Running a successful beef cattle business can be challenging and complex, but more than achievable with hard work and good planning.
That’s according to Agri-Business Development Institute director Gordon Stone who recently presented the five golden rules of a high performing business at Queensland’s annual Beef Expo field days.
“Our aim is to encourage high performing, self managing, saleable and profitable beef businesses,” Mr Stone said.
The first golden rule of running a profitable beef business in today’s market is “Where are you going?”. According to Mr Stone a vision is very important for the following reasons;
- Provides a target – Direction is always more important than speed. By nature farmers are action orientated, things get tough so they plough faster.
- Directs effort – A clear vision helps direct effort. No one wants to do things for the practice, we've all been up “too many dry gullies”.
- Develops process – Creating a vision leads to strategy, which creates plans and also in turn allocates resources.
“Characteristics of an effective vision are they can be imaginable and convey a picture of what the future will look like, plus desirable to appeal to the long term interests of all those involved in the beef business,” Mr Stone said.
“A vision should also be feasible to comprise realistic and attainable goals, focused as to be clear enough to guide decision making, flexible and general enough to allow individual initiative plus alternate responses in light of changing conditions and also communicable so it’s easy enough to explain to others within five minutes.”
The second golden rule is to “take time out to work on your business”.
“Successful beef businesses set aside some time each week to identify the big rocks blocking there path and make sure they go in a weekly plan first,” Mr Stone said.
He added the importance of working on your cattle business is having a “big picture helicopter view” and to;
- Work with your head, not just your hands
- To plan to make the most money in the least time with the least effort
- Clarity leads to power
- Setting an intention
- Clearly define outcomes
The third golden rule to a successful beef business is having solid systems in place.
“Systems are a way to anticipate challenges, manage resistance, keep things on track, flag unforeseen and unwanted consequences in your cattle business,” Mr Stone said.
He said systems also provide an opportunity to identify successes and the ability to;
- Predict – make plans and budgets to create predictability and accountability with the benefit of risk management.
- Control – business must be managed to keep things from lurching out of control or off a cliff.
- Report – Knowing the score at all times is critical. It affects day to day tactics while still sticking with the vision and strategy.
The fourth golden rule is to be “remarkable”.
“It’s important to remember the opposite of being remarkable is to be forgettable!” Mr Stone said. He believes the characteristics of a remarkable organisation include;
- Know what makes them unique - USD
- Strive for excellence
- Being creative
- Sticking to core values
- Prepared to invest in relationships and consider relationships as assets plus treat them as such
- Not being afraid to adapt and evolve when necessary
- Above all are great storytellers with developed communication skills to share that story with important partners, stakeholders and customers
The fifth and final golden rule to a successful cattle business is “measuring progress and celebrating success”.
“What you measure is what you will do, so be careful what you measure plus successful beef businesses know their numbers,” Mr Stone said.
“Some of the more obvious things to measure in your cattle business are stocking rates, calving ratios, average cattle weight gain, cattle prices, but the less obvious are profit and loss, balance sheet, aged trial balance, customer inquiry, sales conversion and customer satisfaction.”
