The List

Gerry Raker

Recently, I came across a presentation that I gave many years ago. It was about what it took to build a successful company. As I flipped through the document, scanning the summary slides, I realized that over the years I’ve probably written a GrowerTalks article covering each bullet point. It’s almost as if I’ve been checking them off. That’s because some things instrumental to business success never change. They’re so basic and have been around so long that any article written about business management is going to cover them.

But even though I can’t claim any one of the items to be an original thought, there’s a trick to creating a list, reviewing it regularly and then putting your signature on it by turning words into actions.

Here’s the list of maxims that have become the core components of Raker culture. They’re the concepts that I hope will never change, no matter what the future delivers:

Integrity, honesty, courtesy before all
Problems are challenges; ask “Why?” five times
Improvement is a continuous process; “ATD” counts (Attention to Detail)
People and teamwork “Make it Happen”
Communication requires understanding
Customers judge quality and service
Success is an attitude
“Walk your talk”

There was another list. Instead of being a list of things that should never change, it was a list of things that are always changing. These areas are where businesses need to pay attention and respond if they want to evolve into a successful company because ignoring them or trying to “hold out” and not change will quickly relegate a business to the past.

For instance, the demand of keeping up with cutting-edge technologies is relentless. Way back when, we were once wondering if you could produce crops scheduled by a computer program. That was when I was considering the cost of adding an external 10 MB hard drive for data storage and wondering if I should buy a fax machine.

There also are everyday impacts created by a rapidly changing global economy. When it comes to business, the world is now a very small place and the U.S. is becoming a smaller and smaller piece of that place. “Farm to market,” whatever it means to you and as simple as it sounds, is still brought to you by a global economy. There are social pressures, too. Throw the unique perspectives of three generations of employees and customers into the mix, each trying to “have it their way,” and it gets interesting.

These topics get plenty of coverage in the business media. If you’re paying attention, you’ll get the information and stimulation that you need no matter whether your trip to the mailbox involves physically crossing the street or swiping your smartphone.

It should be noted, however, that the environmental demands placed on businesses are not all originated in some other place. There also are the internal pressures of keeping up with success when an organization is growing rapidly. Management’s approach to its organization must change as companies get more sophisticated and that can be a challenge. This is still pretty obvious, but there’s a sleeper.

You can get so busy keeping up with how rapidly everything is changing and with doing such a good job successfully running your company that you forget that time is passing and you’re getting older. It’s easy to get caught off guard when it comes to planning how to shift management and ownership from one generation to another. Take a time-out and give it some thought. You know there isn’t an app to download that can transform the list of things that should never change into the action of the next generation. GT

Gerry Raker is the business team leader and owner of C. Raker and Sons, Litchfield, Michigan.