Nespresso’s strategic and operational excellence: a review and logistical implications

ABSTRACT

Nespresso is one of the most successful and innovative ventures in the consumer product industry in recent decades. Yet, it remains relatively understudied. The purpose of this paper is to provide an integrative insight into the ‘Nespresso model’. We focus on a firm-centric research strategy that is anchored in a systematic review of the academic literature. We find that Nespresso’s model is highly integrated and is configured towards delivering superior value at every step, including logistics. Implications for academics are that firm-centric research may bring unique industrially relevant insights. Managers will find novel ways of leveraging their firm’s strategic advantages.

KEYWORDS:

• Nespresso
• operational excellence
• strategic excellence
• value creation

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Yan Cimon

Yan Cimon, Ph.D. (HEC Montreal), is Professor of Strategy at the Faculty of Business Administration at Université Laval (Quebec City, Canada). He is the Director of the Interuniversity Research Centre on Enterprise Networks, Logistics and Transportation (CIRRELT). His research and practice focus on business models, strategy, alliances and networks in many industries. He taught executives on four continents and teaches in the Executive Master in Global Supply Chain Management at EPFL (Switzerland). He is a former Fulbright Visiting Chair in Innovation at the University of Washington (Seattle). He was elected to Alpha Iota Delta.

Diane Poulin

Diane Poulin, Ph.D. (École Polytechnique de Paris), is Professor of Strategy at the Faculty of Business Administration at Université Laval (Quebec City, Canada). She is a founding member of the Interuniversity Research Centre on Enterprise Networks, Logistics and Transportation (CIRRELT). Her research focuses on network-related themes including, but not limited to, supply chains and alliances in both the private and public sector. She teaches in the Executive Master in Global Supply Chain Management at EPFL (Switzerland). She is a co-recipient of the 2012 NSERC Brockhouse Canada Prize for Interdisciplinary Research in Science and Engineering for her research on the forest industry.