Australian Country Choice Collaborative Innovation Strategies Program

Summary

ACC has been a part of the collaborative innovation program since May 2008.  Initially, ACC entered into a 1 year agreement with the possibility of extending that agreement by another 2 years if both parties agreed it had been a worthwhile program.  The contract was extended in May 2009 for another 2 years.   In that time, ACC's appointed Innovation Manager has been challenged to gain traction within the business so that the program might advance towards its stated goals.
Upon completion of the first year of the contract, it was agreed that greater effort would need to be put into developing an innovation strategy and building an innovation capability within ACC.  It was agreed that a final version of the innovation strategy should be completed by Milestone 2, 6 months after the commencement of the second year of the program in November 2009.


An independent review of the ACC CISP program was conducted by Uniquest (refer to P.MDC.0024 UQ Review Stage 1 CISP).


In May 2015, Australian Country Choice (ACC) and Meat and Livestock Australia (MLA) agreed to progress to Stage 2 of the Collaborative Innovation Program with an expanded focus to encompass the full range of ACC strategic business areas (P.PIP.0446 & P.PIP.5008). The expanded Collaborative Program incorporated the full range of ACC and MLA marketing, innovation and R&D activities. To establish strategic direction for the program, a joint ACC-MLA Executive Steering Committee was formed to provide strategic direction to a more comprehensive approach to improvement across the business. The agreed ACC business improvement priorities including collaborative initiatives were managed by key working groups across the key focus areas.
The purpose of this capability building initiative was the development and implementation of a Stage 2 Collaborative Innovation Strategy Partnership (CISP) program between ACC and MLA.  The Stage 2 CISP priorities were integrated into the company's overall business strategy and were continuously monitored against measurable performance indicators throughout the three-year program to identify the contribution of innovation to the bottom line and achievement of key business objectives.  Ultimately, the outcomes delivered through the development and implementation of the innovation strategy contributed to development of ACC's long-term capability, and associated impacts on ACC's  profitability, competitiveness and sustainability.