Building right team will create profit

01-08-2007 | Not Specified

Profit is created out of having the right people in your business, says Gisborne farmer Peter McCarthy.

He told the Westpac winter seminar in Masterton recently he likes to think of a business as an upside-down pyramid.

The directors were on the point at the bottom, and information flowed upwards in a very positive, proactive way.

Until the start of this year he was general manager at Tauwhareparae Farms, a 72,000 stock unit operation owned by the Gisborne District Council. Now he is farm supervisor and is also involved in Waipaoa Station's Farm Cadet Training Trust.

He has a long involvement in corporate farming, beginning with Agland Holdings in Waipukurau, where he started as shepherd, and within four years was managing 26,000 stock units at age 22. He then moved to work for another corporate farmer Peter Spencer of Riminui farms.

Good governance of a business requires very clear messages, and people well trained to both deliver and receive information, interpret it, and put it into practice.

He outlined two experiences which have helped him grow as a manager. The first was receiving training at the Institute of Directors in Wellington, where he learnt how to understand directors and their role.

The Institute has regular seminars involving directors and senior managers on the principles of governance including integrity, giving clear directions, and making decisions without an emotional involvement.

The second experience was using trainers Bruce Mazengarb and Warren Dennis for a 16 day course.

Bruce, a former SAS soldier, now runs a training company called Vertical Horizons Industry Training group and is based in Tauranga.

All of the 24 Tauwhareparae Farms staff joined the on-farm course, which included leadership training.

They had one nominated leader for each exercise, who briefed and organised the rest of the team. "It was nothing to do with farming, it was all about achieving an end result."

One example was having four cones in a square 5m apart on a tennis court, with two buckets in the middle. One was half full, the other empty, and a push bike tube and four pieces of rope all the same length.

We had to put the water from one buckets into the other without going inside the square, he says.

Everyone had a turn at being the leader, and Peter was surprised at the results of the course. "I found I was overshadowing and intimidating the staff, and I should have sat back and listened more. Funnily enough, some of the quieter people had the most to contribute."

"It was fantastic to see some of the younger players develop. We armed the staff with the right tools to recognize, handle and manage conflict, so they could recognize when there was an issue."

How many farmers abuse their staff without giving them a chance to have their say, or let issues slide and then suddenly fly off the handle, and the young fellows don't know why, he asked.

Sometimes farmers who are right in the thick of their business have the blinkers on and can't see the problems around them, preferring to solve problems by working harder and harder.

"My message is to have systems in place and be doing lots of top end stuff. Extract yourself from the business to have a good look at it. Stay fresh, stand back and look at your business from a totally different angle. Get some professional training," he says.

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