Seeing the giants of cannabis continue to fail while having access to virtually unlimited budgets, leaves one main question in my mind - Why?
Many reasons contribute to the failure of any company, but several main points stand out in recent failings of some of the largest players in cannabis.
Lack of expert talent in Master Grower positions
"The real Master Growers are still in the black market," founder and CEO of Savvy by Nature cannabis consulting, Mark Strauss, explains. "Why? Because they can make $250k/year tax-free income while working 20 hours/week in their garage. Why would they accept jobs for 100k to work 60 hours a week with 1000% more responsibility? Answer: They wouldn’t.'
"Many large operators thought they could hire a Ph.D. in horticulture for 80k/year and they would do a great job. The problem here is that these guys are experienced with growing many different kinds of plants, while a real Master Grower of cannabis has been growing one plant for decades. This is the equivalent of hiring a Veterinarian to give humans medical treatment. They might get a few things right, but It's just not going to work at scale."
Lack of proper planning and market analysis
They don't call it the “Green Rush” for nothing. "The largest cannabis operators were tripping over each other a few years back, rushing to be the biggest and best in cannabis before anyone else," he points out. "Making this a top priority, they overlooked many critical things, most notably being that Cannabis is arguably the most dynamic market in the world, next to crypto, and nobody has ever operated cannabis facilities of that size and scope before. It was all a massive experiment, and we all hopefully learned a lot from it."
Operating with a “money can fix anything problem” mentality
Thinking money can solve any problem is a very dangerous way to operate. "Unfortunately, this is a common sentiment heard from the big boys of cannabis, and the reason many of them have and are failing," he further explains. "The issue here is that you cannot just buy your way out of having bugs, losing half your crop to mold, or having your crop age for 6 months on the shelf because your facility is 20x too large for the community you are operating in. All these problems take incredible experiential foresight commonly lacking by many large operators with little experience in cannabis."
“Gargantuan failures in cannabis are why guys like me are very busy these days. Witnessing the constant failures of cannabis operators led me to found Savvy by Nature a few years ago to help ease the pain of companies operating in the most dynamic market in the world that is Cannabis."
“If you are not super-efficient and competitive, you are going to fail,” Mark remarks. “A substantial number of companies have made huge mistakes that they really didn’t need to make. I guess the best lessons are learned the hard way."
For more information:
Savvy By Nature
Mark Strauss
mark@savvybynature.com