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AgriGate’s offer to all rural families
Trained by Lyn Sykes, the leading Australian family business meeting facilitator, AgriGate will work with your family as an independent facilitator to:
establish a regular schedule of Strategic and Operational meetings based on your needs
help you develop ground rules for the way you manage your meetings
show you how to record minutes, actions, and how to follow up to make sure actions are carried out
facilitate communication between your family and your accountant, solicitor, or financial advisor to ensure all members of the family understand the implications of decisions that are made
enable you to gain your independence and manage your own meetings without the need for a facilitator!
Benefits
AgriGate provides structure to your family meeting through the use of a jointly developed agenda, which helps to make the transition to holding regular meetings easier. We are an independent, confidential facilitator, working with you to make the process safe and less confronting for family members involved. We understand rural families and the issues you face, and we want to see you succeed.
“If you don’t take the time now to plan how to manage the family in your family business, you’d best allow a lot of time later for repair work”. Lyn Sykes, Family Communication Specialist
Family Business Communication Needs
There are lots of things that can be discussed at family meetings, the sky is the limit and its up to each individual family to develop their own agenda based on their needs. Agenda items can be divided into Strategic or long term items, and Operational or short term items, and a regular pattern of both Strategic and Operational meetings can be established.
| Some examples of Strategic/Long Term agenda items |
Some examples of Operational/Short term agenda items |
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the financial performance of the business
your future
vision and goals of individuals in the business
farm development plans
housing arrangements
remuneration
off farm investments
bringing new members into the business
long term marketing strategies
retirement
the “what if?’s” (risk management and contingency planning)
exit strategy for allowing members to leave the business |
the immediate work plan (daily, weekly or monthly)
short term marketing decisions
innovative ideas
acknowledgement of things that are going well
discussion about things that aren’t doing so well
discussion about immediate production related issues
programming days off and holidays |
Importance of Family Business Communication
Research has shown that successful family farming businesses have several things in common.
They have an established, regular pattern of communication.
All members of the business understand and monitor financial aspects of the business, and
All members take holidays.
Regular business meetings allow family members to run the farm as a business, just like a board runs a company, or a management committee runs an association. A meeting provides the family with a legitimate forum where issues may be raised, expectations are able to be made clear, and decisions can be made as a group. The benefits are that things will get done, people will feel valued and the business will move forward.
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