Always ranked as one of the best herd improvement companies in the world, farmer cooperative, Livestock Improvement, has now been named amongst an elite group of international companies to achieve ‘Silver’ status business excellence.
The win makes Livestock Improvement the only Australasian agricultural company to achieve this level of excellence in systems and process.
The Award was presented to Livestock Improvement CEO, Stuart Gordon, on Thursday 8 December by the Business Excellence Foundation.
Judges’ comments speak of a company with ‘very strong and visible leadership and staff who are passionate about the company’, and of ‘excellence built into processes and strategy around a core product which was possibly the best in the world.’
Stuart Gordon said the Baldridge Business Excellence Awards is, quite literally, the Olympics of the international business world.
"It’s a competition few companies are brave enough to enter. Most are content to improve processes through internal benchmarks, rather than bare their systems and business in a contest which is regarded as one of the most accurate measures of business excellence in the world.
"We’d always been at the forefront of herd improvement around the world but wanted to put the business itself to the test, and in 2000 embraced the Baldridge criteria because it’s regarded as the most rigorous evaluation criteria in the world.
"The Board and Management view was that, at the very least, gains would include improved strategy, business processes and customer service – and the very best, would be stepping onto the Awards podium with some of the best companies in the world".
Stuart Gordon said winning Silver "is huge on an international scale, let alone nationally. It confirms our business processes, strategy and customer focus are on a par with the best companies in the world.
"This is ‘not just an Award’; it’s a symbol of the personal commitment each member of the Livestock Improvement team has to elevate the business to world status in terms of our leadership, strategic planning, customer and market focus, analysis and knowledge management, human resources, processes and results.
"Until 2002 we were a subsidiary of NZ Dairy Board but in that year, ownership reverted to the dairy farmers of New Zealand. Farmers became shareholders, issued two classes of share and the company listed on NZX.
"At the time we became a user owned cooperative, we made a commitment to our shareholders that we’d exceed expectations in terms of performance and we’ve done that with record profits and dividends. And now they have another measure – Silver Business Excellence, which confirms our processes and systems are world class."
