The power of staying curious with Nigel Kerin

Nigel Kerin returns to the podcast this week to discuss profit drivers, decision rules, staying curious and the importance of science and technology in farming.

Nigel has a great way of thinking about the business of farming and no decision is made without analysing it first. Nigel uses a triangular model to help him make these hard decisions.

“Down one side of the triangle, you've got business growth. Down the bottom, you've got cash flow. And up the other side of the triangle, you've got people, infrastructure, and I've now added technology into it.”

Nigel runs each of his decisions through this model, “For me to go ahead and go down a particular path of doing something, [I ask] does it fit in with those three sides of that triangle?” 

This opens up a series of questions that help him look at the decision from multiple perspectives. “Does it increase growth? Does it increase cash? Have I got the infrastructure and people and the technology to do this at scale? And when I look down each side of that triangle, where's the weakest link in our business at the moment? Is it actually growth? Is it cash flow? Do we have a people problem at the moment, which may be a lack of staff? Do we have an infrastructure problem? That can be wire and mortar, stockyards, cattle yards, sheep yards and laneway systems. Or do we have a lack of technology?”

Nigel puts great emphasis on staying curious. “You're constantly opening your mind up to shortcuts and those 1% changes are what drive a business.”

Not every idea he has makes it past the triangle stage, but that doesn’t stop him thinking about new ideas and concepts. “It’s a massive profit driver in your business, no matter what business you're in, whether you're in a news agency or pharmacy or butcher shop or farming - whatever. If you're constantly in a curious mindset, you've got your mind and your peripheral vision open to new ideas all the time.”

Nigel explains that these ideas come about, not from staying on the farm 365 days a year, but from getting out and learning from more informed people: consultants, courses, open days or events such as Lambex or Beef. “What football side wins a grand final without a coach? What tennis player at Wimbledon wins without a coach?” asks Nigel. “I don't have to know everything and I don't have to be that incredibly clever, just as long as I'm bringing those people into our business to help us question how we make decisions, help us make decisions and sometimes hold our hands whilst we're making those decisions.”

As with Nigel's previous podcast, ‘Turning Grass into Money’, this episode is worth sharing amongst staff, friends and family. There are many gems, from mindset changes to practical on-farm examples of success. 

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