The Story about The Milk Factory - Essay Example

Act 1 Once upon a time, there was an old man, whose empire of milk drinks was going down. His company was called The Milk Factory. The main product’s brand name was Fresh Milk. The old man, as you could see, was not very creative with names. The old man’s milk business was once thriving, but recently failing. The growing health trend against cow’s milk and the old man’s resistance to adding vegetable-based milk to the company’s product portfolio were killing the company’s bottom-line. The old man also had problems expanding to new states and adding more kinds of products. He was the father of conservative, local thinking. The old man himself once milked his cows. He sold fresh, raw milk in bottles to the local grocery store. He once said: “The only good milk is fresh cow’s milk.” If people went to his farm now and asked him for almond milk, he would gladly throw a pail at them. He was not very friendly. In fact, he liked his cows more than people. He stayed at the farm, while his wife managed their company. The old man’s only son, Allisfair, was not a man of business. He preferred history and arts. He was an arts teacher at the local college. He also read books to children in the slums twice every weekend. He was thirty-five years old, married to a fellow arts teacher, and has one daughter, two-year-old Ashley Bear. Her second name came from the old man’s name himself. Despite not wanting to manage the business, Allisfair was concerned of his family’s legacy. His mother died three years ago from breast cancer, and since then, the old man went from grumpy to grumpier. Allisfair was not close to his stern father. After all, the old man hated the arts and history. He always said: “No one wants to study the past or the arts because they can’t raise families.” That hurt Allisfair dearly. At the company, the old man wanted to look for a new CEO after firing the last one. The last one created an expensive marketing program that flopped. The old man wanted to smack that last CEO, but his staff stopped him. That was the first time he went to the company office, after fifty years of staying in the farm, and he wanted to get into a brawl. Allisfair wanted to help the old man. He visited his father at the farm and told his father that he would like to help in finding a fitting candidate. The old man was unhappy at first, because he wanted his son to manage the business, not intervene in the CEO selection process, but he was old and exhausted. He thought he tried everything and maybe his son has a trick or two under his sleeve to determine the best. He told Allisfair: “You should bear this problem. You’re supposed to be the CEO. If you can’t be one, then at least find me someone whom I would not punch in the face for his foolishness.” Allisfair smiled. His father never changed a bit. At this point, the company had three applicants for the CEO position: Jason, Brad, and Alan. The old man already formally interviewed these three men. They were all in their early 40s. They were young, but they were promising. The old man liked Jason because he worked for a competitor. He was an operations manager for ten years. He was a numbers kind of guy. He liked talking about profits and driving down costs. Besides Jason, the old man also liked Brad. He seemed to be a bit vain though, because the old man joked about his “impeccable clothing style” in a sarcastic tone and Brad looked visibly offended. Nevertheless, he liked how Brad talked about creating a new vision for the company. Brad was interested in manufacturing popular milk products that were in demand. As for Alan, the old man liked him too. Alan enjoyed talking about his family, unlike Jason and Brad. Alan narrated that his three-year-old son just started talking a bit more and he was excited. He said that “Mikey didn’t like talking at all and that bothered me. I can accept him if that’s what he is, but this is a competitive world we live in and language is our currency to success.” The old man sensed that Allan was a hands-on father, which bothered him. He felt that he was never there for Allisfair. He was more there for his cows than his own son. The old man realized after the interview that he and Alan talked more about families than the business. The old man told the screening committee that they must be strict and effective in choosing the right candidate. He emphasized that if they could not pick a CEO who could deliver real results, he would fire all of them. He said that he would be putting his son, Allisfair, in charge, and that they would follow any new decision and procedure from him that would result to choosing the best candidate. The screening committee shuddered in fear. Their jobs were on the line and yet the old man put an inexperienced arts professor as their leader. They thought about their happy memories at the company and how they would end in a month after the last two screening stages. The screening committee was made of three people: Beth, the head human resources manager; Lucas, the chief human resources assistant; and Pita, the top human resources employee of the company. Beth had been an HR manager for six years. She designed the CEO selection process. She was a career woman and never got married. Her first job was with The Milk Factory and she was extremely loyal to it. Lucas had worked for the company for three years. He liked the company’s culture and work environment. Pita was new and competitive, perhaps too competitive for the company culture. Nevertheless, she was slowly realizing that she liked the “we are family” culture of the company and wanted to move upward in it. The first screening stage for the CEO involved the first formal and informal interviews. They interviewed each applicant. The first interview was formal. The screening committee interviewed all candidates in the office through a panel interview, which included the old man. The purpose of this interview was to collect more information about the qualifications of the candidates. After this, they also interviewed the applicants over lunch. They talked about the work and life experiences of the candidates. The old man asked them about their past jobs and why they left them. Jason left his job because of lack of upward mobility in his company; Brad left because he also felt he was not growing in his company; and Alan left because of poor working relationship with his boss. Allisfair’s job was to make sure that the second and final screening methods chose the truly best candidate who fit the company’s organizational culture and whose values and interpersonal communication style were important to a transformational leader. They needed a transformational leader because morale was low and people were talking about resigning already before the company declared bankruptcy. Allisfair would be in charge of the second and final screening stages. Allisfair thought he should use an informal approach to determine who these candidates were in real life. He felt that, because these candidates did not know him, he could be a devil’s advocate. He could be ruthless and he could see how they would react. Allisfair said: “I would be the wolf to these three little pigs.” He let out an imaginary evil laugh in his mind. Allisfair would have been an actor, if he did not become an arts teacher. Allisfair had a meeting with the screening committee. He told them of his plans. They were all mum. His ideas were fresh, but they were afraid they would lose their jobs if his methods were wrong. They agreed to implement his proposed changes. They all prayed the rosary at an indoor chapel afterwards. They prayed hard that everything will go well. Act 2 The second phase involved an informal interview that had an observation stage. They had dinner at the most expensive restaurant in the state. They had three dinners for three subsequent nights in total because they wanted to interview each applicant individually. The first night with Jason went well at first. The screening committee introduced Allisfair to him as a promising intern. They asked him about his plans for the company. Jason said: “I think that we should start making new products. Vegetable milk is the rave nowadays. We should get an early head start. We could easily expand by acquiring small vegetable milk companies.” Allisfair said nothing. He agreed that the company needed new products. The main test was asking the applicants about the kinds of things that discourage them. Jason answered: “Poor pay, long hours, and a neurotic board.” He smiled after saying the last. Allisfair asked him: “What do you mean poor pay?” Jason replied: “Too poorly-paid to be called a CEO?” He laughed and added: “Some CEOs get 400 times the pay of their first-rank employees. I think that’s too much. I think that 200 times more would be good enough.” Allisfair asked once more: “Why should we pay you 200 times more? Are you going to create 200 times more value than our average workers?” Jason looked stunned. He pursed his lips before saying: “You bet I would.” Allisfair pushed further: “How? How are you going to create 200 times more value than our average workers?” Jason’s forehead furrowed. He answered: “Well I, I would be the best CEO there is. Period.” He started to eat. His hands were shaking a bit. Allisfair looked at his fellow committee members. They nodded and made mental comments about Jason. The second night with Brad became more revealing of who he was. When they sat at their table, Brad bragged: “You guys have taste! I eat here three times a week!” Allisfair crunched his face: “You mean you spend $1500 a week for food? Wow, that’s a very expensive lifestyle.” Brad raised his right eyebrow: “It’s a normal lifestyle for those who could afford it.” They asked him later about his plans for the company. Brad answered: “We need to revamp our company vision and mission. It’s not about fresh milk and good life only. It’s all about being popular and making money from what’s popular.” Allisfair then asked him about the kinds of things that discourage him. Brad replied: “Lack of recognition and respect discourage me.” Allisfair asked him again: “What do you want to be recognized for and what respect are you expecting?” Brad answered: “I want to be recognized for saving this company and turning it around. I have great plans for this company, great majestic plans.” Allisfair asked again: “So you’re our savior? I see. Okay, how about respect? What is respect for you?” Brad answered: “Respect means people must know who’s the boss and where they stand.” Allisfair asked: “Where would that be? Where do they stand?” Brand replied: “Behind me of course. To support me. To follow me.” The third night with Alan started late. Alan kept on apologizing for being late for fifteen minutes: “I am so deeply sorry. Mikey, my son, got sick, and my wife got stuck in traffic. We have no nanny and I couldn’t find anyone else. His fever was a bit high. Anyway, none of your concern right? Still, I’m so sorry for keeping you waiting.” They asked him about his plans for the company and he said: “I actually don’t know. I don’t know the company dynamics for real yet, though I understand that you have a family-atmosphere culture.” Allisfair raised his eyebrows: “You don’t know? I’m sorry. Then, what kind of a CEO would you be then if you don’t know?” Alan answered: “I have a general vision of turning the company around, but I would need a month or two to know the nature and direction of this turnaround. During this time, I want to talk to customers, employees from different departments, and managers. I want to talk to the community, suppliers, stores, and distributors. I want to be everywhere first before I can know if we can go anywhere as one company.” Allisfair hid his feeling of admiration and asked: “Well, that sounds like a lot of adjustment time. Anyway, what are the things that discourage you?” Alan: “If I become a CEO, I would be discouraged by lack of a vision that united us all. I would be discouraged by any internal division in the company. As a person, I would also be discouraged if the company did not have a shred of corporate social responsibility. I would also be extremely discouraged if I had been a poor husband and father. A lot of things may discourage me, but I like looking at the bright side of things. I like thinking that the glass is half full and waiting to be filled up whole.” The screening committee smiled. They made notes. The second phase of the selection process included a farm visit. The screening committed toured the three applicants individually to see the farm. They had a small group meeting with the people who managed the farm operations. They asked them about one greatest problem they could think of about company sales. They answered: “Not enough good cow’s milk. What do we do now if cow’s milk is no longer popular? Jason answered: “I think we need to mechanize everything to increase production. No offense, but you guys work too slow. Robotics can improve milk production and collection. I’d add computers and robots to also expand milk products. ” Brad answered: “Not enough milk means poor productivity. We need to improve production through a computerized system. This supply chain we have here is super outdated. As for cow’s milk being unpopular, no one expected verbal speech to be the best way to share information right? Print soon replaced verbal stories. Be prepared for changes.” Alan answered: “I honestly think we need to make production technology changes. Before we do, we need to know what products we want to be involved in for the upcoming years, so that we will know the kinds of changes needed. For sure, many would lose jobs, but you know what? I’d train you as milk specialists of other kinds of milk and natural drinks. I’d train you for other jobs, if you’ll be interested in growth and change. You’d be managing new plants and I’ll invest on local scientists and nutritionists to help you design new products. Can you do that? Can you lead and manage changes that will transform this company into the greatest company?” Act 3 The last tests involved all three of them: a presentation with actual products and a final interview. They were given a task to design a proposal and create final products for one month. All of their proposals were approved. Alan had a problem with the milk production because his machinery broke down. He got mad and yelled at all the workers, including the manager. He said: “So this is what I’ll manage? A bunch of run-down equipment and people?” He stormed out. He went back the next day and apologized. The workers fixed the equipment. They had low morale the entire time. Brad’s equipment failed too. He went into a nervous breakdown for two days. Afterwards, he went back to his people. He was mad that his manager made decisions without his approval. The manager said: “Sir, we’re running out of time. My decision did not harm our project. We are right on track. I couldn’t contact you at all.” Brad yelled at her and said: “Woman, you are out of place! I’m the CEO and I make the important decisions, not you! I would have fired you right here! But alright, time is running out. Good call, I guess, but no more second chances for another blunder like this!” Alan’s machinery also broke down. While his people were fixing the machinery, he talked the manager and asked her: “Do you always have these breakdown issues?” Maria answered: “Yes sir. We asked the old man to have them replaced, but he was not too keen about it. He said new technology may create more problems than solve them. He said technology made expensive problems.” Alan asked: “What do you think we should do?” Maria replied: “I think we should look for new machinery. I observed several milk plants that used robotics and computers. They were quite impressive. They could make food and cosmetics materials too, as well as be modified to make new ones. Milk in make-up is increasing momentum nowadays. I think we should go into personal care and beauty. Milk is the ancient glutathione, if you understand whitening products sir.” Alan agreed: “No, I don’t know glutamimione, sorry. But, yes, that’s why I wanted to add new products, a make-up product sounds good. Any good one you can think of that we can squeeze in for our final presentation?” Maria was taken aback: “Err, you mean you want me to design a new product? Well, uhm, I’ve actually wanted to make a milk facial and body powder with whitening and moisturizing effects. I’ve been making several kinds already.” Alan’s eyes opened widely: “That’s it! Let’s do that too! That would surprise our competition! Maria you’re awesome!” He held a high five. Maria smiled and gave Alan a high five. For the presentation, Jason and Brad presented alone. Alan presented with Maria. Maria was the one who explained the ingredients and benefits of milk-based cosmetics. Jason had a new milk formula for those who want to lose weight and he also offered almond milk. Brad offered almond and soya milk. Alan offered almond and coconut milk, as well as Maria’s milk-based cosmetics which included soap and facial and body milk powder. The screening committee liked all these products. The final interview followed. They asked each candidate about what they thought of their competitors’ presentations and products. Jason answered: “I think Brad had so-so ideas that copied mine. Alan had something new, but I don’t think the company is ready to foray into cosmetics.” Allisfair asked: “What if the company hired you but they said they wanted you to focus on milk cosmetics instead?” Jason replied: “I’d resign because I didn’t know I’d be working for Avon.” Brad answered the question on feedback regarding his competitors’ ideas. He said: “My almond and soya milk taste far better than that of Jason’s. Alan’s ideas on cosmetics are actually quite good. I’d give it a go.” Allisfair asked: “What if the company hired you but they said they wanted you to focus on milk cosmetics instead?” Brad answered: “Well, it’ll be fine, but I want my own people who would follow me. I think Maria is too aggressive and independent. Not fine qualities for a woman employee. I’d sack here if I were you.” Alan answered the question on feedback regarding his competitors’ ideas. He said: “Jason and Brad have interesting milk flavors. However, I think they neglected to build on local knowledge and resources. We have many coconut trees here, and coconut milk would be a good product. At the same time, I think that we need to move forward with a new company with new products, but the same “we are family culture,” because we are indeed a family. If our ship sinks, we all go down as a family.” Allisfair asked: “What if the company hired you but they said they wanted you to focus on fresh milk instead?” Alan answered: “That would be tough. I think I would negotiate for a better plan. I think I’d talk with the old man himself. I know he loves his company and his people. I do too. But in order to survive, we must better. We must be born again.” The old man was listening to the final interview. He felt a tear dropping on his cheek. He remembered his wife saying the same thing to him for the past ten years. Glenda warned him of changing times: “Well, I know for sure you love ‘em sturdy cows more than me, but here’s the facts honey. We are obsolete. We need to be better and new. We must be reborn!” The old man said nothing, even when he wanted to say that he loved her more than his life. He called Allisfair: “I want us to hire Alan, if that’s okay with you.” The decision was a consensus. They all selected Alan. Allisfair was glad. He huffed and puffed on Alan’s house of dreams and he stood by his fundamental beliefs in change, unity, and family values. Alan was dreamy, but he was also pragmatic and family-centered. He was exactly what they needed. Alan conducted internal company research and consumer research with his human resources and marketers, respectively. They shaped a new vision and mission. The Milk factory eventually became a full-blown food and personal health and beauty company and became the largest company in their state. And they all lived happily ever after. Read More