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Business plans reaps rewards

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Bob GarnantCountryman
Borden farmer Paul O'Meehan has a teamwork ethic with his staff.
Camera IconBorden farmer Paul O'Meehan has a teamwork ethic with his staff. Credit: Countryman

A Great Southern farmer has found success in developing a productive vision for his business by enabling a team strategy with staff members.

Borden farmer Paul O’Meehan, who crops 11,300ha and has an accredited 5000-head feedlot, requires eight dependable full-time staff with an additional six part-time people at various peak times.

Mr O’Meehan presented his staff-influenced business vision to visitors at the Harvey Beef Gate 2 Plate Challenge field day last Tuesday in Albany.

“I cannot imagine doing business without human resource management,” he said. “At A. O’Meehan & Co we operate as a team, working together to achieve outstanding results.”

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Mr O’Meehan employed the services of CEO Institute of WA director Steve Stanley in 2009 to help develop a vision and a set of values for his business.

“This involved our staff having 100 per cent ownership of this procedure and outcome,” he said.

“The staff were given 50 questions, sourced from Steve’s experience with this procedure, and they were asked to pick 12 that were appropriate to our business.

“This became the template for our vision.” Mr O’Meehan said the team values were defined by four essential components: communication; work ethic and effort; teamwork; and openness.

“At our work meetings, as a team we list all the positives and negatives of the workplace and discuss ideas on how to improve,” he said. “Five years ago, we started inviting our key stakeholders to these meetings, to be part of the business development plan.”

Mr O’Meehan said staff self-improvement at A. O’Meehan & Co was through evaluation sessions where employees evaluated each other and their management peers to identify constructive change.

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