Indeed, feelings are likely the last thing that pioneers of the seafood industry think about when considering seafood processing software. Yet, feeling, sentiments are exactly what drive decisions in this industry, especially around technology.

We’re in a high-risk industry, given that commodity prices fluctuate almost as wickedly as the weather. Fear is a dominant factor.

Our emotions drive decision-making with the rationale side of our brain later justifying our initial cognitive bias. 

So, it’s time we talk about our challenges and emotions.

Besides fear, the other dominant emotion I see when visiting seafood processing units is anxiety which, interestingly, is what we feel when we try to suppress our emotions. Fear and anxiety are fed by seafood’s unpredictability of both supply and quality.

It’s a particularly anxious existence for plant managers/ owner who need to navigate through raw material while fulfilling orders. A plant manager once presented me an Excel spreadsheet with orders in hand (rows) with many different brand specifications (columns) to which the order had to comply. That generated a spreadsheet with uncountable cells. The plant manager had to manually check each production order against this compliance matrix, a mind-boggling and stressful ordeal.

No doubt, mistakes happened which were costly, both financially and emotionally. Erroneous production can be subject to higher cost or rejected by customers for non-compliance.

Part of the problem is the lack of seafood knowledge with the data processing team. Every day the top management must review data generated from different systems to verify yield or to check if there is enough stock to take new orders. It always happens that the reports presented have many discrepancies which are verbally discussed, and assumptions are made to understand current reports, this cycle goes on every day. The top management feels emotionally stressed and focuses on only the priority things, which impacts everything else. 

In the past few years, I’ve met hundreds of seafood processors. What is their emotional reaction to seafood software? One might think it’s overwhelmingly negative. Yes earlier, it was negative, but younger generation is joining the industry thought process is the exact opposite.

Remarkably technology now, is so universal that most processors naturally understand how it could help their business. Accurate and real-time digital data generates transparency and, hence, trust. Live dashboards and automated alerts make them feel more comfortable. All that feels good.

Ironically, another feeling is insecurity. A third-party technology provider can often expose business complexity since most seafood companies don’t have the technical depth to understand or manage their own IT.

In seafood software transformation, people typically fear the “transformation” part more than the “software.” Some people just dread change. Overtime, there’ll be less technophobia, especially among the tech savvy young.

A final core emotion that should be propounded is not lack of skills personnel. Seafood packers always worry that their workforce is not capable to work on software. It seems like they have not seen software which is easy to use.

There is a software, which is developed for specific needs. From a business analyst’s point of view, seafood processing is a pretty simple process, it just needs to be built into a software, so that processers can effortlessly and painlessly operate it.

And that’s what technology should do, inspire us to achieve a better future.