In order for a business to fully recognise food crime as a genuine risk to food defence, brand integrity, and profitability, it must consider the way it leads and conducts itself; particularly during times of stress and demand.
This page describes suggestions and considerations to open up the internal discussions necessary for businesses to recognise and mitigate food crime risk, the threats that come from it, and where vulnerability exists within the supply chain.
The leadership of a business sets not only the strategy but the operating norms and the environment.
In order for the strategy for a critical risk such as food crime to be successful, it needs to be recognised, valued, and supported by the leader, the leadership team and the entire organisation.
Leaders create the environment which gives authority and credibility to business intentions, positively supporting the value such risk management initiatives bring to the business, particularly when stress is applied.
Good business leaders will always look to do the right thing and support the teams managing critical risks to protect the integrity of the business, the brands, and the teams that safeguard authenticity.
For the effective and successful management of critical business risks such as food crime, a business would ideally determine the values by which it intends to operate and ensure that values such as integrity, honesty, and authenticity align with its business goals and commitments.
Once such values are declared, they help to support the way a business operates on a daily basis. Remembering that a product specification or a marketing campaign is a consumer promise, it is important that businesses both declare their values and then live by them through all challenges.
All good businesses have great strategies, great businesses add strongly held values to that.
Businesses are more likely to be resilient and able to effectively manage critical risks through challenges to the supply chain if they have relationships that they can rely upon.
Most well-considered supply chains operate reliably during stable times and this can be done transactionally without building relationships; although even then, relationships can support good performance. However, when supply chains are pressure-tested during times of low availability, high demand, loss of capacity, geopolitical shift, or any other kind of disruption, then transactional operating becomes vulnerable.
Forming stable short, medium, and long term relationships with supply or service partners enables mutual understanding, collaborative working, honoured commitments, and shared reliance. This not only supports the supply chain in managing risk and vulnerability during times of crisis, but also allows both partners to support longer term planning and investment.
The establishment of a relationship-based operating ideal is equally important with internal functions, departments, and stakeholders, ensuring the business focus is on the competitive set, rather than a supplier or another internal function or business division.
Business culture is effectively set by the everyday behaviours of the leader and the leadership team rather than the website statements or written policies.
The leadership of a business sets not only the strategy and the operating norms, but also the operating environment within a business. In order for the strategy for a critical risk such as food crime to be successful, it needs to be recognised, valued, and supported by the leader, the leadership team and the entire organisation through daily behaviours.
Leaders can describe how an environment should operate, but it will in reality be reflected in the behaviours evident in daily operating.
Creating the environment which gives authority and credibility to business intentions, using positively supporting behaviours that value such risks brings management initiatives to life within the business, particularly when stress is applied.
Good business leaders will always look to do the right thing by behaving in the right way, supporting the teams managing critical risks to protect the integrity of the business, the brands, and the teams that safeguard authenticity.
Strong, confident, nurturing, and supportive leadership enables a far greater commitment to strategies and objectives within a business or organisation.
Defining a competent strategy, that carefully considers critical risk such as food crime, is far more likely to be successfully implemented if the operating environment motivates individuals and teams working within it to support it.
Setting realistic goals and achievable targets with competent and adequate resources encourages a participative environment. If a business then overlays a positive operating philosophy, where the identification and removal of risk is rewarded through recognition and value, then individuals, teams, functions, and supplying partners are far more motivated to contribute.
Focusing on failure and creating fear of capture or discovery may invoke a short term reaction but it will never support and motivate.
Recognising and rewarding positive contributions, however small and from whatever source, motivates, energises, and encourages those actions to be repeated, allowing much earlier intervention for business risks.
Business culture is set by the conduct and behaviours of the leader and the leadership team rather than the website statements or written policies.
The leadership of a business sets not only the strategy and the operating norms, but also the operating environment within a business. It is therefore important for a business to identify what conduct is required and expected in particular relation to the management of critical risks such as food crime. In order for the strategy for such critical risk to be successful, a business should establish the conduct norms that are then valued and supported by the leader, the leadership team, and the entire organisation through daily behaviours.
Leaders can describe how an environment should operate, but it will in reality be reflected in the conduct & behaviours evident in daily operation.
Creating the environment which gives authority and credibility to the management of business risks through the conduct of the leadership team brings value to risks and initiatives to life, particularly when stress is applied.
Good business leaders will always look to do the right thing by conducting themselves and behaving in the right way, supporting the teams managing critical risks to protect the integrity of the business, the brands, and the teams that safeguard authenticity.
Businesses are more likely to be successful with the implementation of strategies to manage critical risk such as food crime, if they operate collaboratively and cross-functionally, both internally and externally.
The management of supply chain demand, supplier relationships, material sourcing, product development, and dealing with challenges such as crisis management is far more likely to be successful if a business encourages a framework of collaboration.
One specific example of effective collaborative working in a larger organisation would be strategic materials teams, where a cross-functional team working collaboratively recognises cost, functional, operational and safety risks, and opportunities when sourcing materials.
Forming stable short, medium, and long term collaborative relationships within and across departments and with supply or service partners enables mutual understanding, honoured commitments, and shared responsibility for success. This not only supports the supply chain in managing risk and vulnerability during times of crisis, but also allows partners to support longer term planning and investment.
The establishment of a collaborative relationship-based operating ideal is critically important with internal functions, departments, and stakeholders, ensuring the business focus is on the competitive set, rather than a supplier or another internal function or business division.
In order for a business strategy to be effective, there needs to be clear accountability for delivery of performance against goals set.
Businesses that clearly set out goals and objectives as part of their strategy, which are then deployed through role-holders, teams, and functions, with clear accountability identified, are more likely to see effective management of critical risk such as food crime.
Businesses should always set out clear responsibility and accountability once a clear and fair assessment has been made.
Ensuring roles are appropriately tasked with the right objectives which are then agreed, supports effective allocation of accountability for elements of critical initiatives.
Businesses that create positive and energising work environments, where leadership values are clear and which resonate through the majority of decisions, encourage those working within them to do the same.
Considering not just the tasks to be performed, but the manner in which they are delivered can make the difference between random, event driven success and predictable and repeatable success. Setting clear operating attributes such as positivity, collaboration, and agility for example can have a dramatic effect on a business's ability to successfully manage performance and critical risk such as food crime.
Creating the environment which gives authority and credibility to business intentions, using positively supporting behaviours that value such risks, brings management initiatives to life within the business, particularly when stress is applied.
Good business leaders will always look to do the right thing by behaving in the right way, positively supporting the teams managing critical risks to protect the integrity of the business, the brands, and the teams that safeguard authenticity. This has an added benefit of not only supporting business productivity, but of creating a strong net promoter current through the business, with an "I would encourage my family to come and work here" mentality which can only be achieved when personal and business values are aligned.
The implementation of strategies to manage critical risks such as food crime are far more likely to be successful if the business operating environment encourages the identification and removal of food crime threats through the reduction of impact or likelihood.
Businesses that positively encourage individuals, teams, functions, and external partners to identify and alert anomalies and issues that may impact critical risks, will be able to intervene far earlier and be far less likely to be surprised.
Businesses with positive and collaborative environments that encourage issues to be alerted will be more resilient to change and the impact of events than those that do not.
