40 GERMINATION.CA NOVEMBER 2018 SEED HEALTH & TESTING CASE: MY RECIPE FOR TECHNOLOGICAL SUCCESS Sarah Foster President and Senior Seed Analyst, 20/20 Seed Labs @Sarah2020labs • sarah@2020seedlabs.ca • 2020seedlabs.ca OVER THE YEARS, I’ve seen new technologies come and go. Some succeed and become indispensable while others fail. I have learned that successful technologies, especially in the seed space, succeed for four main reasons. It is by clarifying these reasons that we can predict with pretty decent accuracy which ones will fail and which will suc- ceed. This ability to predict technological success can help us be more successful in our businesses. I use the acronym CASE, which stands for: • Confidence: Have you ever purchased a tool or technology that didn’t make you feel more confident or safer in some way? Enough said. • Accuracy: Who in their right mind would invest in something they didn’t think would do the job right? • Speed: We invest in new technology because it helps us conduct business faster. Doing less in more time is not a recipe for success. • Efficiency: This is not the same as speed. Efficiency is the ratio of the useful work performed by a machine to the total energy expended. In other words, if a new tech- nology allows a farmer to produce more crop but requires more inputs (or cuts down on inputs but produces less crop as a result), there’s no point in using it. Efficiency is key. In my business, we have continually reinvested to improve our services, especially in technology. Last year we launched the Spornado, and this year had the pleas- ure of seeing it at over 30 locations across the Prairies. This device will monitor the movement of Fusarium and Sclerotinia spores during the most critical time when seed growers and farmers are needing to know when to apply a fungicide. Placing one Spornado on the farm will enable us to verify whether or not either of these troublesome spores are present within a four to 24-hour period. The Spornado is our best defence (confidence) for monitoring pathogens as quickly as possible (speed) and offers future opportunities for other crops. The turna- round alone saves time and money (efficiency). Applying expensive fungicides at the right time is imperative (accu- racy). And conversely, why use it if no spores have been detected at all? Confidence, accuracy, speed and efficiency (CASE). A recipe for success. SALES COACHING WHY I’M GLAD I’LL NEVER GET OLD Rod Osthus President, RC Thomas @RodOsthus • rod@rcthomas.com • rcthomas.com AT WHAT AGE are you old? At what point do you become obsolete? I’m 68 years old and a 46-year member of the seed industry. When you’re that long in the tooth, I sup- pose it’s easy to be perceived as being past your prime and out of touch with the modern world. But I’m not. I have a strategy that keeps me far ahead of people in this industry who are years my junior. It’s not my 46 years of experience that gives me an advantage. Experience alone decreases relevancy; it doesn’t increase it. What does keep me relevant is com- bining my 46 years of experiences with my strategy of hanging around with people half my age. Young people are truth tellers. They’re bold enough to tell you the truth when people your own age won’t. If you don’t think that’s true, just smile at a youngster when you have broccoli stuck in your teeth. They tell you about it right away, when 99 per cent of adults wouldn’t save you from that embarrassment. I find that young people aren’t afraid to speak up when they think I’m wrong. When I need the help most, they give it to me straight. Young people are far less worried about hurting my feelings than they are of me not getting it right. Young people do some very important things for me. They motivate me to keep my body young by pushing my workouts in the gym. They keep my mind young by pushing me to learn and try new things. And they keep my spirit young by helping me to always maintain a great attitude, so I can positively influence the attitude of one person or an entire room full of people. But the biggest reason I hang out with young people is that it keeps me relevant. People my age focus on the past, decreasing their relevancy for both today and for the future. Many veterans of this industry say they’re glad to be out of the seed business. I say, I’m glad I’m still in it. I can’t wait to get together with my young circle of influencers each day and play this 21st century game of agricultural chess. Young people are the primary moti- vating force in my life. Oh, don’t get me wrong, I’m not against the “old people” my age — I’m just glad I’m not one of them.