A Statement on Purpose
In 2018, the Eagle Rock Ranch celebrates its sesquicentennial – 150 years of continuous existence. The Eagle Rock Ranch currently is one of but a handful of working hay and cattle operations still existing in South Park. Why is that and how did that happen? Is it simply by chance? Are there any lessons that can be gathered from 150 years of continuous operation that can be applied going forward?
We believe that one lesson that can be learned has to do with a clearly-defined purpose of the ranch. An organization’s core purpose is a statement of why it exists. We believe our ranch exists to keep us (as ranchers) in business for multiple generations. Connecting consumers with our product as ranchers is our mission – what we do – but not at all why we exist.
I was recently made aware of a 1960 speech by David Packard, co-founder of Hewlett Packard, who said, “I want to discuss why a company exists in the first place. In other words, why are we here? I think many people assume, wrongly, that a company exists simply to make money. While this is an important result of a company’s existence, we have to go deeper and find the real reasons for our being…. Purpose (which should last at least a hundred years) should not be confused with specific goals or business strategies (which should change many times in 100 years). Whereas you might achieve a goal or complete a strategy, you cannot fulfill a purpose; it’s like a guiding star on the horizon – forever pursued but never reached. Yet although purpose itself does not change, it does inspire change. The very fact that purpose can never be fully realized means that an organization can never stop stimulating change and progress.”
I believe our purpose - why we exist - is to provide an enduring, profitable means for us (as family ranchers together with our production partners) to raise, produce and market cattle in order to stay in business for generations. As a family, we ought to discuss and argue about that. Knowing why we are in business is a critical part of our long-term decision making.
The mission of Eagle Rock Ranch – what we do - is to connect consumers with ourselves (as ranchers) by establishing innovative, respectful, mutually beneficial, and profitable relationships.
Our purpose and our mission are upheld by our core values – which should never change:
1. Long term, mutually beneficial and transparent relationships amongst ourselves, our production partners and our ultimate customers; and
2. Product attributes that are good for our land, our livestock and our family, our employees, and our communities and which are desired by our customers.
Getting our Purpose, Mission and Values right is critically important. If we don’t have them right at some point we’re apt to make wrong decisions. If we do have them right we can forge ahead in an uncertain, unmapped, ever-changing world knowing we have a guiding star on the horizon to direct us and create at least a chance of this enterprise continuing for another 150 years and beyond.
Ultimately, the Eagle Rock Ranch is essentially a grass farm and we are grass farmers. Our climate, our elevation, and our short growing season cannot sustain a viable agricultural operation in the traditional sense of growing crops. This land has always produced grass for ruminants and likely always will so long as we take care of it. The native grasses have evolved over thousands of years of grazing to their present form. Cattle, as ruminants, are thus the best way to take this resource and convert it into a nutritious, usable, salable product. For us, the need to maximize – on a long-term, sustainable basis – the level of healthy grass production on this ranch is Job 1. We simply grow grass eaters.
As a result, our purpose here is to manage grass, livestock and people in a way that is good for the environment, good for the livestock, and good for the people here on this ranch and in our community. If we can do that in a way that (i) sustains the land and water and even improves upon them, (ii) is good for the cattle and treats them with care and respect, and (iii) is good for the people involved in such a way that it gives us all meaning and purpose beyond the day-to-day chores on the ranch – then that’s the “win-win-win” that we’re all after and a purpose that can sustain a ranch for 150 years and more.
Business writer, Jim Collins, writes, “Companies that enjoy enduring success have a core purpose and core values that remain fixed while their strategies and practices endlessly adapt to a changing world. The rare ability to balance continuity and change–requiring a consciously practiced discipline–is closely linked to the ability to develop a vision. Vision provides guidance about what to preserve and what to change.”