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Yes, this business and financial consultant is writing another article regarding human resource management. I’ve received numerous questions from clients and industry friends who are curious about why I (a numbers guy) seem to be so interested in human capital.
Before I delve into the primary message I hope to convey in this article, let me suggest that an alternative title/question could be: Who serves as your farm’s CEO?
Without a doubt, you’ve read a half-dozen or more articles in the past several months about managing your dairy operation during periods of low margins. I initially thought this would be another of those articles; however, I’ve changed my mind and decided to offer a different message.
I was recently asked what I thought were among the key ingredients of a long-term and substantive consulting relationship between a dairy producer and his or her adviser(s).
Most readers have likely seen some variation of the urgent vs. important matrix chart accompanying this article. It continues to intrigue me, however, how many dairy producers are never quite able to effectively discipline themselves to allocate any (or virtually no) time toward the long-term planning function of management.
Any progress that has ever been realized throughout history is the direct result of change. While this is an indisputable fact, many people say they just don’t like change.
Here is how psychologist Dr. Heidi Grant Halvorson explains this human phenomenon: “It’s not just that people fear change, though they undoubtedly do. It’s also that they genuinely believe (often on an unconscious level) that when you’ve been doing something a particular way for some time, it must be a good way to do things. And the longer you’ve been doing it that way, the better it is.”
I have been a proponent of annual budgeting for quite some time. When my clients first hear me advocating the development of annual budgets, they usually have one of the following reactions:
I’ve been hearing a lot of conversation recently about the profitability of milking cows. The buzzwords include three-year price cycles, three-year production cycles, market stability, market risk, risk management and a host of others. I am hopeful some of these discussions have caught your attention.
Obviously the year 2009 is a driver of many of these conversations; it was difficult for most dairy producers. Recent milk and feed markets have renewed these concerns over industry profitability.
Several readers of my last article emailed me with a question I have repeatedly heard from customers and audiences for many years: Are there traits or characteristics which are common to successful dairy farms?
If you were to ask 100 different industry professionals and dairy producers, you would undoubtedly see 100 different lists of attributes most closely linked to success. The following are among the most common traits I observe in consulting with dairy operations across the U.S.:
