Tom

Tom had been farming in the south island of new zealand for eleven years. a mixed operation: cropping, livestock, and a contracting arm that serviced neighbouring properties. sixteen people including seasonal workers. Tom was the knowledge holder for every aspect of the operation. machinery maintenance schedules, contractor relationships, seasonal planning, partner contracts for the contracting arm. nothing was documented.

nothing was transferable. if Tom was unavailable the operation stuttered because the knowledge lived in his head and nowhere else. he had been running this way for eleven years. it had worked because Tom had never stopped.

the contracting arm had a pricing problem Tom was aware of but hadn't acted on. rates for several service types had not been reviewed in three years. input costs (fuel, parts, labour) had moved materially. Tom was delivering services at rates that no longer reflected what it cost him to deliver them. he knew the margin was thin. he hadn't quantified exactly how thin because there was no reporting structure that would show him clearly.

Tom took three weeks away during a non-peak period. the first absence of more than a weekend in eleven years. operations ran. one issue arose and was resolved by the operations lead without contact. Tom came back to a business that had run without him and knew it. the following season the operations lead managed the entire planning cycle independently. contracting arm margin improved from under 8% to 17% on the repriced service types. Tom was working on a land acquisition conversation he had never had the capacity to pursue.

the knowledge was in Tom's head. getting it out was the install. everything else followed from that one structural change. and the margin problem that had been sitting in the contracting arm for three years took one season to fix once someone had the time to look at it properly.