So much potential, but failure imminent - Anonymous employee Foster Farms Employee Review

The categories in which the company plays are highly vulnerable to external influences, like the price of corn and soy or avian influenza. Hedges exist to insulate a company like this from some of these forces, but leadership foolishly rolls the dice because it got burned once in the past. This results in bonus projections at the beginning of the year that never materialize, which is very disappointing. The product portfolio is not diverse which not only exacerbates the above, but also creates additional vulnerabilities. Foster Farms needs other brands in other categories: it's basically Business or Investing 101. Diversify to mitigate risk. The company has been saying for years that it is going to aggressively acquire other businesses, but to date has not. I will get to why that is a problem later. Still, that comes with the territory and that risk would be fine, given how great the overall culture is at the company, except for one thing: there is absolutely zero career planning whatsoever and the company is not a meritocracy. 2 years ago, the company opened a satellite office in the East Bay to attract top talent and succeeded. Despite the health alert which devastated the business, a few of these new managers implemented new tools and strategies which have turned things completely around. Were it not for AI which has interrupted exports and crashed the chicken commodity market, the company would be rolling in money (and to some extent it still is, as while net sales are down, it is making record profits from non core businesses). But none of this great work goes recognized or rewarded. Exceeding if not shattering goals has absolutely zero influence on getting promoted. If you read other reviews on this site, you see a lot of people say that the company hires you, promises you can move quickly if you perform, and then forgets about you. And that is exactly how it is. Sadly, I think many of these new talented managers know that all too well and will leave the company in short order. Heck, one already has. Pretty soon the company will have a shiny new East Bay office with no one in it, because they didn't do one thing to retain the talent they invested so much in to acquire. This will be particularly devastating in the coming years, because the old guard (and yes, the old boys network is very much alive and well here) will all retire and the company will not have seasoned people to back fill. Now to the old guard: while Director and below folks are great, the VPs and above are like an episode of Mad Men. Rude, unprofessional, horrible with people. They don't believe in data. It's all gut instinct and price, and their guts are highly suspect. Poor decisions are made daily based on short term outlooks, which goes counter to what one might expect from a private company. Bad behavior abounds, from inappropriate comments made to women to unsubstantiated finger pointing to straight up lying (particularly on the sales side). These people need to go. But instead of promoting the younger talent who act and operate in a 21st century business mindset, senior leadership continues to ignore bad behavior and not reward good behavior or performance. When leadership positions open, their first inclination is to look to the outside, instead of creating opportunity for qualified and capable folks internally. It's as if they hire you for a role and expect that to be your job for the rest of your life. I'm sure that works out nicely if you are a VP and make a killing despite your ineptitude, but it's the middle managers bringing the ideas and the chops that are making you richer. So what's going to happen when their rainmakers all get fed up with this and leave? That's right. They stop making money too! One would think that the importance of succession planning and retention would be top of mind for these folks out of self preservation alone. But there is an inherent lack of foresight and valuation of people that infect this lot, so much so that they don't know what's good for them. If the leadership made good on its promise to acquire, this would be a non issue. As such, they need to figure something else out to reward and grow their people. Lastly, the cons explained above are further exacerbated by a power vacuum. Our old CEO stepped down a year ago but still sits in and makes the occasional bad decision. There is infighting among with VPs about who will take the role. This will naturally result in someone important leaving. That is, unless the company hires from the outside, which seems to be their MO. Yet another instance of not growing their own people, destined to only result in more people leaving. having many capable people internally. ignbehavior