Stories of instant CEOs have been common in dot-com industries. A 20- or 30-something turned a hot e-commerce idea into a multi-million dollar business. Suddenly, the young person is a chief executive officer.
Dairies are not dot-coms. And few young people who enter into a dairy business, whether with family or non-family, are prepared to manage all aspects of it without a trial-by-fire period to build skills and knowledge.
When a young person decides to become part of a dairy business, these questions must be answered:
- In what position should the young person enter the business?
- What knowledge and skills are needed?
- What knowledge and abilities does the young person bring to the business?
- What should be the focus of education, training and development to build skills?
- How should the young person advance within the business?
- If and when should he or she become the business’ leader or CEO?
Growing into management
Making a manager has three phases: preparation, entry and expansion of responsibility.
1. Preparation
Think of the changes that have occurred in agriculture during your lifetime and the increasing speed of change. Now imagine how agriculture will be in 50 years when young people making their career decisions today will retire. This is the unknown future for which they must prepare.
To prepare, their education and experience must be broad enough to give them a perspective of what is likely to happen in the dairy industry in the near term and what changes may take place in the decades ahead.
Young people not only need basic skills in production, business and financial management but more abstract skills.
Can they learn to be:
- Critical and strategic thinkers?
- Decision-makers?
- Experimenters?
- Human resource managers and leaders?
Young people must also acquire knowledge, skills and experience necessary for their entry-level job. This comes either through advanced education or through informal education, such as working in other businesses.
Once the specific short- and long-term knowledge, skill and experience requirements are identified, develop a written plan and timetable for acquiring them. “It’s helpful to make a list of the management skills a young person needs to develop and to check them off as the person works in different positions,” says Gary Snider, farm management consultant with Farm Credit of Western New York.
2. Entry
Base an entry-level position for a young person on three things: the needs of the business, the skills and experience of the person, and the skills and experience of family and non-family employees.
A young person should ask: Given my interests, experiences, knowledge and skills, what position would I seek if I applied at another dairy? Then look at the family business and find a current position or define a new position that fits the answer to that question.
If young people have little training or experience supervising employees, they should enter the dairy in an important position without supervisory responsibility.
If the person has training or experience in supervising others, the entry-level position may be as a middle manager.
3. Expand Responsibilities
Employees in any business assume new responsibilities or advance to positions with more authority based on success in their current position and their expanded knowledge and experience. Advancement of family members within a dairy business is no different.
Eventual advancement to a CEO requires long-range planning. The timing should be based on the senior generation’s retirement plans and the young person’s success, skill development and career growth.
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