LJM Associates Ltd

  I was in a discussion a week or so ago when I asked the presenter about the strategy they were proposing and asked them to differentiate between the project outcomes and the project impact. An outcome is the realisation of an intended output from a project - production of a prototype, a report, a presentation. These can all be defined to be SMART (specific, measurable, achievable, relevant and time-bound). An outcome may have a localised effect but may not deliver impact.  Impact is the change you want to see, the adoption of the technology, the recommendations being implemented as a lived experience. An outcome is not the end of the road. An outcome is a staging post on the journey towards impact. This does not mean that an outcome is short term and an impact is long term - the difference is more complex.  Output = the report; Outcome = 50,000 downloads of the report; Impact = 25% of those businesses who downloaded the report adopted the recommendations...

Disruption can come in many forms, a sudden market shift, emerging technologies, global crises, or even internal upheaval in the business you work in or your family life. And while disruption can trigger concern, uncertainty, resistance even fear … it also presents opportunities for leaders who seize the moment and act with courage. Courage isn’t about not being concerned or fearful, it’s about moving forward on your own or with others despite it.  So what does courageous leadership look like when everything around you feels uncertain, different? First, it means embracing transparency. Faced with uncertainty, feeling processes and structures are brittle, then silence and a lack of connection creates anxiety. Courageous leaders speak up and fill the void. They explain what they know, what they don’t know, and what they’re doing to solve the problems.  Second, it means making tough decisions which are anchored in personal and business values. During disruption, the easy reactio...

  Incotec and Croda Agriculture have released a whitepaper on regenerative agriculture. The whitepaper has the title ‘Regenerative Agriculture: How to improve natural ecosystems and increase yields’. The report has been produced with input from top experts in the field. Contributors are Louise Manning, formerly Lincoln University, Sjoerd van der Ent, Koppert, Daniel Glas, Bayer, Gabriel Moura and Claudia Veiga Jardim, Syngenta, Kevin Ashford, UPL Corp, and James Hunt, Croda Agriculture.  There is no universally agreed definition, but most agree that regenerative agriculture should aim to improve soil health, increase biodiversity, minimise chemical use, improve soil water retention, and remove carbon from the atmosphere to store it in soil. The whitepaper offers a comprehensive exploration of a broad array of topics including what RegenAg is and why it matters; how the industry can deliver it; the science, innovations, and technologies driving RegenAg practices; as well as the...

  Last Thursday I spoke at a Conference at Gdansk University on the theme of ‘Food Safety in a BANI - Brittle, Anxious, Non-Linear and Uncomprehensible - World.”  How do we address the multitude of food safety issues and food security issues across the world at a time of such geopolitical uncertainty and conflict? A great discussion

  Thomas Edison is reported to have said that "Being busy does not always mean real work. The object of all work is production or accomplishment and to either of these ends there must be forethought, system planning, intelligence, and honest purpose, as well as perspiration. Seeming to do is not doing."  Time management is something we all try to do, but so often our time is hijacked by other people's agendas. Sometimes we need to change what we planned but how does that make us feel, and if this happens every day every week we can feel more and more out of control? So are there some questions that we can ask of ourselves and others M ission alignment: Does this request align with our personal and organisational mission and long-term goals? - Forethought D efine boundaries and ensure they are communicated effectively: Here is what we are focusing on today, this week, this month and this is why. Does this request/issue align with established priorities? If not can it be pr...

  Are you feeling stressed after wall to wall meetings and commitments, then check out this three minute reflection with the sound of the dawn chorus.

 Really pleased to see that my academic paper "Innovating in an Uncertain World: Understanding the Social, Technical and Systemic Barriers to Farmers Adopting New Technologies" that was published just over a year ago has now been cited 20 times by other academics in their papers.  Seventeen barriers include: those external to the farm (economic conditions, external conditions including bureaucracy, market conditions, weather uncertainty and the narratives about farmers),  those internal to the farm business (farming conditions, employee relations, general finance, technology and time pressures) and  personal factors (living conditions, personal finances, physical health, role conflict, social isolation and social pressure). Many of these barriers influence all businesses not only those related to farming, although working often on your own in isolated locations is particularly important in agriculture. Do check the paper out

  Peter Drucker said that we should, “Follow effective action with quiet reflection. From the quiet reflection will come even more effective action.”  We all need to recharge our personal batteries, but do we do it enough? How often do you retreat?  Retreating in its spiritual or religious sense is about taking time away from everyday life and reflecting and seeking to find answers to the issues or problems that we face.  Retreat, or quiet reflection, as a process helps us with our personal lives, but can also help us in our working lives too. Quiet reflection can give us perspective, clarity, give us space to learn and grow and also help us to be more self-aware. When we have days on the production line, wall-to-wall Teams Meetings, rushing between activities and meetings when do we give ourselves time to reflect? Meetings can be very good to air views and opinions and reach a consensus, but a trap that many organisations fall into is to end up having a meeting to d...

  My first blog The Human Imprint is being closed down by Typepad in a few weeks time. I started it in June 2007. Via the site Lulu , I printed the first two years of thoughts and musings into a personal journal for myself. Although seventeen years have nearly passed, it is great to go back and read the book and see what interested me then as equally as it does today. A journey of a thousand miles begins with one step, one blog post, one conversation.....

I was really pleased to take part in a conversation on adoption of robotics at a Climate Robotics Summit in May 2025. The panel explores in the one hour discussion how robotics is reshaping agriculture and aquaculture, from precision weeding and greenhouse automation to harvest logistics and sustainable food systems. Panelists shared a brilliant conversation on innovations that reduce labor intensity, minimise chemical use, and enhance productivity across diverse farming environments. Do check it out

Ernest Hemingway said "Never confuse movement with action!"  In our personal lives and the organisations we work in we often meet seemingly very busy people, but whilst they are filling their time, are they actually being effective? We may measure our output in terms of the length of our working day, the volume of emails, reports or widgets we produce, but are these good measures of effectiveness or performance for our organisations, departments and teams? What performance indicators are appropriate to our roles and responsibilities or the wider business? We could: D evelop financial measures include return on capital employed, profitability, resource efficiency to determine economic effectiveness R eview actual results and outputs not just activities to determine functional effectiveness; A ssess behavioural change to deliver personal effectiveness;  M onitor supplier, customer and employee satisfaction with performance to determine supply chain level effectiveness A nalyse ...

Today we are hosting a farm walk and social get-together at our farm for NFU (National Farmers Union) members in Herefordshire. I was elected nearly a year ago now to represent Herefordshire farmers on the NFU Council.  It is a time of great challenge, but also great opportunity for farming businesses. Lots to talk about and also time for a relax and a catch-up after a hectic July and August.

Louise Manning has been invited to speak by the SCI on a webinar focused on regenerative agriculture on Wednesday 24th September at 4pm - to find out more details click on the link.

Whether we are considering our personal journey or the strategic journey for our business, it all starts with the mission.. Articulating our mission, the core purpose for our daily, weekly, monthly activities can help us to plan, create goals and objectives, allocate resources and target our decision-making. Our mission is shaped by our values and aspirations. They can be economically or socially focused. Our mission helps us to be seen by others as capable of delivering outcomes in the short and long term; credible, trustworthy and authentic; and consistent in our planning, activities and outputs. When developing our mission we can ask ourselves: Values What values guide us? What values are non-negotiable? What trade-offs are we willing to make? What do we value? Purpose/Impact What impact to we want to make? What does a good outcome look like? What change do we want to see in 5 years, 10, 20? What does it look like when we have achieved our mission? What kind of legacy do we want to ...