In the light of the challenges brought about by climate change, society is focusing its attention on the agricultural sector. Difficult questions are put forward to input suppliers and farmers regarding sustainable goals and practices. These questions are taking on urgency as the implications of climate change become more severe and disruptive technologies transform industries.
The increasing demand for safe and sustainably produced food makes it necessary for the agricultural sector to review and broaden its practices and business models. To remain relevant during these times, input suppliers need to clearly articulate their plans for making a profit on the one hand and how they are ensuring that they do so in a way that does not cause damage to people or the environment on the other.
Open and honest communication is key for any organization to be successful. With this in mind, I reached out to Afrikelp™ MD, Dr Nicole Hart with some challenging questions regarding Afrikelp’s business purpose and how the company is planning to achieve those goals.
Q: Tell me more about the business purpose of Afrikelp™?
A: At Afrikelp™, our purpose is to nurture growth that enables the sustainability of our people, our partners, our products, our performance, and our planet. Businesses that focus on growth targets that are not linked with sustainability objectives are not going to be viable in the future. Our purpose provides us with a focused strategic framework for long-term value creation and improvements across multiple parts of our business, stakeholders and the environment.
Q: What does a business purpose mean to you running a company?
A: Our business purpose articulates why we exist, what problems we have to solve, and who we want to be – it defines how we spend our time, our character and our image. We have aligned our business growth objectives with the goal of promoting global wellbeing. Our business purpose is our soul and identity and provides a platform to build on and acts as a mirror to track our progress. I am personally so passionate about sustainability. Having this personal alignment with the company I am part of is extremely rewarding and is a great recipe for performance that is bigger than one person or one business.
Q: The more businesses talk about business purpose, the higher the risk that it will become just another corporate buzzword. How do you ensure that you walk the talk?
A: Purpose and sustainability are great examples of buzzwords at the moment. If companies are using words to sound good but have no evidence of measurable performance to match the words that they are using, then very quickly their message falls on deaf ears. However, if a company is actually contributing to shifting minds and changing the way they do things because they believe that is the right thing to do, then the impact and results will speak for themselves. If a company is really committed to delivering its message, then it doesn’t matter which words are chosen to describe its reason for being nor the reasons for action.
Everything a business achieves can often be directly related to its people. Having like-minded individuals, whose personal beliefs match those of the company, is essential for success and achieving the business purpose. Companies need to develop people, recruit for alignment, and impose standards on suppliers and customers to align with their purpose to have the largest impact. They also need to be brave enough to call out opportunities for improvement first internally and then also with all partners and communities in the value chain. To really ensure we walk the talk as you mentioned, we have had the courage to open ourselves up for internal and external scrutiny and are collaborating with sustainability experts to put measures in place to make sure that our progress is measurable and impactful.
Q: What is most important to your organization – your business purpose, mission, vision, or values?
A: Everything flows from purpose but without the mission and vision the desired results may not materialise and the purpose is just hope. For this reason, I believe that all three must work hand in hand for any real value to be achieved Clear goals, accountability and measures need to be put in place to ensure success.
Q: Where do the customers’ needs fit into your business purpose?
A: Our customers are our partners and part of our purpose is to assist them in their growth. No one pillar is more important than another. If we do not address our customers’ needs and add value to their strategies, we will stunt our own growth. Their growth is fundamental to our growth and our business decisions need to keep the full value chain in mind. We focus on delighting our customers and meeting deliverables with clear account management plans and ensure that we resource the business to try to anticipate their future needs. Our customers need to remain relevant for us and their success is intricately linked to ours.
Q: How do you aim to achieve your purpose of nurturing growth?
A: Afrikelp™ in some form or other, has been growing in the manufacturing of liquid seaweed biostimulants for the past 50 years. Our key products are actually growth stimulants for crops. In a strategic session facilitated by purpose expert Pepe Marais, the growth of our people also came through very strong. Growth is not new to Afrikelp™, but the definition of the five pillars of our business and how we put in goals and measurables across the business to achieve our future growth, whilst at the same time improving sustainability, provided a new framework to help us achieve our purpose.
The plan we have now takes input from our history and dreams for our future and sets out a detailed roadmap with key initiatives, milestones, accountability and measurables to keep us on track.
Q: Apart from environmental and sustainable goals, what are your other business goals?
We are seriously committed to developing our staff and uplifting the communities in which we operate. In addition to this, we want to bring more science into our offering. Growth in the past came from the amazing experiences farmers have with our products, but to remain competitive we need to better understand how our products are able to add so much value. The science on all the potential benefits of seaweed in agriculture is in its infancy.
I am excited to see where this will lead us in the future.
*Magda du Toit in open discussion with Dr Nicole Hart, Managing Director of Afrikelp
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