06 / NURSERY
TIME FOR
CHANGE
Speaking at the recent Teagasc Nursery Stock conference, horticultural business consultant Neville Stein urged growers to focus on creativity and innovation. In this feature Neville expands on his presentation, arguing that upcoming challenges present an opportunity
V
ery probably like me, you have no clear understanding of what to expect when the UK leaves the European Union. If you do, then do please tell. I’m sure your insights will help bring some much needed peace of mind to the nursery stock sector in Ireland and the UK, which currently seems characterised by uncertainty. In reflecting on the uncertainty we all face, my mind was drawn to an acronym which adequately describes the times we live in. VUCA - short for volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous - certainly seems an apt description for our current joint predicament. But realistically haven’t we always lived in VUCA times? The great philosopher Herodotus wisely stated that “change is the only constant”, and as I look back over the last five decades of my life I can recall many national and global events that caused change and uncertainty. Events like the winter of discontent in 1973, the Falklands war, poll tax riots and four economic recessions have rocked recent decades along with global issues of climate change, regime changes, and terrorism. The only constant thing really is change. Individually perhaps we have very little influence of those factors that cause a VUCA world. However, if we run a business we can survive, prosper and make a VUCA world work for us. How? Very simply by creating an innovation culture. When times are good and profits are rolling in I often find that businesses can get complacent; things can be easy, so why strive harder to make the business better? But when the business environment becomes extremely challenging, there is a need to find better ways to do things and those companies that have created an innovation culture will be those that not only survive but typically prosper. Because in difficult economic times your return on investment could be higher, your factors of production become cheaper, and you can gain market share. Typically, I also find that smaller enterprises are able to adapt to difficult times much quicker than larger organisations. Often in larger companies the
©OLEGDUDKO/123RF.COM
decision making process is slower and getting things done can be pretty time consuming. On the other hand, the owners of smaller organisations can often take quick decisions enabling them to respond promptly to a dynamic business environment. If we believe that a VUCA world can enable us to prosper by being more innovative, how do we develop an innovation culture in our own organisations? My advice first of all is to explore innovation in those areas that are not obvious. Most innovation in our sector is market facing. In other words, we do a great job at innovating new plants and packaging. For example, take the egg and chips plant from Thompson & Morgan, a unique combination of aubergine grafted to potato, but we don’t often look to innovate in our business processes or our business strategy – the overall approach that we take to running our businesses.
“These are going to be difficult times, but those are better faced with creativity and a constructive mindset”
Autumn 2018 / www.horticultureconnected.ie / HORTICULTURECONNECTED
17
