The EBI attitude is about
keeping people happy

Ten years ago, Eastern Breeders Inc. was a farmer owned co-operative struggling to survive. The big money maker at its artificial insemination unit in Kemptville, Prelude, had come up with a bad report card and the unit began swimming in red ink.

What happened over the next five years was remarkable. The cooperative brought in a number cruncher who cut every inch of fat. It joined the Semex Alliance, which gave it a world-wide marketing thrust. As important, it began to mold the company, struggling in a highly competitive world market, into a corporate culture that would not only breed high quality bulls but teamwork based on aggressively meeting its clients needs.

The EBI attitude is reflected in everyone from General Manager, Anne Louise Carson, to the bull and property manager, Ron Stewart, to the people who service farmers in the counties.

Not surprisingly, the EBI attitude to business and success was reflected in the motivational speaker it brought into its annual meeting. Peter Giroux is a big man, perhaps 250 pounds. He waves a fistful of American dollar bills in front of his audience. "I’ll give anyone a dollar who can name a major change in farming," he challenges.

The audience responds, any answer is good enough for Giroux and he peels off the dollar bills and gives them to members of the audience.

When a member of the audience disagrees, he says: "Here’s two dollars." It’s all good fun. "People like to work in a place that’s fun," he says.

Then he gets down to the nitty gritty, proffering advice not only to be incorporated by Eastern Breeders but helpful advice for all farm businesses and agri-businesses. Focus on what you can control, he tells the audience, and choose your attitude.

There’s one word that’s key to adjusting, he says: willingness. "How willing are you to change your attitude?" he asks.

He says people have four basic needs. They need to be understood, feel comfortable, important and welcome.

"Those are the things your customers and employees are looking for," he says. Companies lose employees or customers because of an employer’s indifferent or negative attitude. Nine per cent of employees leave because of compensation and 14 per cent because of job dissatisfaction, but a whopping 68 per cent leave because the people at work are not fun to be around.

An employer can choose to make the work or product interesting and fun, he says. An employer needs to ask three questions: Can I be trusted? Am I committed? Do I care about the customer and employee?

The answer to those questions comes with three rules:

1. Do the right thing.

2. Do the best you can with what you have.

3. Treat others the way you want to be treated.