Industry pressure to execute a modern approach to the way business is done at the Australian Meat Industry Council (AMIC) has prompted the launch of a new business strategy to help attract and retain members, as well as gain traction on alerting industry issues with the federal government.
AMIC board chairman, Lachie Hart, said the strategy was prompted by current AMIC chief executive officer, Kevin Cottrill, when he advised he was retiring in the near future. Mr Hart said this kick-started the process of identifying exactly what the leadership team wanted AMIC to deliver to its members and the meat industry in the future.
After engaging with external consultants a number of recommendations were formed.
“In a nutshell the recommendations are set to reform the council into a modern organisation focused on membership requirements,” Mr Hart said. The board’s attention has been divided into three major areas: improvement of communication with members, industry stakeholders, government and community; strengthening resources, and membership engagement.
“Improving our membership engagement is of high importance to provide them with more of the services they are looking for today as opposed to when the organisation was developed 15 years ago – the industry has changed and so has the demand of our members,” Mr Hart said.
“Our industry is under a lot of pressure at the moment and we have noticed membership is declining and we are trying to arrest that decline by reengaging with the membership and deliver what they need,” he said.
A leadership team restructure will also be implemented in the new strategy to create new positions. Two new general manager roles will be put in place for retail and small goods and membership engagement, and a new CEO.
“The retail general manager will be looking after a number of regional mangers and engage on a face to face basis with our members to identify issues and help to operate their business effectively – we aim to offer a one-stop-shop that can provide assistance to retail owners,” Mr Hart said.
“The existing general manager of processors will be more politically engaged as a number of big issues are facing our sector include the technical barriers to trade which are influencing our market access overseas.We want to engage federal government to assist and to push forward to the advantage of our membership,” he said.
