A year after independent agronomists joined forces with MNP, Ryan Goodwin, Mike Palmier, and Dean Klippenstine reflect on what changed, the challenges farmers face, and what truly makes a good farm great.
Mike Palmier used to run his own agronomy consulting firm. His worry wasn't for himself, he was well insured, his family would be fine. His worry was that if he got hit by a bus, years of data and insight on every farm he worked with would go back to zero overnight.
A year ago, six independent agronomy businesses, fiercely protective of their independence, joined MNP, Canada's largest private accounting and advisory firm. Dean Klippenstine, Ryan Goodwin, and Mike Palmier join Dan to talk through what actually happened, why a group of agronomists who built their careers on not selling anything decided to merge into a firm with hundreds of agricultural specialists, and what changed and what didn't for the farms they work with.
What's Inside
- Why an agronomist's biggest risk to a client isn't bad advice, it's what happens to the relationship and the data if something happens to the agronomist
- The difference between a merger built to sell more and one built to keep independent advice from dying with the person giving it
- What actually changed for clients day to day, and what stayed exactly the same
- Why one team roughly doubled in a single year, and what that says about where young agronomists want to work
- The uncomfortable question Mike got asked when the merger was announced: why change if things were going well
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