A lesson from Shakespeare on the value of planning
Even Shakespeare’s King Lear had a succession plan. Granted, it wasn’t robust and he didn’t revise or execute it successfully, but he did have a plan.
Best estimates suggest that over 60 per cent of UK farmers do NOT have any sort of succession plan, either formal or informal. If it wasn’t important before (which it was!), it is now imperative.
According to Jeremy Moody, Secretary to the Central Association of Agricultural Valuers, Brexit brings the need for a considered succession plan to the fore of British farming.
To our minds, Brexit is likely to produce both a more challenging AND commercial environment for farmers and should be seen as a prompt to do many things that we should be doing anyway – such as competing in world markets and improving productivity wherever we can.
Change is most certainly going to be thrust upon us and we need to grasp the nettle and manage that change to our advantage as best we can. Post-Brexit we may find that we lose the current level of financial support for UK farmers and future support might be more focused on research, innovation, knowledge transfer, agri-environment schemes and entry to/exit from farming.
In order to compete successfully in world markets we need to consider and develop resilient strategies for marketing, innovation and environmental issues, to name but a few. Where we can, we need to be price makers, not price takers. Furthermore we need to ensure that the land is passed into the hands of the educated, not just the young.
Well that all sounds easy! I am not suggesting it is. But it is important to start planning for a different market place. At the heart of any successful business is a workable, sustainable and flexible business plan which should understandably consider past experience, particularly where land types dictate farming methods. However the business plan has to look to the future and this includes, however painful it might be to consider, what happens when the current head of an enterprise retires or dies.
The definition of succession is the right of succeeding to the throne, an office or inheritance and in a monarchical society we understandably connect succession with death. If this is what is holding us back, let’s call succession planning something else. Call it a success plan for the future; call it a family charter; call it future proofing. It doesn’t matter what we call it, it matters that we do it and we do it now.
Louise Taylor MA, MSc is a partner in Barbers Rural Consultancy and managing director of Taylor Millbrook. She specialises in succession planning.
