Case: Chicken and Egg

Essay by pastniece October 2008

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Q1:What is the main problem faced by Hy- Line/ the Wesjohann Group at the time the case is written?The main problem is a significant difference between American and German management approaches and as a result competition for strategy. Main approach differences lie in the fact that Hy-Line (in Casey person) has “management-by-walking-around” and empowering his top management, on opposite Wesjohann has cost oriented and control over management.

What are 3 main sub-problems?1)The competition among the Hy-Line and Lohmann Tierzucht (both owned by The Wesjohann group) in marketplace. Lohmann had grown aggressively and invaded the United States. As Hy-Line held 85 per cent share of the U.S. market, Lohmann’s growth in its domestic market would come at the direct expense of Hy-Line. Taking into account that egg consumption in industrialized countries has reached a plateau, we can conclude that both companies will share the same consumers between themselves.

2)Separation of the Hy-Line company-owned distribution from the primary breeding company, Hy-Line International. Industry stated it as incorrect decision – as one of the success in Hy-Line Company’s growth was to refuse from regional distributor’s network and to have company-owned distribution systems as the real money was in the sale of commercial chicks at high volume. It was not popular among Hy-Line employees as they waited for other restrictions to come from German colleagues. There were the three Hy-Line principles of success: aggressive research; a production infrastructure that consistently converted R&D into reality; and the good technical support. We know from the case that the research would be merged and centralized in Germany.

3)Increased focus of the animal rights movements on the poultry industry. There is a big risk that pushing Congress from their side will result in new laws restricting that industry; therefore the poultry industry had to become...