Focused on the agri-business manager, the objective of this study was to identify and classify the activities, competencies and characteristics of a selected group of such managers with a view toward the development of suitable training curricula. Three questionnaires were developed and applied to the manager himself, his superior, and a randomly selected subordinate to secure their judgments in regard to the amount of time alloted to certain competencies, the importance of said competency, and the expected role or behavior. The two major questionnaires were divided according to competency categories of: personnel supervision and evaluation, operation and coordination, planning and research, merchandising, finance and control, public relations and community affairs, purchasing and inventory maintenance, and personal demands and improvement. Operations and coordination ranked at the top of the list of competency categories. Other top listed competencies were finance and control, planning and research, and personal demands and improvement. Agri-business managers operate on a less sophisticated level than do many industrial managers. On the whole they seemed to be current-operations-oriented thus leaving little time for long range planning and development. (Author/PT)