Rutger Persson has been engaged by AGRA during 18 months ( 1st September  2015- 28th February 2017) as Business Development consultant, in developing the ability of 54 African seed companies to manage their business growth and provide improved seeds to small-scale farmers, in eleven African countries, on a sustainable basis.

Methodology to be deployed would be a combination of personal meetings with the management teams of the beneficiary companies and supplemented with online interactions on a regular basis with the nominated members of the beneficiary companies.

Personal meetings with the beneficiary companies under this assignment would be in two phases

1. Introductory & exploratory with all the companies in the first 22 calendar weeks with a view to establish channels of communications
2. Mentoring and guiding management teams in implementing the proposed improvement plans over rest of the assignment period of about one year.

Under the phase I of interactions, round of meetings with all the companies will focus on understanding and identifying needs, drawing suitable plans for each company in the areas of

a) Strategy and operational matters of the companies, constraints and opportunities as seen by the Management team,

b) Management processes of planning & review, policy formulation, risks management and market response capabilities,

c) Organisation structure, clarity of JDs, performance management system- goal setting, identify training needs of professionals,

d) Supply chain management- quality control measures for achieving consistent standards, inventory management, machinery & equipment and facilities, information systems for effective monitoring of progress,

e) Market planning capabilities, review spread & strengths of product portfolio, Brand building plans,