Paula Haiwick, MBA ’00: From Consultant to Cattlewoman
Paula Haiwick, MBA ’00 grew up on a cattle
ranch in South Dakota but had no plans of
making her life there. However, after living,
working and getting her MBA in the DC
Metropolitan area, she was surprised to feel a
draw to make the move back and take over the
family’s ranch, Haiwick Heritage Ranch, LLC.
“Thoughts of the quality of life for our kids and a
succession plan for my father’s ranch had my
husband and me seriously talking about moving
back.”
They thought about it for a few years but
developed no formal business plan. While
working as a management consultant in DC,
Paula noticed trends regarding consumers’ growing interest in their food and realized this could be the
Haiwick Ranch’s niche. She saw the potential for a business idea: offer consumers premium hormone-,
steroid-, and antibiotic-free beef. In addition to clean beef, humane treatment has always been a
priority for the ranch as well as conservation of the land. They had the beef consumers wanted. A plan
began to develop for their business to ship their top-quality beef directly to customers throughout the
country who were interested in where their food was coming from.
Paula and her husband weighed the risks. Her husband is also a consultant, so relocating wasn’t a
problem for him and she could go to a part-time level until their portion of the ranch was fully
operational and her father fully retired; this minimized the financial risk for the family. The major cost in
running a ranch comes from the start-up costs of land and cattle, but as she would be phasing in their
investments and taking over an existing ranch, costs of entry into the industry were decreased. So in
June 2013, she and her husband moved their children back to South Dakota to begin their commercial
cattle and direct-buy beef operation
Paula’s Smith MBA is put to use every day on the ranch. “We may not use the things we learned in
business school in a traditional sense, but it can all be modified and adapted to fit our needs. We’re
consultants through and through. We want to make improvements, improve efficiencies and run
models of inputs/outputs,” she says. “I also just found an app that will help us track calving. There’s an
app for everything now!”
“We face numerous challenges. If there is bad weather at a certain point in the season, calves may die
because they are too young and frail. That’s lost revenue. The markets may be bad. Meat packers
control the market and the average rancher only gets a small portion of the profit. Recently the
commodities future impacted the cost of cattle. It went down to $.70/lb, which has a major effect on
us, for our commercial cattle which is why our direct-buy beef is critical to help us hedge those impacts
since our ability to control the vertical allows us to make the most profit.”
As Paula reaches the third year of operations, she looks back at what they have achieved and where
she’d like to go in the next three years, “Our focus is to grow our commercial cattle operation to several
hundred head and continue to expand the beef business. In terms of the beef business, I like having a
connection with my customers so that they know and understand where their food comes from. In two
– three years from now I’d like to double where we are now.
Paula hopes that the ranch stays in the family through the next generation and her son has expressed
interest in becoming more involved. But she says she will encourage her children to get a business
degree if they want to run the ranch.
Paula’s move to take over her family ranch would certainly be considered a Fearless Idea by many but
she downplays that sentiment. For fellow Smith alumni who are interested in making a jump to a
completely different industry or field, Paula recommends they do due diligence before making the leap
and to know their risk threshold. “Even if you have low risk tolerance like I do, ask the questions to get
data you need to make the decision. People who make bold leaps are celebrated but that isn’t the only
way to achieve your dreams.”