8. How to Succeed in the Era of Studio Agriculture?
Studio Agriculture Will Reward Fat (and not Lean) Produce Supply Chains disproportionately. Can you keep aside Goldratt's books (for now) and gain fat reserves?
Few weeks back, I wrote about the post-pandemic era of Studio Agriculture. I received fascinating responses from various readers across the world. I had follow-up conversations with a few agritech founders who shared how they are building studio systems in their respective produce supply chains.
The common thread in these conversations is an under-appreciated point that gets sorely missed in today’s conversations about collapsing, fragile supply chains: The importance of Fat Supply Chains (as opposed to being lean)
When Nassim Nicholas Taleb angrily tweets about it, you know that very few are getting it. Here is Nassim in his incisive self showing (from his old New Yorker Interview) how he had predicted the supply chain crisis way back in April 2020.
To think straight about fat supply chains is hard because we’re used to getting religious about lean supply chains:
In a mostly organized market, you are rewarded for being lean and when shit hits the fan (read as fat-tail events), you pay the price of efficiency with extreme fragility.
In a mostly unorganized market, you are rewarded disproportionately for being fat and when shit hits the fan, you discover more nuanced ways to be antifragile (and eventually) lean.
If you are building studio systems in agriculture in India, China, Asia, Central America with a larger smallholding farmer population, now is a great time to gain fat reserves. What do I really mean by that in an agritech context? How to Succeed in the Era of Studio Agriculture?
Let’s begin.