Savor the stress

Our green industry is ripe with family-based businesses. Insights and ideas have been passed down through the vines linking one generation to the next. As our businesses mature, and as our next generation of family members begins to do the same, it is a fine time to re-evaluate our present, revisit our past and recommit to the future.

I am fresh from a wonderful tour of a winery in Carroll County, Md. Owned by the Baker family, their method of farming and harvesting is “powered by sweat, not oil” and their “fingerprints are on every vine, every grape and every bottle we painstakingly produce.”

It is indeed a labor of love. Drew Baker, along with his sisters Lisa and Ashli, have created a distinctive experience that separates them from the other wineries in the Mid-Atlantic. They truly get the value proposition of “tell a great story and let the guest experience the entire process of a great wine.” It’s not just the taste of the wine, it’s the flavor of the entire winery. (www.oldwestminster.com)

The customer will seek you out if you have a great story to share. And seek them out they do! Old Westminster Winery is located on an 18-acre farm tucked away in the hills of rural Carroll County, yet they have visitors travel for miles to find them, experience them, and take home their product.

They recently won the 2014 Maryland Governors Award for wine and continue to make a notable name for themselves in the growing market of local vineyards. They could do it cheaper. They could do it faster. They could do it with quality in the back seat. But they choose not to, because they believe there’s a niche market of folks that are like-minded and will seek them out.

Quality farming, quality family and quality faith makes quality fermenting — one barrel at a time. With faith as a compass, passion as the engine, parents (Jay and Ginger) as a foundation, and great wine as an end product, the alignment that you would want for any business in the green industry to thrive and survive is in place. However, it has its challenges. As I learned on my tour, you actually want the vine to be “stressed” to produce a more vibrant and eccentric flavor. And that “stress” is what makes OWW such a success. They welcome the stress! The winery wants the vine to “work” for its survival, not just sit around and wait for nature to do its thing. (I like this metaphor). We can agree that there’s been no shortage of stress over the last few years. We have experienced both famine and feast climates, which have “stressed our vines to the breaking point.”

Separate. Differentiate. Innovate. Exclusive. Experience. Brand. Authentic. These are all the new buzzwords of our industry and are also truisms as I see it. If you don’t like change, you are going to hate extinction! The sooner we get on board and are willing to make the rough choices of talent, the tough decisions of family, and the right calls to change, the better our industry will be as a whole.

Surround yourself with like-minded partners — ask the tough questions and formulate the right answers. Strategy and intention will beat out wait and see every day of the week. Drew Baker said it best. “We surround ourselves with successful folks in our business that share the same values as our winery.” That small sample of fertile ideas can grow to large varieties of distinctive, unique and sought after wines that the new generation of spenders will definitely seek and find. The willingness to do it right, which may actually cost more on the front end, is another key to the family’s cultivating success story. The willingness for the family members to wear different hats and to be equals on the team creates that great experience for the wine enthusiast.

What lessons can we learn from the Bakers that we can be applied to our businesses that will begin the process of future-oriented differentiation and change? It’s OK to “stress.” The tougher the stress, the tastier the success.

Until next time, savor the stress. It will pay dividends down the road.