MLA Strategic Plan 2025: Focus on impact
13 March 2020
In developing the MLA Strategic Plan 2025, MLA has reflected on how it could contribute to achieving the Red Meat 2030 vision and how best to address the new challenges and opportunities the industry is facing, within the context of MLA’s purpose.
Taking these things into consideration, MLA identified some clear guiding principles to inform our approach:
- Connecting and collaborating across the supply chain through alignment with Red Meat 2030.
- A focus on delivering impact through ‘fewer, bigger, bolder’ initiatives and programs of work.
- Maximising our impact by running things to ground.
- Taking a continuous improvement approach to the delivery of essential services.
Connecting and collaborating across the supply chain through alignment with Red Meat 2030
Our first article on Strategic Planning outlined the importance of MLA using Red Meat 2030 (refer to ‘More information below’) as its foundation.
Red Meat 2030 provides the shared vision and direction for our industry: to double the value of Australian red meat sales by 2030 as the trusted source of the highest quality protein. It also sets out six priorities, each with their own initiatives and success indicators to guide activities for whole of industry benefit and to monitor progress.
Collaboration across the supply chain, and with our innovation partners, will be key to meeting this vision and strengthening the profitability, sustainability and global competitiveness for our industry.
Focus on delivering impact through ‘fewer, bigger, bolder’ initiatives and programs of work
Our second and third articles explored what ‘fewer, bigger, bolder’ means for MLA and how this will guide our future investments within each of the six Red Meat 2030 Priorities.
‘Fewer, bigger, bolder’ means that MLA will work collaboratively with industry to focus on understanding and connecting data and insights across the supply chain to identify opportunities and challenges. We believe that this will then enable us to collectively address the big, complex problems impacting our industry. We also need to focus on creating opportunities, by turning these big complex problems into ways to generate revenue and developing new, high value products that allow us to maximise every aspect of the carcase.
In the last of these articles that frame part of our Strategic Planning consultation process, we share our thoughts on how MLA will maximise our impact by running things to ground and the importance of continuous improvement in the delivery of essential services.
Maximising our impact by running things to ground
To maximise the impact of our programs of work, MLA will ensure all of our investments:
- explicitly connect consumer, customer and community insights from each of our markets to our research and development investments across the supply chain
- have clear adoption and extension (including commercialisation) pathways at their inception
- undergo a cycle of review throughout their development.
This will ensure MLA can deliver research and development that provides solutions to practical problems and that has commercial outcomes.
Having clear adoption and extension pathways from inception means that our programs will incorporate capability building, ensuring our people have the skills to implement these solutions.
Taking a continuous improvement approach to the delivery of essential services
MLA provides a number of essential services to and on behalf of the red meat and livestock industry. These essential services underpin the success of our industry and are critical to delivering on the Red Meat 2030 vision of doubling the value of red meat sales.
Our focus for these activities will be on efficiency and delivering greater impact via a continuous improvement approach. Effectively communicating the outcomes and knowledge captured through these essential services to industry will also be a strong focus.
Essential services provided to and on behalf of the Australian red meat industry include:
- Demonstrating and communicating the positive attributes of Australian red meat to consumers.
Examples include integrity systems and quality assurance, which underpin the marketing of our product as clean, safe and natural. MLA also collects and interprets market and consumer information to support decision making and promotional activities. - Informing and supporting policy development that has favourable outcomes for the Australian red meat industry.
MLA plays a supporting role in helping industry and government defend and maintain existing access to markets, as well as position Australia favourably in trade negotiations and help alleviate non-tariff trade barriers. In addition, MLA ensures accurate and up‑to‑date data is available for red meat to inform Australian food and nutrition policy and regulations. - Communication to the community
MLA provides communication to the broader community to enhance confidence in the provenance of red meat and of industry as an ethical and responsible custodian of livestock, land and natural resources. - Communication service back to industry
MLA ensures members, levy payers and stakeholders across the supply chain are aware of MLA investments, programs and services from MLA research initiatives, producer case studies, on farm resources and tools through to market information.
Have your say
Over the past few weeks MLA has shared what we believe will be the focus areas within our next Strategic Plan and has sought your thoughts on these.
In conclusion, we would like to know:
Thinking about MLA’s essential services - and the industry vision to double the value of sales as the most trusted source of protein - where do you see the opportunities to enhance our impact and why?
Have your say by emailing your response to strategy2025@mla.com.au
