As CEO of One Acre Fund, a nonprofit that gets proven tools into farmers’ hands and empowers them to create hundreds of millions of dollars in new farm profits each year, Eric Pohlman finds a lot to like about his job. “I love that we serve farmers,” he says. “I believe farmers have the most important jobs in our communities—putting the food on all of our tables. I also love working with the amazing and talented team of impact professionals we have here at One Acre Fund.”
The organization already has a big impact in supporting farm families in their critical work, but its sights are set on achieving even more. “Today at One Acre Fund, we serve 5.9 million farming households across 10 countries. This year, we’re on track to deliver $550 million in impact, meaning increased farm income for those families. We’ve also planted more than 300 million trees over the past few years. Looking ahead, we aim to serve 10 million farming households by 2030, deliver more than $1 billion in annual impact, and plant over 1 billion trees.”
This assistance comes at a critical time for Africa’s smaller farmers. As Eric explains: “The biggest challenge farmers face right now is a changing climate. Most of the farmers we serve rely on rain-fed agriculture, and when rainfall and weather patterns shift, they must adapt and build resilience. Our main approach to helping them meet this challenge is providing drought-resistant seed and improved planting techniques that support diversification into new crops or tree-based systems like agroforestry.”
Doing things differently
As One Acre Fund works to help farmers bolster productivity, build their resilience, and strengthen their access to markets, it draws on two powerful differentiators. “Two things make One Acre Fund special, says Eric. “For a start, we put farmers first in everything we do. It’s our motivating force as an organization. Second, we really invest in our team. We know that delivering impact at scale requires an exceptional group of professionals - everything from agronomists to accountants to logisticians – and it takes focused effort to build and maintain this team.”
One Acre Fund’s partnership with McKinsey.org is helping the organization reinforce the capabilities of its staff. Eric explains: “I believe the biggest limiting factor on One Acre Fund’s success and scale is our own professional capacity as a team. Our partnership with McKinsey.org has already strengthened that capacity, boosting the productivity and professional skillset of more than 600 One Acre Fund staff. What’s more, in the coming months and years, this training will be extended to many thousands of frontline workers as well.”
“Working with McKinsey.org has been a true partnership,” Eric adds. “From our first engagement, their team demonstrated a clear commitment to supporting our professional skill development and took the time to understand our needs, language considerations, and different country contexts, and adapting the training and cohorts accordingly.”
One Acre Fund’s staff embraced the process and were keen to take up the training on offer. “There was a lot of enthusiasm among our team to participate in the journey,” says Eric. “We initially planned for 450 spots, but demand was so high that we expanded the offering to accommodate the more than 600 people who ultimately enrolled.”
Nurturing a thirst for learning
The training is already making a big difference, right across the organization. Within the Office of the CEO, for instance, the implementing of “Big Rocks”, a new approach to task prioritization, is having a transformative effect. “Every week, we set out our big rocks first, and only then make room for the small rocks,” says Eric. “With so many inbound requests, that discipline is essential for staying on track with our goals.”
Beyond other key skills learned during the program such as using shared language, improving meeting processes, and getting to the root cause of problems, Eric sees an overarching benefit from McKinsey.org’s work. As he explains: “McKinsey.org’s program has fostered a strong culture of professional development and continuous improvement among a large cohort of our staff, and that will be increasingly important over the long term. When our team gets better at their jobs, we provide better service to farmers – and farmers, in turn, grow more food for the communities in which they live.”
Eric’s dedication to One Acre Fund’s mission is clear: assisting farmers in Africa so that they can have big harvests, healthy families, rich soils and strong communities. His vision for getting there is equally clear: building the capacity and capability of One Acre Fund’s staff so they can deliver their best work every day. With a sustained focus on learning and development, the organization can continue to scale its impact and help farmers thrive.