The Key Success Factors of Fraser & Neave ( F & N )

This study aims to examine the key factors that drive the success of Fraser & Neave (F&N). The data collection was by referring to the company’s official website and other related websites. Identified key success factors are innovation, consumer’s health and safety, creating value for society, talent management, and sustainable sourcing. These empirical findings provide new insights for the management of F&N about the antecedents of governing talent development. This study also provides a breakdown of F&N's strategic pillars and factors affecting those strategies, which can be utilized by management for future decision making to achieve their goals.


INTRODUCTION
Being incorporated since the year 1883, F&N is known as one of the oldest and biggest food and beverage companies in the world. According to the its official website, the company has a vast portfolio of beverages such as 100PLUS isotonic drinks, F&N SEASONS Asian drinks, Oyoshi and F&N Ice mountain bottled water. Additionally, it is also the undebatable leader in dairy markets. Consumers often enjoy their days with a cup of milk tea or coffee made with F&N's various range of dairy products under the F&N, TEAPOT, CARNATION®, IDEAL® and Cap Junjung® brands, as well as liquid milk and juice products under F&N Fruit Tree Fresh, F&N Magnolia, FARMHOUSE brands. All these products have successfully satisfied the tastes and appetites of consumers of all ages. With the slogan of 'Pure Enjoyment, Pure Goodness', it is committed to fulfilling consumers' health and wellness needs while offering enjoyment and excitement.
Over the years, F&N has managed to build a sound reputation as one of the region's best regarded Food and Beverage producers. It holds the number 1 position in Malaysia for soft drinks and maintains prominent positions in beer and dairy segments in this region. The position of brand image was further validated as it was honored with Super brands Malaysia 2019 Awards. Today, it gathers features a presence in over 20 nations and utilizes more than 10,000 representatives around the world. It has made its stamp within the nourishment and refreshment, property, distribution, and printing businesses, and has added up to resources worth US$19 billion.

Rationale of the Study
Behind every success of F&N, a powerful vision & mission and a partnershipa partnership between a company and its peoplestands the test of time. Beginning with two entrepreneurs, John Fraser and David Chalmers Neave, to its present community of 7600 workforces, F&N's endearing legacy of an entrepreneurial fervor and pioneering spirit has led it to fearlessly venture beyond the shores of Singapore to the rest of Asia. Moreover, the expertise, professionalism, zeal, and talent of F&N's People have brought F&N into a prominent conglomerate with powerful brands. It is a legacy built on passion, devotion, and ingenuity. Thus, the key success factors of F&N will be a fascinating topic to further investigate.

Literature Review
Key success factors enable a company to differentiate itself from its competitors and to offer a 'unique selling proposition' to consumers (Ketelhöhn, 1998;Batra, et al.,1996). According to Bullen & Rockart (1981), key success factors are defined as the limited number of areas in which sufficient results will warrant flourishing performance for the individual, department, or organization. It is the main focuses where 'things must go right' for the business to thrive.
Several key factors conduct towards the success of F&N. According to The Star Online (2019), the allocation of capital expenditure for innovation shall complement F&N in improving its effectiveness, and enlarge its capacitance and ability while leveraging the latest technology to meet consumers' gradually changing demand. (Ooi, et al., 2019) stated F&N focuses on innovation for the growth of product portfolio with emphasis on benefits of healthier ingredients and convenience to the consumers.
"F&N is one of the Malaysia's massive soft drinks manufacturer and distributor recently. F&N is very popular among children and young consumers," stated Muhammad, et al., (2012). F&N accelerates its plans to develop a more tasty and healthy range of goods in conjunction with its commitment of "Pure Enjoyment, Pure Goodness". (The Edge Financial Daily, 2019) F&N is honest in the perspective of stating the ingredients used in process of producing beverages on the packaging. Therefore, most of the consumers are loyal.
According to NST Online in Bernama (2019), F&N's net income for the third quarter ended June 30, 2019, rises compared to that last year. Their revenue had increased by 10.9% with a higher contribution from the food and beverages segment from Thailand and Malaysia. For investment in brand building, F&N would continue to strengthen the product portfolio by increasing advertising and promotions investment. F&N would also continue to prioritize strengthening its commercial strategies route-to-market execution, accelerating innovations, and improving operational efficiencies across the businesses to generate profitable and sustainable growth. In the uncertain external environment, they will continue to be vigilant and explore new growth opportunities that may arise at the same time (Bernama, 2019).
F&N is strengthening its e-commerce presence by launching its flagship online store, F&N Life, to offer greater convenience, accessibility and value to Malaysian consumers (F&N launches online flagship store F&N Life, 2020). Its first ever ecommerce site was launched for consumers to order their favorite F&N products through an easier platform. In addition, F&N Life offers product details and nutrition values, recipes, and loyalty programs to enrich consumers' shopping experience besides catering to consumers who enjoy the convenience of shopping at any time by their fingertips. F&N CEO Lim Yew Hoe said that this aggressive e-commerce strategy reflects their commitment to innovate and evolve with consumers' ever-changing needs.
According to Shak Chee Hoi from The Fifth Person, the employer as of now sells its items through the F&N Life app, and internet business players like Lazada and Jocom. Because of the fact that F&N's merchandise is inexpensive in nature, it is far lowerpriced to convey in mass during events and festival such as Deepavali and Hari Raya. It will be available before long dispatch its items in Tmall.Com and focuses to gain RM10 million in income as properly as enjoy the 2020 Alibaba Single's Day. It focuses to include more prominent way of life components into F&N Life in the fate which incorporates step tallies and other prosperity motivating forces. The income commitment from on-line channels is unimportant until further notice (Shak, 2020).

RESEARCH METHOD
Two types of research methods available are quantitative and qualitative. Creswell (2007) stated that qualitative research is any kind of research pursuing findings without any statistical methods or quantitative means while quantitative research is a research that based on numbers. This study used the qualitative method as this study mainly involves exploring and describing the factors contributing to the success of F&N. It is more of a description task than a measurement task. Thus, qualitative research is the suitable approach for this study.
Information of this study was collected using various means such as reference materials and the Internet. It was then analyzed and the key success factors of F&N were identified. The first research method is the reference materials. This research method has been conducted at the Hamzah Sendut Library, Universiti Sains Malaysia to obtain as much information as possible which is relevant to our research. Reference materials such as journals, books, and newspapers related to F&N have been studied and used as the base for this assignment. For example, a journal titled "Performance and Size of Fraser & Neave Holdings Bhd (F&N)" has been studied. The second research method is the Internet. Internet resources have been used to find any relevant information about our study. The official website of F&N (http://www.fn.com.my) has been accessed to know more about the company. All relevant information such as annual reports has been downloaded and reviewed.

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
This study aims to determine the aspects attributed to the success of F&N. Journals, news, articles, and case studies related to F&N were analyzed and discussed to elicit the key success factors. The key success factors were grouped and presented. The key success factors of F&N emerged from the analysis are continuing innovation, consumers' health and safety, creating value for society, talent management and sustainable sourcing.

Continuing Innovation
The main factor that contributes to the success of F&N is continuing innovation. F&N invests in its product and process transformation to expand the product diversity and enhance efficiency and productivity. New product innovation is one of the key drivers of F&N's earnings. As reported by The Star on 23 January 2019, F&N allocated RM 30 million in capital expenditure for new product innovation. The new manufacturing paths and addition to the capacity and capability of currently present paths could ease new offerings and packaging formats.
"The allocated extra capital expenditure will enable new products to be produced from October 2019. There could be a few dozens of them," said Lim Yew Hoe, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of F&N (Amir, 2019). F&N launched 13 fresh products with healthier choice and new face in 2018 which helped the company to achieve RM 4.1 billion in revenue. Their funding in new production technologies has generated favorable results in creating excellent and healthier alternatives. F&N is speeding up innovations into the healthy products category with value-added benefits. It intends to speed-up their journey into high possibility markets, especially in Asean, the Middle East and African countries as well as the Greater China region.
During the 135 th anniversary celebration, F&N unveiled Full Cream Condensed Milk-Milk Stix and Squeeze Tube (Ooi, et al., 2019). These new innovative products are expected to alter the way Malaysians consume their favorite full cream condensed milk. The Full Cream Condensed Milk is carefully curated and packaged for consumer enjoyment and made with New Zealand imported milk. F&N has innovated such products in such packaging to meet its customers' ever-changing taste and preference. To test consumer's response towards new taste of the product, F&N has done sales promotion by providing sampling in supermarkets. As a result, F&N has received good response from public. Some prefer old version that they familiar with, some might accept new taste. Thus, F&N carries on with the innovation strategy to create product extension into global market.
F&N not only concentrates on innovation of brand products but also concerns about the impact of post-consumption waste. The group is taking initiative to enhance environmental-friendly packaging. F&N collaborate with Nanyang Technological University (NTU) to conduct an experiment to bring food technology revolutions to the market. The experiment will be included in a module of NTU's Food Science and Technology program (Vanessa, 2019). They are figuring the method to enter into food products sold on the mercantile market through transformation. According to the National Environment Agency statistics result, the quantity of food waste created in Singapore has expanded by about 40% over the past 10 years. Yet, from over 800,000 tons of food waste in 2017 only 16% was recycled. They are working towards changing food waste into biodegradable food packaging or even reciprocate to the food chain to intensify a good's nutritional value.

Consumers' Health and Safety
F&N has a brand promise of 'Pure Enjoyment, Pure Goodness' which agrees to deliver products which are great-tasting while packed with nutritional goodness (Fraser & Neave Holdings Berhad, 2019). It develops products based on valid scientific verification and study, even including consumers' perception and tastes pertinent to changing Asian life practice. Besides, F&N actively self-supervises and secures obedience through vigorous collective governance. To hold on the brand promise, F&N always supplies safe, highquality, and affordable goods to its customers. F&N takes the initiative to innovate and continuously improve its products to meet the evolving needs of community and safeguard constant supply of good taste and the right nutritional values.
Rahman, Murtaza, Khan, and Haque (2012) stated that the arising tendency of healthy devouring is promoted by consumers' life habit desire. Most consumers are cautious about sugar proportion in their consumption of drinks. However, they are also eager to attempt unfamiliar and distinctive goods. In the meantime, to mitigate the effect of the sugar tax, F&N decided to produce a smaller pack, reformulate and reduce the sugar content of existing products. This stimulates F&N to emphasis on product and packaging transformation to provide entertaining, easy access, and high nutrient products. For example, the new Milk Stix and Squeeze Tube are high in calcium and vitamins A, B1, and D3 which are excellent sources of protein.
F&N is improving the recipe of its non-gas beverages to promote Malaysia citizens progressively ongoing healthy lifestyle (Alia, 2017). The group retains their faith formula of beverages from unprocessed elements and reduces sugar to keep up with the demands and expectations of customers. F&N is in the process of preparing "no preservatives and synthetic" elements in the beverage following year, in line with the demands of consumers who have changed into choosing healthier choices. The experimentation and evolution of improving the formula occupy F&N not less than a year and will remain to improve its attempts (Banga, et al., 2019). The producers should show the formulas on packaging material along with their proportions. F&N therefore creates a new packing for "less sweet" beverages to ease consumer in identifying products.
F&N's ameliorated drinks with lower sugar have opportunity to develop brand new market chances for consumers who aware of health importance (The Star Online, 2019). However, the price of the new outcomes could possibly increase to a degree close to the initial product with supplementary sugar tax due to incurred research and development (R&D) cost. The delay of the application of sugar taxes to July 2019 has given F&N extended time to adapt its product portfolios correspondingly. In the meantime, according to CGS-CIMB, the vigorous pricing struggle experienced by Malaysian beverage industry for the previous years' perhaps will be scattered. Therefore, F&N plans to commence more inventive beverage outputs and boost advertising activities.

Creating Value for Society
One of the factors that contribute to the success of F&N is creating value for society. Essentially, social entrepreneurs establish organizations to meet social needs in ways that improve the quality of life and increase human development over time (Zahra, et al., 2008), while benefiting the owners in ways that will sustain the revenue flow and enable them to earn a return on their investment. Therefore, F&N's concerns are not only for the company solely but also for the society's needs and enhancing social well-being. F&N continues to provide outreach and engagement programs across Malaysia and Thailand. They explore and implement appropriate outreach programs to deal with the needs of the community in a certain area. This activity can give benefits to society and indirectly increase brand awareness and drive consumer engagement. In 2019, F&N has continued several outreach programs to strengthen vulnerable groups, promote environmental awareness, spread festive cheer, and promote sports and active lifestyle.
F&N is very committed to creating value for the society, hence they come out with their approach to enhance social well-being. They undertake several long-term and shortterm programs to create a greater social equity in each market that they operate. For that purpose, they have developed four main thematic areas that are focusing on their community investments to improve the livelihood, which is strengthening vulnerable groups, promoting environmental consciousness, spreading festive cheer, and promoting sports and active lifestyle (Fraser & Neave Holdings Berhad, 2019). There are a few activities that have been carried out by F&N in each of the themes across Malaysia.
A new area of research referred to as social entrepreneurship examines how entrepreneurs develop enterprises with the intent of helping societal members, often those who are underprivileged and have low incomes (Kistruck, et al., 2011). F&N is one of the companies who actively helping the underprivileged society. The issue of inequality of wealth and opportunity is the main reason why F&N chooses to focus on strengthening vulnerable groups as they want to take leadership in tackling this issue. The inequality weakens the development and potential of their business and also communities since their employees and consumers come from all society's segments. The vulnerable group that F&N is focusing on is underprivileged children, hence they are investing in educational programs that include both technical and soft skills. Through this investment, F&N strives to promote a society of greater equality, diversity, and social inclusion where business and society together flourish (Fraser & Neave Holdings Berhad, 2019).
Among the activities that have been carried out is empowering youths with basic computer skills under F&N ICDL (International Computer Driving License) program that have been annually conducted by F&N since 2011. It continues to provide opportunities for underprivileged youths at Montfort Boys Town, Shah Alam, and Melaka to develop their capabilities through the ICDL certification course (Fraser & Neave Holdings Berhad, 2019). ICDL course is part of the F&N IT program designed for youths from different levels of digital literacy to help beginners improve and fully understand basic computer skills that are useful for common real-world application. Heretofore, it has invested RM185, 000 in the program.
Additionally, it gives free kindergarten and tuition classes under F&N E.L.I.T.E. (Empowering Lives through Education) Program providing educational assistance to the children of Pangsapuri Enggang, Program Perumahan Rakyat (PPR) development in Bandar Kinrara Puchong. This program has been conducted since 2011 and 487 children have benefited from this program. Since 2015, F&N has conducted F&N Leadership Program for underprivileged youths. The leadership program aims to instill discipline, develop interpersonal skills, enhance self-confidence, and encourage teamwork among young residents of Rumah Ilham. In 2018, F&N conducted One Child One School Bag Program to the community in various cities throughout Malaysia. They use the funds raised from the 'F&N Go Green++ Program' (an internal recycling program) to purchase school bags and basic school supplies for 376 underprivileged children.
Besides maintaining eco-efficiency in the operations, F&N also has taken on the task to promote environmental awareness in their communities as another priority (Fraser & Neave Holdings Berhad, 2019). Many firms including F&N may take actions to reduce the negative influences their operations typically have on the environment in hopes of creating a positive greening effect (Delmas & Montes-Sancho, 2010). Many activities have been done to realize the hope of creating a positive greening effect. One of the activities under this theme is Annual F&N School Recycling Program which is a recycling competition between schools across Malaysia that had been launched since 2007. This is to educate future generation on the significance of environmental conservation. Next, F&N Save Our Seas Program is to rehabilitate coral reefs and encouraging responsible behavior on the beach among communities and tourists at Redang Island. F&N and this program's partners also set up reef rehabilitation initiatives. These are to collect and plant coral fragments in nursery sites, then transplant them in permanent sites at Paku Kecil and Terumbu Kiri.
In 2019, F&N comes out with new activities which are F&N Fit & Nature Program and Water Conservation Program. 'Fit & Nature' initiative is to encourage Malaysians to take an active lifestyle and to raise awareness about environmental protection. This program was held in 3 places including Terengganu, Shah Alam, and Kota Kinabalu. Water Conservation Program was conducted by F&N Dairies Thailand with the Government of Thailand to return water to nature. In this program, three check dams were built at Namtok Chet Sao Noi Saraburi to reduce the water flow velocity and to conserve water longer in the dry season. The water stored can be used by the surrounding communities for their everyday life.
The third theme, spreading festive cheer is developed to, as F&N brand promises, deliver 'Pure Enjoyment, Pure Goodness' to all. They believe that communities can be linked and relationships between different cultures can be strengthened by spreading festive cheer (Fraser & Neave Holdings Berhad, 2019). The aim is to promote diversity and encourage national unity in their communities. For Hari Raya Celebrations, it collaborates with Media Prima Television Networks to organize the Seratus Ikhlas, Setulus 100PLUS campaign. This campaign was held during the fasting month spreading Ramadan and the Hari Raya festive cheer to more than 3,000 people from underprivileged communities across Malaysia. It also donated Raya clothes and 'Duit Raya' for the children from various homes in Malaysia when they hosted break-fast sessions with them. For Deepavali celebrations in 2019, F&N organized a full-filled baking session for the children from Persatuan Rumah Kebajikan Rita (Rumah Rita) in addition to present the home with a commercial-sized mixer and baking utensils. This helps Rumah Rita generate income and the children have the opportunities to practice their baking skills.
The last theme, promoting sports and active lifestyle, was developed to facilitate both responsible consumption and a balanced lifestyle. This is because F&N's products play a part in the health and well-being of their communities as F&N is a food and beverage business. In order to better care for their consumers while creating value for communities, they also prioritize community investments that support sport and active lifestyles (Fraser & Neave Holdings Berhad, 2019). Supporting youth development through sports and promoting active lifestyles to the community had been a long and proud tradition of F&N. They believe that sports occupy a leading role for all societies, and are a powerful tool to support nation building. 100PLUS is passionate in supporting schools and grassroots sports programs, especially in football and badminton to nurture future generations of champions as a sport is especially vital to youth development.
Grassroots Program is the initiative taken by F&N to develop the children's football skills and to give motivation for young and rising players to excellent in badminton. 100PLUS has been a key partner of Liga Kementerian Pendidikan Malaysia (KPM), a football league organized under the Ministry of Education since 2011. Since 2013, 100PLUS also has been supporting the Badminton Association of Malaysia (BAM) to organize a premier youth development competition called 100PLUS National Junior Circuit. As the official partner of National Sports Council, it supported Malaysian athletes during their training and competitions in Malaysia and also athletes who are competing overseas for international tournaments. F&N provides 100PLUS to meet their hydration and energy needs while training and in competition. It also provides 100PLUS Active in sachet version for athletes competing in overseas to make it convenient for them to keep hydrated on their travel.

Talent Management
Talent management is an organization's dedication to recruit, hire, hold, and expand the most gifted and advanced employees available within the activity market. According to Dhanabhakyam & Kokilambal (2014), the talent management process usually includes practices such as enlistment and determination, progression arranging, preparing and improvement, execution the executives, remuneration and prize administration, and worker maintenance the executives.
Talent management has its own challenges that a company must overcome to develop performance of the employees. Filippus & Schultz (2019) posit that an absence of execution the executives, an absence of ability improvement, an absence of ability maintenance, compensation challenges, unwieldy standards and formality of government, and absence of authority form part of talent management challenges. Many organizations are tested by the war for ability as to basic ability the board factors, for example, work inspiration, fascination, advancement, work worth, and enrollment (Van Hoek, 2016). According to Ogbari, et al., (2018), the extensive answer is made out of vital occupation necessities, work reviewing, execution the executives, enrollment standards and progression arranging.
As for F&N, its achievement is driven with the aid of their devoted workforce. In that capacity, it endeavors to make an invigorating artistic creation's condition, where abilities are sustained and compensated, and representatives are locked in, tested, and enabled to do to their most elevated potential. F&N has an objective to give a normal of, in any event, 12 preparing hours for every representative every year by 2020. F&N consider in empowering their personnel through a supportive corporate way of life and complete talent control approach, which is driven by using the Group's Global Values and Seven Modules for Strategic Human Capital Transformation. (Fraser & Neave Holdings Berhad, 2019) It is creating a sustainable price for his or her purchasers, investors, staffs, and the nearby networks wherein they work. F&N is trying to hold its administration position inside the dairy and beverages market and hold to applaud its esteemed investors with powerful long-lasting period returns (Fraser & Neave Holdings Berhad, 2019). Along these lines, F&N is enabling its workers by empowering a subculture of coordinated effort and advancement. It is likewise devoted to upgrading social prosperity by means of its long-standing system outreach programs and by creating product and activities that advance legitimate wellbeing and nourishment.
One of the examples that F&N contributes to the employees' talent is by teaching employees how to implement online business. The organization at present sells its items by means of its F&N Life application and site, and web-based business players like Lazada and Jocom. As F&N's items are low valued in nature, it is progressively practical to convey in mass during festivals such as Deepavali and Hari Raya. It will be available before long dispatch its items in Tmall.com and focuses to acquire RM10 million in income just as advantage from the 2020 Alibaba Single's Day. (Shak Chee Hoi on February 13, 2020, The FifthPerson)

Sustainable Sourcing
Sustainable sourcing implies guaranteeing all sellers and providers submit to similar standards of supportability that the organization does. Sustainability as an idea or an issue does not have geographic boundaries, race, and class or community wealth. It is evident that the communities that give a high priority to energy conservation achieve higher sustainability ratings than other communities (Svara, 2013:15). Sustainability is the manner by which organic frameworks persevere through and stay assorted and beneficial. Later records have widened the possibility of supportability to incorporate social prosperity, versatility and adjustment across four spaces: biology, financial aspects, governmental issues and culture. In financial aspects focused records, manageability requires the compromise over the three mainstays of supportability: monetary requests, ecological flexibility, and social value. Sustainability is an important topic as it is related to the existence of live survival of mankind, fauna, and flora.
As for F&N, it has its own goal for ensuring sustainability in the company. Having recently become a user of the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO), it intends to be more stringent on their palm oil suppliers, ensuring it abides by sustainable agricultural principles and practices. Their target is for all palm oil purchased to be RSPO certified by 2020. Meanwhile, all soya beans supplied to them is produced from certified non-genetically modified plants.
F&N draws in local providers conceivable to make nearby work and to help the nearby economy. More than 90 percent of their providers are local. When searching for providers, it starts from regions nearest to its activities. This has the additional advantage of limiting the earth sway from logistics. Further underlining the sustainability of their activities, they ensure all providers and sellers along their whole worth chain practice great administration and grasp the prosperity of their own partners. This applies to providers and merchants who bolster their sourcing, creation, and circulation needs, just as the individuals who give advertising and deals administrations and bundling the executives.

CONCLUSIONS
In conclusion, the high performance of F&N relates closely to continuing innovation, cares for consumer's health and safety, creating value for society, talent management, and sustainable sourcing. F&N's focus on driving innovation to expand product portfolio is one of the factors that contribute to their success. Besides, F&N is committed to deliver healthier and high-quality products in tandem with its promise of 'Pure Enjoyment, Pure Goodness'. It always takes the initiative to innovate and constantly refines its products to meeting the changing demands of consumers and ensuring consistent delivery of refreshing taste and nourishing goodness.
Furthermore, its concerns for the society's needs and enhancing social well-being have made it what it is today. Several outreach programs have been carried out by F&N to address community needs. Last but not least, talented workforce, and sustainable sourcing of F&N drive to create an environment that unleashes the highest potential of the employees. We can still find the same inspiration, commitment, and enthusiasm that have driven F&N's People for over a decade. It constantly ensures their suppliers comply with food safety regulations and standard to manage sustainable sourcing risks.
There are several limitations of this study that could be addressed as recommendation for future research. Unfortunately, the study was unable to conduct any interview due to the Covid-19 lockdown. This could be explored and done in further research to broaden the finding factors of the research. This study is conducted based on journal studies and has provided certain key success factors of F&N. However, to validate and broaden the findings and scope of study, future researchers can conduct more quantitative and qualitative research. More research is needed for achieving findings that would be more generalizable for this topic.