Tate & Lyle Sugar Europe - opportunities in fair-trade exploratory workshop
Client challenge
Tate & Lyle wanted to explore whether or not it was going to be possible to make the whole of their sugar business fair-trade. To do this, they needed to understand current thinking and bring together opinions of key decision-makers within the organisation.
Tate & Lyle wanted to develop their thinking in a number of areas to understand fully the links to the business/sugar business objectives; questions to be answered and key people to be interviewed to progress a feasibility study; the barriers and the opportunities; reasons for liking other fair-trade initiatives and possible next steps before progressing the feasibility study.
What did we do?
Article 13 designed a process which would produce maximum impact and insights working within tight budgetary and time constraints.
The first phase responded to the need to pre-inform/brief attendees so that they would come prepared for the workshop. To do this, Article 13’s resident fair-trade expert produced a summary report giving background information on fair-trade – the purpose and approach; a market perspective; best practice and likely campaigns – and providing a practitioner’s perspective on the key questions Tate & Lyle wanted answers to. The report drew on the author’s knowledge, as well as desk-based research and interviews with the Fairtrade Foundation, Oxfam and other leading opinion formers in the field.
Article 13 supplied each participant with a copy of this report in advance of the workshop and encouraged them to complete a questionnaire giving their initial thoughts on the issues up for discussion. Questionnaire responses were then collated and fed into the development of the workshop process.
Article 13 ran an energetic and engaging workshop for representatives of Tate & Lyle’s senior management. Thanks to the pre-workshop report and Article 13’s dynamic facilitation style, the workshop produced real blue sky thinking and some concrete next steps.
The final phase of this project involved production and delivery of a summary report of the workshop output with suggested next steps, thus answering Tate & Lyle’s need for a rational recommendation ‘from the business’ as to the next steps. Article 13’s report included a gauge as to the level of interest amongst the group in the concept; a brief for the feasibility study including a list of interviews and questions that need to be asked; a list of best practice initiatives and reasons for them being identified as such; an initial review of these best practice initiatives to see business generated and other benefits to the sponsor organisation and a group opinion as to whether the key question could be answered.
Innovation PLUS
The high calibre of Article 13’s fair-trade expert enabled the group to really explore next steps, fully aware of all the risks and opportunities. Article 13’s process enabled the client to progress their thinking far beyond what they had expected when the idea was first initiated. The energetic workshop provided a platform for two-way ideas generation with some very senior people within the organisation and, according to feedback, left them feeling reassured with a sense of progress being made.
Update 2008: View Farmers' Stories, a recent video clip talking about Tate & Lyle's work with the Fairtrade Foundation in Belize.
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