Wednesday, December 17, 2008

Business - Green Industry Risk Management (Business Management) Guide

When you hear the term risk management, most business persons think about insurance. However, the term risk management has been broadened over the years from an educational perspective to encompass most of the areas we used to call just plain business management. It includes aspects of production, marketing, financial management, human resources management (labor, management), legal issues, and environmental concerns along with traditional risk management with insurance. There is a great guide on business/risk management for the green industry aimed at greenhouse and nursery businesses but with sections that could easily apply to other green industry professionals. It is available for download from the National Crop Insurance Services. The following is more information.

Green Industry Risk Management Guide
PUBLICATION OF NATIONAL CROP INSURANCE SERVICES

Contents:

Size and Structure of the Green Industry

2 U.S. Green Industry’s Economic Contributions
7 Mega Trends in the Green Industry

Overview of Risk Management Principles

10 Risk Overview
14 Risk Attitudes of Nursery Growers and Allied Professionals
17 Risk Management for Greenhouse and Nursery Growers
20 Record-Keeping: Essential to Risk Management
22 Business Planning for Nursery Managers: Charting a Course Toward Profitability

Production Risks and Responses

28 Production Risk
31 The Pros and Cons of Diversifying the Nursery Business
34 Pot-in-Pot Nursery Production: In-Ground and Above-Ground Systems

Risk Management Through Crop Insurance

36 Why Should I Buy Crop Insurance?
38 Nursery Insurance
41 Adjusted Gross Revenue Lite Insurance (AGR-Lite)
44 Selecting the Right Crop Insurance Agent

Marketing Risks and Responses

46 Marketing Risk
49 New Conditions of Sale Add to Nursery Growers’ Risk Profile
51 Eco-Friendly Diversification Strategies
54 The Basics of Pricing for Nursery and Greenhouse Firms
58 So What is the Best Retail Price?
61 Retaining Customers for Greater Sales and Profits

Financial Risks and Responses

63 Financial Risk
66 Analyzing Financial Statements for Better Management in Horticultural Businesses
69 Benchmarking Your Way to Success!
71 Handling Risk with Enterprise Budgets for Ornamental Plants

Human Resource Risks and Responses

74 Human Resource Risk
77 Labor Risk Management: How to Find and Retain Farm Labor?
78 Complying with Equal Employment Legislation
82 Selecting and Managing Agricultural Labor

Legal and Environmental Risks and Responses

85 Legal Risk
87 Legal Issues for Greenhouse Growers
90 Managing Legal Risks in Agriculture Production: Immigration and Migrant Labor Issues
93 Optimizing Pesticide Performance in Nursery Production

Authors include noted University experts who work with the green industry.

This guide can be downloaded at: http://www.ag-risk.org/NCISPUBS/Training/NCIS08GreenGuide.pdf

The guide can also be downloaded at: http://ellisonchair.tamu.edu/media/risk_guide.pdf
Be forewarned that it takes a long time to download, even with high speed Internet access.

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