Carr’s Capital: December 2010
Making a plan can be likened to baking a cake. Before you can sit down,
relax and enjoy the fruits of your labour, you have to start by
gathering together all of your ingredients. As with most cakes, there
are recipes and instructions that need to be followed
Making a plan can be likened to baking a cake. Before you can sit down, relax and enjoy the fruits of your labour, you have to start by gathering together all of your ingredients. As with most cakes, there are recipes and instructions that need to be followed, such as how many eggs are needed, how much flour, what’s the cooking temperature and time. When it comes to making a plan, there is a recipe that also needs to be followed.
Making a plan may be a daunting task because getting started, and making sure that you have all of the ingredients gathered together may be overwhelming. Preparing a cake is a somewhat easy task, but preparing a plan requires more ingredients and the process is a bit more complicated. Part of the reason so many farm families do not have plans is that so many family members are involved and affected by the outcome and the process of the plan.
Here’s an example of what a family may be faced with. The parents are really good at developing the farm and know all the aspects of the poultry business, waste management, and growing their quota. How to plan for succession is another matter, one they may not be very familiar with.
Getting to step one is usually the hardest part. You want to have a meeting but as you discuss this with the family members, everyone has different thoughts and desire different outcomes. As a result, the meeting becomes disjointed and often time is spent discussing things from the past rather than concentrating on the future objectives. Most of the time, the second meeting doesn’t happen. Some families have told me that without a third-party meeting co-ordinator, a mediator, it would have been impossible to move forward.
The greatest stumbling block to the whole succession planning process is that the subject of the family farm is a very emotional topic. It is hard to state one’s feelings when the emotion is great. To tell one family member that their direction is not the one you are taking is very difficult to execute because of the fear of hurt feelings.
So, let’s say that the family has agreed to a plan, and they have all gathered to discuss it. What do they talk about? Where do they start? Now, this is like baking a cake without a recipe and without instructions. When it comes to talking about the plan, there are no templates to follow, no instructions, no agenda. All there seem to be are discussion topics that seem uncomfortable to address because bringing them up may hurt someone.
To help clear up any confusion about the plan’s end result, there are questions that need to be addressed: What is the purpose of the plan, what is your objective, and what do you want to achieve? If a farm family can start by clearly identifying the purpose and objective of the plan, then this will help clarify the end result. Also, addressing these questions may provide an excellent springboard for launching a productive family discussion regarding the outcome of the plan.
One objective may be to treat your children fairly when preparing for one child to take over the farm. Another objective would be to transfer the farm in a way that is comfortable to the parents: When and how much control do they give up? Is this done in stages?
Once the family has identified the objective of the plan, it needs to be determined if the objective is, in fact, achievable. How do we know if the objective is achievable? There are many factors that need to be written out and thought through well and completely. Every step along the way, every ingredient to preparing a plan may have implications that affect some other aspect of the plan.
In order to determine if an objective is achievable, a family basically needs to picture where they are currently and where they want to be down the road. Once they have mapped their path to their objective, then determining factors can be brought into question to test the viability of the plan’s objective.
This process will spawn many questions that must be addressed; if you change the farm business structure in order to growth, then you need to know how this affects the young and the old in the business.
Preparing a plan is more complicated than baking a cake. Each farm family brings with it a different set of circumstances, different objectives and different desires. No two plans are alike, but the key to any plan is starting with a solid foundation. Once you have determined a firm objective and purpose to creating a plan, then the outcome will be much clearer and more successful.
If you have any questions or you would like to know more about planning issues, please send us an e-mail to Milt Carr at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it or to This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .
Making a plan may be a daunting task because getting started, and making sure that you have all of the ingredients gathered together may be overwhelming. Preparing a cake is a somewhat easy task, but preparing a plan requires more ingredients and the process is a bit more complicated. Part of the reason so many farm families do not have plans is that so many family members are involved and affected by the outcome and the process of the plan.
Here’s an example of what a family may be faced with. The parents are really good at developing the farm and know all the aspects of the poultry business, waste management, and growing their quota. How to plan for succession is another matter, one they may not be very familiar with.
Getting to step one is usually the hardest part. You want to have a meeting but as you discuss this with the family members, everyone has different thoughts and desire different outcomes. As a result, the meeting becomes disjointed and often time is spent discussing things from the past rather than concentrating on the future objectives. Most of the time, the second meeting doesn’t happen. Some families have told me that without a third-party meeting co-ordinator, a mediator, it would have been impossible to move forward.
The greatest stumbling block to the whole succession planning process is that the subject of the family farm is a very emotional topic. It is hard to state one’s feelings when the emotion is great. To tell one family member that their direction is not the one you are taking is very difficult to execute because of the fear of hurt feelings.
So, let’s say that the family has agreed to a plan, and they have all gathered to discuss it. What do they talk about? Where do they start? Now, this is like baking a cake without a recipe and without instructions. When it comes to talking about the plan, there are no templates to follow, no instructions, no agenda. All there seem to be are discussion topics that seem uncomfortable to address because bringing them up may hurt someone.
To help clear up any confusion about the plan’s end result, there are questions that need to be addressed: What is the purpose of the plan, what is your objective, and what do you want to achieve? If a farm family can start by clearly identifying the purpose and objective of the plan, then this will help clarify the end result. Also, addressing these questions may provide an excellent springboard for launching a productive family discussion regarding the outcome of the plan.
One objective may be to treat your children fairly when preparing for one child to take over the farm. Another objective would be to transfer the farm in a way that is comfortable to the parents: When and how much control do they give up? Is this done in stages?
Once the family has identified the objective of the plan, it needs to be determined if the objective is, in fact, achievable. How do we know if the objective is achievable? There are many factors that need to be written out and thought through well and completely. Every step along the way, every ingredient to preparing a plan may have implications that affect some other aspect of the plan.
In order to determine if an objective is achievable, a family basically needs to picture where they are currently and where they want to be down the road. Once they have mapped their path to their objective, then determining factors can be brought into question to test the viability of the plan’s objective.
This process will spawn many questions that must be addressed; if you change the farm business structure in order to growth, then you need to know how this affects the young and the old in the business.
Preparing a plan is more complicated than baking a cake. Each farm family brings with it a different set of circumstances, different objectives and different desires. No two plans are alike, but the key to any plan is starting with a solid foundation. Once you have determined a firm objective and purpose to creating a plan, then the outcome will be much clearer and more successful.
If you have any questions or you would like to know more about planning issues, please send us an e-mail to Milt Carr at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it or to This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .