A Business Analysis of the Back to the Roots Company

As Back to the Roots (BTTR) continued to grow, it realized the need for expansion in its product lines if they were going to become a profitable company. BTTR’s business strategy was to launch one or two innovative and impactful products a year. An example of this was the
creation of the Aquafarm, a self cleaning fish tank that grew herbs. However, BTTR also understood the need to create products that consumers would regularly purchase as the DIY market was a niche market that could not produce a sustainable cash flow.

To create these new products, BTTR followed the three key drivers of the product development cycle. This included product iteration, product extension, and the big idea. The need for new products that consumers would regularly purchase lead to the creation of two new products; the “Garden-in-a-Can”, and focusing on wheat and grains to create a new cereal. Even through all of these changes, BTTR’s mission always included social impact and education.

BTTR found it easy to accomplish this as the mission of doing good is fully integrated into their business mission.

At the conclusion of the article, I believe BTTR has alignment across their social venture design. BTTR’s mission is to ensure people know where their food is coming from and offer products that educate their consumers on the processes that go into making their food. Even
though they are attempting to innovate and compete in two different markets, their mission to create products that inform the consumer where their food is coming from remains the same.

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The aim is to make food personal again and that can be done whether it’s creating DIY kits or cereal. Whether they can innovate in two markets is to be seen, but as of now there is no indication BTTR is slowing down as they have already made one successful switch from selling growing medium to creating DIY kits.

The company may face problems in adjusting their current supply chain to meet the demands of a new market as their current market is able to be forecasted in terms of seasonal demand while any product purchased regularly will need continuous production and distribution. This is an issue that is not difficult to address and BTTR will be able to overcome this issue once they mature out of their current mentality of last minute production.As BTTR expands into different markets, my advice to BTTR’s managementis to clearly define what their ideal social impact unit is so they are able to measure their performance and communicate to stakeholders and the community what social impact they are delivering with their products. A simple social impact unit for BTTR would be the items they are selling. If their mission is to sell a product that is transparent in how it is produced and inform their customers, then how many DIY kits and boxes of cereal sold would indicate how large of an audience they are reaching. The items being sold would also be BTTR’s unit of revenue and allow them to keep track of how much money they are making.

BTTR is in the process of redefining their image as a company producing DIY niche products to a company that produces transparent food products that are commonly purchased. This is not an easy change to make or an easy market to enter. However, with the mentality that
BTTR has had from its origins, I see no reason why the company will not succeed in their mission of offering food that individuals will understand where its roots originated.