Plan, Prepare Prosper

Department of Agriculture and Food, Western Australia: Plan, Prepare, Prosper
Acknowledgments
This document is part of the Plan, Prepare, Prosper program that was developed under the Pilot of Drought Reform Measures (‘the pilot’), a joint initiative between the Australian Government and the Western Australian Government. The program aims to support businesses to prepare for drought, climate variability, financial and other challenges.
Plan, Prepare, Prosper is a strategic planning process that will help businesses to assess their business and determine the best course of action in response to known and projected challenges to business performance.
The Department of Agriculture and Food, Western Australia would like to recognise and thank the Rural Business Development Corporation, Curtin University, the Centre for Entrepreneurship, Agknowledge®, Farmanco, Plan Farm, David Koutsoukis, Greg Barnes and others for their contributions in the development of this program and permission to use their intellectual property.
Adaptation of material for Strategic Planning Overview was undertaken by Kylie Cutten and Susan Dawes, on behalf of the Great Southern Institute of Technology, in consultation with Kelly Flugge, Karlee Bertola and Dale Sutton, Department of Agriculture and Food, Western Australia, from base material prepared by Nancye Gannaway, Department of Agriculture and Food, Western Australia.
IMPORTANT DISCLAIMER
The Chief Executive Officer of the Department of Agriculture and Food and the State of Western Australia accept no liability whatsoever by reason of negligence or otherwise arising from the use or release of this information or any part of it.
Copyright © Western Australian Agriculture Authority 2012
Introduction to strategic planning
Contents
Why strategic planning? .............................................................................................. 9
What is strategic planning? ....................................................................................... 10
Developing goals ....................................................................................................... 11
Understanding Risk .................................................................................................. 13
Click! Colours ............................................................................................................ 16
Delegation ................................................................................................................. 20
Essential OHS Policy Areas ...................................................................................... 22
Progression Planning ................................................................................................ 23
What drives a successful land management business? ............................................ 27
Business performance analysis ................................................................................. 29
Developing strategies to improve profitability to increase the returns and flow on benefit to your Community ........................................................................................ 30
Enterprise Profit Drivers – Land Management ........................................................... 31
What are the priority areas to improve profitability via Land Management and Leasing Options? .................................................................................................................... 32
Enterprise Profit Drivers – Business Managment ...................................................... 33
What are the priority areas to improve profitability via Business Management?........ 34
How will the financial management of each farm be monitored? ............................... 35
Striking the right balance for you .............................................................................. 40
Making a plan for health............................................................................................ 41
Appendix 2: Extra Information on SLOT’s ............................................................. 49
Appendix 3: Analysing Business Performance ..................................................... 50
Appendix 4: Summary of the behaviours and characteristics of the Top 25 Farmers54
Appendix 5: Instructions for My Wheel of Life Usage ............................................ 55
Appendix 6: More Information About Click Colours ............................................... 56
Appendix 7: Sample Vision Statements ................................................................. 60
Appendix 8: Sample Strategic Planning Summary Template .................................... 55
The following concepts will be covered:
Strategic Planning
Risk Management
The business of land management
Sustainable management of the land is a responsibility that is integral to Aboriginal Culture and has been successfully achieved for thousands of years. In today’s world land managers need to wear two hats — the land management hat and the business management hat. Both hats working successfully together can create sustainably managed land that will benefit the Community, reinstating the land to its role as a fundamental core for Culture, as well as providing potential financial income.
The purpose of this workshop is to foster the awareness of strategic planning for Culture and Business to operate successfully within the same sphere and deliver benefits to the Corporations Community.
This workshop can be followed by the five day Plan Prepare and Prosper program.
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Why are we doing it? Let’s stop and ask ourselves “Why we are doing what we are doing?” When we clearly answer this question it provides us with focus and future direction – the essence of strategic planning. As already mentioned sustainably managed land is vital to Aboriginal Culture. It can also provide income sources from potential business activities such as agriculture, tourism and/or leasing contracts. All opportunities require the land to be managed well to optimise the potential income that is possible. This income can then be used to benefit the Community. How will it benefit your Community? Are we all on the same page?
Why strategic planning?
A strategic plan is a road map for success. The purpose of a strategic plan is to provide direction and focus for all members of a corporation.
Strategic planning is a tool that corporations regularly use to:
Guide their enterprise
Statistics showing what effects business plans had on 756 small-to-medium businesses.1
% of enterprises Exceeded
Didn’t have a formal plan
8.2 18.9 72.9%
Didn’t have a formal plan
13.6 55.2 31.2
What is a strategic plan?
A clear picture of the vision and the goals of the enterprise and the major steps by which it proposes to reach its goals.
It should include targets and timelines and nominate people to take responsibility.2
What is strategic planning?
Strategic planning is a process. Through the process, you will ultimately ask and find the answer to three key questions (3):
Where is our corporation now?
Where do we need to take it?
What do we need to do to get there?
Your Farm Plan will have
1 Vision: This is your statement of what the future will look like for your enterprise.
4-8 Goals: These are what you must achieve to make the vision happen. SMART
Strategy: This is the best pathway to follow to accomplish each goal. At least one strategy per goal
Many Actions:
These are the activities or tasks that make up each strategy.
Timely Timetabled Time limited Trackable Tangible
Appropriate Achievable
Vision
Goals
Strategies
Actions
Developing goals The purpose of a goal is to inform your strategies and actions.
A goal is a broad, long-term aim that will accomplish your vision.
Your goals should be SMART (4).
Specific:
What do I want to accomplish?
Why we need to do this? What are the benefits or purpose of the goal?
Who is involved? Where will it be—what location?
What are the requirements and constraints?
Measurable: How much?
Attainable:
Relevant: ‘Does this seem worth the time and effort?’
Time-bound:
When?
What can I do today or in six weeks or in six months?
See appendix 1 for more detail.
Meaningful Motivational Manageable
Where are we now?
A SLOT analysis will assist to provide focus and clarity on how to maximise or minimise each.
About SLOTS
Strengths: the characteristics of the corporation or project team that give it an advantage over others.
Limitations: the characteristics that place the team at a disadvantage relative to others.
Opportunities: external chances to improve performance (for example make greater profits) in the environment.
Threats: external elements in the environment that could cause trouble for the business or project.
Strengths Limitations
Opportunities Threats
As a whole group identify two big Strengths and Limitations.
This will be captured on the wall poster and added to throughout the workshop.
Understanding risk –
choosing the events that you will influence
Risk is the possibility of adversity or loss, and refers to ‘uncertainty that matters’. Risk management involves choosing among alternatives to reduce the effects of risk. It typically requires the evaluation of trade- offs between changes in risk, expected returns, and other variables. Understanding risk is a starting point to help producers make good management choices in situations where adversity and loss are possibilities. (5)
Risk Matrix – tool for identifying and determining degree of risk.
Note: There are many different tools that could be used, it is important that you use the same version consistently.
Source: AUSTRAC, Risk management, a tool for small-to-medium sized businesses 6
L ik
e li
h o
o d
V e
Who is involved in your business right now?
Have you ever stopped to think how much your business depends on other people?
One of the most important considerations when developing your strategic plan is the other people in your business and who your business affects.
Person Role Required Skills
1. Does each person have the skills, knowledge and time
to carry out their role?
2. Are there any gaps?
Communicating and Understanding Each Other
One way to understand people better is to use the ‘Click! colours’ tool.
Work through the Click Colours activity with your facilitator.
Left brain Right brain
and actions, and back it up with data if needed.
BE LOGICAL
them.
and take into account possible risks.
BE ORGANISED
your feelings, and show empathy for others.
SHOW EMPATHY
Four Click! ColoursTM characters or sub-personalities that make up every individual
Source: Barnes and Koutsoukis, Click Colours 15
See appendix 6 for more detail.
What Click! Colours are your family members?
What Click Colours are your work team members?
Which Click! Colour are you least like? Why?
Source: Adapted from Huzefa Moti, Performance Management Systems 12
Vision
Goals
Strategies
Human Resource Management
We know that effective Human Resource Management is important to our Corporation but how does it fit into the strategic planning process?
Workforce Planning & Development Model
Review & Evaluation
Implementation monitoring Review & monitoring
Gap Analysis & Closing Strategies
Priorities / Risk Rating
Supply Skills &
Delegation
Delegation can be defined as “appointing someone else to act on your behalf”. It means you are asking another person to do something that is normally part of your responsibility.
It can be a useful tool to reduce your workload and/or when you do not have the required skills to complete a task.
When delegating you must give the person three things:
Accountability for completing the task
Authority to make necessary decisions and take appropriate action to complete the task
Freedom to complete the task properly in their own way.
You do not delegate responsibility. What you delegate is authority to act.
When delegating it is very important that everyone involved understands their:
Role
Responsibility
Reporting
Monitoring
to carry out the delegated task?
What tasks may require delegation within your corporation?
What is the Task / Work?
Who holds the responsibility for the task?
Who will it be delegated to?
How will it be monitored & reported?
Essential OHS Policy Areas Source: Commonwealth of Australia, Workplace Safety Policies 7
Progression Planning
Planning for all of the factors that need to be in place to ensure that the business would continue operating well if you were suddenly and/or temporarily not a part of it.
It is an essential business activity.
It is a good work–life balance activity because it also means that you can comfortably leave the business in the hands of others if you need a break.
Here is a sample checklist for progression planning.
Progression planning checklist
reviewed
the business operation and management,
and knows all of the tasks that form that
role.
clear.
required).
access to all the bank accounts.
We have a business plan and/or a
strategic plan.
the current financial position of the
business is available).
reviewed
decided on and in place.
We have enduring power of attorney (a
trusted person or people have been
appointed to make financial and property
decisions on our behalf).
guardianship (authorises a person of your
choice to make important personal,
lifestyle and treatment decisions on your
behalf should you ever become incapable
of making these decisions).
(enables you to make decisions now about
the treatment you would want—or not
want—to receive if you were sick, injured
and incapable of communicating your
wishes).
access to legal documents (mortgages,
land title documents etc).
makes the decisions in the business.
Succession Planning is the process of planning the long-term ownership, leadership and success of your corporation with a view to the older generation one day retiring or leaving the farming business. There are four important parts of process: 1. Prepare
2. Plan 3. Implement 4. Review & Amend
Balancing Business and Culture
Culture Business
What drives a successful land management business?
In traditional business models the ability to generate profit is what drives a successful business.
The more profit generated means more resources are available to reinvest in the business and/or benefit the community.
Profit in land management is generated from the equation:
Outputs – Inputs = Profit
Profit = Community Benefit
Remember: Land that is able to generate higher yields can be leased for higher amounts.
Some Components of profit:
Quality and quantity of yield (factors include rain, soil etc)
Fertiliser
Consultants
Which part of the profit equation do you have the most influence over?
Source: Covey, The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People 8
Write down in these circles what your concerns are and what you can influence, e.g. where would you put ‘weather’?
Where do you spend your time and energy? _____________________
Where should you spend your time and energy? ___________________
Circle of Concern
Circle of Influence
Business performance analysis
Whatever your situation, understanding your business goes a long way in helping you to succeed.
You need to gather some information about the different aspects of your business before you sit down to analyse it.
The information needed to achieve this is:
Production records (3–5 years)
Cash flow statement showing the actual income and expenditure for the production year (3–5 year summary)
Statement of position (3–5 year summary)
Key financial ratios (trend over 3–5 years)
This data will allow an objective analysis of the performance of your business over time.
A three to five year analysis provides an understanding of trends and recognition of the financial impact of prices and seasonal variation. This workshop does not cover this process.
Do you want to know more?
1. The business performance analysis is covered in the DAFWA Plan, Prepare and Prosper five day program.
2. Further explanation of the process
can be found in Appendix 3 of this manual.
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Developing strategies to improve profitability to increase the returns and flow on benefit to your Community
We have discussed the components that contribute to profit:
Outputs – Inputs = Profit
Profit = Community Benefit
The key to improving profit on a farm is productivity.
Improving productivity means improving the margin between the input and the output.
The potential for individual farms to improve productivity (and hence profitability) is often underestimated.
Analysis of the top 25 % of farmers often shows not that their land is better but that their productivity is higher (high yields and
low input costs).
Such farmers tend to:
identify best practice and key performance indicators (KPIs) associated with it
study examples of best practice at field days, study tours and in discussion groups
offer their farm for small trials and welcome the opportunity of working with research personnel
trial new approaches before proceeding to large-scale adoption
undertake an economic appraisal where necessary before adopting new practices
engage a farm management consultant(s) and crop consultant(s).
Source: Blackburn A & Ashby R, Financing your farm 9
Enterprise Profit Drivers
Land Management Hat
Property/Infrastructure Environment Production
Insurance Soils Nutrient mapping
Water storage Water security Cost of production
Roaded catchments Vegetation Fertiliser
cultural sites
Remember: Land that is able to generate higher yields can be
leased for higher amounts
What things can you most easily work on to improve profit by at least 1% using the “Land Management Hat”?
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What are the priority areas to improve profitability via Land Management and Leasing Options?
Item Priority Number
Who would do it?
Who would monitor it?
Any adjustments to your business should be assessed carefully against a range of criteria. Most importantly the cost of the change and the likely return to your business.
Enterprise Profit Drivers
Business Management Hat
We have been focussing on a lot of Business Management strategies today. What other Business Management strategies may be useful for our Corporation?
Strategies covered today Other Ideas
Strategic planning
Risk management
Progression planning
Business performance analysis
What things can you most easily work on to improve profit by at least 1% using the “Business Management Hat”?
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What are the priority areas to improve profitability via Business Management?
Item Priority Number
How will the financial management of each farm be monitored?
Monitoring tool and/or report
Who will monitor the tools / reports?
Continuous Improvement Cycle
‘Continuous Improvement is about doing 100 things 1 per cent better, not one thing 100% better’
Source: Cole, Management theory and practice 10
Plan: The new activity, change or improvement. Begin by gathering
information through systematic evaluation and processes to identify opportunities for change.
.
and people often resist change.
Work Life Balance
What is the Cost of poor work-life balance?
We must learn to identify our personal warning signs that we don’t have the balance right, and respond.
What are your symptoms?
Knowing your stress symptoms
Everyone reacts differently to stress. It’s good to learn about your own stress symptoms and have coping skills ready to use.
My stress symptoms
I get a sore neck and
shoulders and seem to
easily
I withdraw and don't
friends as much
than usual
really down
I can’t remember all of
the things that I need
to do and forget some
of them
the best decisions
sleep
My heartbeat seems to
I get really negative
alcohol
cigarettes
My thoughts race
I feel constantly tired,
plenty of sleep
Striking the right balance for you
Work–life balance is all about what satisfies us. There is no magic formula or recommended balance.
My wheel of life 11
It is a quick and useful way to have a look at the things that are important to us, and whether or not we have the right balance.
Let’s identify the areas presenting the biggest gaps.
1. _____________________________
2. _____________________________
3. _____________________________
Our needs also change over time. The right balance for you today will probably be different for you tomorrow.
Making a plan for health
Here is your opportunity to have a look at your own health indicators and plan some improvements.
My plan for health
I do not smoke cigarettes.
I stay in a healthy weight range.
I get my blood pressure checked at least once a year.
It is rare for me to have more than two standard drinks per day.
I very rarely feel stressed.
I get at least 20 minutes of moderate exercise every day.
I get plenty of unbroken sleep on most nights.
I eat five vegetables and two fruits every day.
I eat mainly low-fat foods.
Source: Concept adapted from Royal Australian College of General Practitioners
What do I want to change?
Roles and Responsibilities
What are some of the Roles and Responsibilities that you have?
Role Responsibility Priority
Your vision will be audacious!
Your vision will be motivating!
Your vision will be inspiring!
Your vision will be unique!
Things to remember
10 years’ time?
What will your business look like in 10 years’ time?
What do you want your finances to look like in 10 years’ time?
What can you see around you in 10 years’ time?
Facilitator to read out sample visions from Appendix 7 and facilitate a group visioning exercise.
References
Many references were used to inform and develop the concepts in this manual. Some references will be quoted exactly; others have been interpreted for this work. Superscripts are used in the text to identify specific references below.
1. Price Waterhouse Cooper, 2008, 2007–08 Research into the health of private businesses, Private Business Barometer, edn 04, pp. 27.
2. Anderson D, Johnson R, Milligan B, 1999, Strategic planning in Australian universities, Commonwealth of Australia, ISBN 0 642 23905 3.
3. Bailey JN, 1981, Strategic planning: lead your association with a plan for tomorrow, Leadership magazine, Spring 1981, pp. 26–29.
4. Doran GT, 1981, ‘There's a S.M.A.R.T. way to write management's goals and objectives’, Management review, vol. 70, issue 11 (AMA FORUM), pp. 35–36.
5. Harwood J, Heifner R, Coble K, Perry J & Somwaru A, 1999, ‘Managing risk in farming: concepts, research, and analysis’, Agricultural Economic Report no. 774, US Department of Agriculture.
6. AUSTRAC, 2006, ‘Risk management, a tool for small-to-medium sized businesses’, Australian Transaction Reports and Analysis Centre. Melbourne.
7. Commonwealth of Australia, Workplace Safety Policies, 2013, viewed 2014, https://nationalvetcontent.edu.au/alfresco/d/d/workspace/SpacesStore/529c922 d-e51a-4256-9f7a-340545a076c3/ims/unit_psc/concepts/psc_0102.htm
8. Covey S 1989, 2004, ‘The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People’, Turtleback books, United States of America.
9. Blackburn A & Ashby R, 2006, Financing your farm, 4th edn, p. 190
10. Cole K, 2005, ‘Management theory and practice’, Pearson Education Australia.
11. Mindtools, Wheel of Life, 2011, viewed 2014, http://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/newHTE_93.htm
12. Huzefa Moti, Performance Management System, 2011, viewed 2014, www.hrutilities.com/2011/05/performance-management-system- development/performance-management-diagram/
13. Ahmad Bedewi, Human Resource Management Overview, 2011, viewed 2014, http://businessshortcuts.blogspot.com.au/2011/02/human-resources- management-overview.html
14. Perry W, Workforce Planning, 2013, viewed 2014, http://workforceplanningtools.com.au/tag/workforce-planning/
15. Barnes G and Koutsoukis D, Click Colours, 2008, viewed 2014, http://www.clickcolours.net/about-us/19
Appendix
Appropriat e
Achievable Agreed
Assignable Actionable
Appendix 1: Developing goals The purpose of a goal is to inform your strategies and actions. A goal is a broad, long-term aim that will accomplish your vision. Your goals should be SMART(10).
Specific: The goal must be specific rather than general. Your goal must tell your team what is expected, describe its importance, indicate what will be happening and who will be involved. When trying to be specific you should be able to answer:
What do I want to accomplish?
Why we need to do this? What are the benefits or purpose of the goal?
Who is involved? Where will it be—what location?
What are the requirements and constraints?
Measurable: You must be able to measure the progress you make towards the goal. This is intended to keep you and your team on track. A measurable goal will usually answer questions such as:
How much?
How many?
How will I know when it is accomplished?
Attainable: A goal should stretch you and your team but it should still be obtainable with effort. When you document the goals that are most important to you, you begin to find ways you can make them come true. The key question is: How can this goal be accomplished?
Relevant: Your goal should be something you are willing and able to work towards. You need to believe that it can be accomplished. The key question is: ‘Does this seem worthwhile?’
Time-bound: By committing to a deadline you will focus on the completion of your goal on or before the due date. This allows you to prioritise while still managing day-to-day problems. This will also create a sense of urgency. The key questions are:
When?
What can I do today or in six weeks or in six months?
Meaningful Motivational Manageable
Appendix 2: Extra Information on SLOT’s
Thinking about Opportunities and Threats – external elements
Most opportunities and threats to your enterprise will fit inside one of the elements of PESTEL. PESTEL is often used by enterprises to take a snap shot of the external environment in which their business operates in.
PESTEL
Political factors are how and to what degree a government intervenes in the economy.
Economic factors include economic growth, interest rates, exchange rates and the inflation rate.
Social factors are the cultural aspects and include health consciousness, population growth rate, age distribution, career attitudes and emphasis on safety.
Technological factors include technological aspects such as R&D activity, automation, technology incentives and the rate of technological change.
Environmental factors include ecological and environmental aspects such as weather, climate, and climate change, which may especially affect industries such as tourism, farming, and insurance.
Legal factors include discrimination law, consumer law, antitrust law, employment law and health and safety law. These factors can affect how a company operates, its costs, and the demand for its products.
Tools used to measure and monitor farm business performance
Figure 1 shows information flows and what data is used to monitor and measure farm business performance.
Figure 1 Information used for analysing farm performance
Measuring and monitoring farm business performance
Enterprise gross
Statement of position
Previous year’s actual cash flow
Budget V actual’s
The Meaning of Financial Terms
1. Whole farm cash flow
The whole farm cash flow budget estimates your income and expenditure for each month and calculates your operating surplus. It tells you how much money you have on hand or available to draw on to stay in business while you are becoming profitable. You can analyse the cash flow to identify when your peak debt occurs and to determine the limits on your seasonal borrowing.
The important uses for the whole farm cash flow budget are:
Monitoring Budget v. Actual data—how far does actual performance deviate from your plan?
Calculating farm operating surplus
Identifying when peak debt occurs (not such an issue for dairy).
2. Profit and loss statement
This statement gives the actual profit (or loss) generated by your business yearly. It takes into consideration non-cash costs like depreciation and is mainly used by government to assess your taxable income.
3. Statement of position
You may know this as a balance sheet or as an assets and liabilities statement. The statement of position states the type and value of assets owned by the business and the amount of debt owed. Net worth or equity, usually expressed as a percentage of assets is calculated using the information in this statement.
We will discuss the statement of position in much more detail later on in the day.
Enterprise gross margins
All the income generated by your business and any additional revenue sources is called gross income.
Subtracting your variable costs from your gross income gives you gross margin.
Formula: Gross Income – Variable Costs = Gross Margin
When using gross margins remember to compare apples with apples but be aware of their limitations:
They are only an annual comparison of enterprises.
It is difficult to consider capital investment required using gross margins and some enterprises will require more than others.
The rotational benefits are difficult to account for.
The interactions between enterprises are often lost.
Calculating operating surplus
Experts have generated a whole language around business management, created exclusive jargon and developed benchmarks and guidelines. Figure 2 introduces some of the industry terminology that most people will be familiar with and shows how it is used to calculate one of the most important numbers for your business— operating surplus.
Operating Surplus is the same as operating profit, net margin, net cash flow and earnings before interest and tax (EBIT).
Figure 2 Calculating operating surplus
Gross farm income
Minus
The meaning of …………
Yield x Price
Gross farm income is sometimes called Total farm income but there is a small difference.
Gross farm income is your income BEFORE any costs are deducted.
Total farm income is your income AFTER some costs, such as grain freight and levies, are deducted.
To arrive at gross farm income, MULTIPLY yield by price.
Variable costs
Are incurred when something is produced or grown; they are readily allocated to an enterprise and disappear when nothing is produced.
Fixed costs
Also called overhead costs are still there if nothing is produced on the land, for example rates and utilities are fixed costs.
Operating surplus
Also known as Operating profit, Net margin, Net cash flow or Earnings before interest and tax (EBIT).
Is required to pay for other discretionary expenses like personal expenses, loan repayments or finance costs.
The cost of finance might not seem like a discretionary expense, however it is a product of the decisions the business manager has made around the level of borrowing i.e. purchasing land.
Operating efficiency
Operating efficiency is total operating costs expressed as a per cent of Gross farm income.
Variable costs PLUS Fixed Costs = Total operating costs
Total operating costs DIVIDED by Gross farm income x 100 = Operating efficiency
This is a KEY ratio for growers. If it is too high, (> 75%) it means there is not enough operating surplus to allocate to personal, finance and capital costs.
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Appendix 4: Summary of the behaviours and characteristics of the Top 25 Farmers
From interviews with the top farmers, seven managerial characteristics clearly emerged.
1. Focused on profit—The top farmers used rational decision-making to analyse whether a practice was possible and they stuck to budgets. They understood risks and consulted with multiple specialists before changing their business plan. They did not consider themselves early adopters, but took a ‘wait and see’ approach. As an example, they did not rush in to new varieties and often took two to three years to make a change.
2. Planned—The top farmers sowed 35 per cent of their crops dry; about 30 per cent higher than the average farmer. The ability to sow a significant portion of the farm dry was due to careful planning to ensure effective weed control.
3. Prepared—The top farmers made most decisions outside the high stress periods of sowing and harvest. They usually only changed about 20 per cent of their program in response to seasonal conditions. In general, rotations were kept in place to ensure weed control and income.
4. Timely—Timeliness was noted as one of the top practices needed to ensure production. This included the timeliness of spraying, fertiliser application and sowing. Importantly, sowing time was nominated as the key practice to maximise profit.
5. Committed—The top farmers were not distracted by other issues after a decision was made. Few decisions were made that resulted in substantially negative effects on profit in the years that challenged the profitability of most other businesses.
6. Positive—The top farmers were positive about the future. This was shown in a desire to learn more and succeed; and their passion for agriculture.
7. Connected—To farmer groups, consultants and researchers. Approximately 69% of the top farmer group have a mentor or close friend they bounce their ideas off as part of their decision making process.
McConnell G 2011, ‘Bridging the Yield Gap Survey of High Profit farmers’, Department of Agriculture and Food, Western Australia.
Appendix 5: Instructions for My Wheel of Life Usage
The ‘wheel of life’ is a quick and useful way to have a look at the things that are important to us, and whether or not we have the right balance. This then reveals to you the areas that require a conscious focus in order to strike a better balance. Follow these steps to get under way:
Step one
Start by coming up with a list of things in life that are important for you, or feature heavily in your daily life. Different approaches to this are:
The roles you play in life. Are you a husband/wife, father/mother, manager, colleague, team member, sports player, community leader, friend, etc.?
Areas of life that are important to you. For example: Do you play sport, belong to community groups or public service organisations, have a positive attitude, develop your career, continue your education, love having family and friends around, desire financial freedom, enjoy physical exercise, know what gives you pleasure, etc?
Your own combination of these (or different) things. What are your priorities in life—being creative, reading, etc. Think of the things that bring you most pleasure.
Step two
Now circle or highlight the 6–8 items above which are the most important to you or which feature most prominently in your day-to-day life. When you have come up with 6–8 items, transfer them to your wheel-of-life template. You can position them at the end of each ‘spoke’ in the boxes provided.
Step three
Consider each ‘spoke’, and score on a scale of 1 to 5 the amount of time, effort and focus you are currently putting into each of these areas. Highlight them by shading the square on the scale. ‘1’ represents no time effort and focus and ‘5’ represents complete time, effort and focus.
Step four
Now consider each ‘spoke’ and tick the point in the scale to represent the amount of time, effort and focus you would like to be putting into each area.
Step five
Take a highlighter pen and mark the line between where you are and where you would like to be.
How to build great relationships quickly
The following article was written by David Koutsoukis, co-author of the book, ‘Why you click with some people and others drive you crazy!’ David is a director of Click! Colours International—a company that shows you how to build relationships quickly, by understanding what makes people tick.
Do you find there are some people you get along with straight away? Are there others you find very frustrating or annoying? And have you ever wondered why you ‘click’ with some people and others drive you crazy? Read on and find out why.
Most people would agree that good relationships create the foundation for success, but how do we build relationships with people we don’t seem to get along with? In the words of Stephen Covey, we need to: ‘Seek first to understand, then to be understood’.
Human behaviour is very complex but in simple terms psychologists have been able to identify patterns of behaviour. Recognising these patterns helps us to understand what makes people ‘tick’, and what we need to do to communicate effectively with them.
These patterns can be represented as four colourful characters that guide our behaviour—a bit like the devil and angel on each shoulder that ‘whisper’ in our ear. One or two of these characters ‘shine’ more brightly than the others and becomes our dominant sub-personality. You ‘click’ with people like you, and those who are not can drive you crazy! Knowledge of these characters within yourself and others will help you understand what makes them ‘tick’.
Human behaviour is, of course, much more complex than four colourful characters, but the Click! ColoursTM are a great start to help you build relationships and boost success by understanding people who are not like you.
Using Click! Colours as a tool in your business?
We hope you’ve had fun with Click! Colours as a tool to talk about the different ways people think and communicate. The authors have identified some ‘Red Flags’ you will need to watch for when using this tool.
The authors of Click! Colours have noted that ‘Everyone has four sub-personalities, with some colours ‘shining’ brighter than others’. They mean that although your bank manager or your partner may seem to lead with one colour preference over another they may also be using the traits of the other colour types.
Stereo typing and generalisations
Most of us are going to be a mix of all four colours—you may have realised this already but be warned by making generalisations or stereotyping someone else (“You’re such typical Yellow!”) you may miss something important.
External factors also influence behaviour and decision making
Seems obvious—but sometimes we all need to draw on our traits and behaviours that are not represented in our preferred Click! Colour. Work situations, family, friends and peer group expectations can lead us to behave and communicate differently in specific situations.
s .
o a
c o
o b
G R
E E
s
h e
r ig
h t
o n
d a
s .
s .
Non-agricultural examples:
We’ll put men on the moon before the end of the decade
(President John F. Kennedy)
Our Vision is for cricket to be Australia’s favourite sport
(Cricket Australia)
(IBM)
(Google)
environmentally friendly and easy to manage.
My business is strong, successful, sustainable in all
climatic and economic environments, and will continue to
grow.
Our business is viable for the long haul. It provides a healthy,
well-balanced lifestyle for us and our children.
My business is profitable, flexible, responsive to seasonal opportunities and financially sound.
Appendix 8: Sample Strategic Planning Summary Template Strategies and actions are the details of your goal. A strategy outlines the pathway or route you will take to achieve the goal. Actions are the steps or tasks undertaken in order to achieve the goal.
Vision
Risks
Goals
Vision
Our enterprise is profitable, flexible, financially sound and environmentally sustainable. We are healthy, have minimal stress and have time for our other interests. We have helped our children successfully establish themselves.
Goals
Increase Equity to above 60% by 2014
Establish and achieve benchmarks for total well being within 2 years
Reduce losses through erosion
Drought proof farm Increase meat production Increase our gross margin
Strategies S1 Reduce input costs S1 Reduce debt S1 Establish health
maintenance program S1 Maintain critical pasture cover levels (minimum 50%)
S1 Increase on farm fodder supplies
S1 Improve grazing system S1 Reduce costs
S2 Improve production S2 Redistribute off farm assets
S2 Find time to pursue other interests
S2 Revegetate and protect waterways.
S2 Improve water use efficiencies
S2 Increase on farm fodder storage
S2 Improve soil fertility
S3 Increase profit S3 Maximise returns in off farm investments.
S3 Build succession plan S3 Expand and protect remnant vegetation.
S3 Improve water supplies S3 Manage extreme seasonal variations
S3
A1 Review purchasing strategies to reduce costs. Incl., bulk purchasing.
A2 Increase efficiency input applications. Jun 2012.
Strategy 1 Reduce Debt.
A1 Review debt with bank manager to develop strategy to increase debt reduction each year. A2 Reduce capital tied to debt
Strategy 1 Health maintenance
A1 Annual health checks.
Strategy 1Maintain cover
A2 Develop destocking plan for extreme dry conditions.
Strategy 1 Fodder supplies
Strategy 1 Grazing systems
A3 Use pastures in space tool.
Strategy 1 Gross Margin
A1 Implement GPS system to tailor fertiliser applications to soil type requirements.
A2 Expand areas for hay production.
Strategy 2 Production
A1 Increase number of steers turned off annually to 900 head.
A2 Increase carrying capacity –in pasture productivity.
A3 Increase carrying capacity –land -leasing.
Strategy 2
A1 Review off farm investments to identify assets to sell for debt reduction . (A2 Sell off farm identified investments /assets by Dec2012.
A3 Pay lump sum $300 K on to debt.
Strategy 2 Other interests
A 2 Prioritise farm tasks and work conditions.
A3 Each member to have personal time commitment.
Strategy 2 Waterways
A2 Fence waterways.
A3 Revegetate waterways.
A1 Implement stubble retention in paddocks.
A2 Monitor soil health.
Strategy 2 Fodder storage
A1 Cost and analyse storage options for fodder (on farm silage, grain silos).
A2 Implement best bet storage systems for fodder.
Strategy 2 Agronomic management
A2 Improve weed strategies.
Strategy 3 Increase profit
A1 Increase quality carcass sold – fat to muscles ratio/ optimal weight for market.
A2 Identify and develop alternative markets for livestock.
A3 Develop marketing plan for product.
Strategy 3 Off farm investments
A1 Reinvest remaining funds from debt reduction activities into investment portfolio.
A2 Develop benchmarks for annual review – return on investments.
Strategy 3 Progression plan
A1 Employ consultant to facilitate succession plan.
A2 Draft and complete family members wills.
A3 Identify and purchase most appropriate life insurance for family members.
Strategy 3 Remnant vegetation
A2 Weed control plan implemented for remnant vegetation May 2012.
A3 Revegetation plan implemented 2011.
Strategy 3 Water supplies
A2 Establish movable water points system.
Strategy 3 Seasonal extremes
A2 Increase fodder on farm.
A3 Improve water supplies.

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