Sumter native completes farm management 12-day program

Ashlee Hutto of Lee Newman Farms in Sumter recently completed the 2019 Executive Farm Management program.

In this 12-day program, participants focus on all aspects of management needed to successfully manage today's large, commercial, family owned farms across the Southeast. The program is delivered over six weeks in three locations: Savannah, Georgia; Raleigh, North Carolina; and Charleston. EFM is in its second year and is offered by North Carolina State University's College of Agriculture and Life Sciences and its partners: N.C. State Cooperative Extension Service, Poole College of Management, Clemson Cooperative Extension, ECU College of Business and University of Georgia Cooperative Extension.

All participants are put into teams on the first day of the program and work within their teams throughout the duration. The program implements a fictional but fact-based case study to teach all of the management tools emphasized during the program, allowing the opportunity for the participants to practice applying these tools.

The foundational tool of the program is the use of the Business Model Canvas. The BMC provides both a tactile and visual methodology for identifying new value propositions and is an excellent first step in creating new business plans as it forces the user to consider all nine blocks of the tool, which align with the nine essential components of a business plan.

During the program, 28 individual participants representing 21 unique operations and organizations in North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia were exposed to new tools and practices in areas of strategy, innovation, financial management, human resources, labor management, risk management, succession planning, market research, marketing, social media and crisis management and communication.

Additional information can be found at go.ncsu.edu/efm.