Building Competitive Advantage at Kinko's

Kinko's Inc., headquartered in Ventura, California, provides photocopying, color calendar, business card production, and one hour photos on a nationwide basis. Through more than 800 stores, the company generates in excess of $400 million in sales annually (Moukheiber, 1995, p. 42). Since establishing the business with a single store in 1970 close to the campus of the University of California at Santa Barbara, Paul Orfalea has built Kinko's into the leader in the photocopying industry through the development of a competitive advantage. Orfalea, a 1971 finance graduate from the University of Southern California with a "C" average, has not always followed traditional paths the creation of a competitive advantage for Kinko's.

Kinko's has evolved into one of the largest chains of document production and business services stores in the world ("Kinko's," 1996, p. 10100029). The company operates in the United States, Canada, Japan, South Korea, and the Netherlands, with more than 23,000 employees worldwide.

Orfalea is the sole owner of the parent Kinko Graphics Corp., and he is either the sole owner or part owner of each of the approximately 850 Kinko's stores (Svaldi, 1996, p. 3A). Orfalea is sole owner of almost 700 of the stores, while 127 partners share ownership in the remaining stores. Kinko's, however, is not a franchise operation. In return for the Kinko's name and the business concept, Orfalea retains a controlling interest in each store in which a partner invests

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3, p. 49). All of the Kinko's stores are active recyclers. Some of the Kinko's stores in the Western states, however, have initiated a program to plant one new tree for every tree mulched into copy-paper stock for use in Kinko's stores. A nine-store Kinko's group in Salt Lake City, as an example, is reforesting Flaming Gorge, a camping area whose trees were destroyed by borer beetles. A 30-store Kinko's group in Ohio buys seedlings that are presented to local forestry agencies on Arbor Day. The Ohio Department of Natural Resources estimates the replacement value of the copy paper the company uses. Kinko's As A Supporter of Education Adopt-A-School programs at all Kinko's stores have provided more than $870,000 to public schools ("Kinko's," 1996, p. 10100029). The programs began in 1995, and represent a comprehensive teacher/student support program to combat the lack of financial and material resources available to public education. The programs are a part of Kinko's nationwide effort to provide free and discounted services, as well as special programs and volunteer support, to public elementary schools. Kinko's branch stores enter into partnerships with public elementary schools in which Kinko's provides monthly donation

Category: Business - B