Changes in Strategy and Strategic Direction Over the Last Ten Years of Thai Union

Established in 1977, Thai Union exhibits the rich history of innovation and commitment to the production of quality seafood. Headquartered in Samut Sakhon, Thailand, the union operates worldwide with different plants in France, Portugal, Ghana, Scotland, Thailand, Poland, New Guinea, Vietnam, Seychelles and the United States. The union commenced as an exporter and canned tuna processor. Its primary businesses include shrimp, tuna, salmon, pet food, sardines and value-added products. It built its foundation on the production of quality products and excellence in customer services. Currently, it is a global seafood leader dedicated to innovation and sustainability with ambitious growth goals. It focuses on the production of tasty and nutritious seafood that satisfies its clients needs (Pananond, 2016). The driving workforce is a humble and passionate team of professionals collaborating to run the organization innovatively and responsibly. The union experienced changes in Over the last ten years; the union has changed its strategy and strategic direction due to changes in organizational structure, marketing, culture, environment, culture, human resource management and financial performance.

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Initially, the union was christened the Asian Pacific Tuna Company Limited. In 1988, it renamed to Thai Union Frozen Products. It diversified and expanded into the pet food business in the United States in 2010. It joined the UN Global compact as the first firm from Thai in 2013. The initiative focuses on promoting social and sustainable strategies. Over the last ten years, the union has morphed drastically evolving its policy and strategic direction by increasing its investment base and product market to grow its profits and market base in line with its goals, objectives, mission, and vision. The union first invested overseas in 1997 when it acquired Chicken of the Sea, the third-ranked canned tuna brand in the United States of America. It also bought Empress international, which is a seafood distributor and importer in the United States of America. Thai Union started selling Chicken of the Frozen foods in the United States frozen seafood market in 2006. In the same year, it also acquired a majority stake in PT Jui Fa International food company, which is a canned seafood company from Indonesia. Fast forwarding to 2008, the Union secured another majority stake in the Yueh Chyang Company in Vietnam. The union further invested in Avanti Feeds Limited, a frozen shrimp and shrimp feed producer in India, to diversify its investment portfolio. The union entered the European market in 2014 with the acquisition of MerAlliance, the fourth largest smoked salmon company in France, to cement its global dominance in the frozen foods market. It also acquired shelf-stable sardine firms in Australia, Norway and the United States of America. Finally, the companys growing portfolio reached its peak with the acquisition of Rugen Fisch, a German seafood company in 2016. In its quest to further expand in the US market, the union procured a minority share in Red Lobster, the most prominent seafood restaurant in the world, in the 2016 fiscal year with a$575 million investment (Reuters, 2016). The unions strategic expansion and acquisition of new branches in the global markets have accorded the competitive union advantage over competitors in the global frozen and seafood markets.

Despite all this success and persistent growth, Perry Wheeler claims that Greenpeace blames the Thai Union Group forced labor, human rights abuses and environmental devastation; thus, cautioning consumers to avoid the companys canned tuna altogether (Wheeler, 2015). The organization faces various other legitimate challenges. The Thai Union discharged an announcement in light of the allegations by Greenpeace in 2015 (Securities, 2010, p. 11). The union repeated its responsibility in upholding human rights and its vision "to be the worlds most trusted seafood leader, caring for our resources to nurture generations to come," (Thai Union Group PCL, n.d.). Thai Union additionally noted that it works intimately with the International Seafood Sustainability Foundation (ISSF) to "advantage the more extensive fish angling industry" and finished by approaching Greenpeace to join the "business talk about that is now in progress, to work towards accomplishing our common targets (Ono, 2016).

Thai Union utilizes different managerial hierarchies in its organizational structure to shape its culture. An elaborate administrative authority influences the union's coordination, allocation, and supervision strategies. The unions structure consists of a board of directors, a chairperson, an executive chairperson, the president and the chief executive officer (Thai Union Group PCL, n.d.). Thiraphong Chansiri is the new president and chief executive officer. He is an experienced manager and brings a culture of commitment and trust to the organization. He also introduced a culture of transparency and responsibility as exemplified by his starting of an investigation into the organizations different activities and challenges relative to the market (Thai Union, n.d.). Kraisorn Chansiri is the new executive chairperson, and he focuses on engaging employees in the decision-making process as a means of motivating them to increase productivity. The new management team guarantees adherence to the law and focus on the quality of the groups products (Thai Union, n.d.).

Changes in the organizations structure have led to the development of ethical standards. In 2015, the Union deployed a new set of principles, supplanting the organization's 2013 code of conduct. The "more stringent" new set of accepted rules take into consideration more elevated amounts of "responsibility and straightforwardness" and display the unions sense of duty towards "acquire the trust of clients, customers, and the world by working with trustworthiness and high moral standards"(Murray & Setthasiriphaiboon, 2010). The organization, likewise, claims to have severed associations with 17 providers because of constrained work or human trafficking infringement since the beginning of 2015.

The union aims to maximize profits from its array of businesses and attain sustainability of its enterprises by focusing on online marketing through social media platforms, such as Facebook, Twitter, and Telegram. Such concretely laid out marketing helps in attaining a more extensive geographical market while also capturing a more extensive and vibrant consumer base. The union branded product names include the renowned Ambient Seafood, Frozen and Chilled Seafood, Pet Care, and Value Added. The unions ambient seafood comprises tuna, sardine, mackerel, and salmon. Frozen and chilled seafood and related product include shrimp, lobster, and salmon (Pananond, 2016). Changes in the union's management, the board of directors and the recruitment of new employees has given life to an organization previously accused of multiple infringements and inflictions. The change instills knowledge, awareness, and leadership in the corporate culture through audits, training, and development of appropriate communication tools and channels. The new administration trains new employees to guarantee the continuity of the union's organizational culture. Members of staff are more committed and motivated to attain the organizations goals and mission. As such, they are more hardworking and goal oriented as the new leadership gives them a sense of belonging (Bang, 2014, p. 221). In their mission, the management has embarked on the production of higher quality products, and satisfaction of consumer needs to encourage repeat purchasing and attract new clients. Ultimately, this change of guard has created a fresh and reinvigorated culture that ascertains appropriate transition of management practices from experienced employees to recruits ( Stephens, 2016).

Changing the unions approach to human resources management aims at the maximization of employee performance. Focusing on policy improvement and devising new systems of operation helps the union expand its ventures and improve performance. The unions human resource management practices are anchored on efficient recruitment processes, paying employees benefits, training, and development of employees, employees performance appraisal and rewarding them appropriately(Stephens, 2016). Recruiting new employees has helped the union balance its organizational practices and guarantee adherence to government laws and regulations, especially after it was accused of falling short of sustainable fishing practices. In rejoinder, the union initiates strategic programs, such as acquisitions and mergers, succession planning, talent management, inclusion, diversity and labor relations, to ascertain sustainable change management that is echoed by its recent partnership with Greenpeace (Lewis & Boyle, 2017; Sustainable Brands, 2017). The introduction of the changes above has resulted in intensive and productive training and development activities to guarantee the organization's continuous growth. These newly introduced training programs have augmented employees and staff performance elevating the union to its former glory before all the controversy and accusations. Training also helps the Union to uphold quality in its production processes consistently.

Training also assists the union in the transitional process of its organizational culture and ethical standards from one generation of employees, leaders and the management to the next. Essentially, overseeing the smooth passing on of these critical corporate gems guarantees the transition of production and management strategies to continue with the production of differentiated and quality products for that market leadership position. It also helps employees and the staff employ higher ethical and production standards. Evidently, this transition is a crucial component of the unions continued occupation of the market pole position as one generation works effortlessly to surpass the mark set by the previous generation. As such, it is a chief component of the unions evolutionary progression through updating of production techniques and quality standards. Training also leads to the creation of diversity and inclusion, which aid in tackling different traditional and cultural barriers in new markets; consequently, attaining concrete and measurable success in these newly expanded into markets relies on how well new employees are trained to uphold corporation standards and principles. Employee engagement assists in developing a sense of belonging and ascertainment of the production of quality products. Engagement helps the union transfer employees from one region to the other in the wake of its aggressive expansion plan. It also helps the union forge a productive working relationship between employees and the management. Ultimately, employees take part in the decision-making process to arrest revolt to change. The union has also altered its human resource policies to increased innovativeness and the quality of its products. For instance, the union together with Nestle launched a demonstration boat to ensure adherence to human rights in the fishing industry (Thai Union Group PCL, n.d.). Additionally, the union, in 2016, took steps to abate slavery in its operating sector by ending its relationship with 17 suppliers as a result of forced labor or human trafficking violations since the start of 2015, (White, 2016). Through such innovative techniques, the Union has ably developed quality and differentiated products that set it apart from competitors in the market, give a competitive adv...