Posted by Heather Walker on Fri, Jan 25, 2008 @ 01:18 PM
Soon we are expecting an update from Jonathan comparing working with Clever Ducks to growing up on a chicken ranch. I have so much respect for any farmer or rancher - they have the original 24/7 job. It makes any long hours in IT pale in comparison. Here's what Jonathan has to say:
There are an array of similarities and differences between Clever Ducks and my family’s ranch, but I’m only going to highlight a couple of those. Though it may surprise many people, both companies actually involve a high level of technology. At Cleverducks the use of technology is more obvious since computers are everywhere and the company purpose is to implement technology for other companies. In contrast, the technology that it is used on my family’s chicken ranch is much more concealed, but it is extremely important to the operation and success of the company. My family’s ranch has actually been an innovator and early adopter in this area. Our egg machine, which is able to magnetically tag eggs and keep track of them as they go through the process of being cleaned and packaged, was imported from Holland and is the first of its kind in the US. My family’s ranch was the first to use and helped develop a distribution software package from a company that now does a billion in sales every year. I am always impressed at how technology has become such a vital tool that can benefit such a huge array of businesses.
I would say that one of the major differences between the two companies is the workforce. At Clever Ducks, not only are there significantly fewer employees, everyone is highly skilled and aside from some of the service calls, most of the work is done indoors. At the ranch, while there is an office where 8 people reside full time taking care of calls, orders, and the like, the majority of our workforce is unskilled labor working out on the ranch doing maintenance, gathering eggs, and taking care of whatever is necessary to keep the ranch running properly. Though there is certainly a dichotomy between Clever Ducks and my family’s ranch, what does shine through is the quality of the employees in both companies. Everyone at Clever Ducks works hard to give 100% and support the goals of the company and the same is true on the chicken ranch. Everyone on the ranch works hard to get the job done no matter what that job may be.