers and companies, with cooking recipes and online educational videos and marketing activities. Partnerships and alliances can create additional products and services for online stores and business. Strategic co-marketing with another grocery store also represents a change. A business partner program also represents an interesting growth opportunity. Excellent hardware and software can streamline business processes and help reduce costs. Generic strategy and tactics To have a good understanding of strategy, it is important to know the company's mission.