Growth of the business

Two key appointments from the outset were Leon Houmond and Hafiz Shah. Leon was appointed as Head of Chocolate Development, Concept Chocolatier; and Hafiz as Chocolate Production, Factory Manager. Leon had previously trained in Switzerland, working alongside Suzy when she was undertaking her qualifications. She knew Leon was a diligent, creative individual and would prove to be an important part of the team. Suzy and Leon met every Monday afternoon to discuss potential developments. This allowed Suzy to be involved in creating chocolates but also time away from the business to visit customers ensuring that their individual needs were being met and to meet with suppliers to discuss future needs for production.

The aim of appointing Hafiz was to ensure Suzy did not have to manage chocolate production in the factory. Hafiz had previously worked for a specialist food firm. He knew the importance of adhering to hygiene regulations and how team working can be an aid to success. Hafiz and Suzy met on Monday morning to discuss the weekly production programme, following which, Hafiz met with the team leaders to discuss and assign tasks and discuss any potential problems. He believed in trusting his team and did not routinely check progress as everyone knows what is needed’. Hafiz ensured all employees undertook a job development review every four months in addition to being advised on a monthly basis how they were performing. In this approach Hafiz felt he was empowering the team. Part of this was ensuring job rotation to allow employees to build their knowledge and as their skills developed the employees were able to make contributions as team members. This allowed teams to maintain standards and encourage a positive culture of staff development resulting in job enrichment, benefiting the company as staff became motivated through work not just money.

The management team enhanced this positive culture by emphasising the individual as part of the team and rewarding employees to ensure all orders were completed and delivered on time. As part of the quality culture, all staff knew the importance of strict adherence to Health and Safety, Food Production regulations and keeping waste as low as possible. Staff were aware that success was not just dependent on sales, the key was active team working and development. The management team emphasised that quality and the continued success of the firm depended on everyone contributing as an individual part of the team to achieve targets. To emphasise the importance of everyone working to the same goals, Leon and Hafiz agreed to involve staff in new products with blind tasting. On a large display board, staff could volunteer for tasting in advance. Once a month the volunteers were chosen to participate in a tasting of new products. Staff were also encouraged to suggest a name for new chocolates. This was another factor that helped in creating a positive work culture.

In 2004 the company experienced financial difficulties and were close to being declared bankrupt. The bank compelled Suzy to accept the appointment of one of their accountants as a member of the J.O.C. management team as a condition of their continued financial support. The bank employee appointed, Amina Zan, had many years’ experience working with firms operating in the food and beverage industry. Amina identified inconsistent cash flow as the major difficulty in the business. Suzy had failed to exert pressure on hotels and restaurants to pay their bills promptly and at the same time J.O.C. were paying their cocoa suppliers each month as part of the Ethical Trading Initiative. This was the root of the cash flow problem. A key role for Amina was ensuring survival of the business by focusing close attention on the cash flow and working with Hafiz to keep costs and waste down to a minimum.

With the business’s finances stabilised, the management team decided that the way forward was to further develop staff. From the outset Suzy engendered a culture of training and development in all areas of the business. This facilitated internal promotion of staff and ensured a positive work and team culture throughout the business. In 2006, to assist staff development further, J.O.C. approached the local college to offer work placements in the departments of finance and production. The aim was to raise the company’s profile as a possible route after college to potential future employees.

By 2008 Hafiz had two assistants Mary Taylor and Adrian Buchanan. Mary had been with the company since 2001 and been promoted through the team working system in the company. Now she has helping to organise and supervise production with special responsibility for controlling quality of supplies. This meant that Mary had to accompany Suzy on her visits to local suppliers to discuss produce and allow Mary to ensure deliveries met the company’s high standards. Adrian was appointed after Amina had stabilised the finances of the business. Amina had encouraged Hafiz to appoint an assistant with specific responsibility for waste. Adrian was ideally suited to the level of attention required to controlling the company’s waste and maintaining the quality of the products. He kept a detailed record of all activities on the production of chocolates. His view was that employees grow into jobs and should be allowed to make mistakes as part of the learning process and by promoting a team mentality mistakes were more easily picked up. He sees his role as facilitating and supporting the operational staff. Adrian also involved the teams in keeping waste to a minimum. He introduced a project to combat waste and lower costs involving staff from all areas of the factory as part of the project team. The project team then took their ideas and conclusions back to their work colleagues. This allowed the teams to measure their success in meeting targets through costs and through quality of the products, strengthened team morale and helped employees take pride in their work.

The business grew quickly and by 2011 had 15 full time employees and the management team were looking for ways to grow. Suzy knew that an extensive marketing/sales input was required but the main constraint was her contribution to creating chocolates which still remained her top priority. The business was growing and it was now difficult for Suzy to be involved in every aspect of the business as this was draining her mentally and physically. However she still insisted in being involved in the creation of new chocolate products. Leon resented decisions being taken by Suzy which impacted on the creation of new chocolate products. He called them ‘weekend decisions’ and felt excluded from the thought processes that led to Suzy’s decisions in this regard. This led to a drop in his morale and motivation which in turn had an impact on the creative team he led. Leon then allowed his team to follow Suzy’s instructions and led to him only doing what he was told to do by Suzy. Leon’s lack of input was noticeable to his colleagues and he began to consider leaving the company.

Previously Suzy had identified the exclusive hotels in Ayrshire and the Scottish Borders as a market that J.O.C. could exploit. Their products were unique and gave them a significant edge over their competitors. This possible increase in business would mean extra work in the factory. The existing teams could only meet this demand by working extra shifts. Hafiz with the assistance of Mary and Adrian organised the teams but they knew that they needed additional staff. However Suzy wanted to ensure that any new staff were thoroughly trained and developed over time and insisted that Hafiz create a three month training programme for new employees. This had an impact on the time required for orders. Suzy simply could not develop the market with the existing staff levels, J.O.C. needed to expand. She now realised the business had to be organised in a self-sustaining way and had to find a way of involving other staff in the running of the business.

At the same time Suzy had targeted these markets in Ayrshire and the Borders, she got in touch with Charlie Large owner of CG Chocolates — a company which supplied hotels in Northern England and Southern Scotland. Their discussion opened some new possibilities arising from the fact that Charlie was considering retiring and had no clear successor to take over the business. Over the following four months the two firms worked together on meeting the demand created by hotels in Ayrshire and the Borders.