Introduction
High Liner Foods is a premium North American seafood company that processes various types of sea food and sells them frozen packages. The company is widely reknowned in the sea food industry and its brands are known all over North America particularly in Canada and the United States. The company's operations commenced in the year 1899 with the founding of the company W.C. Smith & Company. Throughout the years, High Liners has grown rapidly, and its business operations are projected to reach a global scale very soon. One of the companies strengths that have facilitated its dominance in the sea foods market is its adaptability and flexibility that has enabled it to remain relevant and achieve a significant competitive advantage. If the company continues with this trend, its future is destined to be very bright indeed.
Vision Statement Analysis
The vision statement of High Liner Foods is to be the leading frozen seafood supplier in North America and a key component of the company strategy is to acquire profitable and complementary businesses like Atlantic Trading (HighlinerFoods, 2014).
According to the various characteristics of a good vision statement, the vision statement of High Liner Foods can be evaluated on the following parameters:
1. A well stated vision statement should ideally present the picture of the kind of company that the company management is trying to create and the market position of the company that it wants to achieve (Thompson, 2007). The vision statement of High Liner Foods correctly paints the picture of the company and its future market position.
2. A well-crafted vision statement provides information about the strategies that the company shall be implemented to achieve its vision and the destination it wants to achieve (Thompson, 2007). The vision statement of High Liner Foods provides details about the strategies of acquisition that it shall follow to be a business leader in the frozen seafood industry.
3. A good vision statement is well-focused to provide the direction to the managers and the employees of the company (Thompson, 2007). The vision statement of High Liner Foods is highly focused as it provides a specific direction to the employees to become a leader in frozen seafood industry through acquisition of quality companies.
4. The vision statement of the company should be flexible in its approach (Thompson, 2007). The vision statement of High Liner Foods is not much flexible in its approach. The earlier vision statements were though modified by the company so as to meet the challenges of the external environment.
5. A good vision statement addresses the long-term needs of the stakeholders of the company (Thompson, 2007). The vision statement of High Liner Foods addresses the long-term needs of the stakeholders of the company as the progress of the company to be a leader in its industry shall make it highly profitable and sustainable in the long run.
6. The vision statement of the company should be feasible and realistic to achieve in the future (Thompson, 2007). The vision statement of High Liner Foods is realistic and can be achieved by the company.
7. The vision statement of the company should be easy to communicate and remember. The vision statement of High Liner Foods is highly crisp and easy to remember by the company and its stakeholders.
Mission Statement Analysis
According to the company's mission statement, the team of the company brings value to the retail, food service and club store customers through a commitment to the development and delivery of high quality and innovative seafood and superior services (HighLinerFoods, Annual Report 2009, 2010).
A good mission statement is essentially supposed to have the following characteristics:
a) Specific to have an impact on the behavior of the entire organization (Wilson, 2010)
b) Should be grounded on customer needs than on product needs (Wilson, 2010).
c) Reflect the core skills of the organization (Wilson, 2010)
d) Reflect opportunities and threats (Wilson, 2010)
e) Attainable (Wilson, 2010)
f) Flexible (Wilson, 2010)
The mission statement of High Liner Foods meets the above six criteria and can be considered as a good mission statement.
SMART Objectives (Specific, Measurable, Assignable, Realistic and Time-bound)
The strategic goals of High Liner Foods for 2014 are supply chain optimization, profitable growth and succession planning (Investing.businessweek, 2014).
Looking at this SMART model, it appears that most of the strategies of High Liner Foods, in fact, abide by the stipulations of the model. Profitable growth is a realistic and specific objective that the company can be achieved if it fully commits itself to the task. This also applies to the supply chain and succession planning The objectives are specific in nature because they serve all serve a specific purpose. They are also measurable as the market share of the company, and financial performance can determine the measurement of objective achievement. The objectives are also assignable in the sense that the management team of the organization has assigned responsibilities to various parties and stakeholders to achieve its strategic objectives. All these objectives are also realistic as they are highly realistic and achievable in the future. The organization also set a time frame for the
achievement of the objectives and this is the end of the year 2014.
External Analysis of High Liner Foods
The PESTEL analysis of High Liner Foods includes the analysis of the external political, economic, social, technological, environmental and legal environment factors analysis of the company.
Macro-Environment Trends
- Rising Political Influence
The political environment is one of the most dynamic in any business market. This is because the political scene is marked by constant political regime changes that institute various business policies once they ascend to power. Recent years have particularly witnessed increased political influence on business. This is the case in the seafood industry that has been subjected to various new policies enacted by political regimes. For instance, some politicians have been very active in campaigns against some of the activities and techniques that are involved in fishing, for example, whaling. Given this, any business entity that hopes to survive in a turbulent political environment that has in recent years have been characterized by increased influence on business operations must constantly adapt its strategy. High Liner Foods must keeps its ear on the ground constantly to establish some of the emerging political trends that might affect how it conducts its operations. This includes maintaining good relations with different political regimes. If it does this, High Liner Foods is bound to gain a significant competitive advantage against its rivals.
- Advancement of Technology
The massive influence of technology on almost every element of business cannot be understated. Recent years have been characterized by a massive advent of technology and businesses have been forced to adapt to remain relevant and competitive. This is no different in the seafood industry. Whether it is fishing techniques, food preparation, food packaging, advertising and marketing, the influence of technology cannot be understated. Technology has made business activities and operations more efficient. One of the areas where this has been felt is in marketing and advertising. New technological tools such as the social media have revolutionized how businesses market and advertise themselves. Social media has also availed an avenue through which a business such as High Liner Foods can communicate directly with customers and collect their views and opinions. In the future, High Liner Foods needs to tap even more into technology and utilize the tools at its disposal. To maintain a competitive advantage, the company needs to incorporate new technology in its food preparation, packaging and even marketing and advertising. This will increase its overall customer reach and increase its share of the market.
c) Culture shifts
Cultural shift is one again a very dynamic aspect. People in the business market constantly change their views, opinions and taste of various products, and constant reassurance and persuasion is needed to maintain them. As a seafood manufacturer, High Liner needs to be constantly at par with these cultural shifts and changes in customer’s tastes. It must constantly re-invent its product and enhance their quality to keep them interested. In addition, the company must, therefore, constantly conduct research to establish changing patterns and trends of people cultural orientation, opinions and tastes and respond to them appropriately.
Porter’s Five Forces Analysis
Industry Rivalry
The industry rivalry is high in the seafood industry in the USA. There are large size firms operating in the seafood industry, and the industry is characterized by few but highly competitive players. A high level of industry rivalry is indicative of a highly competitive industry that consists of a few large players that compete for profits.
Threat of New Entrants
The threat of new entrants is medium to low. The seafood industry is cost intensive, and a lot of capital expenditure is required to set up a seafood industry unit. The costly equipments required for quality seafood processing and quality check procedures makes the entry of new players difficult in the industry A huge amount of capital investment may be required to establish an organization in the industry that involve complex machinery and processing equipments. Due to such a high investment requirement, the likelihood of the entry of a new player in the industry is quite low. This makes the industry less attractive for the new entrants.The sunk costs of the seafood industry are high, and the learning curve is also higher. The strong brand names have a higher power in the seafood industry.
Threat of Substitutes
The threat of substitutes is medium as people opt for cheaper non-vegetarian food items such as chicken and eggs due to the high price of the seafood. The switching cost for buyers is low however the other options for seafood may not be able to substitute the seafood accurately. People are looking for low price seafood options to save money.The people who love seafood may not be satisfied with the substitute products such as chicken meat and may not choose to try the substitute products.
Bargaining Power of Buyers
The bargaining power of buyers is medium in the seafood industry in USA. The buyers have limited options for seafood in the USA. Seafood is in actual sense considered a luxurious food and there are not many companies that manufacture this food product. In addition, many consumers are unfamiliar with the processes of processing and packaging sea foods and most of them just take what they can get. All these factors contribute to the medium bargaining power of the buyer that is to a huge part an advantage to High Liner Foods. Medium bargaining power means that customers can't make many demands about the quality of products because they ultimately do not have a choice. Although this is advantage to the company as seen, it is however a disadvantage to the buyers how have to contend with the quality that is shipped out by the company.
Bargaining Power of Suppliers
The bargaining power of the suppliers is high in the USA seafood industry. There are limited suppliers for the seafood in the USA and therefore they have a high power. The volumes are critical to the suppliers and therefore they have a high power of the seafood processors. They tend to dictate their own terms and conditions and also supply in volumes. It may be difficult for a company to source seafood from many small suppliers than to deal with a few large suppliers. For a company such as High Liner Foods, high bargaining power of the suppliers hugely works to its disadvantage as it is constantly forced to heed to the demands of suppliers including the signing of contractual tenders among many other demands.
Conclusion
On the basis of the current strategic analysis of High Liner Foods, the mission and vision statements of the company have been found to conform to the characteristics of a good mission and a vision statement. The mission and vision statements of the organization clearly communicate their future strategies and are attainable and realistic. The smart goals of the organization have been well crafted to meet the long-term strategic goals of the company to be a leader in the frozen seafood segment. The external environment of the company has been analyzed through PESTEL and Porter Five Force Analysis, and the company needs to meet the challenges in its external environment.
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