This focuses on a large set of issues concerning how a firm's workforce affects its strategic capabilities and enables some capabilities while constraining others. These topics are increasingly important for most firms across a wide range of industries and they affect most of the dimensions of a firm's strategy. Case: "Smithfield Foods and the US Meat Processing Industry". It focuses on the attention attracted by Smithfield and other firms in the industry as a result of the discovery of large clusters of COVID-19 infections at the firm's facility in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. The case provides lots of data that can help in assessing the strategic implications of these developments for Smithfield. Discussion questions for the case are listed below: Smithfield Foods Did top management act responsibly in April 2020? How should Smithfield modified its South Dakota facility or otherwise have responded to COVID-19? What would be the cost-related factors in its responses? Can Smithfield afford to automate its South Dakota facility? Given the high capital investment requirements for automating, what direction is Smithfield likely to take?