Morrisons Pitch
About James Morrison
James Morrison Consulting is a boutique strategy consultancy providing independent advice and project management to cooperatives in New Zealand.
An Associate Member of the Cooperatives Association, James can be contacted by email or on 027 434 3244, and his website is at www.morrisonconsulting.co.nz.
Cooperatives and Politics – A New Zealand Perspective
In a curious parallel to New Zealand’s political landscape, the British Conservative party won power from the British Labour party in 2010 after spending three terms in opposition.
Is a cooperative just a tribe?
Agricultural cooperatives, it was recently suggested to me, are about tribalism, and are therefore anachronistic. I believe this was directed at the dairy industry where most of the new processing companies are not cooperatives.
Trading Amongst Farmers
I heard a hilarious story about a family friend who arrived at their holiday house after some months of absence, only to find a line of sapling pines had been planted along the boundary fence. This looked likely become contentious as they grew into giant, needle-dropping, lawn-poisoning trees.
Wool Growers Miss Co-op Opportunity
In October 2010 PGG Wrightsons’ subsidiary Wool Partners International (WPI) issued a prospectus to form a Wool Partners Co-operative (WPC) taking half of the country’s strong wool clip. It would have been an exciting development in New Zealand’s Cooperative landscape.
Non-member contracts expose cooperatives
New Zealand cooperatives are creating a dangerous precedent when they offer contracts that allow non-members to participate. The situation often arises where a cooperative perceives a threat to its membership by investor-owned organisations providing the same amenity.
Cooperatives and Member Debt
Much soul searching and debate has followed the high profile failure of Crafar Farms. This event highlighted the exposed capital structure of parts of the New Zealand dairy industry.
Sustainable Practices Challenge Cooperatives
A key focus at last year’s International Dairy Summit held in New Zealand was "dairy farming and sustainability". This intense interest in sustainable practices only emerged late in the last decade — there was not a whisper of it in any of the industry strategy documents prior to 2005.
