Internal Analysis

As GC3 has grown and expanded out of the Ohio area the human resource department has became regionalized and inconsistent. The Ohio HR department focuses primarily on strategic issues while the Chicago and Pittsburgh departments’ focus primarily on their own areas with a specialty in their previous brands. The Pittsburgh team excels at training employees to deliver high quality service and drive customer satisfaction at the Great Scoops locations, however the management in this area is trained mainly in ice cream sales is hostile in changing their habits. Unfortunately, the training program is limited to this narrow employee segment and is not available to the greater employee population. GC3 was the ability to capitalize on this competency by expanding this regions training program to apply the same concepts across the business (Franklin University, 2012). Currently, many of the Human Resources responsibilities at GC3 are being handled in store with store managers being responsible for hiring as well as managing people issues at their locations. Training generally takes place at the store level as well, which has led to wide variances in the way that the stores are operated. Compensation and benefits administration is typically handled by region, with each of the three carrying on their legacy programs to a large degree (Franklin University, 2012). One source of competitive advantage for GC3 is their value proposition. Since GC3 was established the company has focused on delivering a great cup of coffee at a great price. Another advantage is created by the fact that the company owners are committed to being successful and is willing to consider innovative solutions to move the company forward (Franklin University, 2012). While GC3 has experienced relatively consistent revenue growth, profit margins appear to be shrinking. Net sales have grown from 2010 to 2011, however a significant percentage of the increase in revenue is being absorbed by