Disruption comes from everywhere - are you ready?

Posted by Brendon Walsh on 6 September 2016

Disruption comes from everywhere! It is happening right now and many of us don’t even know it! That was one of the many bold messages from Ian Proudfoot, Global Head Of Agribusiness for KPMG, at the Waikato Rural Business Network meeting last week.

Ian’s “Future of Farms” presentation outlined seven key areas which will shape great change in Agribusiness in the very near future. They included physical farms, farming practices, how we eat and social drivers. The changes outlined included floating farms (in harbours), cellular farms, the “Bok Choy” effect (the evolution of western diets), printed nutrition, eating to manage health and expectations on biodiversity.

Very insightful stuff! The key I believe though is in what Ian discussed next i.e. how we respond to this disruption and what we can do differently. I say this because there will always be change somewhere in the agriculture industry, not to mention in life. Let’s get over this kiwi agri-people! The only constant in life (apart from death and taxes) is change! It will happen and change is NORMAL! So to discuss how we respond to change and what we can do differently is not only refreshing, it is vital for the future of our farms, our industry and in fact life! As farmers, and those who support farmers, it is the area we most need to focus on.

From Ian’s discussion, here are two crucial strategies that relate directly to every single one of us, regardless of our role, skills, ownership structures or wealth, and they have direct impact on our own success as well as the success of our industry.

1. Firstly, we must learn to take risks! Yes, we must learn to live with failure!

Unfortunately, many actions in our farming industry are based around preserving the status quo and surviving a bit longer, simply because risk is seen as a negative. “We can’t possibly do that because that seems too much risk. We might fail!” Often possibilities are closed down because it all seems too hard and unsafe! But failure is part of life and is always a great way to learn what we didn’t previously know. We also learn how to proactively respond to adversity, which surprise surprise, is bound to catch up with us sometime in our lives. Interestingly, learning how to proactively respond allows us to strengthen ourselves so the chances of major failure are small, if they exist at all.

Many do take risks but on the whole we tend to default to what we know rather than what we really want to achieve above all else. Taking calculated risks and backing ourselves is essential to be able to stand still, let alone innovate, grow, have financial and mental resilience, and achieve! If we can’t do that we consign ourselves to mediocrity, huge mental challenges and eventually the death of opportunity.

There is risk in everything, but how we prepare, respond, cope and think allows those risks to have a lower level of “riskiness” for us. So how about we commit to seeing change as necessary and normal, and seeing failure as part of the journey on to the achievement of what is most important to us?

2. Secondly, we must get people into the industry who will change the world!

We must teach people how to think, how to take the lead and how to lead the industry into the future. Ian particularly mentioned kids but was not limited to this.

It is impossible to know everything about everything. We do not have the time or inclination to study to become good at everything we encounter in our lives and businesses. But, we can choose to become good at predicting, coping with and positively negotiating change to create advantages. To do this we have to understand ourselves and where we choose to fit in the world. Regardless of the type or examples of change we encounter we need to learn how to define what is important and what is not. We have to learn how to generate ideas, create opportunities and back ourselves. We must learn to chart a course, to stay on that course and how to alter that course if necessary TO STILL ACHIEVE WHAT IS MOST IMPORTANT TO US! It doesn’t matter to what level we do this, just as long as we do it.

Now, we may or may not change the whole world but each of us has the choice to change our own worlds for the better. Our individual efforts accumulate and contribute to vibrancy and positivity in our industry and country.

Getting people into the agricultural industry who can change the world is important but we have a lot of latent ability to do that in our current farmers, their families and the farming support industry. Anyone can achieve what they really want, if they want it badly enough – we just need to get over ourselves, uncover those abilities and get on with it!

By the way, disruption and change comes to each and every one of us, not just kids and young adults! We are not immune to change and most of the current ownership of businesses and land is with those in their more advanced years. None of us get out of this life alive so we all have a duty to ourselves and our families to be the best we can be while we are here. Incidentally, life becomes fun when we are in the game and not just watching it.

Negotiating change and creating opportunities breathes life into our years. How about we stop trying to put years into our life through a focus on survival, and just get it done? We will likely find that we live better, healthier, longer and more fulling lives anyway. Imagine that!

If you are curious about how the GrowFARM® System can help sheep and beef farmers generate the profits they really want, contact me here.