In last week’s Communication Strategy and Competition course, Professor Aron introduced an article about Burger King selling hot dogs and the impact it may have. Burger King is unique to other fast food restaurants because it uses open-flame grills to cook their meat. (Think about it – Burger King’s hamburgers have grate lines, but McDonald’s hamburgers do not.) This unique resource can be a valuable asset in helping Burger King create a competitive advantage because it is very hard to imitate flame-grilled hot dogs. Other fast food restaurants like Sonic and Dairy Queen already sell hot dogs, but they do not use grated grills. If Burger King’s hot dogs succeed, it will be interesting to see how other fast food restaurants respond to Burger King’s new advantage.

This was just one of the case studies we looked at and after reading the other case studies Professor Aron provided, I came to a realization. I had started reading the articles like an Economist! Instead of focusing on the mere content of the article, my mind started identifying the various threats that the companies were trying to eliminate and the opportunities they were pursuing. I started brainstorming the valuable resources the companies owned that made them successful organizations in their respective industries. I also started envisioning what the future would look like for these companies based on the recent decisions they were making.

It’s amazing to see how much progress and growth I’ve made in six Saturday class sessions. I love reading the case studies Professor Aron provides us because they are reinforcing the concepts we are learning in class and through our textbook. Even though all the elective options are fantastic in the MSC Winter Quarter, I’m especially thankful I chose to take Communication Strategy and Competition.