Introduction
Maple Leaf Foods is a Canadian food manufacturing company that has experienced tremendous changes throughout its life. The organization makes for a rich case study because it registered a positive record for re-evaluating its vision and objective. MLF came into the limelight in 2008 for a tragic incident where its products caused 23 deaths and numerous incidents of sick people after consuming its meat products (MacMillan et al., 2020). This paper analyzes the organization’s reaction to the incident and subsequent business strategies taken by management to redefine MLF’s vision and purpose.
About Maple Food Products
Maple Leaf Foods was founded over 100 years ago by Michael McCain’s family as partners. MLF was originally part of a business chain before it began to exist independently as a publicly traded company. Over the years, the corporation has expanded with branches in Asia and America, thus increasing its value and place in the food industry.
In 2008, Maple Leaf Foods was hit by a crisis when one of its meat processing machines in Toronto got contaminated (MacMillan et al., 2020). This led to the production of contaminated meat products that reached the market. Thousands of consumers fell ill with listeriosis, while 23 people died of the disease (MacMillan et al., 2020). While CEO McCain took responsibility and assured the public that the organization was doing its best to uphold safe meat products, the incident instigated MLF’s commitment to impeccable quality and sustainable production.
Key Internal and External Factors in the Organizational Change
External Factors
At the time of the incident, the meat industry was fraught with pollution through industrial emissions, scarcity of natural resources, limited access to food, and increased prevalence of lifestyle diseases. The pressure to address these concerns triggered thoughtful questions like McCain asked, eventually leading to the shift to mindful production. While looking externally, MLF took time to benchmark from other industry players, particularly those dealing in sustainable food production. There was also a keen evaluation of regulations on carbon emission that informed the decision to embrace neutral carbon emission.
Internal Factors
MLF, being an industry leader, needed to realign its business model into a more sustainable one. At the same time, MLF’s leadership, led by McCain, was keen to streamline internal operations to deliver high-quality meat (MacMillan et al., 2020). MLF developed an action plan that entailed the appointment of a change leader, who then developed a change management plan. A review of the internal systems’ efficiencies, staff attitudes towards change, and extensive consultancy enabled seamless implementation of change.
Significance of Organizational Vision for Change Management
Since its inception, Maple Food’s business model has been grounded in profitability and expansion. MLF demonstrated this by acquiring Canada Bread Company Limited, investing more than $1 billion in its supply chain, and consolidating the less productive manufacturing plants, all in a bid to optimize its profits (MacMillan et al., 2020). Along with this, MLF’s management was keen to change its vision and purpose while involving its employees. Management knew that for the change to be effective, the new drive and vision must be authentic, inspiring, and resonate with its employees (Men et al., 2020). This knowledge guided management into consulting widely with experts and interviewing employees about their commitment to sustainability.
Challenges Faced by Maple When Implementing Organizational Change
One of the challenges of implementing sustainability MLF’s vision and purpose was that sustainable protein was a relatively new market niche. Lynda Kuhn, who led the change, had to dig for information (MacMillan et al., 2020). As the article says, the organization took almost two years to adopt a sustainable approach. MLF’s management had to work hard to gather information on market trends in sustainable food and the requirements for sustainable production. The efforts to gather these resources were intense, required resource investment, and delayed implementation.
Evaluation of Issues
The critical issues faced by Maple Leaf Foods were pertinent to the prevailing food industry. As a player in the industry, I needed to change the organization’s operations. As McCain stated, it was important for MLF to adopt best business practices (Stevenson, 2019). The accompanying decision to elevate sustainability from being a strategy to being the organization’s purpose was called for. This is because MLF had identified that sustainable meat was a fast-rising market niche. It was prudent for MLF to pursue this line of business as a way to gain a competitive advantage.
In line with this, Maple Foods handled the 2008 food poisoning incident correctly. McCain’s statement restored the trust of consumers. Besides this, they adopted sustainability as part of the organization’s vision by considering the state of the food industry. Case in point, sustainable production was a novel response to climate change concerns. They integrated the seven sustainability principles that provided access to healthy, safe, nutritious, and affordable products in response to rising food inequality (MacMillan et al., 2020). These commendable efforts propelled prompt attention to the meat industry’s critical internal and external dynamics.
Suggestions
Given the factors in play, Maple Foods could have considered product innovation, such as introducing new meat products that are less harmful and more sustainable in the ecosystem (Tourangeau & Scott, 2022). With product innovation, Maple Foods would have invested in a Research and Development facility. Such a facility would need experts with immense capital investment to develop new products. Another alternative would have been switching to alternative protein products, especially plant ones. Plant proteins offer more sustainability than animal proteins because they are harder to deplete. Plant proteins are also considered healthy for consumption.
However, switching to plant protein would require an overhaul of the manufacturing plants, training, and thorough market analysis to understand consumption preferences better. Alternatively, Maple Foods would have gradually transitioned by introducing plant-based products while observing consumers’ reception (Chan et al., 2020). Based on the performance of the new products, management will have primary information to make informed decisions on the way forward.
Recommendations
Based on the above alternatives, I would have recommended that Maple Foods re-evaluate its internal system. Conducting a SWOT Analysis enables identification of an organization’s status. This also entails an examination of MLF’s capacity to adopt change. The internal analysis would also help to reflect on all possible alternative pathways to addressing sustainability and healthy and safe production.
Regarding the commitment to sustainability, I recommend that Maple Foods extend its goals to its supply chain. Involving suppliers in the sustainability initiative helps to align all activities in a sustainable direction (World Health Organization, 2019). Another recommendation is to communicate the commitment to all its stakeholders, not employees. Also, MFL would consider including proper food waste management principles to preserve the plants’ neighborhoods.
Conclusion
In light of the above, Maple Leaf Food exemplifies the true definition of business with a purpose. Through the incident that shook its reputation, Maple Foods restored its position as a leading-edge meat manufacturer. Moreover, aside from profitability, Maple Food acted swiftly to redefine its business purpose. MLF took the necessary steps to introduce change without rushing to change its vision and purpose unthinkingly. A continued commitment to its sustainability principles is bound to set Maple Foods apart as a pacesetter in the global food industry.
References
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MacMillan, K., Bansal, T., & Montgomery, W. (2020). Maple Leaf Foods: Changing the system. Ivey Business School Foundation. Web.
Men, L. R., Yue, C. A., & Liu, Y. (2020). “Vision, passion, and care:” The impact of charismatic executive leadership communication on employee trust and support for organizational change. Public Relations Review, 46(3). Web.
Stevenson, C. P. (2019). Maple Leaf case study: An example of crisis management. [PDF]. Swlawyers. Web.
Tourangeau, W., & Scott, C. M. (2022). Critical reflections on” humane” meat and plant-based meat” alternatives”. Canadian Food Studies, 9(1). Web.
World Health Organization. (2019). Sustainable healthy diets: Guiding principles. Web.