Coriolis Chart Watch Q1 2003

Chart Watch is an online publication featuring a brief view into our latest thinking on the evolving food and fast moving consumer good industry. It is sent to subscribers four times per year.

Top Line: Two areas stand out as having high educational need while being poorly served: supply chain management and innovation management.


So what? A common refrain heard at FMCG industry gatherings is: "we have trouble getting good people" or "the industry needs to do more to improve its image" or "we need to attract the best and brightest."  Sometimes action takes place: committees are formed, members appointed and meeting held.  Sometimes the government is coerced into becoming involved.

Last year the Australian Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry, as part of its funding of the National Food Industry Strategy [a follow on to the Supermarket to Asia initiative] called for proposals to study the educational needs of the Australian food industry.  Following this study, an Australian educational institution would be awarded funding to develop a Food Industry Management Education Program.

We were awarded the project, in partnership with Emfor Corporation of Australia.  After surveying fourteen CEOs and Managing Directors, twenty three Human Resource Managers, and forty nine past participants of the Monash Food Industry Executive Program from across Australia, we learned a few interesting things:

- Almost fifty percent of those surveyed agreed that existing industry participants have shortcomings in their education and skill base

- Ninety-four percent of past participants in the FIEP had no food industry specific education prior to entering the industry

- There is a broad spectrum of need for education in the food industry, everything from people management and personal development to logistics and supply chain management, sales training to exporting.

But contrary to the expectation of our client, much of this need was already being served by existing providers, be they training specialists, Dale Carnegie, or Universities.  And the need was for continuing education of existing employees not the creation of new graduates.  Don't worry, we recommended the development of two part-time, diploma-level courses on Innovation Management and Supply Chain Management.

Which brings me to my point: don't let your expectations colour your research.  Approach every problem from the point of view of desired outputs (e.g. satisfied customers, sales growth), not inputs (e.g. meeting budget, justifying new equipment).

There's a continuum of information.  At the most basic level is the raw data in the form of words, numbers, or measurements.  The next level is knowledge: 62.3% MAT dollar share, $47.26 per household per week, "associated with traditional values."  The highest level is insight: "budget on a large fall in prices" or "sell."

Insight is the hard one.  Doing the kind of work that leads to critical insight takes a lot of hard work.  It often requires a mixture of research methods - in this case we used quantitative, qualitative and desk research.   The more freedom you give your research firm, the more likely you are to get the right answer.

Our complete report to the NFIS on Developing a Food Industry Management Education Program for Australia is available as a download here.  There is a lot of additional interesting food industry related information on the NFIS website.

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