Hangers in the Cupboard

Dwarsvlei Blog

Stan Parsons used to say, if you were in a bind or not sure what to do next, it was like having your clothes in a heap at the bottom of the cupboard. It helps to bring some order and structure to your life if you get some hangers to hang them up. Farming is a bit like that, it helps to have the right “hangers” to assist you to manage day to day but also, especially, to plan ahead! Not just any old “hanger” will do.
There are three hangers to use that are vital to navigating the next three years, particularly if you are a small stock farmer. There are a few more that you can use that will enable you to build from there and ensure you reduce or eliminate the risks represented by weather variability, market price volatility and rising input prices. From now on. The opportunity to improve profitability and build resilience is always right now. Change necessitates change; there is no need for change if there is no risk!


Email: desk@rffp.co.za WhatsApp 0837813441
(The late Dr Stan Parsons, Champion of Professional Development for Farmers)

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Change Comes from the Edge!

Dwarsvlei Blog

David Pratt worked with Dr Stan Parsons in the US at Ranch Management Consultants. David relates the following, while teaching his first Ranching For Profit School with Stan in Australia in 1992. One evening, after teaching Day 3 of the course, David met with Stan in the pub for a debriefing. Stan started the conversation by asking, “David, do you even know what this school is for?” Coming to “his own defence” David said, “Sure. It’s to help ranchers build sustainable businesses. I thought it was a good answer”. Stan just shook his head. “David, the purpose of this school is to change the way people think. The purpose is to challenge their paradigms.” At the “schools” that Stan taught he always used to show a video by Joel Arthur Barker, “The Business of Paradigms”. Barker explains why it is difficult to change paradigms, but also that they can be changed. When a paradigm is changed, however, the change starts at “the edge”, and not at “the centre”.
Paradigms are real, when a paradigm is changed “everyone goes back to zero”! If a paradigm changes about how enterprises are run, or how a family farm business is managed, then do the best you can to consider the change. Paradigm “paralysis”, in a family-owned farming business sense, is “fatal”! The “centre” will not be able to help, at least in the beginning.


Email: desk@rffp.co.za

WhatsApp 0837813441

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