Introduction
Dose Café was established in Kuwait City to provide high-quality coffee at an affordable rate. As of today, the company owns a chain of fast-service café outlets and has plans to continue expanding. Dose Café’s management team is highly skilled and comprises highly qualified individuals with vast experience in the industry. The company uses high-quality coffee beans from different regions globally, with its main supply being Ethiopia, Mexico, Peru, Guatemala, and Colombia (Dosecafe, n.d.). This research project looks at various business factors affecting Dose Café, including the global business environment, the cultural context of the international practices, the Café’s human resource practices, and the company’s strategic plans.
Overview of the Report
This report will first look at the company’s overview, including its history, the scope of the work the Dose Café does, the company’s vision and mission statements, and its corporate social responsibility. The second part will be an appraisal of Dose Café’s external environment, where a PESTEL analysis and Porter’s five forces model evaluation of the company will be conducted. The third section will deal with how Dose Café communicates and persuades clients in a cross-cultural setting. The fourth section deals with the human resource practices of the café, while the fifth part deals with personal recommendations for the Dose Café.
Company Overview
History & Current Status
Having first been established in 2016, with only outlets in Kuwait City, the café expanded to other neighboring cities and towns in the country. The company currently operates a network of fast-service café locations across many GCC countries and plans to continue with its diversification. Dose Café’s leadership team consists of highly competent professionals with extensive industry experience. The company sources premium coffee beans from various regions worldwide, primarily from Ethiopia, Mexico, Peru, Guatemala, and Colombia (Dosecafe, n.d.). Some products on the business’s menu include regular coffee drinks, refreshing beverages, freshly baked cookies, brownies, and other delicious drinks and treats.
Café’s Website
Dose Café has a well-established website that is easy to navigate and explains the company’s products, services, history, and locations. Dose Café uses a popular technique of using a company’s website as an online store where customers can purchase products and have them delivered to their preferred location (Chiu & Cho, 2019; Desai & Vidyapeeth, 2019). Moreover, the website offers a link for investors, potential business partners, potential employees, and other stakeholders to link up with the company.
Vision of the Café
The company’s mission and vision statements demonstrate the internal business strategy and formulation of Dose Café. A vision statement is important for an organization as it shows the goals and objectives that the company should work towards (Tien & Tien, 2019; Kopaneva, 2019; Radzilani & Ayandibu, 2021). Dose Café’s vision is to be established as the trusted coffee shop in the industry and to be a leader in innovation, service, and quality across Kuwait and other GCC countries. The Café aims to lead innovation, service, and quality by constantly introducing new products into the market and meeting the customer’s needs and demands whenever they arise. This dedication to quality is demonstrated by the company’s focus on using high-quality coffee beans and updated brewing technology.
Mission of the Café
A strong mission statement correlates with good strategic plans and objectives for a company. Mission statements communicate an organization’s overall strategy and reflect its commitment to achieving its main goals and objectives (Berbegal-Mirabent et al., 2019; Breznik & Law, 2019; Canning et al., 2019). Dose Café’s mission statement revolves around earning and maintaining trust, providing excellent products and services, providing delicious products, and contributing to the overall development and prosperity of the society in which it operates.
The Café’s Corporate Social Responsibility
Dose Café’s corporate social responsibility revolves around creating a sustainable environment, ensuring community engagement, and ensuring it follows ethical business practices. Dose Café is committed to ensuring that it minimizes its carbon footprint by using LED technology and energy sources that do not rely on fossil fuels. The company is engaged in community activities and supports the community through donations. Moreover, Dose Café ensures CSR by following ethical practices in all its activities.
Appraisal of Dose Café Global Business Environment
PESTEL Analysis of Dose Café
The external business environment for Dose Café can be analyzed with the help of the Political – Economic – Social – Technological – Environmental- Legal (PESTEL) external business analysis model. The political climate of Dose Café’s regions is generally good for a coffee shop to operate. The government bodies for GCC countries, particularly KSA and Qatar, have been implementing policies that encourage entrepreneurship. Nevertheless, the shops are located where political tensions could easily arise, and government policies on how businesses should be conducted could be changed without much consultation.
The flow of disposable income for people in the GCC countries has recently reduced due to the recent fall in oil prices (Al-Haroun, 2019; Scalia, 2019; Shehabi, 2022; Nasir et al., 2019). However, studies have shown that sales for coffee products are recession-proof; therefore, the sales for Dose Café will likely have a positive projection over the short and the medium term. Table 1 below summarizes the PESTEL analysis of Dose Café.
Table 1: Dose Café PESTEL Analysis.
Porter’s Five Forces Analysis on Dose Café
The coffee shop industry is highly competitive, and barriers to entry are relatively low. Nevertheless, Dose Café has a competitive advantage over the others since it incorporates sophisticated brewing techniques and uses high-quality coffee berries from around the globe. Furthermore, Dose Café has the availability of state-of-the-art machinery and equipment like the Chemex, Siphon, Coffee drip tower, and the V60, which are unaffordable to new coffee single outlet shops (Dosecafe, n.d.). Therefore, despite the relatively high threat of new entrants, Dose café is unique and can, therefore, continue to excel in the medium term.
The bargaining power of suppliers is relatively low since Dose café has various countries from which it can outsource coffee berries. Moreover, GCC countries have adopted a new culture of growing coffee, giving the Café ample coffee berries supply (Maspul, 2022). Despite the low bargaining power, coffee prices across the globe have been on the increase, and the supply of high-quality coffee has continued to decrease, which has lowered the Café’s bargaining power and profitability. Additionally, the company has to bear competing with low-quality coffee outlets with a high bargaining power since medium and low-quality coffee berries are in ample supply.
The bargaining power of customers largely depends on the customers’ choices and preferences, particularly on the standard of coffee they prefer to drink. The GCC region has different kinds of consumers, the first group being those of lower social and economic class who cannot afford the high quality and expensive coffee offered by Dose Café. The second group is those with money but do not mind the quality of coffee they are willing to consume. This market niche has high bargaining power and could influence Dose Café’s decision-making in various ways. The third group is those with the resources to afford Dose Café’s high-quality products and services and are unwilling to go for regular coffee. These have low bargaining power, and the Café can charge them premium prices if it maintains the required quality.
Coffee faces threats from various substitute products such as tea, juice, soda, and energy drinks, which could limit the sales and profitability of Dose Café. However, there are various strategies that the Café could use to mitigate these threats. First and foremost, it would be good for the café to include these beverages on its menu and profit from them. Secondly, the Café could make unique selling propositions such as its homemade caramel of “Dose nuts,” a cold drink that is almost impossible for customers to leave.
One of the biggest threats Dose Café has to deal with is the competition from rivals in the GCC region. Since the rivals use a combination of different strategic options to gain a market share, Dose Café should prioritize its strengths and ensure that it has various unique products that are impossible to imitate. By conducting Porter’s five forces analysis and discovering the areas that need improvements, dose café can ensure that it remains sustainable over the long term.
Ethical and Sustainability Issues
First, the Café has to ensure the ethical sourcing of its ingredients and raw materials, thus projecting a positive image for customers and other stakeholders. The company should also ensure waste reduction by using reusable serving material, minimizing packaging, and using environmentally friendly machinery. Secondly, the café could partner with local coffee farmers, thus ensuring the growth of local economies and small businesses. Additionally, using energy-saving forms of lighting such as LED lights could reduce the amount of CO2 released by the Café, thus promoting sustainability of the environment.
Cultural Context and International Business Practices
Communication in Cross-Cultural Setting
Dose café uses a combination of strategies to address its diverse range of customers and employees from different backgrounds. The company employs verbal, non-verbal, and writing strategies to tailor and ensure information can reach different people. Internally, Dose Café offers various tools to encourage communication between its staff members who share different cultures and national backgrounds. The company also offers language training sessions to employees who may need them.
Externally, Dose Café ensures an inviting atmosphere for people of different cultural backgrounds by ensuring its staff members have the required cultural awareness. Since the GCC region has huge linguistic diversity, the company’s menus and other important communications are designed to cater to multiple languages (Ahmad, 2023; Alzaben et al., 2019; Hopkyns & Zoghbor, 2022). The staff of Dose Café is trained to detect nuances in customers’ body posture, greetings, and preferences and react accordingly. The company’s social media platforms are also designed to cater to people’s cultural diversity.
Negotiation and Persuasion in Cross-Cultural Setting
The Dose Café adopts simple, exceptional, direct negotiation and persuasion tactics to influence people of different cultures and customs. The company ensures that its shops have a unique and inviting atmosphere by ensuring no waiting lines and that the laboratory equipment used for brewing the coffee is properly displayed. Whether on social media or on-site, Dose Café displays a warm and cozy décor that is attractive and welcoming for all people. This decorative strategy influences buying decisions, especially for people seeking premium products (Melovic et al., 2020; Pawlewicz, 2020; Shabbir et al., 2020; Subrahmanyam & Arif, 2022). The coffee outlet ensures perfect lighting and comfortable and inviting seats.
The brewing machines are unique and easy to use for all people, regardless of their origins. The Café is designed in a small manner to initiate an atmosphere of community building that invites customers from different cross-cultural backgrounds. Dose Café has an effective marketing technique of displaying its laboratory gadgets and equipment, influencing its buyers’ cognitive biases.
Human Resource Management Practices at Dose Café
Staffing
Dose Café targets diverse talent from Kuwait, the other five GCC nations, and the globe by posting open job opportunities on its official website and social media pages. Companies that utilize social media and online job platforms to advertise open positions and offer referral benefits are more likely to attract top talent, and Dose café partially follows this strategy (Adeosun & Ohiani, 2020; Ayuni, 2019; Mukul & Saini, 2021; Nayak et al., 2020). The human resource management team of Dose Café selects fit employees based on skills, experience, and cultural fit.
Training
Upon recruitment, employees must undergo rigorous training to fit different cultural backgrounds, understand the customer base, and know more about the product offered. Dose Café trains its employees through a combination of classroom-style training and job training. Classroom training involves training the workers about the company’s policies, procedures, menus, and cultures. Then, the employees are subjected to real on-the-job training, such as showing them how to serve drinks and beverages and handle crises.
Compensation
The café under analysis has a relatively competitive compensation structure where it offers its employees various benefits, including competitive salaries and performance-based incentives. Studies reveal that offering competitive compensation benefits helps organizations to attract and retain top talent, thus an advantage for Dose Café (Akbar & Khanfar, 2020; Prasetio et al., 2019; Suvethashri & Vickram, 2020). Dose Café’s competitive compensation package has allowed the company to outcompete Café in Kuwait and should continue with the strategy when expanding internationally.
Motivation
Apart from monetary compensation, Dose Café has other ways to motivate its employees. The Café offers its workers a conducive work environment that is welcoming to employees of different cultures and backgrounds. Secondly, the company motivates its employees by offering them opportunities for growth by promoting workers internally. Finally, Dose Café rewards its good employees by offering them non-monetary gifts and compensation.
Leading
The leaders of Dose Café offer a good leadership style that encourages open communication, innovation, and collaboration among its employees. The human resource management team believes in empowering the workers to make important decisions necessary for the success of the Café. Additionally, the leaders implement programs for the employees to gain professional knowledge. This good leadership culture of building teamwork and mutual collaboration among the employees is essential for the company’s success.
Strategies for International and Global Operations and their Implementation
As a contemporary strategy consultant and analyst, my first step would be to analyze the current state of Doze Café in Kuwait and the GCC countries where the company has set up its operations. I would then analyze the Café’s goals and compare them with the nature of the customers in the global market, the nature of suppliers, and the international competitors. After the analysis, I recommend the strategies and implementation mechanisms below for international and global business operations.
Build a Strong Brand Identity
When expanding, the first strategy I would recommend for the company is developing a strong brand identity that is easily noticeable in the regions where it will expand. The brand identity developed should demonstrate Dose Café’s dedication to valuing the beliefs and cultures of people in different regions. I would explain to the management of Dose Café the importance of developing a strong brand identity, such as increasing the Café’s recognition and maintaining customer loyalty.
Set Up Localized Menus
As a strategy consultant, I propose that Dose Café’s management team develop localized menus adapted based on a region’s culture, choices, and preferences. The Café would have to conduct market research and work with local suppliers to ensure they have ingredients to manufacture the preferred coffees and beverages in that region. Offering localized menus would offer the customers their preferred choices and preferences, thus boosting sales.
Conclusion
Dose Café is affected by various global business environment factors, international practices, cultural factors, human resource practices, and the company’s internal strategic objectives. The company has shops across Kuwait and is expanding to other GCC countries; thus, there is a need for the management to understand various international business practices. For the café outlets to succeed in a market with a large cultural diversity, the managers must understand the external environment and react accordingly.
Porter’s framework shows that the company is doing well and could survive in the short and medium term. The Café has good policies for addressing the cultural diversity of where it operates and good strategies to negotiate deals with different stakeholders such as suppliers and customers. By focusing on internal strategic management strategies, continuous improvement, and good recruitment policies, Dose Café can overcome its current challenges and achieve its intended expansion across the GCC region.
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