DeWied International is a global company that operates in 120 countries worldwide. We are a food manufacturing company that provides casings for pork, beef, and mutton. Because we operate in so many countries, our business can be very complex. Even one small disruption in any part of the organization can have a big impact company-wide. Every part of our operation has to be functional—from manufacturing to monitoring exchange rates in the countries we work in. Every department has to function smoothly to make a difference.
Early in the year 2009, one of our employees in San Antonio had her daughter sent home from school in the first case of what was later called the “swine flu.” The entire school was shut down as a consequence. Our employee immediately picked up the phone and called me. At that early stage, no one really knew much about the H1N1 virus. All we did know was that the initial response of the school system was to close the school.
The media jumped on the story and reported that there was an infectious disease coming from swine slaughterhouses that was ravaging the U.S. All kinds of speculation led to rumors which at times were reported as facts. The local story quickly became a national and international story. Within two days, China had closed its borders to any U.S. company. Other countries followed suit and our phone started ringing with customers expecting us to have answers. This issue had the potential of devastating our company completely.
With rumors flying and countries closing their doors, we had to do some quick strategic thinking. Our first task was to get the facts. From there we could start generating solutions to deal with this crisis. We were still awaiting information from the CDC (Center for Disease Control) but we knew we were one of the few manufacturing companies that could identify exactly where each batch of hog casings came from and then determine if they were affected or not. We quickly ran the analyses and found out our product was clean. Our customers didn’t have to “trust” our opinions—now they had proof.
Having these facts in hand, we could begin to decipher between rumor and reality, independent of the news reports. We started focusing on communicating the facts with our customers and finding other alternative suppliers based on the closed borders.
Over time, more information came out on the H1N1 virus. What was initially considered a huge health crisis became more of a perception crisis. It became clear that companies in our industry who had the facts and could prove their positions had a far superior strategic advantage in dealing with customers than those who did not. Rather than juggling rumors and chasing news media reports, we were producing proof that our products remained safe. The way we handled the problem has been considered exemplary and our product verification approach has been recommended as an industry standard.
This culture of strategic thinking has proven valuable to us and has given us a competitive advantage in our industry. In January of 2009, I attended The Nature of Strategic Thinking Workshop and decided that it would be the best way to integrate strategic thinking principles throughout our organization. We had our entire executive committee go through the workshop and incorporate the values into the way they work and manage. I highly recommend The Nature of Strategic Thinking course and believe it can help other corporations create the kind of strategic advantage we’ve created in ours.
