How satisfactory is the statement given in the case study of Stobart Group’s purpose or mission? What is the future vision of its management team?

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

The statement referred to is thus.
Over the last few years the Group has evolved beyond its position as an independent road
transport and logistics business to a leading UK provider of multimodal transport and logistics
solutions. Today Stobart Group delivers outsourced transport and logistics solutions for a
wide variety of manufacturing, retail and public-sector customers across the industrial,
consumer, food and defence sectors; working in partnership to transform their supply chain
structures and optimise their efficiency.
At face value it implies evolutionary, rather than planned development. Under changed ownership,
Stobart does appear to have adopted a planned growth framework, even if some acquisition may have
been opportunistic. One would need familiarity with the industry to have a reliable sense of how
important ‘multimodality’ is for the future. Other key themes of its development are partnership with
clients (going beyond the mere subcontractor role) and diversity of client sector (presumably to grow and
to spread over-dependence). Although plausible, the statement does not really constitute a mission
statement because it is not specific about Stobart’s distinctive resources and skills versus competitors,
other than the inferred ‘one stop shop’ advantage. It is not clear where its top management desire it to be,
other than big, multimodal and very influential. In a sector that features many one-man-truck operations
that may seem adequate, but it is a statement of vision that raises more questions than it answers, notably
in respect of transnational development.
Factual update on subsequent developments
Edward Stobart died in spring 2011, aged 56. Though no longer involved directly with the company, he
left many friends behind who celebrated his life and times at his funeral at Carlisle cathedral. In the
financial year ending February 2010 the company posted a 3.9% increase in revenues, but almost 60%
increase in operating profits before tax and non-operating items. The latter were £2.7m restructuring
costs and £8.2m gain on sale of its Widnes assets. In fact. Earnings per share were 11.6p compared with
a loss of 4.1p in 2009, indicating a strong recovery from the economic recession. All in all, it seems that
Stobart plc is a company with a bright future. In due course, however, it might be swallowed up by a
much larger, transnational enterprise.