004. Does your farm have a strategic advantage?

Modern Farm Business

The goal of business is to build a sustainable competitive advantage. This episode discusses not only what the leader must overcome in their day-to-day, but the choices they need to make in order to grow their farm's resilience.

NOTES:

Problems leaders must overcome when investing time & attention:

1. Concentrating on the routine habit, or day-to-day, despite the requirements of recent farm growth ("Do what I've always done.")
2. Distracted by URGENCY or "fighting fires."
3. Spending too much time on the "fun stuff" or in their comfort zone instead of growing with the farm to encompass higher-level duties

-> BE CLEAR ON WHAT YOUR MOST IMPORTANT CONTRIBUTION CAN BE...AND FULFILL THE ROLE THE BUSINESS NEEDS YOU TO FULFILL <-

Leaders who spend all their time as SPECIALISTS on the farm (see episode MFB003) do not make the impact on the organization's VISION (see episode MFB001) that they can by leading.

Competitive strategy of business - be WORLD-CLASS at one of the following, and REALLY GOOD at the other two:

• Innovation - Coming up with new things the marketplace needs (Apple)
• Customer relationships - Delivering what the customer wants, when they want it; knowing the customer well (Nordstrom, Amazon)
• Efficiency - Competing as a low-cost provider (Walmart)

Farmers typically opt to pursue efficiency, becoming a low-cost-per-unit producer: Focus on expenditures of time & money to increase efficiency

WORKSHEET INSTRUCTION (PDF ATTACHED):

1. List 20 responsibilities or activities that take up most of your time
2. Identify the top five that are most business-critical
3. Which of these five are directly related to improving the farm's efficiency?
4. Assess self 1-10 on how effective you are at tackling each of the five
5. Identify one area on the sheet which you can focus on improving

BUILD A SUSTAINABLE COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE & FOCUS ON BUILDING A FARM THAT LASTS.

WHAT CAN I DO TO LEARN QUICKER AND IMPLEMENT BETTER?