While digging through old notes in Notability, I received an unexpected “gift”: I travelled almost ten years back in time.
I found my handwritten procurement notes from the Livestock Production Division at Creta Farms. For me, they are a period snapshot- evidence of the season when I began to truly understand what corporate business farming means in practice.
In livestock, especially when viewed from the outside, the conversation often collapses into “the animal”: genetics, yield, health, nutrition. All of that matters. But inside a large organisation, livestock production is never “the animal” alone. It is a system. It functions as a decision engine, balancing speed with constraints, pressure with accountability, processes with risk, and prioritisation. Above all, it relies on people who maintain the chain daily- quietly, consistently, and without noise.
During that time, I was fortunate to work with an exceptional Farm Director, Dimitris Val., with whom I still exchange messages about animal production to this day. With a genuinely strong procurement team: Theodoros F., Kostas K., Martha S., and Dimitra G. From them, I not only took technical know-how. I took the mindset.
I learned to read a situation before the numbers speak. The discipline to do the right thing even when nobody is watching. The awareness that performance is not “made” at month-end, but is written through the small decisions of each day. The choices that may seem minor but ultimately build reliability, continuity, and resilience.
If I had to define corporate business farming in one line, it would be this:
the ability to make fast, correct decisions under real constraints—without losing the logic of the system.
Because production is part of a value chain, and every link, procurement, operations, people, controls, quality, and cost, shapes the next.
Looking at that page today reminded me of one of the most important professional milestones of my life. A school that put me into rhythm, toughened me where it needed to, and matured me professionally faster than I understood at the time.
And that is how a random search became a reminder: you move forward- but you are built by what you carry from behind.
