Success/Failure Analysis
Understanding the factors behind the success or failure of a value-added agricultural business is important. The difference between success and failure has more than financial implications. It can also have a substantial psychological impact on its founders, members and investors. So understanding the reasons for success or failure can be of great benefit to anyone involved in starting and operating a value-added business.
The reasons why some value-added businesses succeed and others fail are numerous and varied. However, it is possible to identify some of the common reasons why businesses succeed or fail.
Farmer-owned Processing Business Success Factors provides the results of a thorough investigation into common success factors for several agricultural processing businesses.
A personal reflection of experiences by a university value-added specialist is outlined in What I’ve Learned about Value Added Agriculture.
Romance vs. reality: Hard lessons learned in a grass-fed beef marketing cooperative provides useful insights into the pitfalls and opportunities of a direct marketing specialty beef venture.
For more information on this topic, see the links listed below of articles posted on related Web sites.
Success/Failure
- Keys to Success in Value-Added Agriculture – Southern Sustainable Agriculture Working Group and ATTRA – Describes success factors for value-added business ventures.
- Success Factors for Organizing and Operating New Agribusiness or for Entering into Joint Ventures – Western Illinois University – Three essentials for a successful business.
- Success Factors for New Generation Cooperatives – Oklahoma State University Extension -- This fact sheet reports how managers of New Generation Cooperatives rate factors influencing the success of New Generation Cooperatives.
- Keys to Success in Value-added Agriculture – National Sustainable Agriculture Information Service -- Important lessons they learned in adding value to their farm products and marketing directly to consumers.
- What Business Winners Do Right, Where Business Losers Go Wrong – University of Florida Extension -- A logical strategy for improving business performance would involve avoiding the characteristics of business losers while emulating the characteristics of business winners.
- Strengthening Agricultural Cooperatives: An Inquiry into Expert Beliefs – Center for Cooperatives, University of California -- Report on factors believed by experts to be important to the success of cooperatives. Includes a survey of cooperative experts to assess their beliefs about selected characteristics affecting success and failure of cooperatives.
- Positioning California's Agricultural Cooperatives for the Future – University of California – Although cooperative principles can constrain cooperatives, various cooperatives have implemented innovative structures to ensure their viability.
- Top Ten Reasons Small Businesses Fail – AllBusiness -- About half of all small businesses fail within the first four years.
Business Examples
- The Bankruptcy of Tri Valley Growers: What Went Wrong and What Can We Learn From It? – University of California – Many questions have been raised regarding the demise of California leading food-processing cooperatives. A recent study provides some answers.
- Lessons from a Failed Cooperative: The Rice Growers Association Experience – University of California -- Identifies causes of the cooperatives closure and provides viewpoints on difficulties other Californian cooperatives may face.
