MLA Strategic Plan 2025: Connections are key
28 February 2020
In last week’s article, Industry 2030 vision - foundation for MLA Strategic Plan 2025, we introduced our approach to and the inputs that are shaping the development of MLA’s next five-year Strategic Plan.
We also reflected on the big gains the Australian red meat and livestock industry has made over the last few decades and the key high-impact initiatives that contributed towards them.
During our strategic planning process, we have explored each of the six Red Meat 2030 Priorities (refer to ‘More information below’) and then looked at the connections between them. We know, from looking back on the high-impact initiatives from previous decades as we did in last week’s article, that it is through these connections where we can deliver the greatest impact and achieve the Red Meat 2030 goal of doubling the value of Australian red meat sales as the trusted source of the highest quality protein.
Recognising this, MLA has stated that ‘fewer, bigger, bolder’ will be a guiding principle in the development of our Strategic Plan.
Looking through the lens of ‘fewer, bigger, bolder’, we have also identified four key areas to help guide our future investments within each of the six priorities:
- Understanding and connecting data and insights across the supply chain to identify opportunities and challenges…
- which will enable us to address the big, complex problems impacting on our industry.
- Turning these big, complex problems into opportunities that generate revenue.
- Developing new, high value products that allow us to maximise every aspect of the carcase.
This week, we will look at the first two of these areas of focus and, in next week’s article, explore the remaining two.
Understanding and connecting data and insights across the supply chain to identify opportunities and challenges, which will enable us to address the big, complex problems impacting on our industry.
The success of the Australian red meat industry’s integrity systems is underpinned by strong collaboration and trust across the supply chain. This established trust provides a solid foundation for the industry to take the next step – to connect transparently up and down the supply chain, capturing and sharing valuable data and insights.
Information capture and sharing across every point in the supply chain would enable the industry as a whole to identify the highest value opportunities and better understand the big, complex challenges. Collectively, we could then make more informed, strategic decisions and align our responses for greatest impact.
While access to data and insights across the supply chain is vital, it’s equally important that industry build its capability to fully utilise this information in order to unlock value.
As well as supporting the development of systems and tools to capture data, we need to invest in our people, providing them with the skills and confidence to interpret and use integrated data to drive their decision-making.
We know the industry will face new and different opportunities and challenges over the next decade.
Changing production climates mean we will need mechanisms to optimise our resources and address seasonal and climate variability.
Our customers and the community also have high expectations about the way both livestock and the environment are managed. We will need to continue to meet their expectations around animal health, animal welfare and environmental stewardship, demonstrating the important role we play in a sustainable food system.
However, our focus should not just be around responding to challenges. Importantly, we need to understand how to turn the big, complex problems into opportunities to generate revenue – an area of focus that we will explore in the next article.
Have your say
Over the next few weeks MLA is sharing what we believe will be the focus areas within our next Strategic Plan and are seeking your thoughts on these.
We would like to know:
What activities should industry focus on in order to better understand and connect data and insights across the supply chain?
What do you see are the big opportunities and/or challenges that connecting data and insights across the supply chain will help industry address?
Have your say by emailing your response to strategy2025@mla.com.au
