Lately one quite often hears in the media,
at conferences and by word-of-mouth that agricultural businesses, are in need
of a proper turnaround strategy. Having read the financial statements and
reports of a number of agribusinesses, one finds it hard to believe, as the
majority of companies are doing just that.
One can only come to the conclusion that,
because the last six production seasons were tougher than the preceding 10
seasons, with the last three production seasons being particular tough, that especially
farmers, expect that more can be done for them.
Recommendations:
It would appear that it is mostly farmers
(there could be ’internal customers’ too) that feel the need for improvement,
and it is important for all, agribusinesses to listen to the ‘voice of the
customer’.
We, at Primo Consulting would strongly
recommend that a three step approach be followed, namely:
·
Conduct a stakeholder analysis
amongst all stakeholders to ensure that all new concerns are incorporated into
the strategic action plans of the business (based on the assumption that their
strategic plans are current and up to date) and will be addressed timeously and
in the most effective and efficient way and, secondly that they
·
Re-examine the enterprise architecture with the aim to see that it is aligned
to the strategic plan in the most effective and efficient way. Business
architecture being the most important in the short term as it deals with
o
the ‘SWOT’ analysis that had been carried out
o
the goals that had been set
o
the organisational chart that had been decided
upon as well as
o
the product range
should be
addressed first.
·
Last but not least, we would
strongly recommend that agribusinesses quite seriously, consider adopting the Lean Six Sigma management philosophy /
methodology which was originally developed by Motorola, used by Jack Welsh as a
central focus of his business strategy at General Electric and today it is
central to Toyota’s Total Production System and in use by many other companies.
The reason for
the aforementioned recommendation is that the agricultural sector will always
experience good and not so good seasons, which speaks for itself that they must
at all times, run a lean operation. Lean Six Sigma has exactly that as its aim,
namely, to improve the quality of its products and/or services through the
removal of defects/errors/all forms of waste. It also implies that the company
is being managed with a ‘lean’ organisational structure and that all systems
/processes are being run based on lean principles.
We suggest you that you visit our website www.primoconsulting.co.za for more
details about our team and the aforementioned methodology. Kindly contact us should
you wish us do a presentation to you.
