Get Entrepreneurial, Cranfield School Urges UK Farmers

Last Updated Jan 14, 2016 by Sarah Beckham

A tractor on a farm near Cranfield school

A new report out of Cranfield School of Management urges farmers in the UK to become more entrepreneurial.

“It is clear that farmers need to aspire to be successful business people like Sir Richard Branson or Lord Alan Sugar,” the Cranfield School’s Dr. Muhammad Azam Roomi, one of the co-authors of the report, said in a press release from the school. (Sugar is a business tycoon and host of the UK edition of “The Apprentice.”) “Even those who don’t see themselves like that at all could learn to become more entrepreneurial.”

Researchers found that the struggling agriculture sector is not as entrepreneurial as other industries in the UK. To shift their mindset, the report recommends that farmers network with other business people, experiment with new ideas and better utilize farm resources.

“Farms are remarkably strong places from which to develop entrepreneurial businesses,” said study co-author Graham Redman, an agricultural consultant at The Andersons Centre. “They have valuable resources, most of which have been relatively inefficiently deployed, and often have a strong capital base. Of fundamental importance for successful entrepreneurialism on farm, is that the business must remain true to its agricultural roots, and respects the land and ‘home farm’ as their golden goose which lays the golden egg of entrepreneurialism.”

The report was a partnership between the Cranfield School’s Bettany Centre for Entrepreneurship and The Andersons Centre. It was commissioned by the Oxford Farming Conference and sponsored by the law firm Burges Salmon.

According to the press release, “Agrifood has been a key strategic theme at Cranfield University for over 40 years.”