...and Creating an Action Plan
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Once your farm ownership and management team have worked through a process of identifying their individual goals for the business, it is time to bring them all together into your overall business and succession plan for your farm business. If you don’t already have them, this is the PERFECT time to begin conducting strategic business and family meetings.
The meetings don’t have to be anything too formal, but they should include the current and future core management teams of your farm business. Everyone could take time to share their individual goals. It may be surprising to some people how many goals they have in common. Sometimes, it is helpful to have a neutral third party help conduct the first few sessions to help break the ice and create a less intimidating environment for younger or less experienced family or business members.
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REVIEW: The last several posts have included information on developing and sharing long-term and short goals and how generational differences in goals and family, especially in-laws, can have an impact on your business. For a review or primer, check them out. |
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A logical next step is to identify those goals that are in common and those that are significantly different. Some key questions could then be asked:
For Common Goals: |
"A goal without a plan is just a wish." |
- Are they all in the same time frame? (Is one person’s short-term goal another person’s long-term goal?)
- Do all members have the same priority for the common goals? How would each person rank them?
- Who will be the key person or persons involved in deciding upon and/or implementing each of the common goals?
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For Unique Goals or those that are not the subject of common agreement among the family:
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I hope this helps gives you a few things to think about for your farm business succession plan. In the future we will continue with some commentary about prioritizing goals.
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