CIF Initiative Helps Plant Breeder Towards World-Class Status

CPB Twyford is taking positive action to improve its competitiveness on a global scale, following its benchmarking work with the Cereals Industry Forum (CIF). The plant breeding company undertook a Cereals PROBE to build on its strengths, and identify areas for improvement.

The PROBE work compares the performance and practices of companies against a database of 6000 businesses across 32 countries, in order to make recommendations for improvements and report on trends across the industry.

At CPB Twyford, the PROBE process confirmed the company’s strength in new product development, acknowledging it to be world-class in providing innovative, new varieties. Kirsty Hall of CPB Twyford said: “We were pleased that the new product development practices we have adopted were recognised as world class. That part of our business operation is critical to our success and is likely to be critical to the success of the cereals industry overall in the future.”

As with other plant breeding companies, CPB Twyford faces a number of unique challenges in the way it operates, owing to the lengthy lead time of the variety breeding process. From the initial cross in the glasshouse, it takes around 12 years until the variety is ready for full commercialisation in the market. The PROBE highlighted the need for “maximum departmental communication” during this long process. CPB Twyford has since adapted its internal communication systems in order to improve the efficiency of this aspect of the business.

One action point was the development of the company’s existing intranet system, with increased employee involvement and the documenting of new ideas identified as being slightly weaker than other areas of the business. The intranet is now regularly updated and used as a “central hub for communicating”. The capacity for two-way communication between employees and central management was also added to the intranet, in order to increase employee involvement in the company and to take full advantage of new ideas.

In addition to internal communications, the Cereals PROBE also drew attention to the need for maintaining focus on customer service. This was recognised as a crucial part of the business, as Kirsty Hall explains: “Every customer contact is an opportunity to learn more about the people and organisations we work with. Sometimes the most innocuous comments can provide valuable feedback on customer service issues where the area can be addressed before it becomes a genuine complaint. As a result, CPB Twyford updated its customer complaint system. Kirsty Hall said: “As a result of the Cereals PROBE workshop we were able to focus on its importance to the company. We have redefined our customer complaint processes and strategy.”

Due to the success of this Cereals PROBE exercise, the team at CPB Twyford has scheduled a repeat PROBE session for 2007, in order to track its progress so far and continue to boost its competitiveness. Kirsty Hall said of the exercise: “The PROBE has been an excellent stimulus to get a new perspective on the company and act on the fresh challenges it presented. Many of the issues identified had been raised before but it was the PROBE approach that really helped us to progress these issues and turn them into meaningful actions.”

Manager of the Cereals Industry Forum, Chris Barnes, said: “A total of 34 companies have now benefited from the Cereals PROBE exercise, and are taking action to boost the competitiveness of the UK cereals industry on a global scale. The response of our participants so far has been very positive. Issues such as the need for improved internal communication are not unique to CPB Twyford, and many companies could benefit from developing these areas.”

For more information please visit www.cerealsindustryforum.org.uk, or call Chris Barnes on 0207 520 3906.