114 / SEEDWORLD.COM DECEMBER 2017 ing and confined field trials; efficacy; environmental fate; and herbicide resistance testing. Although she finds herself in charge of running the sizeable ship that is Ag-Quest, her role as leader has come after a lot of hard work and effort to effectively take the reins from her father and prove to herself that she could succeed him. She started work there in 2009 as director of plant genetic services after finishing a bachelor’s degree in agriculture (plant systems) from the University of Manitoba and a master’s in molecular biology at the University of Calgary. After a stint with Dow AgroSciences running field trials, she decided to come home to work in the family business. “Honestly, I didn’t know how far my vision went at the time, but here I am many years later and I’ve taken over one of my family’s businesses. The two degrees I do have are a huge asset, but I’m still hoping to do my business degree eventually. It’s a bit surreal when I really sit back and think about it,” she says. “My whole family has been hugely supportive, especially my mom — she’s always been very active in the research business, doing all the accounting for both Ag-Quest and the farm. She was the primary combine operator for a long time. You might say she’s always been one of the hardest workers around here.” Maxwell and Rourke are now co-owners of Ag-Quest (Rourke has retained some shares so there would be flexibility to bring others into the business if Maxwell wanted/needed partners), and theirs is a story of how well the succession planning process can work. “Succession planning has been talked about for a decade or more now. It’s gone from being a buzzword to a concrete concept that offers people an opportunity to understand what it really means and the steps involved,” says John Guthrie, business adviser at MNP in Brandon, Man. He worked with Rourke and Maxwell to craft their succession plan, helping them look at several different ownership structures, management models and payment structures before finally settling on their current model, recognizing that it may need to change in the future at some point. “There’s a lot of confusion out there as to what succession means, and that’s because there are so many components to it,” Guthrie adds. Having been through the process, Rourke and Maxwell are able to offer some solid advice for others looking to wade through the waters of succession planning. Know What You Want It might seem like common sense, but having a clear goal is essential. Maxwell says that fairness across the family was a major consideration in how they structured things, and getting those basic questions dealt with was a major priority. “Valuation of the company was an incredible challenge. There are no comparison metrics, like there would be for selling a res- taurant or a farm or an agri-retail outlet,” Maxwell says. “What is a fair multiple of EBITDA (earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization) for a market value? If you approach it as the value of physical assets, what is the value of a mid-80s Wintersteiger combine? How do you value the goodwill of your client list? I would say that the valuation was our second biggest challenge, after coming up with the right man- agement model.” Get Out Now, or Get Out Later? If you’re a business owner looking to retire or get out of the business to pursue something else, you have to decide early on whether you want to sell and be done with it, or engage in the long-term process of guiding the business as you carefully pass it on. Selling it quickly may not pay off as much as you think, Maxwell adds. “If you just want to walk away and be free, you won’t get as much for the business you’ve spent a long time building. This process can have very long payout, and that takes patience. I’m my dad’s retirement plan, in a way. He’s not sitting around wait- ing for his pension to pay out.” Choosing to take the longer road to succession planning can be more fulfilling and lucrative, but comes with its own chal- lenges as well. Having two people running a business that used to be overseen by one person can lead to some disagreements, Guthrie says, so it’s important to have a formal plan in place. “You look at Dana and David’s situation — under what terms is she going to make decisions? How will David make decisions? Those were questions they had to ask themselves, and I think that’s the foundation of their success to this point — the fact they John Guthrie is a business adviser at MNP in Brandon, Man. and specializes in the area of succession planning.