Andrew Burton
January 2024
INSIGHTS FOR NAVIGATING THE NEW YEAR.
GARDEN CENTRE AND FARM SHOP CONSULTANT ANDREW BURTON SHARES VALUABLE INSIGHTS ON EFFECTIVE PLANNING FOR 2024.
I can’t talk about planning ahead without getting straight to the point: Failing to plan is planning to fail! It is an age-old saying, but one that continues to ring true in so many situations and environments. Strategic planning is an essential part of my job, whether focusing on operational strategy, or longer-term site development, I work with garden centre owners across the UK to create development plans for the future. Anyone who knows me knows I am an advocate of the five P's: proper planning prevents poor performance. But I can’t understate the importance of futureproofing yourself and your business.
Planning ahead doesn’t come easily to everyone – sometimes due to time restraints or higher priorities, or because of team size and skillset – however, as a leader of your business, failing to consider your vision and strategy will often come back to bite you. Planning ahead can be done verbally, written or through design, and can be a solo job or one undertaken by a team – and as is the case with the businesses I support – can include external resource. But ultimately, whatever format the thought process takes, a business without a plan and without goals in place is likely to struggle.
How can you plan if you don’t know the future?
I was recently asked: “What is going to happen in 2024?” We all have our own thoughts and views of the coming year, and data analysis and history can help when considering the future, but ultimately who knows what is going to happen?
I attended the 2023 Horticulture Trade Association Conference, where multiple international prize-winning economist Dr Tim Leunig, director at Public First Consulting, referenced Brexit, covid and the Russia-Ukrainian War, highlighting that many unforeseen global events happen and cannot be controlled, essentially affecting the economy and businesses worldwide.
The question I ask is, “what can you plan for?”
These are my four key considerations for 2024:
1) Team development
The most valuable resource any business has is its people. They are the life blood of our garden centres and their passion, commitment and care is often what sets them apart from other retail outlets. However, retention and recruitment of key staff and future leaders isn’t easy. Yes, money has an effect on who you can recruit and why staff join you. As a generation, we want more than financial rewards. We seek ongoing development and support, more reasons to work at a specific site than a competitor, to be treated individually and personally, and the assurance that the company we work for aligns with our values. Having a vision for recruitment, alongside a strategic plan to deliver it, could be the reason someone wants to join, and without a strong team of committed individuals you are at risk of potentially losing your best staff to competitors.
2) Be ready for changing customer needs
The world is changing and our customer expectations are changing with it. As
technology changes, so do customers habits – for example the technology deployed by McDonalds restaurants, whereby food is ordered via an app or on-screen ordering
systems. Customers now expect this instant ordering system.
This technology has rolled out to many other businesses with self-service checkouts and click-and-collect areas being commonplace. Other developments help internal processes within a business, such as stock management systems which support staff productivity and delivery of objectives.
My advice is to never to assume you know what your customers want, but do keep on top of the changing world. Keep yourself and the business informed; work with a mix of people with different views; understand your customers (external and internal); and be open to doing something that is right for both the business and the team.
3) Identify immediate opportunities within your business
Always start by understanding what success looks like for your business. Often referred to as ‘low hanging fruit’, immediate opportunities may include things that can be altered within your team, such as process development and customer service standards. Or perhaps opportunities lie in your shop floor flow and layout, or in the customer proposition. I feel lucky to be able to work with garden centres and farm shops to identify specific opportunities and help them to create a vision for the future. Sometime a spark such as a small development can light a larger fire!
I have recently worked on a couple of projects where in both cases, the garden centres required food hall design work. This included a range of aspects such as staff requirements, product ranging, layout and design. However, when I was working with the owners to review one of the sites and commercial reports, it was clear that their opportunity was wider in scale than food retail, and we identified subsequent opportunities to increase turnover in a mix of departments. In the other case, the site had the opportunity to move other retail departments around to maximise product adjacencies, improve and increase footfall through impulse products, and to create a stronger design which was more appealing and complementary of their product range. This needed to be done without undermining its existing brand and with capital investment in mind. To deliver this kind of vision, it takes commercial planning, design planning, timeline planning and planning how to communicate to the team and customers.
4) Be SMART
Any strategy and business objective being implemented by a business should be SMART: specific (standards), measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound. Defining these parameters as they pertain to your goal helps ensure that objectives are attainable within a certain time frame. However, as things develop, it is important to be flexible and to revisit and review – it is important not to lose sight of your aims but identifying ‘measure points’ to review progress of objectives is essential. In short, always be SMART!
Are you ready for the future?
Who knows if anyone is ready for future. But to stay ahead and be as ready as you can be, start planning. Next year may bring more unknown, so focus on what you can influence, what definitely needs planning for, and then commit to it.
About Andrew Burton
Andrew works for Pleydell Smithyman as an associate director, focusing on garden centre and farm shop advice, with an overarching aim of business strategy and development. He provides site development and commercial & operational support. He sits on the Farm Retail Association Council, and previously on the Garden Centre Association Board.