This short video producced by The European Commeission’s DG Entreprise and Industry, narrates a success story about the EU’s Erasmus for Young Entrepreneurs programme.

I’ve transcribed the entire narrative’s audio to text, ending with a link to watch the video where it is hosted online.

The arrangement is one in which a new entrepreneur (a young Agronomist from the University of Catania, in Italy) is able to join the team of a HOST entrepereneur in a relationship where mutual exchange of knowledge, ideas and expertise then happened in a collaborative atmosphere.

I share this video and the narrative it contains with my primarily African Farm CEOs audience, because I believe what it describes is an example worth emulating.

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Tayo Solagbade’s
Performance Improvement IDEAS
(PI Squared) Newsletter

Monday 11th September 2017

NB: This PI Squared newsletter will be published weekly, on Mondays, in place of the Speaking/Web Marketing IDEAS newsletter, starting from today – 15th February 2016. I’m reinventing my Monday newsletter content and theme, to accommodate my vision of serving the growing audience of serious minded individuals and organizations reaching out to me, with information, education. news and research findings designed to help them do what they do better.

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PII 083: [VIDEO/TRANSCRIPT] Proven Model for Building Collaboration between Graduates of Agriculture and Real Life Farm Businesses [The EU’s Erasmus for Young Entrepreneurs programme]

I’ve transcribed the entire narrative’s audio to text, ending with a link to watch the video where it is hosted online.

The arrangement is one in which a new entrepreneur (a young Agronomist from the University of Catania, in Italy) is able to join the team of a HOST entrepereneur in a relationship where mutual exchange of knowledge, ideas and expertise then happened in a collaborative atmosphere.

I share this video and the narrative it contains with my primarily African Farm CEOs audience, because I believe what it describes is an example worth emulating.

So many farm CEOs out here could benefit from insights that others possess.

But I am particularly keen to see a situation in which, as happenes in this EU project, graduates of Agriculture from African universities will possess such depth of understanding and expertise that alresdy existing farm busineses, like the host entrepreneur in this video, will find useful.,

Right now, most of the products from our higher institutions who emegre with qualifications in Agriculture often have little or no industry relevant knowledge, skills or insights to offer!

Even worse, is the fact that most come into the marketplace with a mental attitude in which they only seek jobs where they can earn salaries with as few responsibilities as possible!

But the possible limitations to making this work in Africa – Nigeria especially – are not limited to the students or new entrepreneurs.

The farm businesses out here are also often not setup in a manner that makes them capable of functioning as HOSTS in the manner described in this video.

Indeed, many of them adopt haphazard procedures and are also often bogged down by the infrastructural limitations in their markets, making the owners so stressed that they might not be open to collaborating in this manner.

Having said the above, it could be argued that if they see the potential benefits to be had, and if there is assurance of decent quality of “New” entrepreneurs to be hosted, Farm CEOs out here would be glad to host them.

Another thing that struck me as noteworthy in this video, is the fact that the “young agronomist” already had a clear idea of the value he wanted to add to the agribusiness marketplace.

He had set his sights on starting a business of his own (unlike many who graduate from our universities looking for jobs).

This was no doubt due to the fact that enrollment in the Erasmus program required preparation of a compehensive real world relevant business plan, that won him a place in the program.

My thinking is that we have a lot of work to do to get our own graduates to be ready and able to prepare such business plans and participate in programs like this.

It goes without saying that a policy of some sort may have to be put in place, if government is to make this kind of program happen.

However i believe a variant of it can also be successfully designed and implemented by Privately Run Farmers Organisations in colloboration with private sector companies, donor agencies/NGOS etc.

I’ll be doing a follow up piece based on this theme, in a separate blog post later on.

For now, I share the above thoughts, and the video transcript, to stimulate your thoughts…towards making our Agriculture work better for us.

=Starts=

NEW ENTREPRENEUR: Simone GALATI – Catania, Italia

HOST ENTREPRENEUR: Maria Vlachou | Panagiota Vlachou

Narrator:

Maria & Panagiota Vlachou are sisters. Their company “Fereikos Helix” is based in Korinth.

Simone is a young Agronomist from the University of Catania, in Italy)

What has brought threm together is their common interest in the same economic activity: snail farming.

Simone GALATI – Catania, Italia:

“At Fereijos, I carry out analyses on crops, on agricultural economics, and then I also analyse the snail farming market and the international market. I also work on product promotion and organic certification procedures.”

Narrator:

Fereikos Helix founded in 2007, is specialised nm assiting the setting up of organic snail farming activities. Simone will spend 6 months working at the farms.

Maria Vlachou, Host Entrepreneur, Fereikos Helix

“First of all, Simone is Italian. That is very important for us because both my sister and I, and all the employees in teh business, speak Italian.

Secondly, out business works with the international institutue of snail farming, which is based in Italy.

Thirdly, Simone has studied agricultural economics. He has a solid background and could help our business.”

 

Narrator

Organic farming is enjoying a boom in Europe, and Fereikos’ sales are on the rise. Snail farming is practiced extensively in a natural setting.

Panagiota Vlachou, a translator and interpreter by background. did not originally intend to go into business. But the entrepreneurial spirit caught up with her one day, when she least expected it.

Panagiota Vlachou, Host Entrepreneur, Fereikos Helix

“This idea came about through a joke. Maria was eating snails in Switzerland. and she paid 37 euro for 12 snails. I was impressed by that so, I started doing some research.”

 

Narrator

Today the company provides consulting know how and development support for farmers interested in this activity.

it’s helped more than 140 snail farms set up a busienss. During his traineeship, Simone has the chance to finalize his soil analysis models and develop production models for when he sets up his own company.

Simone GALATI – Catania

“Erasmus for Young Entrepreneurs is definitely important. This collaboration will open new commercial opportunities between my future business and Fereikos, which is a well established business. I am mainly thinking of commercial and promotional opportunities for Sicilian products abroad, throughout the EU.”

Narrator

The host company also has a lot to gain from this programmw. Simone’s expertise in regulations and marketng in the organic sector is a major strength.

Panagiota Vlachou, Host Entrepreneur, Fereikos Helix

“Absolutely. Having Simone in the office helps us to find new and different ways of selling our snails in Italy, but it also improves our research at the European level.”

In order to participate in the Erasmus programme, one has to demonstrate a strong motivation. Simone’s business plan was extremely convincing in this respect.

Simone GALATI – Catania, Italia

“I worked out a Business plan for Erasmus. for the organic farm called ‘Valle delli’Etna. I am planning to set up a teaching farm, incorporartinbg both agricultural and social aspects.The aim will be to promote education about the environment, while producing organic goods and to show others what organic farming is really about. ”

Thanks to this Erasmus for entrepreneurs prgramme, Simone has been fully involved in the activities of Fereikos Helix, including these training sessions for future snail farmers.

Maria Vlachou, Host Entrepreneur, Fereikos Helix

“I think this programme should be promoted more, particulaly in Greece in the midst of its economic crisis. We should be thinking about being outwardly focused. We should not just be thinking on a local level/This programme can help SMEs to grow on the European level.”

Narrator

Taking in a young European entrepreneur is a responsibility, but this Erasmus programme is a real spring board for SMEs, makign them more competitive internationally.

Simone GALATI – Catania

I would recommend it to all young entrepreneurs, because it is a unique opportunuty to grow.

Excel-VB Driven Ration Formulator

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SDN Blog™

New posts from last week*

Monday:

[Wednesday]:

[Thursday]:

Two Part System for Monetizing Your Expertise [PDF Outline and 13 minute Audio Podcast]

[Friday]: 

Protected: [AUDIO PODCAST] African Farm CEOs Need to Think Creatively and Innovate Habitually to Achieve Futuristic Success [Response to comments by a Farm CEO subscriber about my Farm CEO newspaper feature of a futuristic vertical farming concept considered “expensive” by African Farm CEOs to use in Africa]

[Saturday]:

N/A

[Sunday]:

[EXCEL HEAVEN] JOKES: You Need a Break from Spreadsheets? Enjoy this Compilation of Jokes About MS Excel!

[The FARM CEO] JOKES: Enjoy this Compilation of Farm Jokes to Relieve Stress

Tayo K. Solagbade*

Self-Development/Performance Improvement Specialist

*Best Practice Farm Business Support Specialist & Founder of the MS Excel Heaven Visual Basic Automation Club and Competition

Mobile: +234-803-302-1263 (in Nigeria) or +229-66-122-136 (in Benin Republic)

http://www.tayosolagbade.com

Tayo K. Solagbade is a Location Independent Performance Improvement

Specialist and Multipreneur (i.e. a highly versatile/multi-skilled entrepreneur), with a bias for delivering Best Practice solutions to Farm Businesses and others.

Since 2002, he has earned multiple streams of income providing individuals and organizations with personal development training and coaching, custom MS Excel-VB solutions, web marketing systems/web hosting, freelance writing services, and best practice extension support services (for farm business owners).

Tayo is the author of the Self-Development (SD) Bible™ and the popular Livestock Feed Formulation Handbook. He is also the developer of its accompanying Excel-VB driven Ration Formulator™ and the Poultry Farm Manager™ software.

He has delivered talks/papers to audiences in various groups and organizations, including the Centre for Management Development, University of Lagos, Christ Baptist Church, Volunteer Corps, Tantalisers Fast Foods and others.

In May 2012 he was the Guest Speaker at the Centre for Entrepreneurship Development’s Annual Semester Entrepreneurial Lecture at Yaba College of Technology in Lagos.

On 1st April 2013, Tayo (who reads, write and speaks the French language) relocated to Cotonou, Benin Republic to begin slowly traveling across the West African region.

His key purpose is to deliver talks, seminars and workshops on his key areas of focus and interest to interested audiences (Email tayo at tksola dot com for details).

In a previous life, before leaving to become self-employed, Tayo served for seven years (October 1994 to December 2001) as a high performing manager in Guinness Nigeria. He rose from Shift Brewer to Training & Technical Development Manager, and later acted in senior roles as Production Manager and Technical Manager.

In addition to constantly challenging the status quo and influencing positive work changes, he built a reputation for using self-taught spreadsheet programming skills (starting with Lotus 1-2-3, and later moving to Excel Visual Basic) – in his spare time – to develop Automated Spreadsheet Applications to computerize manual report generation processes in the departments he worked. Over four(4) of his applications were adopted for brewery level reporting.

Tayo holds a B.Sc degree in Agricultural Extension Services from the University of Ibadan, Nigeria, having graduated top of his class – with Second Class Upper Division honors – in 1992. He is an Associate Member of the UK Institute & Guild of Brewing, a 1997 National Finalist of the Nigerian Institute of Management’s(NIM) Young Managers’ competition, a Certified Psychometric Test Administrator for Psytech UK, innovator of Spontaneous Coaching for Self-Development™ (SCfS-D™), and Founder of the Self-Development Academy (SDAc).

When he’s not amazing clients with his superhuman skills (wink), Tayo works as the creative force behind his Daily Self-Development Nuggets blog – on which he also publishes The Farm CEO Weekly Newspaper (sent via email to paid subscribers) and his Weekly Performance Improvement IDEAS newsletter.

You can connect with him on Twitter @tksola.com and Facebook.

Visit Tayo Solagbade Dot Com, to download over over 10 performance improvement resources to boost your personal and work related productivity.

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[IMPORTANT NOTE:====

On 4th May 2014, Tayo’s 9 year old domain (Spontaneousdevelopment dot com), which hosted his website, was taken over by Aplus.net.

Within a few days however, Tayo used his advanced self-taught web development skills to build a SUPERIOR “reincarnation” of it the website http://www.tayosolagbade.com.

But updates are still ongoing to URLs bearing the old domain name in most of the over 1,000 web pages, and blog posts he’s published.

If you experience any difficulties finding a page or document, email Tayo at tksola dot com.

Click “Tayo, What Happened to SpontaneousDevelopmentDotCom ?” to read a detailed narrative about how the above event occurred :-))

Here’s an article Tayo wrote, to inspire others to defy adversity, and bounce back to even greater reckoning at what they do EVERY time:

And he wrote the one below, to explain why losing a domain name, no matter how old, NO LONGER determines your online success or otherwise:

A Proven Strategy to Find Profitable Buyers Regardless of Your Domain Name
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