Jim Casler
Jim Casler
North Coast Ag Advisors
Family Business Planning

231-218-7525

Know Your Numbers. 
Know Your Business.
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Who Is In Charge

11/14/2014

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i_am_in_charge_business_planning_jim_casler
Are you running your business, or is your business running you?
I love “To-Do” lists and prioritizing activities.  

But then again, I'm a dork!

These are often missing in family farm businesses for a variety of reasons.  Being too busy farming is often a common response.  Project planning tends to be a day-to-day decision on which fire to put out first.  A situation characterized by the question, “Is your business running you or are you running your business?”

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End Boring Meetings

8/9/2014

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Last week we began a series of discussions about a Deliberate Communication Platform for your family business.  Namely... 

"A prearranged and agreed upon way in which information, ideas, opinions and decisions are shared among the various stakeholders in your family business.” 

Again....and why did I start that discussion?

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The Foundation is Built.  Now What?

7/26/2014

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The last several weeks we spent some time exploring some foundational components of your family business management system and developing some clarity around the future of your family farm.  Specifically, we explored the What, Why and How of your business by defining the purpose of your family business, a vision statement, a mission statement and a statement of core values or philosophy of operations statement.   


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Vision_Mission_Core_Values_Family_Business_Planning_Jim_Casler
The finishing touches of the foundation to your family farm management system are in place. Now what?


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Mission.  Impossible? Nah!

7/12/2014

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Your mission, if you choose to accept...

Vision-Mission-Core_Values_Statement_Business_Planning_Jim_Casler
Let’s begin with a quick review of the foundational elements of your family business management system; its vision statement, mission statement and core values.  We explored the reason your family farm exists and your “BIG WHY” with your vision statement that is Simple, Clear and Stimulating (SCS link).  

There are two remaining areas to explore and to help you develop the foundation to a long lasting family business and your management system:  Mission Statement and Core Values.  Let's explore mission statements a little further.

It is essential to understand how you are going to realize your family business purpose and attain your vision.  This is the function of your Mission Statement.  Many times, mission statements and vision statements are used interchangeably.  These are two distinct statements that serve two different requirements for your family farm. The mission statement clarifies and explains what the members of the organization will actually do to achieve the purpose and vision.

Carrying out the mission statement on a consistent basis helps your business achieve the purpose and pursue its vision.  I know it might be a little confusing, but your purpose, vision statement and mission statements all build upon each another and point everyone in the same direction.  There is a great amount of synergy that results by giving your team a clear sense about the principal role that they play.


"Outstanding people have one thing in common: An absolute sense of mission."

- Zig Ziglar


From a nuts and bolts standpoint, your mission statement is a clear and concise declaration about your business strategy that describes:

(a) the key products or services to be provided (the what), 
(b) the target market or primary customer (the who), 
(c) the primary business objective to be accomplished (the how) and,
(d) what value your are bringing.  
If your mission statement fails to describe these elements it can help create ambiguity about the basic purpose of your family business and what you hope to accomplish (vision).  Your company’s mission statement will most effective if it is written so your customers understand your purpose and how you provide value to them.
Additionally, and possibly most importantly, your mission statement ought to be the daily driver of action for your team and as such, it provides a “check and balance” for every goal, strategy and action plan that is undertaken.  If a business activity or decision conflicts with the mission statement, either the activity or decision is misguided or the mission statement is incorrect.
"If you have a family mission statement that clarifies what your purpose is, then you use that as the criterion by which you make the decisions."

- Stephen Covey



Your mission statement doesn’t have to look the same as everyone else’s.  Figure out what’s important to you and your clients and go from there.  Here are some examples of clear, concise and simple mission statements:

“At Chateau de Pahrump we grow grapes, make super-premium class wine and provide Northern Michigan hospitality with exemplary service from our one-of-a-kind site on Michigan’s Leelanau Peninsula.  As good stewards of resources, our goal is to operate a profitable and ethical business that utilizes new technology and provides enjoyable work conditions with opportunities for advancement and personal growth. “

“Our mission is to transform natural resources into high quality livestock for domestic and foreign customers in a way that will provide a fair rate of return to our owners, a safe and satisfying working environment and be capable of providing income for future generations.”

“Our mission is to help connect people who want to sell a business with people who want to buy a business. We provide business owners and brokers with flexible options for listing their business online. For buyers, we offer helpful tools such as our saved listings feature and customized email alerts to make finding the right business easier.”


After you have developed your family farm’s mission statement, you will be ready for the final part of the foundational elements for your family business, core values. 


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What Is Your SCS?

6/26/2014

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So What Is Your SCS?

You spent some time thinking about thereal reason, or purpose, for your family farm or family business.  Let’s get cracking on the actual vision statement for your family business.  

Your big goal in this process is to create a vision statement that will have real meaning to people…especially your current and future team members…about the future direction of your family farm business.  From a simple, clear, brief vision statement your team members should be able to understand where the business is going and how they fit in.
Family_Farm_Business_Planning_Vision_Statement
Simple - Clear - Stimulating
A meaningful vision statement has the following features:

Simple - Your vision statement does not need to be long. Think about Disney; “To Make People Happy.”.  Fairly simple, eh?  Your challenge is to say a lot with a select few words.  

Clear – The ideal vision statement for your family business ought to be so clear and unambiguous that a total stranger can read it and know exactly what it means – An instant understanding of where you want your business to be in the future and what kind of affect you are trying to have in the world.
“To the person who does not know where he wants to go there is no favorable wind.”

— Seneca

Stimulating – Your vision statement must lay out an image for your family business that is exciting, thought-provoking and inspiring.  If it can be achieved in a year or two, maybe it’s not so challenging and is really just a target or an objective.   Think about Kennedy’s vision of getting a man on the moon.  Not just build a rocket or get a rocket to the moon.  It was a MAN ON THE MOON!  I would bet that was kind of inspiring and motivating for all the people involved in that project.  Obviously you may not have the resources for such a grand vision.  This exaggerated example was simply to show an extreme example of a clear vision statement.

Communication-Skills-Family-Farm-Business-Vision-Statement
Communicate. Communicate. Communicate.
Lastly this week, developing, sharing and communicating your family business vision statement is paramount.  Laying the foundation for an effective team beginning with your vision statement requires that it be rooted in your family business culture with regular communication – maybe even excessive communication.  
The communication and establishment of the vision begins with ownership and senior management and travels to all levels of your family farm business to become a regular, top-of-mind concept for your entire organization.  Once it becomes engrained, your vision becomes the stimulus for innovation, improvement, ingenuity, resourcefulness, effort and order that might propel your family business and the entire team to accomplish great things.   When family farms and family businesses come together around a simple, clear and stimulating vision statement it can make all the difference in almost all areas of your business.


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Got Reason?

6/21/2014

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Reason_For_Business_Existence_Purpose_Vision_Statement
So we talked about “Vision” last week and further explored the notion that your vision statement should answer the question, "Where do I see my business going in the future?”….what is the ultimate state of our family business in the future?

Before we further examine and put down on paper where your family business is going, let’s take a slight detour and first answer the reason why your family business exists in the first place.  You need to know why you exist before you can determine where you are going.  Does that make sense?  I hope so.
Is it that crystal clear to you, your family, employees, community, vendors, etc. why your business exists?  Is everyone on the same page…without hesitation?  I didn’t think so.  This is foundational stuff and takes a little thought and effort to seriously contemplate.

To help get you started, let’s look at the necessary first component required for developing your compelling vision statement for your family farm business.  The reason for your business.  Huh?  Remember, a well-crafted vision statement serves as a guide to help everyone and anyone to understand what business you are really in beyond just the product or service you provide.
The legendary Walt Disney certainly knew the reason for his theme parks when he began and developed a vision statement:  “To make people happy”.  All theme-park operations, people and training are with this idea of bringing happiness to millions of people around the world.

While the Walt Disney theme-park vision is short, it indeed let’s everyone know the reason this business exists.  When you work on creating your vision statement, start with a quick, simple, clear reason for the existence of your family business.  It does not have to be a lengthy and sophisticated statement that sounds all Madison Avenue.  Quite the contrary.  If you cannot do it in a relatively short statement, say 11-22 words, you’re doing it wrong.  Ha.  Think about the basics…the core meaning of your family business.  What do you think of this statement of purpose?


"If you don't know where you're going, it doesn't matter if your alarm doesn't go off in the morning."

- Denis Waitley 
“Enhancing your family’s well-being and the financial health of your business.”

Oh, I like it!   Wait.  It’s already taken.  It’s the purpose for my business advisory services.  Ha.  It’s pretty clear, short and sweet…don’t you agree?

So, what business are you really in and why does your family business exist?  Try not to just rush through this exercise for the sake of checking it off some list of things to do.  This is a core element in what will become your vision statement:  the foundation upon which your entire family-business operations, policies, decision-making, investments, etc. are all derived from.  Once you have clarified, on paper, the core reason for your family business’s existence, you will be ahead of 70% of your industry peers and developing a stronger foundation for your continually successful family business or family farm.


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Your Big WHY

6/14/2014

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Picture
While it may sometimes seem a total waste of time, inconvenient, non-productive, fluff, or any other words you might use to characterize activities that don’t produce immediate results, developing statements of vision, mission, core values, philosophies, key beliefs, etc. is like planting an acorn seed.  

Unlike annual seeds that can seemingly pop out of the ground overnight, it can take quite a long time for that acorn seed to sprout…and it will certainly take many years before it becomes the mighty oak….something hard, something strong and something durable that can last many generations.
Taking time away from the endless chores and things to do is sometimes difficult, but it might help to understand that this isn’t an exercise in feel-goodliness, warm-fuzzy, feel better inside, mushiness, but rather has real-world, bottom-line, operational and human capital implications that are just plain good for the long-term success of your family business.  The development of these various statements are used to:
  • Provide a key communication tool and image to employees, customers and other stakeholders for the reason your business exists.  It serves as the BIG WHY.
  • Provide clarity, excitement, consistency, passion and direction to your operations
  • Serve as a means to bring everyone back on the same page when conflict, confusion or inconsistency creeps into your business from time to time to achieve something of significance.
  • Develop cohesiveness and a sense of accomplishment with the time spent working together, taking the time to talk about and commit these statements to writing.  It is a team building exercise.
  • Become the foundation for clarifying and determining specific business policies and decision-making criteria.
"To be the preferred value-added fruit company known for its quality products, great people and superior performance. "

- Shoreline Fruit, Traverse City, MI

“To be the number one athletic company in the world”    

- Nike
Let’s begin with your vision statement.  As the image above describes, “A vision is an imagined idea or goal toward which one aspires.”  In the context of your business setting, it is a description of the preferred future state of your business.  It is forward looking and describes the big reason WHY your business exists.  It describes the ultimate state what will exist when all goals and objectives are being accomplished on a consistent basis.  It’s not a slogan or catch phrase like, “Just Do It”.  It should highlight how you want others to describe your business.  

An important note; A vision statement is often confused with a mission statement, or sometimes they are used interchangeably and that is a mistake.  A mission statement answers the question, "Who you are, what you do, what you value and what makes you unique?" while a vision statement answers the question, "Where do I see my business going?"  A vision statement doesn’t need to be a lengthy narrative, but it must contain some key aspects, but first…
The downside of not having a vivid picture of the future for your team to visualize often results in team members that are not fully engaged in their work.  You’ve seen it.  Yeah, Joe is a good guy, doesn’t really do anything wrong, but doesn’t really do anything extra, above and beyond the minimum.  Joe may be doing good things on a daily basis, but he is not inspired because he has no passion for pursuing a larger vision that brings out the best in Joe.  How can he?  It’s not his fault.  You as the business leader may not have provided it Joe.

People naturally want to be part of a successful team; a team with a vision of the future for achieving something great.  All they simply need is for you to take the time to develop a vision and then share it with them and help point them in the right direction on how they can contribute to pursuing your vision.

So, how do you create a compelling vision that inspires passion in people?   The following characteristics can be used as a reference to help point you in the right direction:
  • Clarity – your vision statement must be clear to everyone and anyone that reads it and especially to your team.  Your vision should help readers visualize a clear picture that allows them to imagine what the ideal future looks like.

  • Exciting – your vision statement needs to connect with people in a way that inspires passion. Think about time when you have been passionate.  It leads to action.  When your team is passionate about something, they will take action.

  • Concise – your vision statement does not need to be some long, sophisticated statement. Many of the world’s best vision statements are the shortest ones.

  • Deliberate – your vision statement should serve a well-defined purpose and declare your core values and philosophies.  In other words, what is the “BIG WHY” for your pursuit of this imagined future?

  • Hopeful - people need to envision a future that gives them hope for something better. Many vision statements came about from difficult circumstances because a leader had the nerve to envision a better future.

  • Memorable – your vision statement needs to be noteworthy. If your people are going to connect to your vision and pursue it daily, then they must be able to remember your vision to be able to live it and share.
"A personal computer in every home running Microsoft software."   

-  Microsoft

"One company growing by nourishing lives and finding a better way today … one bite at a time."  

- ConAgra Foods

As your family business’s leader, when was the last time you reflected on your vision for the future? Do you have one?  Is it clear to you?  If not, there is no way it can be clear to anyone else.  Is it written down?  Do you have some work to do?  I hope this helps illustrate some compelling reasons you might want to take the time to develop a clear vision statement and some ideas on how to get started.  If you would like a worksheet or template to help you develop your own vision statement, please email me for a copy.


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Know Your Numbers.
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