NZ farmer takes out Australasian management award

Media Release August 23, 2010 1

NZ farmer takes out 2010 Rabobank Australasian business management award

New Zealand farmer Neil Gardyne has taken out a leading Australasian business management award for work undertaken transforming his mixed farming operation outside Gore, on the countrys South Island.

Mr Gardyne was presented with the 2010 Rabobank Executive Development Program (EDP) Management Project Award at the graduation of 34 leading primary producers from around New Zealand and Australia who recently completed the program in Sydney. The EDP is a business management program designed to further enhance the commercial management skills of Australasias leading agricultural producers.

Mr Gardynes winning project, titled Expanding our horizons, focused on effectively reallocating time and resources in his farming operation to both reduce overall workload and increase profit on several levels of the business.

It put into place management tools and theories gained from undertaking the Executive Development Program.

“We wanted to grow our business and expand the size of our enterprise. The EDP helped set us up to expand and grow the critical mass of the business, to better communicate and to have structures in place to keep it really simple,” he said.

Mr Gardyne, his family and two equity partners own Otama Homestead Ltd, 466 hectares of mixed farming with sheep, cattle, and cereal crops. In addition to operating their core livestock and farming business, Mr Gardyne runs a small business, Flashfert, selling coal ash as fertiliser.

Mr Gardyne said the principal objective of his management project was to increase profit from – and reduce workload on – his main farming business in order to allocate resources on building secondary businesses, including Flashfert.

“The program challenged us to talk to the people we dealt with in our business. I started the process of talking to the farms stakeholders, from contractors to customers, about how our business could add value to their business,” he said.

Mr Gardyne spoke to his lamb processing agent – including the agent in the production and financial goals for the season – which produced successful results by identifying a gap in the farms store lamb procurement. “The agent filled the gap which has resulted in an 18 per cent lift in profit,” he said. Media Release August 23, 2010 2

Other improvements included enhancing communications with contractors and staff. This had seen better contractor agreements leading to productivity gains and the introduction of regular staff team meetings to share and communicate the greater vision and strategies of the farming business.

Mr Gardyne said while most of the ideas have been relatively simple to implement, they have led to improved “governmental and operational efficiencies resulting in a very profitable model with a cash surplus with which to grow the business”.

“We have investors wanting to put capital into the business and a bank which is prepared to fund our growth. The greater operating efficiencies have allowed a reduction in my farm working hours from five to three days a week, permitting more time to develop my other business opportunities, and community activities,” he said.

Market research practices gained from the EDP have resulted in Mr Gardyne identifying a future growth path for Flashfert and also considering two „new horizon businesses for oat and aquaculture production.

The Executive Development Program is run annually over two modules held 10 months apart. As part of the program, each participant undertakes a self-designed management project in the time between modules, applying the business and management skills they gained from module one to their own business, with the aim of obtaining tangible results.

The program also includes personality testing which enables participants to identify certain personal traits in themselves and staff, in order to enhance management and people skills.

“The personal side helped me recognise how to apply that psychology to understand how people function, which helps us to be more efficient in our business,” Mr Gardyne said. “There are various personality types which require different practical approaches to get the best outcome for all.”

Rabobank business programs manager Nerida Sweetapple said many participants refer to the EDP as life-changing. “The program provides the opportunity to mix with innovative producers from all over Australia and New Zealand, and challenge their traditional methods and ways of thinking,” she said.

“Neils project really indicated how he had gone back to his business and spoken to, and understood his customers, both in his livestock business, but also in his emerging enterprises. This showed his commitment to implementing the strategies to grow his business sustainably for the future.”

ENDS

Media Release August 23, 2010

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