CASE STUDY
STATE OF FLUX
2014 GLOBAL SRM RESEARCH REPORT
82
CASE STUDY
CASE STUDY
A PROCESS THAT WAS FIT FOR PURPOSE
AN INFORMED ANALYSIS OF THE CURRENT SITUATION IS THE BASIS FOR ANY IMPROVEMENT PROGRAMME Dairy Crest recognised that the first step in developing stronger relationships with its farmers was to gain a better understanding of how they were perceived as a milk buyer. To do so, Dairy Crest needed to obtain honest feedback from this key stakeholder group, which posed two problems: ö ö Firstly, there is the logistical challenge. Obtaining and collating feedback from nearly 1,100 different suppliers is a huge task and is impossible to achieve without a robust methodology and dedicated resource. ö ö Secondly, it is known that relations between farmers and milk buyers across the whole industry have been strained over the years, and there still exists a level of uncertainty that could inhibit open and honest feedback. It was in this context that Dairy Crest decided to partner with an independent third party to conduct their research and selected State of Flux. While not experts in the dairy industry, we have developed a robust methodology for collecting and analysing supplier feedback through our Voice of the Supplier projects. It was this combined with our willingness to listen, learn and assimilate industry knowledge quickly that gave the management team at Dairy Crest the confidence to go with State of Flux for this project. WE BUILT UPON OUR STANDARD RESEARCH METHODOLOGY TO CREATE A BESPOKE PROJECT TAILORED TO THE DAIRY INDUSTRY The tried and tested methodology of our Voice of the Supplier offering, developed and refined over years, across a range of industry sectors – was the starting point. The Voice of the Supplier projects focus on various aspects of the relationships that a company has with some of its suppliers, usually to gain a holistic understanding of: ö ö How these relationships are perceived in an absolute sense. ö ö How they compare with the known or presumed competitors of the commissioning organisation. It should be noted here that competitors in this context do not always mean in the same industry sector or market. A competitor when it comes to products or services from a supplier could well be in a totally different line of business.
The aptly named Voice of the Farmer variant of this process developed for Dairy Crest, had to address a number of unique challenges. Firstly, the suppliers in this case are often small family businesses. Secondly, the ‘CEO’ of these businesses is often also the COO, CFO and the production operator. It was unlikely they would be sitting in front of a computer checking their emails. It was therefore vital that the communication strategy be carefully considered to engage all farmers. At each stage of the project, we revised our standard approach to ensure it was fit for purpose. Step 1 – Questionnaire design Our initial thoughts were that we would need to design a completely new question. However, when we reviewed our standard questions with Dairy Crest it became evident that the same key themes were just as relevant to the dairy industry as others. What was needed was a common sense approach to wording the questions in a way that was relevant to the issues in the dairy sector and could be easily understood by a wide cross-section of farmers. Unnecessary ‘business’ language was avoided – it was crucial that Dairy Crest would not miss important feedback from its farmers because communication style and channels were not adapted to the target groups. We collaborated closely with Dairy Crest on this and sense checked the questions with industry ‘insiders’. Step 2 – Online survey We debated at length the best way to reach out and engage farmers in the process. We concluded that for the most part the farming community is as technically ‘savvy’ as any other, and that the main thrust of our survey strategy would be via email. A paper copy of the survey was also made available, but in the event only a handful were used. It was recognised that online surveys are on the increase and it was important that the Dairy Crest Voice of Farmer would stand out from the crowd. A novel solution was introduced involving Dairy Crest making a £5 donation to a farming charity for every survey response received. Step 3 – Data analysis By combining question responses and the free text facility embedded in the questionnaire, we were able to identify common themes emerging from the responses. In some cases these were related to the key themes around which the question set was designed, but in other cases we picked up key words or phrases that emerged across a range of responses. This helped us identify useful feedback for Dairy Crest and also the areas we wanted to explore further during the interview stage.
At Dairy Crest we believe the high quality milk from our British farms is our greatest asset. We want to do all we can to understand the needs of our farmers in order to ensure a working relationship based on trust and pride. We see the Voice of the Farmer as key to understanding the needs of our farmers and ensuring we continue to work as partners. Mike Sheldon, Group Procurement Director
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