Spring Break
Case Rip Cord: Down and Dirty on the Farm
Uncle Jordy, Featured Columnist
Issue date: 3/25/02 Section: Humor
The cases in Channels to Market turned straight to the proper handling of animal carcasses. Ito Yokado contained the surprising section heading "Tunafish," which describes Mrs. Ichikawa's management of the Japanese store's fresh fish department. Exhibit 10 is entitled "Oxidation of Tuna," and it shows why fresh tuna has only a two-hour shelf life.
The next day's case was about a good, old-fashioned cattle feeding company from the Texas panhandle, Friona Industries, L.P. Ironically, this case featured a protagonist named Herring. The beef supply chain takes cattle from cow-calf producer, where they are born, to the feedlots, where they are "grown," to the packers, where they are slaughtered and sold to the retailers. Along the way, "nonperforming" cattle that don't meet standards are eliminated. Yeah, but the good performers are eliminated in the end too, aren't they? Additionally, the case compares the feedlots to a hotel. Only they leave out the part where this hotel's checkout is a real bitch.
Mr. Herring has this to say on the fragmentation of the beef supply chain: "Every participant in the industry depends now on taking somebody's pants down to create profitability for themselves. So the retailer is waiting until the packer has his pants down." By taking their suppliers' pants down, the players are creating a little more value for themselves than just profitability, eh? This suspicion is confirmed later, "'The cow-calf producer doesn't know to which retailer his product goes,' Herring opined. 'Most don't want to know.'" Well, of course they don't want to know which feedlot hotel their "products" eventually check out of—a rancher is liable to form a lot of attachments when his pants are down!
Please send comments on your cases to Uncle.Jordy@mba2002.hbs.edu.
The next day's case was about a good, old-fashioned cattle feeding company from the Texas panhandle, Friona Industries, L.P. Ironically, this case featured a protagonist named Herring. The beef supply chain takes cattle from cow-calf producer, where they are born, to the feedlots, where they are "grown," to the packers, where they are slaughtered and sold to the retailers. Along the way, "nonperforming" cattle that don't meet standards are eliminated. Yeah, but the good performers are eliminated in the end too, aren't they? Additionally, the case compares the feedlots to a hotel. Only they leave out the part where this hotel's checkout is a real bitch.
Mr. Herring has this to say on the fragmentation of the beef supply chain: "Every participant in the industry depends now on taking somebody's pants down to create profitability for themselves. So the retailer is waiting until the packer has his pants down." By taking their suppliers' pants down, the players are creating a little more value for themselves than just profitability, eh? This suspicion is confirmed later, "'The cow-calf producer doesn't know to which retailer his product goes,' Herring opined. 'Most don't want to know.'" Well, of course they don't want to know which feedlot hotel their "products" eventually check out of—a rancher is liable to form a lot of attachments when his pants are down!
Please send comments on your cases to Uncle.Jordy@mba2002.hbs.edu.
