Entrepreneur: bettering your business skills

In commerce, this question is always associated with changes that have developed through the increasing complexity and dynamic within the economy. Things to be prepared for as entrepreneur include short lifecycles, discontinuous change, continuous price reductions, lack of customer loyalty, choosy employees, transparency, business pressures and high financial expectations. Recognised as crucial factors for success here are rapid reactions, innovation, operational excellence, close contact with customers and good customer relations, top quality working conditions, ethical and socially-aware behaviour and sustainable added value.

Does this also apply to farming and its production factors? So far, life cycles in agricultural production have tended to be lengthy and changes in production more likely to be gradual. And the prices, too, remained relatively stable, thanks to state support measures. Just think back to the milk quota period.

Some ideas on this:

1. The value created by the activities of a firm, a classical field this, increases according to the level of own capital invested. But support comes not only from investments, 5-year plans have to be presented, different scenarios investigated. Break-even points have to be identified and then calculated for. Risks assessed and secured.
2. In future there will possibly be more focus on the responsibilities, not only those borne by the farmer but also by the farming family and workforce too, not least because of increasing enterprise complexity. The individual cannot manage this alone. In farm offices, I notice quite a few emergency protocols. Unfortunately, most are not filled out.  Who takes over when the boss is sick, or away on holiday? What happens when a farming family marriage breaks up?
3. Those responsible have also to find answers to questions on the why and wherefore, the effectiveness and sustainability. Not for nothing has »burn-out« been known for a long time in    agriculture.
4. Alongside ability, also required are ideas and innovation capacity. The motto »that‘s the way it always was« isn’t much help. Not only standing is important, but increasingly crucial are also reaction capability and the ability to develop solutions together with others. Happy are those bosses who already have self-reliant and resourceful employees.
5. A talent for staff leadership: how to treat my workers with respect, how best to motivate them, assess their capabilities? How can I delegate? I can envisage many farmers that know the pain of getting things wrong here.
6. It’s also important to understand stakeholders: e.g. tenants, investors, cooperation partners. And without question, customer contact becomes more important too. All this is still foreign ground for many farmers. Nearness to customers will be more important. Unfortunately, the pressures of work mean very few have occupied themselves with all of this.
7. But not only the right social behaviour becomes increasingly essential. So too, does ethical behaviour. Successful entrepreneurs must consider questions of sustainable value creation and also learn, when necessary, to defend their actions in arguments.

The adviser should offer helpful support during structural changes, but should wait until help is explicitly requested. And here it pays to keep a special eye open for the surfacing of problems – interior or exterior ones. It remains important not to overstep the advisory role when helping with difficult decisions. There are indeed tax consultants or specialist advisers who act more like managing strategists or finance ministers in this respect. This cannot be the right way.

The agricultural adviser should stand by the farmer client and help when help is requested. For instance in matters of employee management. How best to behave and be effective in interactions within the farming family, the work team, the respective business cooperations? Who suggests the right questions to ask? Who advises on effective changes in attitude? It’s often heard that the adviser should personify »a clear mirror« i.e. supporting the roles and responsibilities of the client independently of own feelings or mood, worries or problems.

This can be particularly difficult in the face of disputes and conflicts, both interior and exterior. And there are more of those than you may think! The present environment means there’s plenty need for help in this direction.

Such themes are dealt with in specialist circles under the heading »agile management« and have had a central importance in commercial management consultancy for many years. But farm advisers have also been working with the subject for some time too. And I think this is important because those strategies, based on the individual strengths of farmer clients, have great influence on success.

Agriculture is in continual flux with enormous changes thus required in vocational requirements. Key abilities for farm managers can be summed up as:

1. Precision in all actions, whether planning risk assessment, prognosis, production or administration.
2. Persistency and diligence in pursuit of targets.
3. Modesty, lack of self-importance and respectful treatment of everyone involved: whether employees, business partners or the family members working with you.

Managing a farm business represents an outstanding vocation within a highly volatile environment – full of new opportunities and not without risk. Those who can correctly assess their situation and work towards preparing solidly grounded decisions, showing courage in negotiations and staying active in networking, remain entrepreneurs with a future.