Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
specifi c recipe for what it takes to be a successful manager is challenging to defi ne. While
there are certain management skills and principles that can be learned, these skills must be
adapted by each individual to fi t the unique situation they face.
Given this responsibility, how do agribusiness managers actually accomplish their task?
Perhaps a few individuals are “born managers,” but managing is not innate to most people.
For most of us, managing is a learned skill, and this topic is about helping you move down
the path toward being an effective manager. Business education has come of age, and
the reasons why some organizations succeed while others fail are understood. Today's
successful agribusiness managers are guided by a set of principles that constitute sound
management. In this chapter, we will take a closer look at this business of management. We
will explore the key tasks of any manager to provide a foundation for our further exploration
of agribusiness management.
Today's agribusiness managers
Management is both an art and a science. Managers must effi ciently combine available human,
fi nancial, and physical assets to maximize the long-run profi ts of an operation by profi tably
satisfying its customer's demands. Management requires individuals be technically knowl-
edgeable about the organization's product and/or function. They must be good and effective
communicators. The ability to motivate people is also essential. They must be profi cient in
the technical skills of management such as accounting, fi nance, forecasting, and so on.
In addition to a strong background in management, agribusiness managers need a strong
understanding of the biological and institutional factors surrounding the production of food
and fi ber. In other words, not only must they excel at the normal concerns of business man-
agement, agribusiness managers must also factor in the uncertainty of the weather, the per-
ishable nature of many of agriculture's products, government policies, and the rapidly
changing technology employed in agriculture. They must possess the ability to quickly adapt
to changes in market conditions that result from changes in these uncertain factors of weather,
product perishability, government policies, technology, etc. Managers must be able to mix
each of these skills and perspectives in the right proportion to deliver the greatest long-run
net benefi t for the fi rm.
Defi ning management in agribusiness
Successful managers feel like managers, see themselves as managers, and are both ready and
willing to play the managerial role. When successful managers look in the mirror, they see a
leader, a person who is willing to accept the responsibility for change and become the cata-
lyst for action. The success-minded manager is comfortable with this managerial role, and
accepts responsibility and authority as a challenge rather than as a curse. Nicholas Murray
Butler, the longtime president of Columbia University, once placed managers in three
classes: “the few who make things happen, the many who watch things happen, and the
majority who have no idea what has happened!”
We defi ne
management
in this text as the art and science of
successfully
pursuing desired
results with the
resources available
to the organization. Several key words in this defi nition
are italicized to stress the elements of successful management.
Art
and
science
are the fi rst two key words, and as mentioned above, management is both
an art and a science. Because management deals largely with people, management principles
must be viewed as imperfect, at best. Yet many management principles and tools can help us
