Reinventing the plantation industry to reach $ 10 b by 2020

Ceylon Tea with its high level of antioxidants can easily become the leader in the fast-growing health-conscious consumer market in developed countries

What afflicts our plantation industry? 

The tea industry provides a typical example of the issues that afflict our plantation industry today. Ceylon Tea, valued the world over for its unmatched quality, grows only in a few regions of Sri Lanka. Any comparable product with such a limited supply and a high global market demand would fetch the highest market prices. Why then is our tea industry struggling to survive? 

Foreigners who taste our factory-fresh leaf tea say that they have never experienced tea of such high quality. Teas of good quality sold in foreign supermarkets carry high price tags. As the producer of the best tea in the world, why are we not getting premium prices for our tea? Why are we still trying to sell low-quality tea in flat teabags, instead of top-quality leaf tea in pyramid teabags that are nitrogen packed for factory freshness? Even worse, why are we still following the old colonial practice of selling world-class Ceylon Tea as a cheap commodity in tea auctions for a mere pittance? Why aren’t we harnessing today’s online multimedia communication and logistical support services to get our tea into the cups of discerning consumers in developed countries through retail channels and online sales organisations? 

Ceylon Tea with its high level of antioxidants can easily become the leader in the fast-growing health-conscious consumer market in developed countries. Why aren’t we marketing organically-grown Ceylon Tea as the cheapest source of antioxidants? Moreover, there is an increasing world demand for sports-related isotonic drinks that get absorbed into the body faster than water to provide instant energy. Why aren’t we looking at developing such new products with huge value addition, which require only a few grams of tea? 

The lack of answers to all such fundamental questions can be traced back to the beginning of the post nationalisation era of the tea industry, starting from about 1971. The rapid decline of the previously money-making tea industry can be attributed mainly to misguidance by incompetent top management that was unable or unwilling to understand the need for new thinking in developing products, markets, technologies and human capital. 

 

Lessons from our garment industry

How did our garment industry, starting with zero expertise and no track record in producing and selling garments to high-end world markets, become a world-leader in a few decades? Our garment industry created a world-class business by developing competencies in all key areas such as production, marketing, finance, IT, procurement, human resources, etc. Most importantly, pioneers in the garment industry had the foresight to pick well-educated people with high leadership potential, and give them all the necessary training and support to develop a new industry starting from scratch. 

This is something the tea industry has never done, mainly because it is shackled by over 100 years of tradition and obsolete thinking. We are trying to sell Ceylon Tea with a world-leading brand image to 21st century markets, using the 19th century thinking found in the mind-sets, attitudes and behaviours of the decision makers. 

 

Developing a new model

The tea industry provides a good example of the urgent need for transformational change, based on totally new thinking starting from a zero-base. For example, we need to start from the key consumer groups we are targeting at competitive end-user prices, and work backwards to our plantations. This is ‘selling-price minus’ thinking down to the cost of production, instead of traditional ‘production-cost plus’ thinking up to the selling price. It will shift the focus to creating and developing markets, instead of struggling with the cost-of-production that will invariably continue to rise. This approach produces the new thinking needed for creating a new business model for every sector in our plantation industry. 

 

Where would new thinking come from?

Our plantation industries are well over a hundred years old and rich with experienced people who have a wealth of knowledge. Has this accumulated knowledge ever been used to develop new concepts and methodologies for reinventing our plantation industries that are now struggling to survive? Judging from the many articles published by self-appointed opinion-leaders highlighting all the issues afflicting our plantation industry without suggesting any viable solutions, it appears that the accumulated knowledge found within the plantation industry has not been identified and deployed. Most plantation companies, with their centralised management and control structures typically headed by incompetent people, do not harness the knowledge, creativity and experience of their staff and field workers.

 

Unleashing plantation worker potential

Prof. Sugatha Mitra (winner of the 2013 TED Prize) has proved that preschool children from even the poorest families in India can intuitively learn anything without a teacher from a computer operating in English – a language they don’t initially understand. His supposition can be easily validated by giving a smartphone to a preschool child from any plantation worker family and observing what happens. Little children can intuitively operate a smartphone long before they learn to read. 

This vast inborn human potential all plantation workers possess at birth becomes dormant as they grow older. This happens due to the restrictive influence of their parents and teachers, and the limiting beliefs they form about their abilities and social position based on childhood experiences. Fortunately, this inborn human potential within every plantation worker at every level remains dormant within them. By using a simple mix of oriental energy methods and modern neuroscience, their vast inborn abilities can be easily awakened for boosting individual and organisational performance. Empowering and engaging plantation workers motivates them to acquire competencies that can maximise their contribution towards reinventing the plantation industry. 

 

Developing wisdom and skills

The plantation industry is subject to a wide range of almost uncontrollable parameters such as skyrocketing labour costs, decreasing yields, unpredictable weather patterns, fickle market forces, etc. To sustain success under increasingly volatile operating conditions, the plantation industry needs to develop the intuitive, emotional, attitudinal, behavioural and interpersonal competencies of all levels of staff from top management right down to field workers. They all need to acquire the two key qualities of Wisdom (knowing what to do next) and Skills (knowing how to do it), as depicted in the Wisdom-Skills Matrix. 

 

Developing hard and soft skills

Hard skills as shown in the wisdom-skills matrix comprise of work-related knowledge, skills, tools and processes relating to the plantation industry. Soft skills cover personal energy, self-confidence, motivation and the ability to communicate with and influence others. ‘Wisdom’ stems mainly from soft skills that also guide the acquisition and deployment of necessary work-related hard skills. ‘Skills’ relate to such hard skills tempered with intuitive insights gained through soft skills. The wisdom-skills matrix also provides a broad competency framework for identifying individual training needs of all levels of staff from top management right down to field workers. The first step in reinventing the plantation industry would be to profile all levels of staff to identify their competency gaps and initiate necessary programs to rectify such deficiencies.

 

A new model for unleashing employee potential

Developing the wisdom and skills of people can be easily achieved by awakening the vast inborn human potential mostly sleeping within them. My six-dimensional model provides the framework and methodology for achieving this using a simple mix of oriental energy methods combined with the latest discoveries in neuroscience, behavioural psychology, nutrition and natural healthcare.

In the six-dimensional model of success and leadership, Heart symbolises love and compassion, caring for the environment, and the emotional intelligence needed for connecting with others through mutual understanding and caring. Mind symbolises concrete, abstract, creative and spiritual intelligence, and our inborn ability to find innovative solutions to any problem of any complexity. Passion is the emotional fuel that drives ordinary people to achieve extraordinary results by aligning their hearts, minds, beliefs and efforts. Focus is the convergence of beliefs, resources, and effort that make individuals and organisations strive until they achieve ambitious goals despite setbacks. Body physically houses the other dimensions, and is like the temple that we live in. Health is the foundation of the other five dimensions, since it can affect all of them positively or negatively. 

 

Energising, empowering and engaging employees 

The six-dimensional model and associated training program can be used to energise, empower and engage employees at every level. All plantation employees should be given an opportunity to contribute to the success of their planation since their livelihood depends on it. The motivation for their self-improvement would then come from everyone’s collective commitment to sustaining organisational success. Such a culture promotes self-leadership that drives everyone to continually develop their inborn talents in their specific areas of activity. 

By bridging the communication gaps between corporate management, superintendents, supervisors and fieldworkers, this approach optimises the thousands of decisions made every day at every level in every plantation. It will involve every employee in a collective effort to open new markets, develop new products, and improve productivity, yields and operating margins in the plantation industry. Empowered plantation workers will have the courage to question inappropriate policy decisions that could come from the higher levels. Moreover, this would be the best defence against the disruptive efforts of trade unions with political agendas that mostly work against the best interests of their members.

 

Boosting operating margins via employee engagement

The notion that human energy underlies individual and organisational performance was validated by Towers Watson in their 2012 global workforce study. In its analysis of 50 widespread global companies, those with low traditional employee engagement had an average one-year operating margin just under 10%, while those with high traditional employee engagement had a slightly higher margin of 14%. In sharp contrast, those with sustainable employee engagement (a more robust definition, founded on workplace energy) had an average one-year operating margin as high as 27%. Sustainable employee engagement requires plantations to create a companywide energising work environment by promoting workers’ physical, emotional and social well-being, embedded in a culture that focuses on their health, safety and security. One way to boost employee engagement is to involve them in the planning process.

 

Strategic and operational planning

Developing overall short- and long-term strategic and operational objectives and guidelines for the plantation industry should have two separate components: (a) Creating the future – via top-down planning to address high-level industry objectives; and (b) Consolidating the present – via bottom-up planning at the plantation level to ensure that all issues are collectively resolved to the satisfaction of every stakeholder.

This planning process should be driven by an industry-wide action committee, with sub-committees to address key industry-level matters such as: good cultivation practices, replanting, improving the soil, increasing yields, prudent use of fertiliser, obtaining necessary funding, identifying specific areas for research and initiating such projects with relevant research organisations, reviewing marketing and product positioning strategies, attracting younger employees, initiating marketing and cost-benefit studies, harnessing the mineral wealth found in many plantations, switching from the present competition between plantation companies to a joint strategic collaboration, etc. Such a comprehensive road map must be produced by a multidisciplinary team of experts from the plantation industry, under the strategic guidance of an experienced facilitator. 

Planning methodology

The planning methodology should use ‘selling-price minus’ thinking down to the cost of production, instead of traditional ‘production-cost plus’ thinking up to the selling price, as mentioned earlier. This process, called Mental Contrasting, involves starting with the end in mind and looking back to the current state to see what actions are needed and what obstacles have to be overcome to get there. It helps to identify gaps in the attributes and resources that hinder the achievement of any desired goal. Mental contrasting helps to achieve ambitious goals that are barely within reach through a well-planned and clearly focused effort. It will also help to decide which goals are important enough to warrant the extra effort needed to achieve them (Flying Penguin, pp. 118-120).

 

Activity Planning

Inability to execute strategy is widely considered the biggest inhibitor to business success. To overcome this challenge, a home-grown approach should be used in activity planning. This means deploying the in-house expertise found in every plantation company through a planning committee with representatives from all departments with all levels of staff from top to bottom. The activity plan for each plantation company should be aligned with relevant sections of the industry-wide strategic plan. It could include specifics such as waste reduction, productivity improvement, performance monitoring via measurable financial and non-financial objectives and measures, performance-based incentives for teams, offering company shares to all levels of employees, etc.

 

Profiling all levels of staff

Based on the activity plans, we have to identify the key management and supervisory positions needed to oversee the translation of all such plans into everyday operational realities. Starting again from a zero-base, we need to identify and profile all key positions from the CEOs downwards in each plantation company. We must then develop job descriptions with associated competency profiles for all personnel from CEOs, heads of production, finance, marketing, IT, HR, administration, etc. right down to field workers. We can then compare the profiles of existing staff to identify their competency gaps and initiate necessary programs to rectify any deficiencies in their hard and soft skills.

 

Boosting plantation industry performance

To reach US$ 10 billion by 2020, all plantation industries have to embrace new thinking as proposed in the strategic and operational concepts outlined above. For example, Ceylon Cinnamon (from Sri Lanka, Madagascar and the Seychelles) is the purest in the world because it has less than 0.04% Coumarin, while the much cheaper Cassia Cinnamon from all other countries has about 4% of this harmful substance that causes liver damage. So why aren’t we branding and promoting Ceylon Cinnamon as the best and safest in the world? Furthermore, non-hydrogenated coconut oil is now being widely recognised as the ‘healthiest oil in the world’. Why aren’t we targeting this lucrative new market for our coconut oil? Using such new thinking, the plantation industry should be able to reach US$ 10 billion over the next five years by delivering to global markets superior products backed by traditionally strong brand images.

 

Conclusions

Main reasons for the difficulties plantation companies continue to face include the use of obsolete colonial attitudes; weaknesses in management vision, leadership and skills; lack of marketing expertise; lack of focus on new product development and process improvement; top-down decision-making with obsolete human resource policies that hinder innovation, etc. Unleashing the vast expertise sleeping within the plantation industry workers at every level holds the key to reinventing the plantation industry. 

If we could achieve a global market leadership position for our garment industry after starting from scratch, we should be able to do much better in our plantation industry, given the high brand image our produce already enjoy, and decades of accumulated expertise. We need to reinvent each plantation industry starting from a zero-base, by defining and implementing bold new strategies and operational plans for acquiring top-management talent; developing human capital, new markets and products; deploying the latest technologies; and implementing organisation-wide transformational changes with the commitment of all stakeholders. To transform our plantation industry to its former glory days, we need to consolidate the present while creating a bright new future for all our produce.

(Dr. Asoka Jinadasa is a UK-qualified Chartered Engineer with a US doctorate in business strategy. He is the winner of the 2015 MTC Global Outstanding Corporate Award for Consulting and the 2015 Asia-Pacific Award for Outstanding Contribution to HR. He is internationally renowned for boosting organisational performance by unleashing dormant human potential, and is the author of ‘Flying Penguin: How to create miracles in your life using the six dimensions of success.’ He can be contacted on [email protected].)