Like other people my age, I tend to hang on to comfortable things for too long. I was reminded of this fact recently regarding a favorite piece of clothing.
Being in trade journalism for more than 20 years, I’ve collected quite a few logo shirts, hats, and backpacks. Most of these I wear a few times and donate to a favorite charity. However, on occasion, I find an item that I really enjoy. This I will wear for years because the fit is just so perfect or the color looks good on me.
But it’s possible to get too comfortable, never changing your ways. The other day, I was wearing something I picked up at the 1997 Dr. Pepper Bottlers Meeting. A newer co-worker noticed the date on my shirt and her jaw visibly dropped.
“Oh my God,” she said. “That shirt is 13 years old!”
The message was clear. While comfortable, my shirt was better than 10 years out of fashion. Since that day, it has remained out of my wardrobe, replaced by newer, more in-style offerings.
The reason I’m bringing up this fashion forepaw is the lesson I believe agriculture can take away from it. Back during the good times of the mid-2000s, ag retailers I regularly spoke with always had their comfortable ways of planning for the season ahead. Of course, these strategies for many came crashing down during the high priced inventory/inactivity of application work among growers that took place in The Great Recession of late 2008 and 2009. During those years, many ag retailers told me they were throwing out their old ways of doing things and “changing their shirts,” so to speak, to avoid any future market problems.
Now, flash forward to 2010. So far, this spring season has been exceptional. The weather has been cooperative, crops are being planted in large percentages, and everyone seems happily busy. Not surprisingly, I’ve heard some ag retailers say that this year is “just like 2007,” giving hints that they may be ready to pull their old comfortable business practices out of the closet as a result.
I sincerely hope I’m wrong feeling this. The best way for agriculture to keep from having another 2009-like “wardrobe malfunction” is to not go back to same old ways of operating. As the facts clearly show, this is a different world than before. It’s time for everyone in the industry to throw away their old ways of doing things and get comfortable with the brand new look they developed the past two years.
