It’s part of our core values that the solutions we provide to our clients have to be grounded not just in science, but they have to be grounded in practice. We go and look at the pigs, we go and look at the barns, we talk to the people who are actually taking care of the pigs. We understand the problems at that level. So then we can bring to bear all the resources we have within our company to provide a holistic solution that is working on a problem that is well-understood. That to me, when you’re talking about optimizing a system, that is one of the key components — it goes back to my days in graduate school, careful definition of the problem statement, careful definition of the objective. And when you can do that because you know exactly what’s happening, you can come to solutions that do truly connect the right dots and optimize the system. Let’s shift gears to leadership and vision. So, as the CEO, Beau, what’s your vision for the future at Carthage, and how do you inspire and lead your team to achieve these goals? It’s a great question, Jim. People development is one of my favorite things to talk about. My vision for Carthage in the future is that we continue to innovate while remaining grounded in those practical realities of what the producer faces. We have to bring solutions and we have to be thoughtful leaders for our clients. And we have to do that also in the context of what is becoming a global industry. Our business has evolved immensely over the last 40 years, starting out as essentially a one- or a two-man swine veterinary practice back in the early 1980s to what it is today, where we really offer just about every service that a producer could need. That’s something that as we think about the future, we’re going to continue to not only improve the services we have, but look for what is next. What is the next thing that producers are going to require, and that we should develop a competency to bring it to them? The way that we execute that vision is through the people. When you think about inspiring people, my job is to really continue to paint that vision. But more importantly, it’s to help them understand the purpose behind the vision. When people understand purpose, it makes it really easy to get inspired. We’re extremely fortunate here to have an incredible group of people at Carthage Veterinary Service. I think we have one of the best teams in the industry, and we just have a lot of strong leaders as well.
WE’VE ALWAYS BEEN SO FAR BEHIND (AS AN INDUSTRY) ON WHEN WE’VE ACTUALLY BEEN ABLE TO SEE THE DATA AND KNOW WHAT HAPPENED. BUT WITH THE ADVANCES IN TECHNOLOGY, THE EXPANSION OF THE TALENT POOL AND DATA SCIENCE, I THINK (PREDICTIVE DATA ANALYTICS IS) A WIDE OPEN FRONTIER. On continuing to provide innovative solutions to clients
The outcomes of the strategies we put in place within those different areas are extremely dependent upon how the other ones are put together and being executed. And so that’s something we put a lot of emphasis on and we dedicate time to making sure that the people within those disciplines in our business are communicating, and are going to the farm together. That’s probably one of the — you know, if you want to talk about a secret sauce and all of it, again, I’ll go back to the veterinarian and the nutritionist. They’ve historically had a strained relationship in the industry. But when you get the veterinarian and the nutritionist on the farm looking at the problems together, the solutions that they come up with are exponentially better than what they would’ve done on their own.
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