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Goals And Objectives In Agri-Business
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Business Goal Setting
“Begin with the end in mind”. This is a well-known phrase, which expresses the importance of starting off any project with a picture of how things should look once the work has been successfully completed. For large scale and long-term undertakings, this picture is referred to as the vision. For smaller and shorter scale operations, this picture takes the form of specific outcomes and is commonly referred to as objectives or goals.
A vision can be seen as a farmer’s dreams in action. It is the situation that the farming business strives for in the future, having a clear picture of how the farming business will change over time.
It is important that the farmer is familiar with the opportunities and threats in the national and international environment, as well as knowing the abilities and potential performance of his farming business.
Strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats are usually identified in the following areas of a farming business:
This is called a SWOT analysis.
STRENGTHS – WEAKNESSES – OPPORTUNITIES – THREATS
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STRENGTHS Strengths are within an organisation. It will look at products, processes, human resources, infrastructure, structures, administration, marketing, public relations and financial issues. These are all issues over which the farmer has control and that are working well and therefore contribute to the success of the farm. |
WEAKNESSES Weaknesses are within an organisation. It will look at products, processes, human resources, infrastructure, structures, administration, marketing, public relations and financial issues. These are all issues over which the farmer has control but are not working well and undermine the farm’s potential success. |
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OPPORTUNITIES These could be in any area, both internal and external. It could be improvements to internal systems to take advantage of a marketing opportunity. It could be an opportunity to upgrade equipment. Often the opportunities are identified through asking: ‘How do we take advantage of our strengths?’ ;‘How do we overcome our weaknesses?’ and ‘What can we do to mitigate this threat?’ |
THREATS Threats are external forces over which the farmer has no control, but, by being aware of these issues, he can plan for a range of eventualities. The issues raised in this section also, therefore, can become key areas for development/improvement. |
Click here to view a video that explains a farm SWOT analysis.
An example of a SWOT analysis is as follows:
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Strengths
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Weaknesses
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Opportunities
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Threats
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