“Relieved,” says Jeff, and all the men nod their agreement when asked how it felt to have the succession plan and an executive structure completed. As the cousin, Jeff needed to sort out his role in the farm. “It was good to know what was expected of everyone,” he says.
Unconsciously and collectively, all four men sigh.
“We have a comfort in knowing that we had a professional sort this out for us and it was done so that everyone was happy,” says Jeff. Anytime that the discussion got heated, consultant John Anderson would tell a horror story of a family succession plan gone wrong. “It opened our eyes to what could happen,” says Jeff.
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That realization stopped them from continuing in a negative, emotional direction. Everyone would get back to focusing on the business again.
As on most farms, that day-to-day business is busy.
“For day-to-day operations we work on a three-week cycle: milk one week, feed the next and feed calves next and squeeze the field work in there,” says Reg. “We’re trying to spread it out between us and it gives us variety.”
Even in that busy schedule, however, they’ve made time to continue with some of the good habits they developed during succession planning.
They have weekly meetings, on Jeff’s suggestion. Usually the meetings are only about 10 minutes long on Monday morning but it keeps everybody in the loop. They discuss what’s planned for the week, and larger corporate-level matters are discussed and sometimes voted on.
Financial reports are printed and reviewed. Everyone examines their current cash-flow statement more closely and compares it to the previous year. They carefully track their debt-to-equity ratio and cash-flow projection for each purchase.
