My 5-point plan for Cork’s agrifood/drinks sector

This week Cork Chamber released the results of a study into the agrifood and drinks industry.

It sets out five ideas about how the Cork region can accelerate its established position as an important producer of food and beverages. Agriculture Minister Simon Coveney gave an impassioned speech around the topic which, alongside the report itself, warrants hard decisions to advance its findings.

The five opportunities outlined are:

* Embed Cork’s positioning as a competitive knowledge economy and a leading global innovator in agri R&D.

* Ensure Cork’s positioning as a prime region and leading provider of cutting edge agri skills.

* Position Cork as the optimum environment for starting and growing agri-businesses.

* Implement a co-ordinated regional marketing strategy, making Cork synonymous with agrifood and drink.

* Ensuring quality foundations and prime conditions for long term economic growth.

I agree with the sentiment behind all five of these ideas but have profound reservations about having committees and sub-groups to oversee their implementation.

The success stories behind Ireland’s food and agribusiness advances hinge around one key ingredient — business leadership. It is the chief executives of commercial enterprises that will ensure Ireland wins or loses in the global competition for investment and development of agrifood. Any reviews by policymakers or advisers should judge their recommendations with this in mind.

Have a look at history when contemplating this issue, and not just in agrifood. Kerry Group’s global success was not born from a strategy group, consultation paper or bureaucracy. It stemmed from the drive, cussedness, determination and aggression of its CEO and his management team.

Greencore had to roll with the punches a number of times as its CEO battled with a weak business model before forming a strategy that created strong equity value. Kingspan is only a leading global player in insulation because its managers took risks, fought the naysayers and built an international profit stream. Ryanair had no entitlement to being the most profitable airline in an industry known for its ability to squander money, yet it is.

Among the better performing CEOs I’ve encountered over the years I’ve found they don’t respond very well to anything driven by sub-groups. Hard and actionable advice and decisions are what they manage best and anyone who wants to elicit actions around investing and expanding food and drink activities in Cork should pivot their policies in that context.

Taking each of the chamber’s opportunities outlined above and applying hard nosed business thinking to them here are a set of ideas worth considering;

* Global Innovation: Task UCC with achieving a Top 5 standing among global universities for agrifood research.

* Cutting edge agri skills: Establish a world class analysis service in Cork (call it Global Agrifood and Beverage Finance) that provides 24/7 newsflow and research on corporate and financial developments in the global agrifood and drinks industry. Ask one bank to fund it and task it to become the go-to commercially viable source of industry analysis within five years for agrifood investors and finance media worldwide.

* Start-ups: Build an Incubator campus for start-up agrifood companies in the Capitol Cinema complex, funded by Enterprise Ireland, UCC and large food companies in the region. Do it within two years.

* Marketing: Task Bord Bia to host at least three international Agrifood and Beverage conferences in Cork each year

* Foundations: Protect the 12.5% corporate tax rate and revamp before the end of 2014 the EIIS (Employment and Investment Incentive Scheme) to better support entrepreneurs.

If the chamber’s report acts as a trigger for “hard power” decisions by politicians and corporate investors it will have been a job well done.

Joe Gill is director of corporate broking with Goodbody Capital Markets. His views are personal.