The Chief Executive: Goals achieved

GOALS

ACHIEVED

Words by Mike Chapman, Chief Executive : HortNZ

When I started five and a half years ago at HortNZ, I set myself a number of goals.

The most important one was to enhance HortNZ’s work for growers. HortNZ was formed under Peter Silcock’s stewardship.

He created an effective and high performing organisation linking together fruit, berries and vegetables into the one organisation. This was no mean achievement. What I wanted to do was to add to what Peter had achieved and take it to the next level.

One of the traps that organisations like HortNZ can fall into is to try and do everything. My goal was to prioritise the organisation’s activities, making sure we were doing what achieved the most impact for growers. Next, I wanted to ensure that HortNZ had the best possible people delivering those priorities. Our regular grower survey is and has been over the years very clear about what growers think the top three priorities are: biosecurity, labour and the environment.

To this end, establishing the career progression manager network in conjunction with NZ Apples & Pears, NZ Kiwifruit Growers Inc and NZ Avocado is a major step forward for finding motivated permanent employees. This network is soon to comprise eight career progression managers, one in each of our key growing areas, to attract New Zealanders into horticulture careers.

Key to being successful in HortNZ’s top three priorities is a close working relationship with government departments and politicians. HortNZ is ideally placed to achieve that being located in Wellington. Getting involved in policy development early on is the best way to influence government outcomes. The more we work in tandem with government, the better the outcomes for growers.

The problem that governments and industry organisations face is that everyone has lots of good ideas. This can result in a scatter gun approach. What is needed is a clear vision that determines the priorities and activities to support and achieve that vision. We have that at HortNZ, in both our vision and purpose. What we do not have is that shared vision with government. The result is that despite the best intentions, we can waste our and their resources, and duplicate and unwittingly act against each other.

My last goal was to achieve a shared vision between industry and government, and that is becoming a reality with the plant strategy.

There is no point doing all of the above activities without a world class communications programme. At the public level, it is most important to consistently nurture horticulture’s social licence to operate. This is no easy task. Every available channel needs to be used, print, TV, radio and social media. This then needs to be backed up by excellent grower communications.

Lifting HortNZ’s communications profile was another one of my key aims and I think we have achieved that. My contribution has been my weekly blogs on current topics, which reach more than 15,000 followers through social media. I have now written more than 200 of these blogs, each talking about horticulture and our current issues.

None of this would have been achieved without the enormous support of growers. Many of you have willingly given up your time to be part of what HortNZ’s strives to achieve. Your contribution is so important and helps keep us grounded. Over my time, I have worked to create a more cohesive and collaborative working relationship with our product groups. This is work in progress but I think we have taken enormous steps, working much more closely together today than we did five years ago. There has also been a focus on supporting active district associations, as they are a very important part of the work HortNZ does, for example, with councils.

The HortNZ Board has taken a highly productive strategic role and has been very supportive of my and our teams’ activities. I acknowledge their strategic view and support, as nothing would have been achieved without it.

The dedication and expertise of HortNZ’s staff has delivered this strategy. I am confident I have achieved my goal of building the key HortNZ teams.

Thank you all for your support and help. I would have achieved nothing without it. I can confidently hand over my role to my successor knowing that Nadine is inheriting a high performing and very effective organisation, which is ready to be taken to the next level of achievement.