When it comes to effective leadership no one company can truly say that they have the all in one fix it tool. But then again every company has different goals and strategic plans to reach those goals. So how does this relate to Moreno’s Liquors? Or better yet, how does this company show effective leadership?

For more than thirty five years Moreno’s liquors has been a staple of the Little Village community, catering to one of the largest growing latino populations in the country.  Since its birth in the mid 70’s, Moreno’s has always strived to be the best in what they do with a mission statement that quotes to “bring only the finest and best priced liquors to the consumer, where we believe that it is the customer that knows best.”  Making sure that each and every worker at Moreno’s is well versed in the variety of products carried, the family run business believed that creating a focus in customer service was the key to running a successful business.  

Although the bushiness had maid a foot hold in the local neighborhood, back in early 2010 sales fluctuated with bigger stores such as Binny’s and Costco literally cornering the market with prices hard to match. With Binny’s sales just under $10,000 a day, and a market shift from liquor to beer, more than 15% of small liquor stores closed from 2010 to 2012 within the chicago land area. So how does one compete in a flooded market?  Moreno’s quickly changed its strategic plan, by first focusing on who are there customer base, and what is uniquely different about there store? Being the largest distributor of tequila in the midwest, Moreno’s quickly realized that there focus was not on having the lowest prices on the block but rather having the rarest products in Chicago. Not only was the company devoted to building customer relationships, but wanted to show this by having customer driven quality products. In this case they noticed a need for obscure and unique products, not just solely based on tequila but also through cognac’s, brandy’s, mezcal’s and the fast growing demand for micro-brews. Realizing that products alone would not be enough, Mike Moreno and son came up with a strategic plan for the future of the company. In an age where the internet is growing faster than anyone could imagine, Moreno’s understood the vast potential of the virtually untapped internet liquor market. Currently under development the company plans to have a fully functional website with a list of all there main product by the end of november this year. They also are in the works of getting the proper licensing in order to turn the site into a e-commerce site that focuses on bringing rare and unique products to connoisseurs throughout the united states.

So my question for you is, do you think a market plan such as this will work successfully? Do you see a demand or even potential for buying liquor online?

When it comes to quality control Chipotle has the right idea. Talk about a company doing fast food the right way, the company

prides themselves in getting a burrito prepared and ready to eat in less than 2min with a wide variety of healthy choices. Chipotle which

once was primarily owned by McDonalds and bought back in 2006 by founder Steve Ells has gone back to there roots, providing “food

with integrity, in which you can eat the finest ingredients quickly and affordably” Ells so proudly states. But with over a 1,300 locations

how does one go about providing quality ingredients at affordable prices?

Chipotle quickly learning how most food is processed and produced in the U.S.

wanted to do things differently, paring up with local farmers and ranchers in order

to keep there products as fresh as possible. With more than 50% of there vegetables

and meats coming from local farms, the company was able to state that 45%

of there vegetables are organically grown, while there beef is 100% naturally rased,

there chicken is 100% antibiotic free, and believes in only the highest quality pork

as well with 100% hormon free pigs. There belief is that people deserve a better quality fast food chain and in return the customers are

loyal. Taking advice from small farmer they have also managed to give 10o% rBGH (recombinant bovine growth hormone) free cheese

and sour cream, with 30% of there dairy coming from open pasture cows which have a strictly grass fed diet. Know you might be

thinking man that a lot of facts but how did this all tie into quality control? Well Chipotle is devoted to having fresh, hormone free,

organically grown products year round and in order to do so they teamed up with Sisco and East Cost Growers and Packers to insure

that not only are there products delivered in a timely and efficient manner but also so that they can keep in touch with local farmers who

are willing to provided the restaurants with the products needed. Lastly each and every Chipotle has what the company calls a “quality

assistant manager,” who’s job it is to provided the Supply Chain team with support ensuring that the food delivered meets quality

standards. They also manage and implement all QA processes in order to monitor vendor performance, tracking and reporting, quality

inspection program, food evaluations, and stock recoveries.

So as you can see know, there is quite a lot of work put into Chipotles quality control and they dont stop there, the company is

constantly looking for better and healthier choices, in the hopes that they can compete in the market with such mexican restaurant

chains as Taco Bell, who surprising is only 3 point behind in quality score from Chipotle since there new “Cantina Bell” menu went into

effect last year. In the end do you think Chipotle is a health substitute? Are there problems in there quality control?

Sources: http://www.chipotle.com/en-us/chipotle_story/steves_story/steves_story.aspx

http://www.fastcasual.com/article/201681/Taco-Bell-closing-perception-gap-on-Chipotle

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chipotle_Mexican_Grill

http://newyorksmash.com/top-3-best-healthy-fast-food-restaurants-chipotle/