How do your strategies stack up to the expected results? Are all your internal leaders aligned on the strategic direction? Is there sufficient commitment and accountability to achieve the goals? If the answer to any of these questions is no, more work is needed to ensure organizational success. Although companies have talented and dedicated staff, bias, lack of time to focus and filling internal gaps can affect whether your strategies are built for extraordinary results.
If strategies aren’t quite where they need to be or if internal leaders aren’t aligned, it can help to outsource for a different point of view to ensure all systems are go. The AgriThority® 3-phase facilitated strategic planning process requires factual Analysis of the company internally, the markets and the industry as a whole. It generates Alignment among key opinion leaders while building strategic imperatives and defining Actions for High-Impact Execution. Implementation of focused and timely action elements assigned by person is paramount.
Analyze to Determine the Path Forward
Analysis includes internal facts and stats along with industry audits and market surveys. Building on traditional market research, AgriThority® analyzes information from many sources and augments with surveys to document specific industry needs or trends. The reports can include key player profiles, competitive positioning, product uses or application trends as well as perceptions of producers, their suppliers or the core influencers in each market. Often this step challenges conventional wisdom or identifies core issues to be resolved.
Through cotton industry analysis and a strategic planning workshop, the stakeholders came together and started The First Forty Days™ initiative.
“The First Forty Days initiative put me in touch with other perspectives on things that impact cotton,” says Bob Kemerait, Professor of Plant Pathology at the University of Georgia. “We recognized the interrelationship between everything that goes into getting a crop established that was always there but needed to be drawn out and brought together.”
Gaining Internal Alignment
Aligning key leaders occurs through facilitated brainstorming exercises and organized collaboration. Identifying strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats is not enough. Consolidating opinions leads to strong specific strategic imperatives to move the company forward. Allowing equal voices from employees and leaders also builds trust and understanding.
“Strategic direction was needed for a small company consolidating to become a biologicals start-up like enterprise,” says Marcus Jones, currently the AMVAC Product Development Manager, Eastern & Great Plains Region. “Individuals were able to voice their concerns and opinions freely, which was prompted by the AgriThority® third-party facilitation. An AgriThority® strategic workshop can definitely help any organization willing to define and implement a strategic alignment mindset. What AgriThority stresses is that leadership must all be on the same page and be open and willing to receive and act upon valuable input. I highly recommend this approach offered by AgriThority® with their vast experience in helping organizations in this space especially.”
The strategic planning workshops aren’t only effective for companies but for the industry, as well. Through a strategic planning workshop, the cotton industry came together and The First Forty Days™ initiative was born.
“The collaboration with people who wouldn’t normally be working together was the biggest advantage of the strategic planning workshop that led to The First Forty Days,” Kemerait says. “The facilitation of a multidisciplinary effort brought forward this idea of that beginning period of time, and it has a tremendous impact on what happens later in the season. It led to a greater movement forward and greater success because it was integrated across disciplines and brought the mindsets together.”
A Plan of Action and Execution Are Key
Action Planning must have strong commitment and communication at all levels of the organization. Accountability and alignment of roles, expectations and timing can transform vision into a powerful roadmap toward success. This plan also has review and tracking steps for regular evaluation and adaptation as milestones are met or markets evolve.
“I cut my teeth on the First Forty Days concept, and now I use that same concept as a mental template for me on other crops, as well,” Kemerait says. “It’s always a good time to have a strategic planning workshop that will draw out the importance on why processes are working and where to improve. With razor thin profits for growers, we need to find ways to help them be profitable.”
Clear direction speeds decision-making and builds confidence to move forward at all levels of any organization. Let’s join forces to build consensus and drive your strategic plan toward success.
When your agricultural technology is moving from Research into Development or into new markets, AgriThority® has the technical expertise to supplement or expand your internal capabilities for scientific business, market and product expertise.
With internationally recognized leaders connected to more than 300 local specialists in a worldwide network, we bring deep experience testing more than 770 technologies, including 300 biologics,across 82,000+ plots.
Wherever you want to explore, we are your native guides.