Short on Skills?  Start up-skilling your people.

What was once considered a luxury (non-strategic) spend for many small and medium agribusinesses, investing in management up-skilling is now a minimum requirement just to survive.

Let’s be honest.  Virtually every business says that people are its most important asset; but too few are actually doing anything about it.  We’ve all been there as employees.  People are treated as a cost not an asset (investment).

So as the industry calls for more innovation out in the ‘paddock’, a silent epidemic is hurting productivity back at the office.  Regrettably, the office or the boardroom is rarely (if at all) considered when the industry talks about increasing productivity.  There is no doubt that the biggest source of profit is an organisations ability to be productive.  The critical, yet often neglected, success factor for this, is its management and leadership capability.

So what is capability?

Capability is an all-round human quality, an integration of knowledge, skills, personal qualities and understanding used appropriately and effectively- not just in familiar and highly focused specialist contexts but in response to new and changing circumstances. (Stephenson 2002)

If there was ever a statement that sums up what is needed to support the agricultural production and agribusiness industry this is it.

We’re all now aware of the facts.  Too many people have exited or chosen not to begin a career in the industry.  As generations go by, this has created a shortage of educated young professionals moving up the ranks from within.

Consequently attracting, developing and retaining skilled talent has become the biggest priority for many operators in the industry.

A skills vacuum within an organisation can also result in existing people taking on managerial, business development and leadership roles without the skills to do it.  These people may have a fantastic technical skill set; but what they find themselves doing is not what they were trained to do.

Unless money is invested in helping people develop their managerial and leadership skills, it makes sense that you would need to be asking what will be the result of the types of decisions these people will be making on behalf of the organisation.

 

Responsibility rests with those in charge of governing the business, to ensure that technical skills are being augmented with management and leadership capability.

The implications of this situation are negative.  Many organisations are going to miss the chance of truly maximising the opportunities of the food and fibre boom, because they couldn’t mobilise the internal team required to take it on, in an increasingly sophisticated and complex domestic and global business environment.

Many operators are frustrated.  They are asking about the ‘food and fibre boom’ headlines they saw and why it has actually resulted in making less money than ever before.  Many agribusinesses will not survive at all.

There is an opportunity for non-award Management and Executive Education to play a significant role in providing a solution to the Australian agricultural production and agribusiness industry.  In other countries, it is a requirement of your role as an agribusiness manager that you will be sent to some form of post-grad management education EVERY year.  Companies will not let you progress without it.

It’s true that developing the competency based skills of those within an organisation provides a fundamental foundation for the business to collectively meet the expectations of its markets and customers i.e. capture the food and fibre boom.  However, raising the core skills of existing workers is now just the minimum requirement for a business to exist in the future, let alone be a source of competitive advantage.

Whilst doing things right will always remain important, true value will be created by a succession of managers and leaders having the vision to ask if we are in fact doing the right things.

The successful agribusinesses of the future are today investing in the development of their people and upgrading their skill base from transactional managers to transformational leaders.  That is the productive value of investing in up-skilling.

The role that University based Executive Education can play is to develop innovative, thinking leaders with an understanding of core managerial capabilities. University non award programs provide the flexibility, speed and experiential learning opportunities needed to develop an increasingly important source of competitive advantage and a succession of future-focused leaders.

This blog includes extracts from The SOS Group and the Execution Education Unit of The University of Adelaide submission to the Senate Enquiry into higher education and skills training to support future demand in agriculture and agribusiness in Australia.