Lafleur Trading Company is one of the world’s long serving food suppliers. The company has been in the business since 1975. It specializes in supplying fine foods and wines to different parts of the world. Lafleur Trading Company has developed trading partnerships with other trader companies in Asia, Africa, Europe, South America, North America and Australia. The partnership program has enabled Lafleur Trading Company to supply its products to over 38 countries worldwide. The company’s buyers are known for their strict repute of dealing with only serious and reputable exporters and producers. This serves as proof that clients of Lafleur get high quality services and products. Furthermore, the products from Lafleur meet international environmental standard and are labeled as organic. The company is reliable in terms of supplying products that are up to the required ethics, health and lifestyle standards.
Lafleur Trading Company makes use of the latest technology to transport their products from producers to consumers within the shortest time possible and at a low cost. The company controls its overhead and shipping costs in order to remain competitive. The products are also sold at a relatively low price. Lafleur Trading specializes in selling fruits and vegetables, seafood, wine and cheese.
Lafleur Trading Company has several stake holders. One category of the stakeholders of Lafleur Trading Company is the employee of the company. The company employs a host of employees in different capacities. There are people employed in handling the company’s products such as wine, cheese and horticultural products. These individuals are concerned with preserving these products and ensuring they are in good condition. The company also hires quality assurance individuals who are in charge of ensuring that the foods meet the expected standards before they are sent to the clients. Finally, there are the employees who are responsible for the transportation services such as ships, airplanes and vehicles.
The employees are dedicated stake holders in the company and are also the most important. They are regarded by the company’s management as the life blood of Lafleur Trading Company. The employees are a reflection of Lafleur’s image and organizational culture. They are hardworking individuals whose main objective is to deliver high quality services to clients of the company. They are also friendly individuals because they have high public relations expertise. Their interaction with clients and other stakeholders is unrivalled. The employees are true professionals and contribute largely to the success and reputation of Lafleur Trading Company. The employees represent the company’s mission, which is the provision of high quality service to clients at the lowest price possible.
The second group of stakeholders of Lafleur Trading Company is its customers. The customers of Lafleur Trading Company are spread all over the world. This is because of the company’s strategy to enter partnerships with other companies around the world. Today Lafleur operates with partners in over 38 countries all over the world. There are clients for each of the products that Lafleur Trading Company supplies which includes wine, cheese, seafood and fruits and vegetables. These clients are identified all over the world by the company’s partners. The clients are regarded highly by the company. They also receive high quality services from the company.
The other stakeholders in this company include the company’s management. The company’s top management includes the chief executive officer (CEO), the chief operations officer, the chief financial officer and the chief information officer. The CEO of the company is the head of the company and oversees the company’s performance and day to day operations in all other departments and countries in which the company operates. Below the chief executive officer are three heads of the company’s top three divisions; the chief operations officer, the chief financial officer and the chief information officer. The chief information officer is in charge of the company’s informational needs. This officer is also responsible for the company’s initiatives in improving technology. The Chief Financial Officer heads the financial department in the company. He oversees all the financial activities in the company. These include new project appraisals, accounting records and other issues related to financial management. The chief operations officer is in charge of the company’s day to day operations within the country and abroad. The three officers in charge of the three key departments report to the chief executive officer.
The general public is also an important stakeholder in Lafleur Trading Company. The people living around the company benefit from the company’s corporate social responsibility activities. They are also important to the company because they are the people who comprise the company’s employees, client and even business partners. The general public is important because they are the producers of the company’s products for sale. The company’s reputation also lies with the general public. They have played a major role in ensuring that Lafleur Trading Company becomes a successful international food company.
Lafleur Trading Company performs with a number of tasks and activities in its line of business as it strives to achieve its mission and vision. The first one is the delivery of service and production of quality products. The company’s main products are fruits and vegetables, wine, cheese and seafood. There is a wide range of seafood the company supplies. They include caviar, oysters, Coho salmon, king salmon, lobsters, swordfish, crabs, shrimp, scallops, pickerel, yellow perch, whitefish, char, clams and pike. The seafood is taken from producers when it is fully processed and ready for consumption. The company’s duty is to deliver the products to the clients wherever they are in the world.
The company also trades fruits and vegetables such as apples, potatoes, pears and berries. There are over 100 kinds of fruits and vegetables that the company trades in different parts of the world. Cheese also forms a huge part of the company’s business. The company sells over 25 kinds or flavors of cheese. Wine sold by the company includes both white wine and red wine. Each of the two kinds incorporates a wide range of specific brands supplied by the company to clients all over the world. With all these products and delivery services, Lafleur trading company adheres to its mission of giving its clients high quality at affordable prices.
Lafleur Trading Company has a well-organized system linking the products, services and the company to the surrounding community. The products that the company sells are mostly obtained from the neighboring community. This is especially so for the case of fruits and vegetables. This makes the company have a good relationship with the community because of the good business relationship it has with the community. Furthermore, the company also sells its products to people from the same community. This client-company and company-producer relationship helps in developing a cordial relationship with the public. The company also has a lot of corporate social responsibility initiatives for the people in the community around. This is to appreciate the people as important stakeholders in the company.
The communication variables of the Lafleur Trading Company has an elaborate communication system that has enabled the company grow to great heights. The company’s top management organizes executive meetings on a regular basis to communicate the organization’s performance and project on how the company should operate in the future and what projects to undertake. Lafleur Trading Company executive meets monthly with the company’s board of directors in the company’s board room to discuss matters of strategic importance to the company. Besides, the top managers have one on one meeting with one another and also with their junior employees to deliberate of the company’s performance, short term goals and day to day operations. This has enabled the company to perform well because there is free flow of information from the top to the bottom of the management hierarchy and vice versa. The relationship between the management and that of other employees is cordial because the company seeks to promote public relations within and outside the company. This is why the employees enjoy hallway chats while at work to foster unity but at the same time remaining professional. This promotes information flow among employees.
The internal communication systems are conducted using different approaches. The first is the use of official meeting between managers, managers and employees or managers and the board of directors. These are official communication mechanisms where important information is relayed to concerned parties. There is also the informal but professional approach by the company where employees are allowed to interact with one another freely to share personal experiences in the company and develop personal relationships with one another. However, the external communication mechanisms are kept official and are only done by selected individuals in the company. This is meant to ensure that only accepted and official information is relayed to other stakeholders outside the company.
The communication structure in the company is designed in a way that for official information, protocol is followed to the later. However, there is also a mechanism where free communication takes place between a manager and another manager, employees and their colleagues, a manager and his subjects or the CEO and the top managers. This mechanism also adheres to protocol because one can only communicate with the person they report to or their subjects.
The channels of communication in Lafleur Trading Company are diverse. The company has embraced the newest technology possible to ensure that there is efficient communication between all stakeholders. The employees, clients and producers communicate through telephone, face to face and through computer digitized forms such as email and online chats. There is also communication through documents such as letters where only impersonal document are acceptable. This is an indication that Lafleur Trading is a modern company that has developed its systems of effective communication to boost its performance and transparency.
References
Dainton, M., & Zelley, E. D. (2010). Applying Communication Theory for Professional Life: A Practical Introduction (2, illustrated ed.). New York: SAGE.
Perloff, R. M. (2012). The Dynamics of Persuasion: Communication and Attitudes in the Twenty-First Century (4, illustrated, revised ed.). New York: Taylor & Francis.
West, D. L. (2009). Introducing Communication Theory: Analysis and Application (4 ed.). New York: McGraw-Hill Education.
