Reimagining Strategy: Carolina Flowers & Zadie's Market To prepare for discussion: 1. Visit the Carolina Flowers website (https://carolinaflowers.com) 2. Examine other viewpoints on Carolina Flowers: https://oldmarshalljail.com/ https://www.southernliving.com/travel/north-carolina/carolina-flowers-emily- copus https://thelaurelofasheville.com/lifestyle/locally-made/dahlias-and-pottery-at- carolina-flowers/ https://zadiesmarket.com/pages/our-story https://zadiesmarket.com/ Questions for discussion: 1. How does Carolina Flowers represent a "reimagining of strategy"? 2. How would you recommend reimagining Carolina Flowers to create an even better business/corporate strategy? 3. Is Carolina Flowers/Zadie's Market inevitably poised to follow the same path as Magnolia (https://magnolia.com/) and other small businesses centering on lifestyle? Case: Shilhanek's Grill John Christ and Karl Shilhanek, students at Northern Arizona University, visited Costa Rica in 2013 and were impressed by a lively street food sector that capitalized on fresh, locally-sourced ingredients. On their return to campus in January 2014 they decided to launch Wil's Grill, a highly portable venture employing a food truck and on-site catering. Their business sought to distinguish itself through reasonably priced, delicious and fresh, clean food. John and Karl emphasized building a connection with customers through their friendly, often theatric, service. Initially Wil's Grill emphasized barbeque but as demand grew and the enterprise began to probe the catering sector, a broader menu soon arose. Eventually, in May 2014, Karl moved to Bellingham, Washington. This presented a significant challenge to John, and Wil's Grill, because Karl emphasized business strategy, social media and marketing. Based on the partnership with John, Karl was able to capitalize on the experience to first open Kebab Casual (https://www.kebabcasual.com/), a food truck, and then Carve Casual (https://www.carvecasual.com/) through an affiliation with Kulshan Brewery. You have been completing your studies and thinking about your future career. In the course of completing your education at the University of Washington Tacoma, you probably have noticed that the local food scene is pretty atrophied. Even before the pandemic, there were few reasonably priced options available for quick consumption between-or-after classes. Perhaps this gap is due to the high rents associated with Pacific Avenue. Nonetheless, you sense that a business opportunity is present. While you fully intend to gain employment associated with your specific business discipline, you have been losing sleep every night knowing that you could possibly make a financial killing if you solved the problem of feeding an army of hungry, cost- conscious students along with the greater Tacoma community. All you need to do now is to define an enlightened business model and competitively superior strategy. By good fortune, one of your professors mentioned the Wil's Grill venture in class so you have that model (as well as the models created by Karl) and venture to build upon. While you have been mulling over some awesome ideas about becoming rich off food services to UW Tacoma students, Karl Shilhanek contacted you about his thoughts including the possibilities of a potential partnership/affiliation. You have the insights about business strategy, competition, social media and marketing in Tacoma, which Karl lacks. But Karl brings to the table his operational success and know-how. In your first meeting Karl tosses out the idea of creating the "Shilhanek's Grill" in Tacoma.