In the complex world of U.S. agriculture, it’s easy for farmers and ranchers to become inundated with unrelenting administrative demands on your time. Farm program and regulatory paperwork, staffing issues, record-keeping issues, technology challenges and income-tax planning can add constant distractions.
Some of the best farm operators I know have had enough with complexity. They pride themselves, and their operations, on being simple. Let’s be clear: these organizations are complex, innovative and well run.
But they insist ideas, deals, partnerships, processes and paperwork be simple. These farm CEOs will forego the benefit of an opportunity if they deem it simply too complicated to manage.
RETHINK OPPORTUNITIES
For instance, I know of one farmer and his two sons who became so frustrated over the time-consuming and complicated requirements for farm-program payments that they considered foregoing that income altogether. They’re not alone in their thinking. Increasingly I see customers rethinking all sorts of opportunities, even revenue generating ones, to achieve greater simplicity.
As businesses evolve, most move to greater simplification to remain scalable. There is no way to build scale in an overly complicated operation. If you can’t simply communicate, either orally or in writing, how a process or procedure works, you’ll never achieve scalability. That task must become simpler to perform or to teach.
One way to avoid complication is by having clear, documented responsibilities for employees’ jobs and tasks, so everyone knows exactly what they need to do, how to do it and what their day looks like. Protocols and procedures should be written to be easily understood, so there is no misunderstanding the expectations of each employee.
TRANSITION TOOL
Still, other farmers look ahead to prevent complications that can arise when one generation takes over from the next. For example, one son who is preparing to take over the family farm was mystified by the side deals and hand-shake agreements his father had in place with no documentation. If his father were to pass away without a written record of those arrangements, the son would be left clueless about the details.
Succession requires a clear understanding of what led to success by those who came before. The son’s lack of knowledge about his father’s arrangements creates complication to succession. The obvious solution was to verify in writing the names, terms, dates and other specifics of his father’s pacts.
By addressing that issue now, the family avoided what could have been considerable complications down the road.
Simplifying your business should be part of your continued evolution. As you look to scale up and create succession in your organization, simplicity will be the best investment you can make. FJ
