FrieslandCampina: Less pre-cooking, easier adjustment

This was stated by chairman Sybren Attema and vice-chairman Sandra Addink during an explanation of the new course until 2030. The discussion about the cooperative structure, the so-called governance, will affect all layers of the cooperative board, Attema indicated. Now the main board members are all also commissioners and they all have a double task, as farmer manager and as supervisor of the company. Attema believes it is possible that from this year's discussion with the members, some of the directors will mainly focus on the company in the future, while another part will mainly focus on the members.

Consequences not sufficiently lived through
Members also need to be heard better, and at least get the feeling that this is the case. Attema and Addink also find it difficult to point out where things have not gone well in the contact between members and the board in previous years. They do admit that things did not go well. In this context, Addink states that members have been told what the consequences are of, among other things, participating in new milk flows, but states that when members were confronted with this in concrete terms (for example by dropping out of Planet Proof), this was the result of the fact that they had 'not experienced this enough'. Attema indicates that the problem may also be that the consequences in such a situation have not been sufficiently explained.

In any case, the aim is for better communication on all fronts, so that the input 'from below' should be expressed more clearly. In the brochure that was created about the 'Course to 2030' strategy, this is referred to as 'investing in committed members' and 'breaking patterns'. From now on, members' evenings will start with a 'whiteboard', on which all questions are first inventoried. This is followed by an explanation and explanation. In the past, the questions were often for the last minutes after an extensive presentation.  

Keep your finger on the pulse every year
Because the playing field in which a modern cooperative has to operate changes so quickly, the board no longer considers it sufficient to be able to adjust the rules or course once every 3 years, for example. The cooperative must become more dynamic, with the policy being evaluated annually and the course adjusted if necessary. This must guarantee that the best results are achieved for the members and that the cooperative and company remain at the center of society where possible and meet social requirements.