Learn from Ag’s All Stars.
“The most significant benefit of TEPAP is the opportunity to interact, discuss and question other professionals, both faculty and participants, in an atmosphere that encourages frank and candid exchange. It offers one a broad, global perspective that is invaluable to those interested in the future of agriculture.”—Craig Yunker, Elba, NY
Please accept this invitation to join us for The Executive Program for Agricultural Producers (TEPAP) January 5-11, 2020 in Austin Texas. Since its inception, TEPAP has brought together farmers, ranchers, and agribusiness men and women who want to manage their organizations more professionally – from managing opportunities of growth and expansion to issues of transition and succession planning. Class members come to TEPAP from all over the world to meet with faculty comprised of experts in the field of business and academics. Class size is limited to enhance this learning environment that is built on dialogue and discussion, instruction and interaction.
I read an article written by a young man telling of his experience applying for admission to the MBA program at a prestigious university. He made a list of the obvious reasons for pursuing this educational endeavor and listed many of the things you can expect to find at TEPAP: to learn from expert faculty, develop leadership skills, build a professional network, and sharpen business and managerial skills. Generally be more successful.
But he also listed the not so obvious reasons for pursuing this challenge, reasons that have been shared by TEPAP participants for 30 years: to gain an increase in global awareness, to refocus career goals, to fill the needs for lifelong learning, facing and embracing change, to make lifelong friends.
As stated by the founder, Danny Klinefelter, TEPAP is a program built on 7 principles:
- The only truly sustainable competitive advantage is the ability to learn and adapt faster than your competition.
- Strategic management is the ability to anticipate, adapt to, drive and capitalize on change.
- The best organizations spend as much time analyzing what they need to stop doing as they do evaluating new opportunities
- The most successful businesses are learning organization. This means that everyone in the business needs to recognize that someone, somewhere, has a better idea or way of doing things, and they need to be compelled to find it, learn it, adapt it, and continually improve it.
- When the rate of change inside an organization becomes slower than the rate of change outside, its end is in sight. The only question is when?
- The main difference between the top 10 percent and the rest of the top 25 percent is their timing, in terms of when to enter, expand, cut back or exit; whether it’s an investment, a marketing decision or a business activity.
- The future will always belong to those who see the possibilities before they become obvious to the typical producers.
If this sounds like a program that would benefit you, your partners, and your business, I invite you to become part of the TEPAP family. Hope to see you in Austin!
Best regards,
Mark Welch – Program Director
