Why GM grain production won't fly in South Australia. (Part 1)

I’m not pro-GM.  I’m not anti-GM.

I’m pro South Australia’s food industry.

This means finding a business model that allows our food system to access markets profitably.

To achieve that outcome there will be compromises.  There always is when achieving a consensus on strategy.  The alternative strategy is we do nothing.

I think we all agree, we don’t want the compromise of that.

The current discussion about growing GM grain in South Australia is far from centred.

People are debating issues that have little relevance to the actual outcome they seek.

Alarmist headlines are not helping.

Let’s be clear.  There is currently a moratorium in GM grain.  Not a ban.

My observation is that advocates have failed in their bid to halt a suspension on the introduction of GM grain production in South Australia, not because of what they have said, but because of what they haven’t said.  Or rather, the key question they haven’t answered.

That is, how will the introduction of GM grain into South Australia’s highly differentiated food system, add value to processors and consumers here and abroad?

The South Australian Government has adopted an integrated perspective of South Australia’s food industry.  For example, understanding the relationship between food and tourism is why an integrated approach is important for South Australia.

Hence we have Tourism Ministers making announcements about our food system – a smart marketing move.

Individual debates such as those concerning GM grain will always circulate.  But the ground-swell of opinion across South Australia’s broader food industry is that we need to dare-to-be-different and use this to build an individual sense-of-place about South Australian food that can be marketed to the rest of the world.

The South Australian food industry has adopted the mantra to provide premium food produced to the highest standards and to give processors and consumers of our food system an authentic food experience.

Consequently, the South Australian Government has developed, prioritised and committed itself to a range of programs and market-centric strategies propelling South Australia’s food industry and its participants around the globe, capturing a niche in consumer sentiment.

This is achieved because contrary to popular opinion, whether or not GM grain is safe is not the issue.  It is the current view of processors and consumers that GM grain is not premium quality or an authentic food experience – safe or otherwise.

For the moment it means some individual farm-gate requests have not been met in order to achieve the greater-good for South Australia’s food industry.

Over the next 5 years, it is vital the local grain production community soundly demonstrates how their wishes to grow GM grain can be integrated into the greater vision for South Australia’s food industry already underway.

The moratorium is an important period allowing grain producers to now view themselves as part of the broader food value chain community in South Australia or risk being isolated from future decisions.

Part 2 asks if the introduction of GM grain into South Australia’s highly differentiated food system will add value to processors and consumers here and abroad; and why the discussion should not be centred on the issue of safety.

What is the value in eating GM grains?  This is a key issue.

Unless the question of value can be answered for food consumers the proposition we will grow GM grain in South Australia is unlikely from a food marketing perspective.

Dear Potential Client. I've been here. Waiting for you. For so long. On social media. But you never turned up. Where are you?

This is the short story of an independent professional who was told everyone is online.

Thousands of hours later he realised they aren’t.

I get social media. Or as I like to call it: social business. I get the model.

It’s totally collapsed the old cost of starting or running a business.

This was music to my ears when I launched my independence.

Three years on and after thousands of hours dedicated to my digital strategy, here’s what I’ve learnt.

These observations have not brought about the end of my digital strategy. Three years is nothing in the life of a business, digital presence or otherwise.

But like any good strategy it’s important to review the landscape and know what you’re dealing with.

For that is what makes your strategy even better.

So here’s what I know to be true about the business of social business:

• People are not online as much as we are led to believe.
• The term ‘social media’ killed its adoption by businesses.
• Businesses do not consider social business as real work.
• The true value of social business is reduced operating costs.
• Social business upgrades the disciplines that should already exist in businesses but don’t and so is poorly understood.
• Social business and old habits don’t mix.
• Social business does not mean out with the old and in with the new.
• Light entertainment is not social business.
• Someone’s social business strategy just poached 5 of your key customers while you were reading this.
• Someone’s social business strategy just poached 5 of your key employees while you were reading this.
• Social business has become the excuse of choice rather than the opportunity of choice.
• People are still not convinced about blogs.
• Most businesses have forgotten they have a web site.
• People think LinkedIn is Facebook.

I’ll keep waiting for the others to arrive.

Sick of waiting?  Tell us about your experiences with social business by clicking in the work comment below.

We look forward to hearing peoples' thoughts.

The murky waters of uncontrolled enthusiasm.

I am helping a client re-build his fertiliser business.

It has a bright future.

It’s been a bumpy ride.

I am astonished at what he has achieved.

It is a credit to his bold vision and sheer guts and determination in what is a very congested industry.

This is a familiar story for so many of our amazing small enterprises.

It’s also the same that during the initial journey these businesses will have the first sense they are starting to lose traction. Things are just starting to get out of control.

A few people are nodding their head right now.

This is a legacy of what I like to call uncontrolled enthusiasm.

I love uncontrolled enthusiasm.

But it needs to be kept on a leash and reigned-in when it’s time.

The challenge with uncontrolled enthusiasm is that on the surface everything about the business looks great. There’s a great vibe. Things are happening.

But it can mask the fact that strategic decisions are not being made. The business is heading into murky waters.

Beneath the surface ugly monsters are starting to grow out of the business and will tear it down. These monsters need to be tackled.

A great tool for reorganising control of the business and implementing strategic management is the Balanced Scorecard; or scorecarding.

Scorecarding delegates and keeps track of the progress of specific strategic activities and constantly measures what outcomes they are producing and how this is performing against key measurements.

So that’s what I’ve been doing: tackling monsters.

But that’s the life of an interim manager. We love jumping in with our clients and getting dirty on the job.

If people need help they get more bang-for-their-buck that way.

The folly of Magical Thinking.

In 2012 I caused a stir by claiming the Year of the Farmer was the right message at the wrong time.

In just one year millions of dollars were spent on a self-indulgent pat-on-the-back aimed at encouraging people to appreciate food producers.

Since then there has been a mountain of stuff written and numerous initiatives launched hoping to bridge a perceived gap between food and consumers.

Markets are harder to engage and people are spoilt for choice.  It’s true that constant pressure to do better and the unrelenting competition of globalisation can cause an industry to suffer somewhat of an identity crisis.

In reaction to this we are now living in an era of wanting to be liked.  That is, if only people understood us and appreciated us more, they would buy our products and pay more for them.

Despite popular opinion and the purveyance of social media, being liked is not a business strategy.

The agribusiness and food industry has been suffering a bad case of magical thinking.

Magical thinking is a concept developed by famous neurologist and founder of modern psychoanalysis Sigmund Freud.

It leads people to believe their thoughts about themselves can change how others act towards them.

For businesses seeking to grow within agribusiness and food industry, the folly of magical thinking is a lesson in how not to be self-centric about what you provide.

Magical thinking should never be used as an excuse to not develop the skills your business needs to think differently and to increase the innovative capability your people.

So if you want to be noticed, put amazingly creative products or services in front of people, loaded with user experience and convenience.

Does your business have a Class of 2014?

Most products never made it because they were technically brilliant, but no one got it.  This is especially true of the food industry.

We are now in an era marked by consumer demand for food experience, convenience and value-for-money.

This means that whilst doing things right is important (product centric), true opportunity is captured by people having the skills to ask if we are in fact doing the right things (market centric).

As we start to hear that Australia may miss most of the food boom to our competitors, it highlights how continuing to have blind-faith that someone will want what we produce and happily pay us enough for it, is problematic under a new globalised food system.

To be profitable, organisations must now have the capability to not only reduce costs, but at the same time increase value (innovate).  The fact this is not happening proves the knowledge gap that exists between product and market in many businesses.

Food innovation requires new forms of thinking.  I’m concerned many owners and operators thought the food boom was just going to happen, without addressing the need to upgrade the innovative capability of key employees through education and development.

For example, someone from China would simply jump on the phone and order everything they've got.

Most businesses didn't get that phone call.

Abundant opportunities are available for agribusiness and food companies that have the capability to rethink not only what they are doing and how they are doing it, but who they are doing it for and why - and which business model will make it happen profitably.

Investing in education and development to raise the core competencies of people was once a source of competitive advantage for an innovative few.

Under globalisation, it’s now the minimum requirement just to survive – for everyone.

So if you want your business to be a winner I ask you: what does your education and development budget look like?  Do you even have one?

In many overseas agribusiness and food companies, it is compulsory that people attend management development training and education - every year.  It's in their contract.

Who will be in your Class of 2014?

Your competitors have one.

www.foodleaders.com.au