Entrepreneurial and other management skills
Evelyn Hurley, Agribusiness and Resource Management Department, Massey University
Entrepreneurial Skills
People in the business world use the terms entrepreneur and entrepreneurship seemingly in the same way as those in farm management use the terms manager and management. A definition which covers both: "in part, a human creative act in finding personal energy by initiating and building an enterprise or organisation, rather than by just watching, analysing or describing one."
For new ventures, research has identified skills and skill propensities relating to both technical aspects and personal/business attributes: leadership, networking, administrative attributes. Entrepreneurship is illustrated in the development of alternative enterprises on farms. These developments call for personal development, and creativity and demand high levels of technical skill. There are many examples of innovation and creativity in recent New Zealand rural history:
- the production and marketing of yoghurt using organic milk, in order to obtain the premium of such milk, and recently developing international markets
- the production and marketing of ostrich breeding stock, involving much investment, including capital, but especially the skills needed to develop innovative technology
- many examples of the imaginative enhancement of on-farm attributes, some of which have been a disadvantage to agricultural activity, to develop a unique rural tourism experience.
Developing Management Skills
Personal business skills are usually associated with successful entrepreneurship. Lack of management skills are listed among barriers to farming business. Farmers are often characterised as typically shunning accounting and formal number crunching activities, despite daily informal use of these skills.
Small Business Enterprise Centres (SBECs) are community based organisations that provide independent, confidential and practical assistance to potential, new and established businesses. Advice is given by various means such as one-to-one facilitation, courses, seminars and workshops. BusinessGrow, Business in the Community mentor schemes, and Business Link, are a few of the programmes SBECs run or with which they have close liaison.
Most SBECs are funded by a combination of local authority, government agency and user pays. They have been underfunded in recent months and while urban centres have down-sized, some rural ones, such as Feilding and Marton have closed.
Entrepreneurial needs of rural business people
The most powerful and sustainable form of change in rural areas occurs when the community takes charge of its own destiny. The Landcare movement provides an example of communities in control of their own development. There are numerous examples where individuals with common enthusiasm have got together and identified their priorities for action. By working together, scientists and local producers are presented with new opportunities to learn new things, in new ways as co-researching communities."
Through learning more about their own resources and products, communities are better able to move along the value chain into quality management. Success results from community people carrying out their own research and sharing it with others in the community. Enhancing entrepreneurship is sustainable and successful when it involves the community learning about designing and managing its own development.
Contact for Enquiries
Rural Affairs Coordinator
Sector Performance Policy
MAF Policy
Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry
PO Box 2526
Wellington
NEW ZEALAND
Phone: +64 4 894 0675
Fax: +64 4 4 894 0745
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