Abstract
Green, fair trade companies, face unique problems since they are not oriented to maximizing profits. Indeed, they aim at improving the welfare of the members and create social and environmental impacts. As such, there is a conflict of interests from the multi-objective stakeholders. However, the study shows that careful analysis of the problems and initiating problem-solving techniques such as participatory management, strategic plans and use of qualified personnel reduce the challenges.
1.0 Background of the Study
This section entails the history of the company, vision, core values as well as the vision. Additionally, it outlines the events and activities that are in line with the fair trade as well as social and environmental standards.
1.1 Cafe Campesino
This is a fair trade as well as an organic coffee company founded in the year 1998. Notably, the company is the first 100% fair trade company in Georgia. It supplies coffee to individual buyers, coffee houses and restaurants among other buyers across the United States and Canada among other countries as noted by Waridel (2002). Additionally, the company operates online sales as both retailer and wholesalers with the central location as the Americus, Georgia. The heart of the company is the green policy in all the aspects of the coffee production; therefore, it makes sure that the negative effects of the chemicals used in farming do not affect the farmers. Particularly, the small-scale farmers tend to keep the pesticides and the chemical fertilizers in their room where they reside. Agreeably, this is a health hazard, and the main aim of the company is to cut this trend by going green in the coffee production. Given that the coffee is produced is sloppy areas, the washed chemical by the rains ends up in the water catchment areas. This leads to the waterborne diseases because of water contamination. Thus, the green policy is underscored in the vision of the company which states, “A business world in which open, honest, fair, and direct relationships connect and positively impact producers and consumers and everyone in between.”
Additionally, the core values of the company insist on roasting and brewing quality organic, fair trade coffee. Still, the values are farmers obsessed by focusing on long-term business relationships with them. Therefore, they aim at generating sufficient income for the farmers and giving them value for the produce and hand work. Notably, the company associates with extensive communities such as the local communities, social justices, economic and environmental partners. As such, the company has to embrace and deal with the varied differences and demands of all the communities surrounding its operations. Owing to the differing interests of these groups, the company has to do the right thing regardless of the consequences. Otherwise, the company would not attain the visions due to the divided attentions. The company participates in events and activities that are in line with the fair trade. For instance, it takes part in the World Fair Trade Day and the Habitat for Humanity Global Village Program. Additionally, it participates in the community activities such as the Bike Ride across Georgia and the Paddle Georgia. This is indicative of the company’s commitment to the welfare of the community.
2.0 Introduction
Fair trade entails enterprises by social groups with the aim of uplifting the producers, especially in developing countries, to attain better trade terms while promoting the sustainability of the environment as discussed by O'Neill (2010). Particularly, it advocates for better payments for the produces and adherence to the set social and environmental standards. As such, fair trade is against exploitation and child labor for all the registered organizations. Moreover, they aim at rewarding the farmers with fair wages and high prices for their products. In other instances, there is minimum prices scheme that shields the farmers from unfair prices even in the events that the world prices are not favorable. This has a lot of benefits to the farmers; for instance, the farmers in Nicaragua increased their earnings by 30% after become certified as Fairtrade in the year 2004. The programs in the fair trade may extend to wells and crop diversification to improve the productivity of the land without using chemicals. More specifically, organic farming maintains the soil productivity and keeps the environment clean. In the United States, various products are produced through the fair trade program; they include banana, coffee and cocoa among others. This has given the farmers value and facilitated the consumers’ safety through the green products.
As such, the study will discuss the problems related to the company that will be addressed in the paper such as inadequate funds, non-coffee products, and limited products in the menu of the coffee stores. Still, the discussion will look at the importance of handling the problems experienced by the company, alternative solutions, and the business's requirements to facilitate the adoption of suggested solutions to the noted challenges. After that, the study will highlight the expected results upon adoption of the solutions and also create a strategic plan of hiring the qualified personnel. Lastly, the research will draw conclusions based on the general information provided in the entire discussion.
3.0 Problems that need to be addressed
Café Campesino has experienced several major challenges in the attainment of the both the core values and the business objectives due the intrinsic limitations of the green policy. This has reduced the results of the company and diverted its focus. The discussion below illustrates some of the problems facing the fair trade, green company.
In the first case, the company has witnessed closure of some coffee stores due to the limited products in the menu. Notably, the company set to expand its menu with such products as the teas and the smoothie. However, this brought challenges in the management, and it reduced the strength of the company’s green policy brand. Despite that the company needs to increase its revenue through diversifying the menu, it should not lose focus on the vision, which entails improvement of the farmers’ welfare while maintaining the environmental standards. Most of the added products in the menu increase the company earning and not the welfare of the coffee farmers.
Going green
The green policy encompasses stringent and consistent actions that at times reduce the return on the investments. Additionally, the company is going through a change of income and cost streams which slows the objectivity and adherence to the set goals. Notably, going green and maintaining the social and environmental standards are a moral responsibility among all the stakeholders in the fair trade. However, given that they are a large number of communities associated with the company it becomes difficult to maintain the green policy due to conflict of interests. For instance, there have been challenges in implementing some policies at personal levels such as recycling the water bottles, turning the lights and the air conditions off when they are not in use in the company office. Still, there is a challenge in the planning and implementation of the green policy. Here, the business plan seems to compromise the green policies in some aspects of the company. In the short term, it reduces the earnings of the farmers. Additionally, the farmers tend to believe that use of inorganic fertilizers and chemicals increase their output. However, it reduces the productivity of the land in the long-term. Thus, imparting these new lessons to the farmers has not been effective across the board.
Limited products
The Café Campesino's coffee stores have been noted to offer limited products that lead to the closure of some stores. Notably, the Atlanta location was closed due to the absence of lunch menu in the café. Additionally, there is the issue of limited space to hold more customers in the coffee stores. This has reduced the income stream to the company because of the low sales income and the limited products that do not attract a large number of customers. Likewise, the company's products do not give it a strong competitive rivalry power against the beverage giants such as the Nestle. Therefore, the company needs to embark on improving the quality of the brewed coffee to generate more income to the farmers. This would be instrumental in fulfilling the vision of the company. Still, the customers' service does not fare well with the expectations of the clients, which reduces the rate of resale of the brewed coffee in the company's store around the country. Basically, integrating the food menu to the coffee based company's store is a thorny issue for the Café Campesino's. This has both the negative and potential positive impact on the business. It might obscure the vision of the company and turn the fair trade to profit-oriented business that will not deliver its promises to the farmers. Alternatively, it will earn high profits from the sales of the food products. Therefore, the management should weigh the net effect of expanding the limited menu and customer's services.
Inadequate fund
The company faces the problem of the insufficient fund to implement its green policy as well as expand the number of the coffee stores around the United States. This could also be the cause of the limited space and products offered by the store. Here, the main focus is to improve the welfare of the farmers by paying fair wages and high prices. In other cases, the company pays prices that are higher than the market prices acting on the minimum price scheme. This reduces the funds available to carry out the daily operations of the company as well as implement the strategic plans. This has negative effects on the welfare of the company and other stakeholders at large. For instance, it reduces the number of potential partners in the company considering that most of the retailers and the wholesalers dealing with the company are profit oriented. Moreover, the creditors tend to avoid the companies that have insufficient operating capital since the return on the investment is low. This would hold their money for longer than agreed; thus inconveniencing the creditors’ strategic plans. Moreover, the company may fail to meet the daily obligations such as wages and be paying the farmers due to low operating capital. Thus, the long-term plans of the company will take longer than expected due to the inadequate funds in the company owing to the nature of its business, fair trade.
4.0 Importance of addressing the outlined problems
Addressing the listed problems in the Café Campesino will yield lots of benefit to the company and its members. Firstly, the company will meet its vision and the strategic goals earlier than stipulated in the plans. For instance, having the right amount of funds will serve lots of purpose in attaining the goals of the company. Some of the funds will be used in educating the farmers on the best coffee growing practices and the importance of going green to their land productivity as well as the entire environment. Additionally, the fund will attract more investors who will inject cash that will facilitate renting of big coffee stores that will hold large customers. Likewise, the number of products will also increase as well as the number of qualified attendants to improve the customer services. Secondly, the company will increase a number of sales income through the market for value. Some of the customers are quite conscious about the environment, and they base their sales on the company CSR. As such, implementing the green policies will see the revenue increase because of the induced demand because of environment-friendly production techniques. As such, the management needs to underscore the importance of organic farming among the farmers by setting a good example for the routine activities. These include switching off the lights and the air conditionals that are not in use in the company offices. Still, recycling of the bottles will also send positive gestures to all the stakeholders. Eventually, there will be sustainability and efficient use of the resources in the company and the societies associated with it.
Besides, offering wide products that are in line with the vision of the company will have numerous benefits to the company. For instance, offering products that will create value for the farmers will increase their morale and focus on increasing the quality of the coffee grown. Therefore, paying higher prices for the organic coffee will offset the decrease in output due to cutting inorganic prices. Additionally, the incremental income will enable the farmers to employ adults in picking coffee and not use the cheap child labor as discussed by Hunt (2012). Therefore, solving the problems in the company will go a long way in maintaining the social and environmental standards. Finally, it will increase the cooperation between the company and the communities surrounding it. The working green policies and the improved welfare of the stakeholders will attract the communities and the company to work together. This is quite important in meeting the strategic and the main goals of the company. Moreover, there will be varied views and opinions that will improve the problem-solving approaches in the company due to the diversity of opinions brought by the stakeholders. Additionally, it will give the farmers a chance to voice their views to the management through the forums and fair trade seminars. As such, keeping the differences aside to tackle the company challenges will benefit all the stakeholders in the coffee business.
5.0 Alternative solutions to the problems facing the Café Campesino
The section evaluates the possible solutions to the problems facing the company in the implementation of the green policy as well as achieving the vision of the fair trade.
Sacco’s and banks
Trade fairs and seminars
The company should embark on organizing more trade fairs and seminars as well as participating in such activities. This has the many advantages to the company, the farmers as well as other communities. For instance, the farmers can learn about organic farming and how the program increases the productivity of the land in the long terms. Still, the company will have a chance of presenting its business model to the financiers who may come to its aid. This will also win more buyers who may have interest in the products offered by the company. Additionally, all the stakeholders will learn about ways of improving the quality of the coffee produce, the market trends and the best farm practices as well as integration of technology in the coffee production as indicated by Bilham-Boult (2001). This will cut the operation costs and increase the company’s working capital.
Hire professionals
The company is struggling with customer services and challenges of the food menu in the menu of the coffee stores. Here, the company has one major solution that can reverse these and other related problems. It needs to employ highly qualified workers to run the coffee stores and also oversee other critical aspects of the business. Additionally, it will aid with expertise on ways to foresee and evade the predictable business cycles. Qualified workers have numerous advantages despite that they require high wages and compensations. For instance, they win new clients and regain the lost clientele since they have wide knowledge in the customer services. Still, they are able to discern complications in the company and initiate the right actions to solve them as put by Baker and McKenzie, CCH Australia Limited and Macquarie University. (2010). Finally, they are highly productive in all aspects of the business ranging from customers services, coffee brewing, and management and training the farmers among other activities.
Work morality and ethics
The company needs to come up with robust and workable ethics to act as a guide to various stakeholders in the coffee production. This will make sure that the employees in all the areas ranging from the production, supply, and coffee stores as well as in the community activities exercise due diligence and due care. The ultimate effect is quality green coffee beans that command high prices on the market. Particularly, the poorly performing sectors such as the customer services in the coffee stores will see improved sales volume. This will also restrict the farmers from using the inorganic fertilizers and other chemicals since they care for the environment as its stewards. It is important to note that the single drive of work ethics is subscription to morality. Thus, there should be an appeal to do the right thing for the sake of common goodness.
Participatory management
This approach of the directorate brings together all the stakeholders’ opinions and views concerning any aspects of the company. Afterwards, the management has to implement the views and opinions through the policies made. This reduces the change resistance since all stakeholders own the changes. This should be applied to the farmers to improve the uptake of green coffee growing methods. Besides, the employees in the company should be given a chance to give their views on the best approach to conserve the energy beyond switching off lights and fans. In similar manner, other communities need to be brought on board to increase the level of adherence to the policies adopted by the company. Eventually, the company will have successful sustainable routine activities.
6.0 What the company must do to implement the recommendations
For the company to effectively implement the discussed solutions, it is important to make the conditions right for change implementation. In the ensuing discussion, the report offers some of the recommendations that will fasten the rate of adopting the solutions to the problems facing the company.
Increase the number of coffee-growing communities
The aim of increasing the coffee-growing communities around the world is to reduce the cost of operation throughout the green coffee production process. For instance, having larger communities will lower the cost of training the farmers since a field officer will serve large number of farmers thus lowering the remuneration costs. Additionally, the large communities will produce more coffee that affords the production process the economics of scale. The factory and workers among other resources will be put to optimum use thus lowering the unit costs of the products. Finally, having many farmers within a certain locality will be the first step towards forming sizable Sacco’s that will pool enough savings and demand for the inputs. Therefore, the company should initially increase the number of farmers under its umbrella.
Make strategic plans
Strategic plan entails the set priorities that coordinate the strengths, resources, the opportunities and the energy in an organization towards the certain desirable goals. As such, it will brings together all the stakeholders in the green, fair trade coffee company to work towards improving the welfare of the farmers. The participatory management in the strategic planning will aid the company in making the decisions on issues that are stagnate the company such as the food menu and expansion of products offered by the coffee stores. Additionally, this will help in gathering the funds required to implement the green policies and expand the operations of the company.
Improve the quality of green coffee beans
The company needs to improve the quality of the coffee beans through various activities in the farming communities in all the countries of operations. This has many advantages in the institution of the suggested solutions. For instance, with high quality green beans it gets easier to access loan and also attract many and worthwhile investors. Eventually, this will generate sizable return on the investment that will be applied in developing new products and increasing the farmers’ prices, fair wages and hire professionals in the coffee production. Besides, high quality production will boost the morale of the farmers to attend the trade fairs and seminars to boost their production.
Have strategic demonstration farms around the community
The final suggestion for the company is to make the situation right for the implementation of the suggestion solutions is to set strategic demonstration farms in the communities that grow coffee. This has many benefits to the solutions implementation plans and in reduction of the operation costs. For instance, the demonstration firms will be used in training the farmers on the good practices in the green coffee farming. Thus, it will cut the cost of training and increase the farmers turn up since the farms are within their communities. It will also increase the quantity and quality of the coffee produced due to the readily available and continuous training of the farmers.
7.0 Expected results
Upon the implementation of the discussed solutions by the company, farmers and other stakeholders in the green, fair trade coffee industry have expectation regarding the outcome. Thus, the section outlines some of the expected results.
Fair wages
The farmers associate high quality produce and effective management with fair wages for their efforts. This will result from the collection of the planned activities and plans that add to the income stream. For instance, there will be expanded products in the coffee houses, more market overseas for the improved quality green coffee and the added investments and loans. This will increase the sales revenue of the company’s green coffee products. Given that the objective of the firm is to increase the welfare of the farmers, the income will trickle down to the workers and the farmers in the coffee farms.
High productivity
All the activities and the processes in the green, fair trade coffee company are expected to witness boost in the productivity and performance in comparison to the retailers dealing with coffee for profit. This will emanate from the fact that the company will hire professionals and trains the farmers on the best practices in green coffee growing. Besides, the increased cash flow from high sales, added investments and the participatory management will increase the opportunities for the company and the workers to develop their art in the coffee production. Still, working with large communities from different countries will increase the exchange of farming experiences that will improve the farmers practice.
Wide market and increased revenue
With high quality green coffee beans in the world the company will expand its sales in both the domestic and overseas markets. This result from the training offered to the farmers in growing and tending to the coffee without using chemicals and inorganic fertilizers. Additionally, the company will employ experienced markers and web designers who will foresee the awareness creation and promotion of the products to wider audiences across the globe. Still, the company will adopt the use of social media marketing to reach large number of potential buyers in different locations. This will boost sales and encourage the farmers to increase their productivity.
Market for value
The perception of the potential customers is quite varied and some of the buyers are conscious of the social and environmental responsibility. As such, the company is expectant of increased sales due to the market for value for clients who prefer the producers who care for the environments and ban child labor. This will be instrumental in creating a lasting and reliable brand among the existing and the potential customers around the world. In the long run, the company will have high sales at low costs on marketing due to the product image and the brand from its CSR.
High prices
This is the most obvious and expected results by both the farmers and the company. It emanates from the concerted efforts of all the stakeholders in the green, fair trade coffee company. For instance, the increased quality of green coffee beans, marketing activities, highly qualified personnel and the expansion in the market for the coffee products orient towards large sales. Therefore, these efforts should result in high prices for the products and income for the farmers.
8.0 Strategic plan for hiring the highly qualified professionals
Highly qualified personnel is an investment in the green, fair trade coffee company. The discussion below shows the strategic plan for acquiring the professionals, the involved costs and benefits as well as the goals and objectives expected at the end of the hiring process.
SWOT analysis for hiring high qualified personnel
Purpose
“Empowering small-scale coffee farmers, connecting communities, and inspiring conscious consumption - one great cup of coffee at a time."
Vision
"To encourage openness, honesty, fairness and foster direct relationship between producers and consumers."
Corporate values
Positive and innovate culture
Passion, focus and customer obsession
Key strategies goals
Qualified professional will be instrumental in improving the performance and effectiveness in various departments and strategic plans. The list below indicates the goals that will be given priority by the allocation of the acquired skilled labor force.
Increasing productivity of the company activities
Improving the quality of the coffee beans and the final products
Expanding the market and improve the efficiency of the marketing and promotion activities
Increase the effectiveness of the management and strategic decisions on food menu and product diversity
Strategic actions
Conclusion
The discussion leads to conclusions that resonate to a growing business that targets market for value. Firstly, the study indicates that the green products face serious challenges such as inadequate funds and difficulty in implementation of the policies due to conflict of interest such as the need to increase the profitability of the business at the expense of the social and environmental responsibilities. However, it shows that adherence to plans and using participatory management increases the performance of the company. Finally, the study shows that incorporating strategic plans in the management and in making organizational changes helps to anticipate benefits and shortcomings. As such, the strategic team prepares upfront to cut the impact of the negative effects.
References
Baker & McKenzie., CCH Australia Limited., & Macquarie University. (2010). Australian master human resources guide. North Ryde, N.S.W: CCH Australia.
Bilham-Boult, A. (2001). People, places and themes: GCSE Geography for the Bristol Project. Oxford: Heinemann.
Hunt, J. (2012). Fair trade. London: Raintree.
O'Neill, M. (2010). Green IT for sustainable business practice: An ISEB Foundation guide. Swindon: British Informatics Society.
Waridel, L. (2002). Coffee with pleasure: Just Java and the world trade. Montréal; New York, NY; London: Black Rose Books.
