Page 2 - Australian Pork Newspaper

Differences between science and commerce
Pork Industry Calendar of Events
2020
APR 21-22 – Dutch Pork Expo, Netherlands www.dutchporkexpo.nl/ en
MAY 12-13 British Pig and Poultry Fair Warwickshire, UK www. pigandpoultry.org.uk
JUN 3-5 – World Pork Expo, Iowa, US www.worldpork.org
JUN 9-11 – Agritech West Africa 2020, Accra, Ghana www. agritechwestafrica.com
JUN 9-11 – Alberta Pork Congress, Alberta, Canada albertaporkcongress. com
JUN 17-18 – Ontario Pork Congress, Ontario Canada porkcongress.on.ca
AUG 11-15 – Global Animal Nutrition Summit, Guelph, Ontario, Canada globalanimalnutrition2020.uoguelph. ca/welcome
SEP 19-22 – The Allen D. Leman Swine Conference, Saint Paul, Minnesota, US ccaps.umn.edu/allen-d-leman- swine-conference
How to supply event details: Send all details to Australian Pork Newspaper, PO Box 387, Cleveland, Qld 4163, call 07 3286 1833 fax: 07 3821 2637, email: ben@porknews.com.au
porknews.com.au
07 3286 1833
Want us to
cover your event?
Get noticed by key pork industry members!
Email editorial@porknews.com.au or call 07 3286 1833
© Collins Media Pty Ltd – Contents may not be reproduced in whole or in part without written permission from the publisher. It is the responsibility of advertisers to ensure the correctness of their claims and statements. The views expressed in this publication are not necessarily those of the publisher.
LAST time I was in- volved as part of a team of technical experts was over 18 years ago, and it was with about 70 food technologists.
ducer respondents – who cover slightly under 90 per- cent of pigs – take meas- ures to minimise visitor biosecurity risks on farm.
Likewise, our APL regulatory teammates are working to find ways to continue to export Aus- tralian pork.
So, I called a mentor of mine and asked him whether I might have forgotten anything about working with technical experts.
Not only are these meas- ures key to reducing risks to the health of pigs, but in our current situation, those same measures are also providing protec- tion to staff by reducing their potential exposure to COVID-19.
COVID-19 has caused numerous project delays in R&I, but many are still on schedule and so the re- search team continues to focus on finding ways to reduce production costs, keep our farms safe and improve our licence to operate.
His answer was annoy- ingly concise: “They are people Pete, treat them like people.”
In most arenas, where a person with money agrees on someone with a skill to deliver a ser- vice, it is the service pro- vider’s responsibility to provide that service, to the agreed quality by the agreed date.
double-checked in the ‘Keep African swine fever out of Australia’ activity of late-2019.
Recent events have seen the APL marketers pivot their focus towards more in-home help with recipes and ‘how to cook’ out- comes.
Until next time, stay safe and let’s continue deliver- ing nutritious, fresh food to Australia and beyond.
Accordingly, in my first four weeks in Research and Innovation, that’s what I’ve been doing.
A positive is the results of a 2019 survey found that over three-quarters of pro-
We’ve had honest con- versations and agreed to actively working together to remove barriers and improve processes in or- der to deliver outcomes in a timely manner.
Currently, if things go off-track, the responsibil- ity seems to lay more with Australian Pork Limited than with research pro- viders.
In commerce, we’re pri- marily interested in the effect an action has on profitability, or cash flow, or both.
We need to take a look at that.
I don’t know why a 5 percent price promotion affects about 40 percent of consumers to change the brand they buy, just that it does.
Last, measuring out- comes.
People probably each have their own reason for changing their behaviour.
We make a guess at what the outcome of an experi- ment will be before we do it, then do the experiment in a controlled way to try to achieve that research outcome.
But the same action reg- ularly causes a reaction of similar magnitude, and in my experience, this is the case in most categories.
We don’t then measure who uses those outcomes for benefit in-industry and who does not.
My understanding of research was that it’s pri- marily interested in why things happen.
Clearly we aren’t going to change these things overnight, but we are ac- tively working on them.
The Oxford English dic- tionary defines science as “Knowledge about the structure and behaviour of the natural and physical world, based on facts that you can prove.”
Producers are under- standably triple checking, due to COVID-19, all the biosecurity plans they
So, perhaps commerce is more outcome driven and science is more cause driven, or maybe not.
We can improve how we measure outcomes, and we should.
Page 2 – Australian Pork Newspaper, April 2020
www.porknews.com.au
In our first week to- gether, the Research and Innovation team told me what they want is both the cause and the outcome.
I was wrong.
If we are focusing on outcomes, what do we need to do more of?
If Newton was right and actions cause reactions, then what actions should we undertake to be suc- cessful?
I’m still learning and un- derstand this is possibly ‘enthusiasm that comes with a new goal’, though it seems to me there are four clear areas.
First, accountability and authority.
We employ smart peo- ple, and if they are go- ing to be accountable for delivering outcomes, then they also – within rea- son – need to have de- cision-making authority over how they are going to make those outcomes happen.
Second, streamlining.
It seems that if tech- nology is evolving faster, then we need to be faster.
Therefore, we need to work towards achieving high-quality outcomes in a quicker way.
Third, responsibility for delivery.
by PETER HAYDON
Research and Innovation
General Manager
POSTPONED
POSTPONED POSTPONED
POSTPONED POSTPONED
POSTPONED