OCEAN TO PLATE; NAVIGATING THROUGH THE TURBULENT ENVIRONMENT.

Abstract

Ceylon Fisheries Corporation (CFC) is a statutory government organization which is fully owned by the state & has its unitary status as the apex body of the fisheries industry under the purview of the Ministry of Fisheries & Aquatic Resources Development (MFARD). CFC was established on 1st of October in 1964 in order to supply quality fish at affordable prices to consumers while securing the producer. CFC is rested with the responsibility of purchase and sale of fish, provision of cold room facilities, production and sale of ice and sale of fishery products. CFC operates a network of Regions, Provisional Offices, Purchasing Centers, Sales Outlets, Fillet Factory & Circuit Bungalows. Initially the responsibilities of CFC were vested for boats construction, providing fishing gears for such boats, fishing at sea (deep and also shallow waters) by using such boats, managing harbors for those boats coming from harvesting, repairing, replenishment and maintenance of such boats at harbors, supplying the fish catch to the market place, maintaining the market price by providing quality fish at reasonable price, catering the protein requirement of the citizen of Sri Lanka Being a government owned organization there is an immense potential for making profit and functioning as an apex body of the Fisheries Industry. However, CFC has been evolved as a lost making organization and failed to achieve its goals and objectives. Highly politicalized environment has created ruthlessness organizational culture inside the CFC. Poor management practices, lack of supervision, untidy appearance, absence of proper systems and unprofessional work force have negatively affected for CFC progress. Efficiency, effectiveness and productivity of CFC was lacked and driven towards the financial lost due to aforesaid factors. The politically appointed management was bias with the ruling party Trade Unions. The union multiplicity is high but the union intensity is low resulting 07 number of unions and the membership is at the marginal level in more unions. The conflict among the Trade Unions are observed and badly affected for the smooth functioning of CFC. Moreover, highly unionized en environment disturbing the management and reduced the organizational instrumentality. The unionization of employees was associated with poor financial performances and negative effect on the profit. The Top Managements appointed by the line ministers in time to time, had failed to manage the corporation with the dedicated manner. Malpractices, corruptions, mismanagement, misbehavior and poor leadership qualities were the salient features for the negative impact of CFC. The organization culture has been tarnished by the political leadership. Main departments such as Marketing, Operations, Finance and Human Resources Management were not functioning with the best practices in accordance with the common goal of CFC. The government of Sri Lanka granted immensely for the operation of CFC, but resulted the bad repercussions. The main reason for such lost was the poor management in highly politicized atmosphere. Therefore, the policy decision was taken to manage CFC as a Public Private Partnership business entity which was approved by the Cabinet of Ministers in early 2016, as the last option. However the arrival of the new management in the last quarter of 2016, implemented the better courses of action for CFC operation. In this case story the author has discussed the major issues encounter by the corrective as well as the preventive actions implemented by the new management. The top management implemented appropriate action based on the current situation demand in different aspects. Human Resources Management Department, Finance Department, Operation Department and Marketing Department were integrated to common system. The ultimate object was to achieve the success in Fisheries business arena. The new management is able to manage the industrial relation climate understanding of behavioral and non-behavioral variables associated with unions and union employees. Strategized the Union Avoidance policy by building a positive work environment and able to reduce the power of existing unions at CFC. Courses of action executed by the new management, resulted that CFC is moving towards the positive direction. Supervision, guidance and monitoring are made available to drive CFC as a profit making organization after 57 years of history. Visionary leadership initiatives of the Top management was able to minimize the corruptions and to achieve the success. The business of CFC focuses through impressive Human Capital Management practices. The revenue has driven by the adaptation of a comprehensive Financial Management System. Being the major organ of the organization the Operational Department achieved the business excellence triggering through the comprehensive initiatives. Ground level marketing tactics were promulgated and activated in order to achieve the overall marketing strategy. Disciplinary admiration is devised to enhance the productivity by maintaining the trustworthiness and adopt the rules and regulations. Integrity and ethics are considered as the most significant factors in the field of business as well as at organizational culture. This case story is about how to manage all negative aspects of an organization towards the positive direction. The new management has immensely contributed their tireless extra energy for the success of the organization. CFC has been functioning as a profit making organization since December 2016 slowly but steadily. CFC achieved the highest net profit in July 2017 reaching the best milestone of the corporation. This case story proved that the closed supervision of the activities, leading through the grass root level, managing with the shared ideas of the members, minimizing the corruptions in multi directions of activities, working with the team spirit can change the entire organizational culture to improve the employee performance and organization productivity. The top management believes that the leadership should set example for followers, rather than insisting to perform. The Chairman’s experience in the field of highly unionized and various kind of work force, the Managing Directors intellectual knowledge in the subject of Finance and Accounts. The General Manager’s experiences in Sri Lanka Navy devised immensely to manage the organization especially during the critical situations aroused. The major concepts of the Principles of War equipped to apply as and when required in the field of Marketing Management and Human Resources Management. The top management is being working as a team having a common goal to achieve a competitive advantage. Today CFC is functioning without any financial grants from the government and running as a profit making corporation in Sri Lanka. Finally the Cabinet of Ministers commended the task accomplished by the Top management and advised to take measures for sustainable growth of CFC wishing a fair winds, calm weather and enough water underneath of “the CFC ship”. Bon Voyage.