Companies operating in the fresh produce industry must continuously adapt to an ever-evolving landscape. Explore how to better position your organization and employees so change leads to long-term success instead of disruption or failure.
Some changes are external, ranging from weather conditions, pests and disease, and regulation to shifts in the competitive land-scape, trade issues, and even the mass retirement of Baby Boomers—all of these forces are beyond a company’s control. Other changes are internally driven, although they are often connected to external forces. These include the intro-duction of new processes or technologies, corporate mergers or acquisitions, added product lines, and relocation, among other developments.
“Companies either thrive on change, they tolerate change, or they resist it,” asserts Steve Kenfield, vice president of sales and marketing at HMC Group Marketing. “Change is nothing new, but the pace is accelerating. The gap between the leaders—who can see, anticipate, and respond to change—and the laggards is widening.”
Leadership and the Path Forward Not surprisingly, leadership plays a key role in change management. “It starts with leadership that is passionate about what the company is all about,” explains Kenfield. “Change is not welcome, easy, or natural. A great leader has the ability to see the path forward and engage the team to succeed.”
He warns that day-to-day respon-sibilities can sometimes create obstacles on the road toward change. “Our industry is not different from any other, but it can be harder to get your head up due to the intensity of the daily activity.”
“Make sure top-level management is not only aligned on the need for change, but also the approach to achieve the change,” advises Jin Ju Wilder, director of marketing at LA & SF Specialty. Over the years, she has led a number of organizational ini-tiatives including new business models, refreshing brands, new products and services, changing customer trends, and technology implementation.
Jeff Chan is founder and president of Chan Management Consulting, adjunct faculty in change management at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and vice president of the board of directors at the Association of Change Management Professionals’ Midwest chapter. He says a lack of commitment by leadership is the chief barrier to change.
Chan notes that company executives often say they will make a particular change, write the check to hire a consultant or buy a new software package, and then move on. When this happens, there is no one to counteract employee resistance, foster communication among siloed departments, or address in-fighting, all of which preclude change.
Companies operating in the fresh produce industry must continuously adapt to an ever-evolving landscape. Explore how to better position your organization and employees so change leads to long-term success instead of disruption or failure.
Some changes are external, ranging from weather conditions, pests and disease, and regulation to shifts in the competitive land-scape, trade issues, and even the mass retirement of Baby Boomers—all of these forces are beyond a company’s control. Other changes are internally driven, although they are often connected to external forces. These include the intro-duction of new processes or technologies, corporate mergers or acquisitions, added product lines, and relocation, among other developments.
“Companies either thrive on change, they tolerate change, or they resist it,” asserts Steve Kenfield, vice president of sales and marketing at HMC Group Marketing. “Change is nothing new, but the pace is accelerating. The gap between the leaders—who can see, anticipate, and respond to change—and the laggards is widening.”
Leadership and the Path Forward Not surprisingly, leadership plays a key role in change management. “It starts with leadership that is passionate about what the company is all about,” explains Kenfield. “Change is not welcome, easy, or natural. A great leader has the ability to see the path forward and engage the team to succeed.”
He warns that day-to-day respon-sibilities can sometimes create obstacles on the road toward change. “Our industry is not different from any other, but it can be harder to get your head up due to the intensity of the daily activity.”
“Make sure top-level management is not only aligned on the need for change, but also the approach to achieve the change,” advises Jin Ju Wilder, director of marketing at LA & SF Specialty. Over the years, she has led a number of organizational ini-tiatives including new business models, refreshing brands, new products and services, changing customer trends, and technology implementation.
Jeff Chan is founder and president of Chan Management Consulting, adjunct faculty in change management at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and vice president of the board of directors at the Association of Change Management Professionals’ Midwest chapter. He says a lack of commitment by leadership is the chief barrier to change.
Chan notes that company executives often say they will make a particular change, write the check to hire a consultant or buy a new software package, and then move on. When this happens, there is no one to counteract employee resistance, foster communication among siloed departments, or address in-fighting, all of which preclude change.
“If leadership is not actively involved to communicate the change and build alignment and support, that’s the biggest hurdle,” Chan says, which then makes “employees duck down and wait until the leader moves on to the next thing.”
Communication is Key “Communication is the key to everything,” Kenfield believes. “Part of leadership is the communication of the environmental factors involved and their impact on the business, and then to gain consensus on how to adapt and succeed.”
A study published in early 2016 by Robert Half Management Resources, which polled 300 senior managers at U.S. companies with 20 or more employees, asked, “What is most im-portant when leading your company or team through a major change?” Almost two-thirds (65 percent) of respondents deemed “communicating clearly and frequently” as paramount, while 16 per-cent said “managing expectations” and 9 percent each for “outlining goals” and “delegating effectively.”
“Have a clear communication plan, and communicate constantly and consistently throughout the change process, not just at the beginning,” emphasizes Wilder. “Be very clear on the data informing the need for change and share it with everyone. Make the case for change not only from a business perspective, but also from a personal, emotional perspective, so your people can rally behind it.”
“No matter how much you prepare them, people are hesitant to change,” agrees Ron Carkoski, president and CEO of Four Seasons Produce. “They have to have a reason why.” This means conveying the big picture, why the change will make the company better on a strategic level, and how it will benefit the employees per-sonally. “If you can tell them the why and get them to believe the why, they can bear the how,” he says.
Four Seasons has undergone a number of organizational changes, ranging from making a move from five buildings to one back in 2004 (see sidebar), to imple-menting new ERP and transportation management software packages. Carkoski stresses that com-munication must be a dedicated and consistent effort that trickles throughout the organization. “The first manager that cracks will be what everyone will focus on.”
Four Seasons uses a number of ways to communicate imminent change, starting with a kickoff meeting led by Carkoski, continuous posting of updates and timelines on a blackboard in a heavily trafficked area near the cafeteria, conversations with managers and super-visors at team meetings and on a daily basis, lunch-and-learn sessions, articles in the weekly company newsletter, and more. “You name it, that’s how you do it,” Carkoski explains, adding, “You can’t do enough.”
Shannon Burns of Shannon Burns Training and Consulting stresses the importance of bringing all employees into the process. “They won’t agree with every change you make, but if you have an open-communication environment and respect each other, they will, on balance, think you have a good company, and that will help manage change,” she says. “It’s less important for employees to be on the same page than it is for them to be informed.”
Burns suggests incentivizing employees to learn about the business environment causing industrywide change, or how change occurs in individual businesses. For example, a company can post a list of books, offer video content, or hold seminars about trends in the industry or change management and reward employees who participate with a gift card. “Encourage them to learn and share, and recognize them when they do,” she suggests.
CASE STUDY: MAKING A MOVE In the late 1990s, Four Seasons Produce Inc. started planning a move that would bring all of its employees from five different locations into one new building. In 2003, the company broke ground on the new location, with plans to move in by March 2004.
After delays due to heavy rains and then snow, moving day ended up arriving on the Friday before Memorial Day, 2004, one of the busiest days of the year. Despite the timing, the big move went off without a hitch.
One of the key factors behind the problem-free move, according to Ron Carkoski, Four Seasons’ president and CEO, was the establishment of a dedicated group called the “GROW Team” (GROW stood for Grand Relocation on Wabash, referring to the street where the new site was situated).
The GROW Team consisted of employees from various departments across the company, including Carkoski’s assistant, led by the vice president of business innovation.
The team was charged with preparing the new site and the associates for the move—which included details such as buying desks and office equipment, setting up computers, making sure everyone knew where they would be located within the new building, when each department was scheduled to move, creating documentation to support the relocation, and doing tours for employees in advance, among other tasks.
The members of the GROW Team devoted 100 percent of their time to the mission of ensuring a smooth transition, leaving the rest of the staff free to concentrate on daily business activities. Despite the timing of a very busy day for produce sales, the move went smoothly—and more importantly—there were no missed orders or delays.
It’s important to remember, Carkoski stresses, that business doesn’t stop in the midst of a change, whether significant or small. “You don’t want one to affect the other, in either direction.”
Involvement Through the Ranks Communication is a two-way street, and it is important to involve employees. “Organizations win as a team,” Kenfield points out. For some organizational changes, additional staff or retraining may be required. Wilder says failures blamed on people, technology, or the change itself are often attributable to not having the proper skills in place to sustain a change once it has been implemented. Initial success is only the first hurdle.
Companies must ensure staff at all levels have the necessary skills to maintain success, Wilder counsels. “Be clear on what skills will be needed to anticipate challenges or pitfalls and to create frontline champions for the change.” There is also a ‘mind shift’ that will need to occur, she says, and management must not only understand this behavioral change, but provide proper training. “Evaluate your reward structure and make sure it includes metrics for the new behaviors,” she notes.
Chan stresses that all employees are affected by any change, even if it is centered primarily on a particular task or department. “Organizations are like a car,” he says. “To run efficiently and smoothly down the road, the wheels have to be aligned.” He cites the example of companies that implement a new technology, such as ERP software. Even as the software itself is up and running, there may be a struggle in other areas such as policies, work processes, roles and responsibilities, or if interdepartmental interfaces are not updated simultaneously.
Studies have shown that productivity drops precipitously and accidents tend to rise during organizational change, due to employee anxiety about job status, whether they can adapt to the change, and other factors. “You need to ask, ‘How do I make sure people stay active and engaged in all this change?’” Chan says.
Carkoski says Four Seasons puts together a team dedicated to handling each org-anizational change, charged with figuring out the timeline and budget, managing all the necessary details, and preparing the staff. This leaves the rest of the company free to focus on daily business operations.
During Four Seasons’ recent ERP and transportation management system changes, the company created a project management team. The team included both subject matter experts from various departments within the company, as well as project management experts hired specifically for the change. The latter then stay on once the change is im-plemented to preserve the institutional knowledge base related to the new systems and processes.
While it typically pays to invest in training and potentially in additional labor, executives and consultants believe there is little correlation between the amount spent on managing change and the successful implementation of the change. “Capital is not a major determining factor of who wins or loses,” Kenfield says.
Carkoski stresses that it is essential to listen to the concerns of people throughout the organization. “They’ll tell you if you just stop talking and listen, and if you’re not defensive,” he observes. Once leaders really understand employee concerns, they can sculpt their change management messages to address pain points and move the organization forward toward acceptance.
Balancing Preparation and Flexibility Preparation is a critical element of change management and requires signi-ficant planning, mapping, documenting, and more. “Really think through and chal-lenge the factors informing the need for change,” Wilder recommends.
She uses the example of a new technology rollout. “Acquiring and implementing a new technology without sufficient planning and preparation of processes can be not only a huge waste of time and resources, it can really hurt employee morale. And the opportunity for real beneficial change can be lost.”
Wilder adds that it is important to have a process in place to evaluate what is and isn’t working, and to be able to adapt on the fly. “Be realistic on the timeline for change,” she insists. “Take into account whether the change easily fits within the company’s culture or if a major culture change also needs to happen for the change to occur.”
Preparation includes ensuring proper staffing. Karen Caplan, president and CEO of Frieda’s, Inc., says planning and creating an organizational chart with roles and responsibilities is an important step to ensure a successful outcome. “Defining clear roles and responsibilities, and deciding how to measure them, is a chal-lenge,” she explains. “We’re open to revising and reworking them; it’s more like an evolution.” Changes at Frieda’s over the years have included adding a layer of management due to company growth and retooling infrastructure to deal with new food safety requirements.
Sometimes preparation requires an outside perspective, in the form of a consultant with expertise in organizational design or structure. “I would not limit myself to people who work in the produce industry,” points out Caplan, stating the right advisor is one “willing to tell you what you need to hear, not just what you want to hear.”
Preparation also involves being able to identify the need for change in the first place. “Keep your head up to anticipate what’s happening in the industry, and how it could impact you and your company in five years,” shares HMC Group’s Kenfield. “Work to develop strategies to improve your competitiveness from your customer’s perspective. What can you execute well that will be valuable?”
Burns agrees. “If you’re standing still, you’re going backwards; you always need to ask what’s next and think in advance about appropriate ways to react. When it happens, it’s too late.”
Prep work also involves building external relationships, Burns explains, such as with local governments and neighbor-hood groups. “It’s important for you and your employees to be involved in the local community,” she suggests. “If a company can become part of the com-munity, the community will rally around them in times of change.”
Change is Good While change can be scary, it is also necessary to survive over the long term. Kenfield cites the California tree fruit industry as an example. The sector has been struggling for a decade with rising production costs, exotic pests, over-production and declining prices, food safety, and a glut of producers.
Next came consolidation, with several growers leaving the business, and a decline in total acreage. With such ongoing challenges, Kenfield believes the only way to survive and thrive is an ability to rethink organizational structure, staffing, leadership, operating efficiencies, and market position.
“The internal rate of change has to exceed the external rate of change,” Kenfield says. “Organizations that are never comfortable and are always dissatisfied with the status quo, that are always learning and tolerant of mistakes, are well-positioned to survive and grow.”
In other words, rather than creating a culture where people are afraid to make mistakes or take risks, both should be considered learning opportunities. In addition, companies that have been successful for many years should never become complacent—as they may be the most vulnerable to competition. That said, Kenfield recommends being strategic about embarking on any change. “Don’t over-react,” he stresses, because “things don’t change as fast as you imagine.”
The specific steps needed to accomplish organizational change vary depending on the situation and the companies involved. But produce industry executives should keep in mind the key factors that promote any successful change, namely: passionate leadership aligned with the need for change and well versed in how to achieve it; constant and consistent communication throughout the organization; listening to and involving employees so they have a vested interest in the change’s success; and being fully prepared for the change while recognizing the need for flexibility in the face of unanticipated events.
