Innovative Practices and SWOT Analysis for Your Business Essay.

1. Briefly describe your operation and the different sectors within it:

2. What plans have you developed to manage these sectors?

3. Take some time to review and analyse your operations and identify what interactions exist between different sectors of the enterprise:

In activity 1 you identified interactions that exist between different sectors within your business. Consider these interactions and identify whether they are beneficial or detrimental to your business. Consider your response from the triple bottom line.

Now think about how to capitalise on beneficial interactions and how to minimise detrimental interactions.

Update the following table with your findings:

Interaction Description

If Beneficial : Identify any potential additional benefits for further improvements to your production system

If Detrimental: Identify ways to adjust your production system to minimise potential losses

Activity 1 and 2 have seen you review your current enterprises and interactions, both positive and detrimental from those enterprises. Now you are required to conduct your own research and identify new innovative practices/enterprises that might be of benefit to your business. Remember that innovative practices may be quite simple (e.g. attend training courses to fill skill gaps). Look up ‘best practices’ for your industry to see what’s been happening lately. Update the following table with your results:

Potential Innovation

Potential Benefits to Your Business

Reference

It is now time for you and your planning team to conduct a SWOT analysis related to your production systems. Use existing data that you have collected, interviews with key stakeholders, desktop research, brainstorming, analysis of previous performance, market research or any other methods available to you, to develop a comprehensive SWOT analysis.

Update the following table with your results.

List these in order of importance (most important to least importance).

Internal	External
Strengths	Opportunities
Weaknesses	Threats

Identify potential but realistic risks to your enterprise by analysing your SWOT developed in activity 4.

Then complete the following risk register for your business. If you already have a risk register that meets your requirements, attach it to the end of this workbook and submit it to your lecturer for assessment. It is useful to prioritise and colour code risks so that you can easily identify extreme risks (e.g. yellow colour code) vs low risks (e.g. colour code orange).

In the following table identify:

Thekey performance indicators (KPI) that you use to measure the success or otherwise of your production practices (e.g. soil pH of >6 )
Howyou monitor progress against this indicator (e.g. annual soil test)
Performanceagainst the KPI (e.g. below target, on target, above target)
Whetheryou need to make changes to the production system for it to be profitable/sustainable.

Access and analyse your historical and current financial records and answer the following questions:

Question

What financial records do you keep to monitor the financial performance of your business?

How current are these? That is, how often do you update these records (e.g. daily,

weekly, monthly, quarterly, annually).

Are you confident that these records are appropriate for your needs?

If there are any weaknesses in this area, what steps will you take to resolve them?

Identifying Beneficial and Detrimental Interactions

1: The operations consist of strategic production, infrastructure management and land management. The operations also consist of integrating the functions of different sectors and enterprises, development and implementation and overlook the production system.

The different sectors are agricultural sectors and horticultural sectors.

2: The plans developed to manage agricultural and horticultural sectors are interactions with the other sectors and help them to integrate plans and diversify the development of different sectors. There are also plans to develop and manage risk management. There are also plans to analyze overall performance of the production operations in these sectors. The organization also seek to develop plans to increase the competencies like communication skills, presentation of problems to the management, improve teamwork skills, technological skills and use mathematical ideas and techniques(Murgue, Therond & Leenhardt, 2014).

3: The different types of interactions are described as follows:

i. Beneficial transactions are analyzed to locate any new business opportunities which can help in the increase of business operations(Correa & Schmidt, 2014).

ii. Detrimental interaction shows the potential losses due to collaboration with other enterprises. The management tries to minimize the losses and find out solution to the faults in the interactions (Nunes, Bennett & Júnior, 2014).

Interaction Description	If Beneficial : Identify any potential additional benefits for further improvements to your production system	If Detrimental: Identify ways to adjust your production system to minimize potential losses
New and experienced business proprietors can be helped to increase their productivity	More collaboration with the other business enterprises	Adopt new sustainable technology
A plan that integrates various process of production and provision of measuring production (Richardson & Bizimana, 2017).	The plan integrates the production processes.	Arrange meetings with the production department employees to locate any requirement for training to improve production.
A business house after newly acquiring will want to increase the profit margin(Peterman, A., Behrman & Quisumbing, 2014).	Provide consultancy services to those firms	These newly acquired firms can function as per the modus operandi of the parent company.

Potential Innovation	Potential Benefits to Your Business	Reference
Land use and land class	The system can result in better usage of land based on types. This helps in utilization of land to product maximum amount of crop. The system results in reduction of expenditure in maintaining of land and its fertility.	Wright & Wimberly, 2013; Newbold et al., 2015
Reduced or no tillage	Reduced tilling or no tilling leaves fifteen to thirty percent crop residue on the surface of the soil which helps in maintaining the fertility of the soil. Crop residue is organic by origin and holds moisture and binds the soil together. This binding together makes soil more compact and counters soil erosion. This helps in preventing loss of the important soil minerals which can be utilized back by the new crops. The potential benefit to the organization is that it helps in reduction of expenditure borne to obtain fertilizer, farm machinery and mineral manures. This is because the soil will remain more fertile and require less fertilization saving cost	Lubbers et al., 2015
Stubble generation	The farmers should practice stubble generation and can use the stubble to generate energy. The organization can save energy costs used to acquire energy from outside entities. The organization can also earn revenue by supplying its surplus energy generated from the stubbles.	Gates, 2015
Crop rotation	Crop rotation has benefits like preservation of soil organic matter, betterment of soil characters and enhancement in the chemical and biological environment of the living organisms dependent on the soil. Crop rotation using various species of crops help in increasing the rate of carbon present in the soil which enhances plant growth.	Liebman, Castellano & Johanns, 2015
Controlled traffic	Controlled traffic helps the soil to regain its fertility and texture lost due to heavy machine works. It benefits the agricultural organizations by improving the soil quality and reducing the expenditure borne to maintain the fertility.	Bennett et al., 2017
Use of perennials in systems	Perennial plants help in saving the fertility of the soil because they bind the soil together and fights soil erosion. The perennial plants like are beneficial to the organization because they produce crops with minimum maintenance costs like fertilizing and tilling. They also benefit the organizations because they can stand harsh weather. The farming organization can exploit these strong plants nondestructively for a long period.	Mårtensson, Fransson & Emilsson, 2016
Stocking rate	Stocking rate refers to the amount of animals that can be allowed to graze on a particular piece of land at a time. The organizations plant various species of crops on which animals can forage instead on foraging on the food crops. The technique is beneficial to the farming organization because it minimize the loss due to animal foraging of food crops and cash crops.	Mårtensson, Fransson & Emilsson, 2016
Managing bio diversity	The benefits of managing diversity refer to the maintaining of local diversity of plants and animals including the micro organisms. The farmers or the agricultural organizations can benefits from the diversity by taking advantage of their impact on each other. For example, the pollinating insects help in pollination of flowers which help in generation of fruits which serves as crops. The burrowing animals like earthworm help in adding minerals to the soil and make it fertile.	Mårtensson, Fransson & Emilsson, 2016
Water budgeting	It helps the organizations by reducing the cost of water used in irrigation and other farming operations like processing of seeds.	Mårtensson, Fransson & Emilsson, 2016

Internal	External
Strength	Opportunities
1. Continuous production yields crops of high productivity. 2. High quality crops find easy acceptability in the market which earns high revenue. 3. The farming products enjoy high reputation in the market. 4. Sustainable production methods like crop rotation techniques, perennial crops and water budgeting help the agricultural organizations save expenditure.	1. The agriculture organizations can apply new scientific methods to improve production. 2. The organizations can strengthen their marketing activities to improve turnover on sales. 3. Sustainable technologies help in reducing costs and can be used in long run cost savings.
Weakness	Threats
1. Production operations find weaknesses like difficulty in finding labour. 2. Farms face challenges like high cost of production. 3. The farming industry organization enjoy low export, marketing and sales opportunities unlike the other industries like manufacturing industries. 4. The sustainable methods are very time consuming and take a lot of time to show results.	1. The rising input costs and diseases increase the cost of operations. 2. Since the agricultural organization have limited access to foreign markets, their scope of marketing is limited to Australian markets and yields limited outcome. 2. The other sectors like FMCG and automobile are far more organized than the agricultural sectors. They can attract more qualified people than the agricultural sector. 3. Natural calamities, weather changes and pest attacks drastically reduce production.

Risk Probability Consequence Risk	Assessment	Actions to Mitigate	Risk	Person	Responsible	Contingency	Plan
Poor pasture growth due to heavy rainfall/ water logging	5 Almost Certain	Major	20 Extreme	Develop grazing plan, monitor pasture utilisation and destock if forecast winter/ spring herbage mass is insufficient for herd.	Manager	Buy in certified feed (Jul – Sep). See Standard Operating Procedure Manual for instructions.	lHigh rainfall events likely during Autumn/Winter. Destock decision to be made by 1.2.12 to capitalise on high beef prices and prevent overgrazing of pasture.
Natural calamities	Almost certain	Major	Extreme	Planting of trees which can break the force of blowing wind and sand storms. The drainage of the farms should be developed which would to capable of carrying water out of the fields and prevent flooding.	Manager/natural calamity officer of the local government	Plant more trees which can stand storms upto certain limit. Use fast growing varieties of seeds which takes less time to grow. Use seeds which can withstand drought and submerging.	Heavy flooding causes high damages.
Drought	Certain	major	Extreme	Forecast dry season	manager	Buy drought resistant variety of seeds	Drought causes loss of productivity due to spoiling of crops in the fields.
Pest attack	Uncertain	Minor	Medium	Development of better pest control in scientific and sustainable ways	Pest control managers	Buy and plant pest resistant seeds	Pests causes loss of crop but can be prevented.

KPI	Monitoring Method	Performance/Results	Modifications Required? If Y, include a description of the proposed changes
Water	Evotranspiration methods(ET) and antiperspirant methods	Both the processes are dependent on other factors like soil type and climate. The results are often inaccurate due to lack of accurate measuring feasibilties	Yes, the method of water measurement should combine use of newly emerging methods like measuring water usage using tools and machineries
Energy	Using measuring methods using ammeter and voltameter	The results can be measured using these methods.	N
Greenhouse gas	Not possible because in a farm it is impossible to tap all areas. However, burning of grasses curbing and allowing perennial plant growth can reduce greenhouse gas emission by increasing oxygen production.	Increase in plant cover will improve greenhouse gas management.	N
Packaging	Maintaining standard packaging methods	Can be measured by checking packages and using steps like batch measurement	N
Solid waste and by-products	Measuring the amount of wastes released	Can be measured.	N
Wastewater	Can be monitored by collecting in a pool	Chemical tests	N
Chemicals	The amount of chemicals can be measured	Chemical tests	N

Question	Response
What financial records do you keep to monitor the financial performance of your business?	Book keeping(journal), Keeping records of vouchers and financial control
How current are these? That is, how often do you update these records (e.g. daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly, annually).	Daily
Are you confident that these records are appropriate for your needs?	Yes
If there are any weaknesses in this area, what steps will you take to resolve them?	More automatic record keeping

References:

Bennett, J. M., Roberton, S. D., Jensen, T. A., Antille, D. L., & Hall, J. (2017). A comparative study of conventional and controlled traffic in irrigated cotton: I. Heavy machinery impact on the soil resource. Soil and Tillage Research, 168, 143-154.

Correa, P., & Schmidt, C. (2014). Public Research Organizations and Agricultural Development in Brazil: How Did Embrapa Get It Right?. World Bank-Economic Premise, 145, 1-10.

Gates, D. E. (2015). Sources of resistance to wheat straw-worm Harmolita grandis (Riley).

Liebman, M. Z., Castellano, M. J., & Johanns, A. M. (2015). Impacts of conventional and diversified rotation systems on crop yields, soil functions and environmental quality: Stage II/Year 2.

Lubbers, I. M., van Groenigen, K. J., Brussaard, L., & van Groenigen, J. W. (2015). Reduced greenhouse gas mitigation potential of no-tillage soils through earthworm activity. Scientific reports, 5.

Mårtensson, L. M., Fransson, A. M., & Emilsson, T. (2016). Exploring the use of edible and evergreen perennials in living wall systems in the Scandinavian climate. Urban Forestry & Urban Greening, 15, 84-88.

Murgue, C., Therond, O., & Leenhardt, D. (2014). Agricultural viability in a water-deficit basin: can participatory modelling and design activities trigger collaboration between water management and agriculture stakeholders?. In 11th European IFSA Symposium: Farming systems facing global challenges: Capacities and strategies. Berlin, Berlin, Germany.

Newbold, T., Hudson, L. N., Hill, S. L., Contu, S., Lysenko, I., Senior, R. A., ... & Day, J. (2015). Global effects of land use on local terrestrial biodiversity. Nature, 520(7545), 45-50.

Nunes, B., Bennett, D., & Júnior, S. M. (2014). Sustainable agricultural production: an investigation in Brazilian semi-arid livestock farms. Journal of Cleaner Production, 64, 414-425.

Peterman, A., Behrman, J. A., & Quisumbing, A. R. (2014). A review of empirical evidence on gender differences in nonland agricultural inputs, technology, and services in developing countries. In Gender in Agriculture (pp. 145-186). Springer Netherlands.

Richardson, J. W., & Bizimana, J. C. (2017). Agricultural Technology Assessment for Smallholder Farms in Developing Countries: An Analysis using a Farm Simulation Model (FARMSIM). Working Paper. Department of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Food Policy Center, Texas A&M University. College Station, Texas. www. afpc. tamu. edu.

Wright, C. K., & Wimberly, M. C. (2013). Recent land use change in the Western Corn Belt threatens grasslands and wetlands. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 110(10), 4134-4139.

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