Bolaven Farms’ mission statement is “Growing the finest coffee is our passion. Restoring land ownership to the joy of the farming poor is our desire”. Its main purpose is to alleviate poverty and to produce premium organic coffee. Once earning the initial investment, its aim to reinvest 80% of its profit for community development sort of makes it a social business.
SWOT Analysis of Bolaven Farm:
Strength: Cheap labor, business with social cause, premium grade coffee, organic certified coffee, 75% of people are farmers
Weakness: The business is oligopoly. So, it’s difficult to create the market, lack of farming skills, corruption in Laos, starting a brand from scratch, local market
Opportunity: Market growth of coffee is huge (yearly
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Though 80% of the population of Laos is directly or indirectly related to agriculture most people lack adequate knowledge about farming. The trained farmers lacked the necessary skills to transfer their trainings to work.
Bolaven Farm is new and as the time passes the farmers will be fully able to comprehend the process and thus it’ll be more effective in their works after training in the future. Political instability: Political instability may hamper infrastructural growth. The machines that are to be imported for manufacturing purposes may take time due to legal issues. Once the company becomes successful and earns recognition for its altruistic attitude, these problems can be curtailed. Besides, from the quotes of the owner, his desire to be in politics can be understood which again would bring lots of benefits to the company. Alternatives: Most of the people in Laos are accustomed to tea. But people are always attracted to new things. Bolaven can use innovative marketing campaigns to lure a new customer base which can include the entire tea customers plus people who usually not take caffeine drinks. Bolaven can offer something like Argo tea to meet a new market need of healthy drinks.
Local Market: Laos is a small country in Asia with an area of 2,36,000 sq. kilometres. It has a population of 6,500,000. The infrastructure of the country is very weak with a per capita GDP of $ 1,320 only. Laos is one of the poorest countries in the world, ranked 143 among
Modern day farming has transformed from the farming process of last century. Instead of farmers producing for their families, farmers are now similar to input/output managers supplying massive manufacturers that feed the country.
Education is a powerful tool and, when used correctly, it has the power to teach someone a new skill, transform his or her perspective, and encourage personal growth and development. Throughout this country, numerous agricultural education programs help students to learn more about and deepen their understanding of one of this nation’s most valuable industries: the agricultural industry. Most importantly, these programs play a major role in helping to combat the lack of
The main objective is to improve the lives of small-scale coffee farmers by increasing the productivity of their farms and quality of beans in a sustainable way. It was launched in 2005 and till date, 4000 farmers worked and have influenced the lives of over 20,000 people. They help farmers learn how to succeed in today’s changing market conditions by empowering them with skills and tools. The Tin Hortons coffee partnership is based on three main pillars-Economic, Social, and Environmental.
1 Farmers may not totally understand the product value. They may not easily accept new product that they have never heard about.
Costa Rica now provided raw material for Starbucks which accounted for about 15 percent of the total coffee beans Starbucks needed every year. Costa Rica as one of the raw material suppliers plays an important role in global value chain. Coffee has played a pivotal role in the development of Costa Rica. It has shaped social, cultural and political institutions and is still one of country’s major agricultural exports. (Anywhere, 2016) The global value chain in this coffee industry can be described that Starbucks, the centre in this coffee global value chain, purchasing raw materials (coffee beans) from coffee farms in Costa Rica, reprocessing and reproducing in retail shops, selling the finished products (various kinds of coffee) to customers in the world.
The agriculture industry is not only the largest industry within our state, but also within our nation. However, in recent years it has also been one of the most heavily criticized. This has led to a ‘brain drain’ in rural America as more people decide to leave our industry and their family farms.
The price per acre of farm land doubled to $2,140 over the last 10 years. A lack of health care also hurts farmers as farming ranks as the fourth most dangerous occupation in the country, and young farmers often must choose between health care and paying for their farm. All of these obstacles and more make farming a difficult occupation to enter. We need organizations such as Young Farmers’ to provide support, education and training to help our nation’s most important
Weaknesses: no success abroad; low brand awareness; lack of the international experience of the executives; etc.
The agriculture field is one of the biggest employers, employing over 155 million people in the United States. What do you think about when you hear the word “agriculture?” Many people would say farming, but this is not the most common occupation in this field. Farmers make up a fraction of the agricultural jobs at 900,000, but over 2.1 million people own, rent, and claim farming as a primary source of income. The average farm size has dropped from 460 acres in 1990 to 418 acres in 2007, while the average age of this occupation rose to 57, making this one of the older workforces in the United States.
The coffee industry has proven there is a never-ending shift of global power through the global economy. Thus, through the history of coffee, it is apparent that factors involving the globalization process such as absolute advantage and comparative advantage have had an impact
gourmet coffee quality. They have less than six months to launch the product, and very limited
Every government is subject to political pressure and finding a consensus between political and financial aims is difficult. In practice, some choices may not further the company 's long-term development.
Starbucks inbound logistics comprises of the firm’s quality control specialist in selecting top-quality Arabia coffee beans from suppliers that maintain a sustainable approach. Starbucks supports ethical sourcing by operating “responsible purchasing practices, farmer support…” (Starbucks, 2016) also corporate social responsibility (CSR). Additionally, their tactic is utilizing the “Coffee and Farmer Equity (C.A.F.E.) Practices” (Starbucks, 2016), wherein this approach is the first set of sustainability benchmarks in the coffee industry and is certified by third-party logistics professionals. The C.A.F.E. Practices has assisted Starbucks in relation to generating a “long-term supply of high-quality coffee” (Starbucks, 2016) and influencing the lives of the farmers and their communities. Furthermore, Starbucks utilizes economies of scales in their inbound logistics activities by developing outstanding supply chain procedures by using C.A.F.E. and also includes collaborating internationally with managers discussing strategic alliances through suppliers for their products. Starbucks have recently
1. Your consulting firm was recently hired to improve the performance of Shin-Soenen Inc, which is highly profitable but has been experiencing cash shortages due to its high growth rate. As one part of your analysis, you want to determine the firm’s cash conversion cycle. Using the following information and a 365-day year, what is the firm’s present cash conversion cycle?
THE POLITICAL ENVIRONMENT: The critical concern Political environment has a very important impact on every business operation no matter what its size, its area of operation. Whether the company is domestic, national, international, large or small political factors of the country it is located in will have an impact on it. And the most crucial & unavoidable realities of international business are that both host and home governments are integral partners. Reflected in its policies and attitudes toward business are a governments idea of how best to promote the national interest, considering its own resources and political philosophy. A government control's and restricts a company's