CFO Talks A Perfect Game

At least Chicken Farmers of Ontario ("CFO") knows what people want to hear and read.  Their 2014 Annual Report is a masterpiece in propaganda and political correctness.  While CFO says all the right words, have they provided any objective evidence to prove they achieved any of their talk?
CFO's 2014 Annual Report has been discussed for the last 3 days (see here and here). In their report, CFO says:

Taking Performance to the Next Level

CFO is relentlessly focused on achieving our full potential

Business as usual is not an option.

Our focus is to be better.

Our goal is to make a difference.

And so forth for a total of 32 pages of rainbows and unicorns

So where are all the results from all of CFO's pomposity, promises, and  propaganda?

From an outsider's prospective, I see the following changes and improvements for CFO in 2014:

• CFO re-decorated the office to a brighter shade of red, more consistent with CFO's corporate colours
• CFO has implemented (or is still implementing) their very expensive and complicated SAP software (ie. "CFO Connects") that the Canadian and Ontario taxpayers bought for them.  So much for CFO being "self funded"
• CFO's revenue has dropped by 9.5% from 2013.
• CFO's expenditures have dropped 2.2% from 2013 (before extraordinary items)
• CFO has spent a total of $1.5 Million trying to figure out (or to lobby the government and other stakeholders) how to set the farm gate price of chicken in a more advantageous manner for CFO and its millionaire chicken producers.

CFO says the key projects that it worked on during 2014 are:   price reform, business development (specialty breeds), allocating growth and emergency management systems.

CFO spent 44% less on its projects in 2014 than what they spent in 2013.  Does that mean CFO did 44% less work, or they were 44% more efficient in carrying out their projects?  CFO may know, but they aren't telling the rest of us.  I guess it's a secret.

Stalin's Russia shared more info on their 5 years Plan implementations than what CFO shares.

Perhaps CFO should talk to their many management consultants they hire about how to do Strategic Planning, openness, and accountability.

What I expect is PLAN, DO, CHECK, IMPROVE (Deming's Cycle).

1.  Each year, CFO should say what they are going to do, and the expected results that will be achieved.
   
2. CFO implements their plan.
   
3. CFO checks and measures the effectiveness of their plan implementation, and the results achieved.
   
4. CFO improves their systems (ie. planning, implementation, checking, etc.), then repeat the whole process for the following year.

In that manner, there's openness, transparency, and accountability.

Until that happens, CFO deals solely in lobbying and propaganda; nothing more, nothing less.  Most unfortunate!


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