Strategy

Over the past year the Estate management team has been working with the Family and Trustees on our strategy and plans from 2011 to 2021.

Our Mission

To secure the long term prosperity of the Estate and the people who live and workon it in ways which care for the countryside and engage with the wider community

Over the past ten years the Estate has achieved a remarkable amount.  This is measured not just in awards and external recognition but also in the way we do our business and the results we have achieved for the Estate, local communities and the natural and built environment.  We now have a great team and a great business and we need to be clear about our plans for the next ten years.

Our Challenge

“Land management will be at the centre of a debate about demand for food, competing with demand for fuel, carbon management, development, and human health”

Institute for the Future 2007

Without doubt we are living and working in exciting times and rural estates have a critical role to play in delivering a wide range of society’s goals over the coming years.  We face some difficult choices but this is nothing new.  It is our aim that by 2021:

We will have an Estate with sufficient liquidity and flexibility to maximise advantage from future opportunities and circumstances.  We will be able to maintain core assets and finance on-going capital investments.  We will have exemplary environmental and social credentials and be seen to look after and manage our people to some of the highest standards in the world

Our Principles

We continue with our five principles of how we approach our work:

The above principles will underpin how we approach all our work and run our business.

Across the Estate we will be focussing on five key agendas which will form the basis of our scorecard objectives:

·       Investing in competitive agriculturaland forestry operations

·       Growing and supporting land based and rural businesses

·       Trialling land energy and renewables

·       Planning and executing appropriate residential and commercial development

·       Delivering a more sustainable model for the East Devon Pebblebed Heaths

Our Values

We are a family business and our values reflect this.  In all our business dealings everyone should be open, honest and supportive.  We think long term and we should ensure that we always aim to do a professional and quality job. In working with local communities we should always show mutual respect and listen to other’s views.

The Estate recognises that it is a family business and strives to adopt best practice in the area of family business, strategy development and execution.  With this in mind we work closely with the IMD Family Business faculty in Lausanne, Switzerland www.imd.ch/fbc and Warwick Insight Management Consultants www.warwick-i.co.uk