The Fruit - Case

The Fruit Case

CASE E

 

The company is a major fruit processing firm in the North West of Kenya. All its 625 workers live and work on the 3000 acre pineapple farm on which also stands its manufacturing plant. The firm produces two main juices: Tree juice for export and Water juice for local consumption. The firm is almost 100 years old and jobs at the plant are usually "handed down" from father to son. The firm has seven levels of management. 1-3 junior staff, 4-5 supervisors, 5 technicians and 6-7 managers. Supervisors (120) control the bulk of staff operations and they are usually the target of management communications. There are 50 technicians who control various aspects of the plant and a total of 20 managers with responsibilities in the key areas of farm management, finance and administration, personnel management, sales & marketing and manufacturing.

 

The environment in which the firm is currently operating demands that critical training must be undertaken to sharpen its business performance and safeguard its corporate welfare; production quality has dropped while its sales and marketing drive has been less than satisfactory. The firm has not met the Government's firm management standards for the second year running and the firm is loosing one member of staff a week to the competitor. Production costs have been escalating though raw material products have not changed. New Government policy on industrial Re-afforestration means that every company must get involved in a tree planting program. The firm has two major objectives in its strategic plan by which it has purposed to ultimately judge its performance this year. Namely to increase its market share by 25% and increase profitability by 10%.

 

What are you going to do?

 

Allan Bukusi, 2004