Integrated Capstone Project For Thrive Farmers Case Study

Background of the Case

Discuss about the Integrated Capstone Project for Thrive Farmers Case Study.

Thrive Farmers is a profit sharing business model that it designed by Michael Jones in the year 2011. Thrive Farmers is a business model that lessens the reliance on the volatile commodity market as in this venture, farmers are given a direct access to the marketplace in order to sell their coffee (Burke 2013.). This company therefore is increasing the opportunities of the farmers by providing a unique approach to the supply chain. The company has developed a revenue sharing platform that enables a farmer in maintaining the ownership of the coffee they are providing until the point of sale and this sale is performed by THRIVE (CNN. 2018). This enables the farmers to receive a stable and the predictable value for the products they are supplying. The farmer is able to participate economically to the end of the supply chain process by following this model (Thrivefarmers.com. 2018). The coffee provided by the company Thrive farmers are distributed across the coffee houses, restaurants and retail grocers across America. This business model is beneficial not only for the farmers but also for the consumers as well. This is because, with a direct partnership, a customer is able to receive a satisfaction by knowing that their coffee is directly coming from the farmers. One of the main reasons of the success of the company in such a less time is the transparency that is provided to both the consumers and the farmers. Another significant reason behind the success of Thrive Farmers is that it integrates the purposeful purchasing with the corporate social responsibility. The Thrive Farmers is one of the fastest growing privately held companies and therefore, it becomes essential to identify any issues and gaps associated with the business that might act as a roadblock in path of the fast evolution of the company (Harrison and Lock 2017). A large investment is made on the people and the commodities and therefore, it is very necessary to evaluate whether there is any financial issues associated with the business process of the organization. One of the key business rules that are followed in Thrive Farmers is bringing in innovation in the different business process of the organization (Glover and Kusterer 2016). It is therefore necessary to evaluate the capabilities and the resources of the company so that the identified issues associated with the company can be evaluated. The goal of the organization is to provide world class quality products to the consumers. This requires thorough project supervision and proper management. The vision of the organization is to empower the coffee farmers in creating a meaningful livelihood for the farmers (Altieri, Funes-Monzote and Petersen 2012). The company manages to provide a world class quality of coffee and tea that gives the organization a competitive advantages and an economic sustainability.

Issues/Problems Identified

However, every business is associated with a certain amount of risk that is needed to be addressed. The following section provides a detailed description of the issues associated with the case study and the detailed analysis of the problems that are identified.

Although the company and the business of Thrive Farmers are growing in a steady pace, there are certain issues and problems associated with the business that is needed to be analysed. The issues are mainly associated with the resources of the company. The issues that are identified in association to the project and the Company of the Thrive farmers are as follows.

1. There are certain issues associated with the e-business strategy of the organization. The success of any business largely depends on the process of marketing and the marketing strategies that are undertaken by the organization. The digital media provide an excellent platform in marketing and advertising the business of an organization. Thrive Farmers is working for a good cause and therefore proper advertisement of the same is necessary so that the customer reach of the project could be increased subsequently (Wilson, Wilson and Whittingham 2013.). The e business strategies are needed to be redesigned in order to gain maximum profit of the organization.
2. With the increase in the customer’s reach and the increase in the business opportunities, it is essential for the organization to properly develop their operational infrastructure (Flyvbjerg 2013). The system operation of any business consists of the different wok procedures, communication channels, decision making, information processing and so on. There are certain issues associated with the operational infrastructure of Thrive Farmers that is needed to analysed and addressed.
3. The significant aim and the principle associated with the business of Thrive Farmers in providing a world class quality product to the clients. Therefore, a major problem that the company might face is the declination in the product and the service quality (Thrivefarmers.com. 2018).. This can be a reason of lack attention in operational infrastructure and therefore this issue is needed to be mitigated.
4. One of the significant aims of the business of Thrive Farmers is to spread their business all over the globe. For that, the ability of capturing the key business data is essential. One of the major issues that is associated with the business of thrive farmers is that the business fails to capture the key data of the organization (Heagney 2016). This can result in slow or improper decision making. This in turn might result in poor performance of the management and the organization.
5. The issues associated with the financial condition and the financial analysis is needed to be evaluated as well in order to ascertain that the business will not suffer any major losses in future. This is a company that aims at increasing the benefits of the farmers by establishing a direct connection with the consumers (Kerzner and Kerzner 2017). Therefore, the financial condition of business and the company in needed to be analysed in order to address the problems that can act as a roadblock in project execution.
6. Market risk is another issue that is associated with the business of Thrive Farmers. Market risk is a major issue associated with the business as the business process and the supply chain of Thrive Farmers does not abide by the traditional process. It thrives to establish a direct link between the farmers and the consumers and therefore the market risk associated with this organization is quite high. The business of Thrive Farmers is steadily growing over the years mainly because the company is able to provide a world class quality product to the clients, be it coffee or tea (Thrivefarmers.com. 2018).. This is the main reason why the market opportunity for Thrive Farmers is continuously growing. It is therefore essential to maintain that quality of the product in order to prevent the occurrence of market risk for the Thrive Farmer organization.

The above discussed points are some major issues or the problems that can be faced by Thrive Farmers. These issues are identified on basis of the different opportunities and the business processes of the organization. It is very essential to evaluate whether these issues can be addressed or not. However, the analysis of the identified issues is essential in order to understand the business continuity plan for the organization. The issues are analysed on basis of the financial aspects, the strategies of e business, business policies procedures and the human resources of the organization. The ethics, values and social responsibility of the business organization is further evaluated in order to understand the process by which the business can receive an optimum benefit.

The issues identified in the above section and some of the common issues associated with the business of Thrive Farmers are discussed in the following section.

There are certain issues associated e business strategies associated with profit sharing. The profit sharing in coffee industry is implemented by the Thrive Famers in order to increase the profit margins of the farmers. The aim of the founder of Thrive Farmers is to spread this venture across the world for this proper advertising is necessary (Thrivefarmers.com. 2018).. Although the website of the Thrive Farmers provide an adequate idea and the knowledge about the business and the business processes of the organization, it is necessary for the business to utilize the digital platform in advertising the business context of the organization. The problem with the e business strategy of this case is that, the process of e business advertising lacks the much needed sophistication and innovation. Targeting the digital media could provide an effective platform of designing the e business strategies by innovative methods. Therefore, the issues associated with the e business strategies of this case can be easily addressed and mitigated. For analysing the risks mitigation approaches, it is very essential to analyse the resources and the capabilities of the organization. The company resources and capabilities are elaborated in the following section

Detailed Analysis of the Identified Problems

The capability of Thrive Farmers is to spread their venture across the globe. This is possible by developing a correct business strategy and utilizing the company resources. Therefore it is necessary to evaluate the company resources that can be put to use shaping and realizing the capability of the company. Since the company works directly with the farmers and the farmers are involved till the sale, it will be easier for the organization to spread to different parts of the world. For that the support and understanding of the farmers is essential. Not only are the farmers, the consumers also responsible for establishing the business. In order to involve the consumers in the business proper advertising of the endeavour of the organization is necessary and for that proper development of the e business strategy is essential.

The human resource at the organizational level of management will be responsible for development of a proper e business strategy for the organization. It is essential for proper designing of the e business strategies. The main resources of the organization includes the employees of the organization, the farmers and the retail shops that are supplied with the products of Thrive Farmers. The financial condition of the company is needed to be evaluated in order to understand the capability of the organization in developing proper e business strategies.

The organization is able to gain a large amount of profit with this venture. The organization aims at providing maximum profit to the farmers and therefore it is found that a number of farmers show interest in joining this venture. The financial condition of the organization is therefore found to be steady. It is however recommended to the organization that a large investment is made in addressing the operational issues and the infrastructural issues associated with the organization that has been evaluated in the previous section. The financial condition of the organization can further be improved by ensuring the business is spread in many other countries.

The business of Thrive Farmers is associated with providing maximum profits with the farmers.  Therefore, it is very essential to address the ethics values and the social responsibilities associated with the organization. The ethics and values associated with the business and the company are as follows-

1. Maintaining the honesty and the integrity of the business operation is a significant ethics values associated with the business of profit sharing. The honesty and the integrity is essential in order to maintain the transparency of the business process.
2. Promise keeping and trustworthiness is another significant ethical value associated with the business of profit sharing in coffee industry. In this business the coffee farmers are promised of maximum profits. The promises that are made to the customers are needed to be kept at any cost as it is one of the significant principles associated with the business of Thrive Farmers.
3. Maintaining the Loyalty with the customers is another ethical principle that the business of profit sharing must abide by (Kassan and Orsi 2012). This will ensure that the customers’ satisfaction is increased and business is able to gain the trust of the customers that will be necessary in order to spread the business of Thrive Farmers across the globe.
4. Maintaining the fairness of the business process is essential ethical principle that is needed to be followed in this business. The fairness of the business process is essential to maintain in order to gain the customers trust and increase the number of target customers of the organization.
5. Another significant ethical principle and the values of the organization is that the business should be law abiding and ethical. This is not a problem for Thrive Farmers as their business abides by the law.

These are the major social and the ethical values that are associated with the business of the organization. The social responsibility of the business is needed to be analysed as well. The social responsibilities of the business are as follows (Stephany 2015)-

1. The business should work for a greater good and this is a major social responsibility of an organization.
2. The business should balance the profit making activities with the activities that mainly benefits the society (Hartman, DesJardins and MacDonald 2014). This business provides a good opportunity to the farmers as they can make a higher profit. It furthermore benefits the consumers by providing them with a world class product.

Company Resources and Capabilities

The above discussed points provide an idea that the business performs their social responsibility.

In order to improve the business processes of the organization and to deal with the issues associated with the organization certain recommendations are made.

1. Proper supervision of the internal operations of the organization is essential in order to properly manage the business operations of the organization (Leach 2014). The business operations associated with the organization are needed to be properly supervised in order to understand and identify the issues and the problems associate with the organization.
2. For increasing the business opportunity of Thrive Farmers, it is essential to work on the different e business strategies that can increase the customers’ reach of the organization. It is essential to understand the need of redesigning the e business strategies for increasing the customers’ reach. Proper advertising is essential in order to increase the popularity of the venture (Trevino and Nelson 2016). E business is a leading business strategy that is adopted by a number of organization. The choice of the e business strategy largely depends on the type of the business and the target audience that the e marketing or advertising will be addressing. There are certain issues associated with the e business strategy of the organization that has been evaluated in the previous sections of the report. Therefore, addressing the issues associate the use of the e business strategies is essential.
3. It is recommended for the organization to ensure proper quality check before delivery of the product in order to ensure that the customers are getting what they are promised to. This will increase the customers’ reach as the customers are promised to be developed world class quality product (Nicol?escu 2013). Any problem with the quality of the product might decrease the customers’ satisfaction and thereof it is recommended that a proper quality check is done.

The evaluation of the different needs and the issues associated with the project has helped in infusing a proper understanding of the different business process and the issues that are associated with a business. Profit sharing is a good cause on which the Thrive Farmers are working. The issues associated with the business of Thrive farmers are evaluated in order to understand the gaps in the business and the business. Working on this project has considerably helped in gaining knowledge about the process of addressing the different project risks and issues. The knowledge about the social and ethical responsibilities of the project will help in managing or facing the similar project problems in future. The knowledge gained from this project will help in understanding the different financial and strategic issues associated with the operations of an organization. The project will be a roadmap for addressing similar problems in future and will further help in management of the similar project issues.

References

Altieri, M.A., Funes-Monzote, F.R. and Petersen, P., 2012. Agroecologically efficient agricultural systems for smallholder farmers: contributions to food sovereignty. Agronomy for Sustainable Development, 32(1), pp.1-13.

Burke, R., 2013. Project management: planning and control techniques. New Jersey, USA.

CNN. 2018. Profit-sharing in the coffee industry [Image]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TmLLyKIukSI

Flyvbjerg, B., 2013. From Nobel prize to project management: getting risks right. arXiv preprint arXiv:1302.3642.

Glover, D. and Kusterer, K., 2016. Small farmers, big business: contract farming and rural development. Springer.

Harrison, F. and Lock, D., 2017. Advanced project management: a structured approach. Routledge.

Hartman, L.P., DesJardins, J.R. and MacDonald, C., 2014. Business ethics: Decision making for personal integrity and social responsibility. New York: McGraw-Hill.

Heagney, J., 2016. Fundamentals of project management. AMACOM Div American Mgmt Assn.

Kassan, J. and Orsi, J., 2012. The legal landscape of the sharing economy. J. Envtl. L. & Litig., 27, p.1.

Kerzner, H. and Kerzner, H.R., 2017. Project management: a systems approach to planning, scheduling, and controlling. John Wiley & Sons.

Leach, L.P., 2014. Critical chain project management. Artech House.

Nicol?escu, E., 2013. Business ethics, corporate governance, and social responsibility. Journal of Self-Governance and Management Economics, 1(1), pp.86-92.

Stephany, A., 2015. The business of sharing: Making it in the new sharing economy. Springer.

Thrivefarmers.com. 2018. Thrive Farmers. [online] Available at: https://www.thrivefarmers.com/thrivestore/ [Accessed 27 May 2018].

Trevino, L.K. and Nelson, K.A., 2016. Managing business ethics: Straight talk about how to do it right. John Wiley & Sons.

Wilson?a, N.L., Wilson, A. and Whittingham, K., 2013. Helping consumers “know who grows” their coffee: The case of THRIVE farmers coffee. International Food and Agribusiness Management Review, 16(3).