Vision and Mission Statement
A. Vision
Stevenson’s American Aberdeen Beef Cattle offers sustainable and wholesome products to the community. We work with the natural world, and in partnership with our communities; we are a firm that other businesses can learn from.
B. Mission
At Stevenson’s American Aberdeen Beef Cattle, our mission is to keep a seasoned package going, constantly looking for a superior herd sire, continually trying to study a slightly more about our livestock to that we will be able to help you better, as our customers.
Delegate your assignment to our experts and they will do the rest.
C. Keys to Success
The key drivers for the success of the firm include innovation, excellence, learning, sustainability, collaboration, trustworthiness, and customer experience.
Company Summary
A. Company Background
Stevenson’s Beef Cattle is a cattle ranching business that specializes in breeding programs of various cattle including Aberdeen. It is a good of cattle that is easy to calve and efficient to maintain. The firm rears the breed used to produce beef products that are excellent in taste, texture, and tenderness. Stevenson’s American Aberdeen cattle ranch supplies beef products across the United States and Canada.
The company is a family business that was founded by the Stevenson family. More than a century ago, the Stevenson made Central Montana home; that marked the start of the great cattle beef business. The ranch has seen tremendous growth over the past decades due to the increasing demand for beef across the country.
An important milestone in the development of the business dates back to 1969 when Jamie Stevenson outlined the goals and mission of the family-operated business. The ranch expanded its breeding program to incorporate a diverse range of breeds. In 2000, the ranch received highest performance herd sires with 2003 also marking a major turning point as a subsidiary was established to specialize in collecting and distributing semen.
B. Resources, Facilities, and Equipment
The organization has a range of types of resources to run the ranch. The resources and materials required for the business are science and technology. Stevenson’s Beef Cattle depends on innovative elements offered by the Angus Genetics Inc, one of its subsidiaries, to provide genomic-enhanced progeny differences for its cattle. Other resources include animal feeds, water, feed supplements, mineral and livestock supplies, crop supplies, and medical supplies.
The ranch sits on hundreds of acres of land that is owned by the organization. Various buildings and other facilities comprising of office, warehouses and storage, and operational area have also been secured. Equipment includes trucks, cultivator, irrigation equipment, manure spreader, plough, drill, and several other miscellaneous tools.
The organization owns most of the equipment and tools. However, a few of the assets are leased due to the capital intensiveness in acquiring and installing the equipment. Also, most of the resources that the organization is unable to produce are outsourced from suppliers. They include medical products for the cattle, fuel, mineral and livestock supplies, cleaning services, and more.
These resources are rewarded financially. The organization has a program involving an annual contract with different sellers and suppliers. Every year, the firm establishes new contracts or renews existing ones depending on the terms.
C. Marketing Methods
The ranch has been averaging sales of 250,000 units per years in the last decade. Just over three-quarter of the sales are in the United States with the rest crossing the border to Canada. The units translate to $2 billion in sales.
The sales are achieved through strategic alliances—the firm partners with a diverse range of beef processing firms in both the United States and Canada. More than 85 per cent of the sales are from long-term partnerships established by these firms.
The firm employs different kinds of contract in the sale of the cattle breed. Some of the contract include forward contracting for buyers interested for certain types of breeds. This type of contract is used in a few instances, however. The common contracting method is time and material contract.
A considerable amount of cost goes into production and delivery. Although rearing the breed is easy and efficient. It is challenging in terms of costs. It takes an average of $2,500 to raise a single mature American Aberdeen cattle. Also, transportation and delivery of the cattle during sales is a major task that incurs a considerable amount of cost.
Thus, the company contracts to transport and delivery service from experienced firms for the smooth delivery of the products. Currently, the firm works with Excel Transport Inc. for its transport and delivery needs.
D. Management and Organization
The management team is made up of managers specialized in different aspects of the business. They include a herd manager, production schedule manager, human resource manager, chief accountant, purchasing officer, sales manager, finance officer, and health expert.
Different managers, as demonstrated above, handle different aspects of the business. For instance, the sales manager is in charge of the sales of the bulls with the purchasing officer responsible for the procurement of materials and resources. All these activities are highly coordinated and managed by a top-level director of the company.
The dominant organizational structure of the firm is one known as a hierarchical structure. In this organizational culture, a chain of command flow from the senior management and executives to the general employees. Thus, at Stevenson’s Aberdeen Cattle, authority flows from chief executive officer through managers and supervisors to employees.
The CEO position is currently occupied by Jade Robertson and chief financial officer, including Bob Davies. The company lacks a spokesperson role for many reasons, including the irrelevance of the role in the company.
Employees’ salaries and remuneration is determined by the HR who works closely with the chief financial officer and chief accountant. The determination of salary and compensation is influenced by factors such as the nature of the job, the capability of the firm, market rates, policy requirements, and employee expectations. Also, HR conducts employee performance reviews.
For a highly reputable and experienced firm dealing with the most sensitive products (cattle), it requires competent and highly skilled managers. The basic qualification for individual managers is a university degree in their respective roles with at least seven years of work experience.
Depending on the nature of work, some managers require additional skills and competencies. For instance, a herd manager or health expert requires special skills and abilities in dealing with the animals. Bulls can be extremely dangerous and also demanding. A one-on-one experience with the bulls is necessary.
The key people and personnel who are critical to keeping the business running include herd manager, production schedule manager, and purchasing officer. Their roles are directly related to the needs of the cattle. Thus, every decision they make and action they take is critical to the existence and growth of the business.
The reason the company performs well is partly due to its ability to work with professionals in seeking to advise and support. The firm seeks professional advice from attorneys, cattle experts, marketing professionals, and agriculturalist.
Personal development is critical to the lives of individual members of the organization. That being so, the organization takes both professional and personal development of its workforce. It features programs like training, simulations, mentoring, coaching, on-the-job development, and workshops for employee development.
Diagram 1: Lines of Authority
E. Ownership Structure
A stakeholder is an independent party interested and concerned with a company. Stevenson Aberdeen Cattle has a range of stakeholders who influence and (are influenced by) the actions and decisions of the firm. However, the primary stakeholder as far as the ownership of the firm is concerned to include the Stevenson family who owns and run the business.
The family-owned business operates as a private limited company. A private limited company is a privately owned business with shareholders not exceeding 50. This type of business entity, unlike a public limited company, restricts shareholders from trading shares publicly.
There are legal requirements involved in running a business of nature and stature of Stevenson’s American Aberdeen Cattle business. Primarily, as a private limited company, the entity requires licensure from the registrar of companies in the country. Other vital permits include the following: health inspection certificate, business and liability insurance, general insurance, animal mortality insurance, and farm equipment and auto insurance.
F. Social Responsibility
The business emphasizes sustainability in breeding cattle. It is the vision of the business to work closely with nature and communities for the betterment of the environment. As such, the management is committed to protecting and preserving the environment in various ways including one, controlled grazing, an approach that involves subdividing pastures with permanent and temporary fences to limit access to grazing areas. It is a more sustainable environmental practice that saves energy, production, and operation. Two, sustainable pasture management, a strategy that involves preventing weed invasion, slow growth, and sparse plant cover. Three, matching livestock and forage resources. Four, considering alternative sources of animal feeds and lastly, practising preventive care.
The safety of the staff, ranch, and animals is critical to the organization. The organization employs a range of practices aimed at protecting soil, air, water, and people from possible pollution from chemicals. Therefore, it offers training and education on members of the organization on handling chemicals safely. The company also offers personal protective equipment to avoid exposure to hazards associated with chemicals. Handling and storage of chemical properties are also emphasized. The company ensures that chemical products are secluded in a dedicated storage area. Procedures are also observed in the handling of chemical products.
The cattle ranch lacks policies on environmental concerns like noise pollution, timing, and dust. However, it devised and implemented detailed odour policy that ensures bad odour from animals, animal feeds, and wastes are not emitted to the community. Through the health expert, such products are treated regularly.
The role of the management, employees and other members of the organization as far as social responsibility is concerned is to work with various stakeholders in the community. The company aims to be socially and environmentally responsible for the surrounding community. Therefore, it shall engage such communities in the best approaches to adopt to ensure sustainable business practices that impact the community positively.
The involvement at various levels, including local, state, and national level in the community will include philanthropic efforts, environmental conservation, and company diversity. Philanthropic causes will include local funding schools, sponsoring to bullfighting events or other sports, and contributing to charities. Environmental conservation is a more complex task for the company. It will involve recycling programs, waste management, green energy, cleaning activities, and programs for planting trees. Lastly, the labour workforce shall ensure all groups in the United States are represented. These groups include races, ethnicities, disabled, women, and more.
The training the organization plans to offer for new employees include on-the-job development and traditional classroom training. When employees are accepted into the organization, they shall be taken through various elements of the organization. They will also be educated about their job in terms of their requirements and expectations. The purpose of on-the-job training is to improve the effectiveness of training.
G. Internal Analysis
The main strengths of the business include science, technology, and a vast amount of resources. The organization leverages advanced science and innovative technologies to produce top-quality products efficiently. The wealth of resources also ensures the company can fund its activities. The resources also keep the business going. However, it faces a weakness of poor marketing aimed at driving up sales.
A strength linked to individual business units includes a high capacity for coordination between departments. The company has systems that ensure different departments work in collaboration in fulfilling the purpose of the firm. Teamwork within individual departments is also invaluable to the company.
The core competencies are routed to the values of the organization. They form the culture of the entity that separates it from rivals in the industry. Quality, customer experience, excellence, and innovation are values that define the uniqueness of the firm.
Areas to build on include knowledge and work. Business in the modern competitive environment requires an excessive amount of knowledge to survive. Such knowledge is obtained through R$D, which is extensively conducted in the science and technology fields. The firm needs to invest more in R&D for future growth.
A department that needs to be exited includes the purchasing department. The procurement department should replace the business unit. Purchasing and procurement are two different concepts meaning different things but used interchangeably. The latter is more diverse and also includes processes of the former. Considering the size and nature of the organization, procurement functions are more ideal. A promising business unit is the science and technology because of where the future is headed.
