Te Hono – Working to Drive the Success of New Zealand’s Primary Sector

This story was showcased in our 2019/20 Annual Report

Established in 2012 as the New Zealand Primary Sector Bootcamp, Te Hono has evolved to become an invaluable partnership between the leaders of Aotearoa New Zealand’s food and fibre sector companies, iwi and government agencies.

With a vision for Aotearoa New Zealand to be a global food and fibre exemplar – economically, environmentally and socially – Te Hono is focused on supporting a primary sector that contributes to ensuring this country is a place where ‘our children and their children want to live, work and thrive.’

Te Hono bring people together, – connecting them to one another, as well as to thought leaders from across the globe. They share similar aspirations to AGMARDT in terms of creating a wealthier, healthier and wiser New Zealand – laying the foundations for a partnership that could achieve great things for the food and fibre sector.

AGMARDT has understood Te Hono’s mission from the outset, and therefore been proud to support them in their pursuit of building trust across the sector, increasing leadership capability and, ultimately, empowering the transformation from volume to value for a growing number of Kiwi businesses in the food and fibre sector.

Te Hono alumni continue to gather across New Zealand each year; bringing new leaders into the fold, deepening a partnership created for connection, geared for transformation and focused on unleashing the value in their sector; for the good of New Zealand and the world.

“We are proud to have partners such as AGMARDT at the heart of our commitment to driving change within New Zealand’s primary sector, and their support is invaluable in terms of enabling us to delivering on this.” says Chair, Greg Muir.

As for what the future holds, Greg says whilst focus to date has been at the level of Chief Executive and, more recently board of directors, Te Hono intends to drive the movement deeper within organisations, and capture people at all tiers of the hierarchy. “We will achieve this in various ways, one of which revolves around creating a wider awareness of Te Hono and the principles behind it,” says Greg.

“By building on our connections within alumni organisations we believe we can engage with more individuals, teaching them the theories from our Stanford Bootcamps and how they can apply the principles to do their bit in propelling their own career fulfilment as well as the success of the wider organisation, and therefore primary sector.”

He says an ongoing challenge faced by the movement is around ensuring maximum exposure for the work Te Hono does and engaging successfully with the right people, and as many as they can.

Te Hono plans to tap into the many success stories in terms of alumni case studies to showcase the value it drives and increase exposure at deeper levels of the food and fibre sector.

“We are also planning to deliver our first New Zealand Bootcamp, which will provide unique opportunity for a wider range of participants to gain transformational leadership insights, connect with an ecosystem that propels innovation, and rapidly prototype and evolve action strategies.”

Greg says ultimately Te Hono wants to be accessible for anyone who is passionate and driven about making a difference in the food and fibre sector.

“They all have an important role to play in the future of our nation’s primary sector and, with the support of organisations such as AGMARDT, we can keep facilitating this and continue to evolve the way in which we do it.”