Claire Massey, who is director of Agrifood Business at Massey, responded by asking how many of us had heard of Te Hono. Not one, of a largish group of science and other intellectuals, including myself had heard of it.

Since then I’ve been tracking down some of those involved in this movement, whose title means ‘The Collective’, and whose members, mostly at CEO level, are multiplying annually, with ‘alumni’ who have attended their ‘bootcamps’ now numbering 178. The idea started with The New Zealand Merino Company CEO John Brakenridge, whose ideas and strategies have put New Zealand’s wool back among the world’s premium branded products.

Corporate lead

Te Hono began in 2012 when a group of 23 primary sector CEOs had a first week-long bootcamp at Stanford University, accompanied by the then-Minister for Primary Industries David Carter and NZ Trade & Enterprise CEO Peter Chrisp. Other government agencies and departments are claimed to have been ‘partners’ since the start, and include the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment, Treasury, MPI, NZTE, Te Puni Kokiri, as well as Callaghan Innovation, KPMG, Agmardt and ANZ.

Unlike Origin Green, where the Irish government led the way, Te Hono began in the corporate sector of primary production in New Zealand. Its founding mantras were built on ‘trust and capability’ and an aim to ‘fundamentally improve the competitiveness of New Zealand, Aotearoa’s primary sector on a global stage – supporting a shift from price taking to market shaping’.

Since then the annual bootcamps – held at Stanford University in the USA – have discussed and refined the basic principles, attitudes, investment focus and capability, leadership attributes, the discipline of deployment, and methods of connection and collaboration between agencies, companies and participants who are part of Te Hono.

New initiative

They have also worked out the basic initiatives that they want to keep doing, start or do more of; and, most revealingly, what they don’t do, which includes no massive infrastructure or evolving into an industry advocacy organisation.

And it’s working. They already have put together a number of new initiatives, both between companies and departments. For example, Fonterra and the Department of Conservation for the Living Water programme. And between competitors and allied companies they’ve gone over new ideas and products for carefully researched customer markets around the world.

A recent development has been the opening of a joint marketing office in Shanghai, via Primary Collaboration New Zealand, where present members include Sealord, Silver Fern Farms, Synlait Milk, Villa Maria Estate, seafood company Kono and horticulture collaboration Pacific Pace.

The combined export value of the products of these companies is about $3.3 billion. The aim is for a shared point of contact for distributors, and to provide on the ground research in China. Members will be able to join or leave, as suits them.

Reflecting the hype

If the world admires New Zealand for its natural environment and products, then the alumni involved in Te Hono aim to ensure both live up to the hype. We have the design skills and the technological knowhow, as well as the good raw materials. We are also, like Ireland, small enough to be able to put them all together to come up with new ideas and products for which our customers will pay a premium to acquire.

One could say that Te Hono has been New Zealand’s best kept secret until recently, when they accepted the rest of us should know more. In a country where central government can be loath to lead the charge on some complex issues, it’s good to know they are willing to be partners, and leave the nitty gritty stuff to those who have proven their talents by being selected for leadership roles in companies where getting our products to the world markets is the primary aim.

Check out the website: www.tehono.co.nz