Engaging new professional support brings an opportunity for farmers and their chosen experts to develop new ways to operate without compromising standards. There can be similar value from reviewing the performance of a business’s existing professionals to ensure new technologies are harnessed and any risk of complacency from long term relationships is minimised.
Effective professional relationships depend on professional growth for both parties. Everyone must focus on continuous improvement so professional services empower the businesses and avoid creating dependency. When this is combined with proactive collaboration between professionals duplication will be avoided and cost efficiency enhanced.
Such relationships require commitment so the business owners or key personnel grow their capability and understanding of key business processes – especially financial and forecasting, monitoring and recording. This is becoming easier with the emergence of online accounting and budgeting programmes which enable farmers and their professionals to share information gathering, input and recording.
As farming businesses take greater control of these aspects of their operations their professionals are freed to concentrate on strategy and tactics rather than being constrained by the time and cost demands of their traditional process focussed role.
Here are some areas where this is delivering benefits in agribusiness consulting.
The first is forecasting and monitoring. When farmers take responsibility for their own financial recording and budgeting their management and investment behaviours are more consistent with their budgets and agreed strategy. This results from greater awareness of the physical outcomes needed to achieve budget targets and real time feedback about variances.
Self-managed forecasting frees me to focus on validation of the budgets to enhance credibility. I spend much less time acting as ‘score keeper’ or acting as an ‘enforcer’ trying to maintain the connection between onfarm decisions and budget targets. As well as saving cost, this enables me to spend more of my time on analysis and searching out opportunities for further gains.
When mutual commitment to best practice is combined with collaborative input from all professionals servicing a business there is even greater advantage. Developing close working relationships between agribusiness, accounting, agronomy and other specialists harnesses powerful combinations of professional disciplines to resolve issues and drive strategy. This also builds relationships that become the cornerstone of governance for a high performance business.
Another area where delegation can be increased is people management and staff selection. I was impressed recently by new clients who asked for support to recruit a key staff member. Our respective commitments and their location meant we were not able have face-to-face contact so we decided to combine phone and internet contact with the resources on my website for a self help approach.
Job descriptions and an advertisement were quickly developed with shared input. Online advertising generated an impressive number of quality applicants which the clients screened, reference checked and interviewed after guidance from our conversations. A selection was made within target timeframes and at about one third of the cost of having me fully involved.
Driving the quality of professional relationships is a two way responsibility. Proactive engagement by the business in key processes will grow capability and reduce costs. Most importantly, this will promote a culture where professionals are reminded they need to ‘win’ the right to be involved. This approach can be a catalyst for collective growth.
• Kerry Ryan is a Tauranga agribusiness consultant available for face-to-face or online for advice and ideas.
www.kerryryan.co.nz
