Douglas Fine Foods

DouglAS Fine FOODS - Case ANALYSIS

By

David Berk

Professor Brian Maruffi

M7736 Managing and Leading in the Global Marketplace

December 12, 2012

Summary of Key Facts and Issues

* In June 2008, Matthew Douglas (Douglas) was asked by his older brother Jason to become the interim chief executive officer (CEO) of Douglas Fine Foods (DFF) so that he could take a one year personal sabbatical. DFF, a successful food services company was founded 80 years prior by their father and grandfather. Douglas was a successful entrepreneur and achiever in his own right, and prior to joining DFF had success in a number of entrepreneurial ventures with a proven track record in building shareholder value for himself and his investors. Douglas acquired a one-third stake of DFF in 2007 and until now, had only played only a limited role in DFF, which was owned and operated by Douglas’s two older brothers. After the death of the oldest brother, Mark, Jason decided to retire and Douglas took on the role of CEO on a permanent basis in June of 2008. DFF originated as a family run dairy farm founded in 1929 and grew into the largest privately held Canadian Food Services Company. DFF had 850 full time staff, a stellar reputation and grew its revenue from $1 million in 1991 to $30 million in 2008.

* When Douglas became CEO, he found a company that had essentially been run as a family owned business. Employees had a very fixed mindset and many of them had been employed by DFF for their entire lives. Very few efficiencies, such as modern software management systems had been introduced into the company and employees were not in the habit of questioning the effectiveness of entrenched processes and procedures. When Douglas would query the management as to the reasons behind certain methods of operations the typical answer would be “because we have always done it that way.” DFF was profitable and Douglas was trying to figure out which direction to take the business and...