Green Industry Risk Management Guide

As I mentioned in an earlier post, three colleagues and I recently conducted a series of risk management workshops that were held across the nation for nursery and greenhouse growers. A concluding part of these workshops was the development of a hands-on publication that folks in the Green Industry could use in analyzing and addressing the various risks they face, including production, marketing, financial, legal, environmental, and human resource risks. Click here to view a PDF version of this timely Green Industry Risk Management Guide (large file size = 20MB).

Sound financial practices are needed right now!

Three colleagues and I recently conducted a series of risk management workshops that were held across the nation for nursery and greenhouse growers. As a part of these workshops, Dr. Alan Hodges of the University of Florida discussed strategies to mitigate financial risks in the nursery or greenhouse business. I asked Alan to provide a quick summary of his portion of the workshop in this timely podcast.

For more information regarding financial benchmarks, check out these two articles. Click here and here.
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Seven Ways to Fail Big

This article in the September issue of the Harvard Business Review answers the question "What causes companies to fail spectacularly?" A recent study of 750 of the biggest U.S. business disasters of the past 25 years reveals that seven popular but risky strategies are often to blame. Drawing on that extensive research, Paul Carroll, a journalist, and Chucka Mui, a fellow at Diamond Management & Technology Consultants, describe seven sirens that lure companies onto the rocks. Click here to download an audio slideshow about how to avoid failure.

New IPM blog available

The East Texas Nursery and Nursery Greenhouse IPM Program has recently added another method to distribute information -- the "East Texas Nursery and Greenhouse IPM Program Blog" at http://etipm.blogspot.com/. This site will have regular updates regarding advances in greenhouse and nursery pest management, meeting information, efficacy study results and newsletters. If you would like to have updates emailed directly to you the day they are posted, go to http://etipm.blogspot.com/ and simply enter your email address.

New AGR-lite training available

A new on-line course is available that will help growers in making more informed decisions in regard to the AGR-Lite risk management tools/insurance. The course can be taken at your own pace in the comfort of your home or office. As other on-line courses become available, I will attempt to post links to them as well. Click here to view the course website.

Employment down: Does this spell recession?

he unemployment rate rose from 4.8 to 5.1 percent in March, and nonfarm payroll employment continued to trend down (-80,000), the Bureau of Labor Statistics of the U.S. Department of Labor reported Friday. Over the past 3 months, payroll employment has declined by 232,000.

In March, employment continued to fall in construction, manufacturing, and employment services, while health care, food services, and mining added jobs. Average hourly earnings rose by 5 cents, or 0.3 percent, over the month.

The number of unemployed persons increased by 434,000 to 7.8 million in March, and the unemployment rate rose by 0.3 percentage point to 5.1 percent. Since March 2007, the number of unemployed persons has increased by 1.1 million, and the unemployment rate has risen by 0.7 percentage point.

So that's the bad news. Now for some perspective. The magnitude of the employment decline is pretty small: less than 2/10s of one percent from the peak in December through March. So don't think of massive layoffs; think of minor adjustment. (I know that to people who have lost their jobs, it feels pretty massive.)

The Wall Street Journal was more inane than usual. They noted the 80,000 decline in jobs and said, "Had it not been for a rise in government jobs last month, payrolls would have fallen by around 100,000." Let me add that had it not been for the drop in construction employment, payrolls would only have fallen by 29,000. Did you learn anything from this? I didn't think so.

How should business plans be adjusted now?

Now that you've looked at the forest, spend more time with your trees. Look at your own sales by segment and geography. Watch your customers' sales closely. There's plenty of variety of there; you need to know whether you are in the happy side of the economy (and there certainly is one) or the sad side.

So does this spell recession? I can only say at this point...maybe. Next month we could (not likely, but possible) see an expansion of employment, followed by nothing but expansion for the rest of the year. If that happens, then we'll look at these three months of decline and say "blip" rather than "recession." So anyone who says that we are definitely in a recession now is making a forecast about the next few months. They are probably right, but bear in mind they're making a forecast, not reading hard data.

Standards Committee deadline extended

Due to increased interest in the development of the Sustainable Agriculture Practice Draft American National Standard for Trial Use, the deadline has been extended for applications to participate on the Standards Committee and/or supporting subcommittees to May 23, 2008.

This extension is being implemented based on numerous requests to allow time for additional stakeholders to submit their applications. To learn more, click here for the official deadline extension announcement and click here for the Leonardo Academy press release announcing the call for Standards Committee applicants.

Why is it important to get involved? Ever heard the phrase "taxation without representation"? Need I say more?

SAF and OFA have great summary websites if you need to get caught up on this critical issue.

Small Business Outlook 2008

The entrepreneur section of Forbes.com released its Small Business Outlook for 2008 and there are a couple of sections that I found enlightening and somewhat humorous. Click here to see the lineup of articles. Of particular note are the top 10 biggest business blunders of all time and the top 10 risks that will keep you up at night!