Fran O'Sullivan: Dairy industry needs to recapture elan

Fonterra founding chief executive Craig Norgate's funeral was held in Hawera on Tuesday.

The New Zealand dairy industry must be able to recapture some of the elan and verve that the key players displayed when they set up Fonterra back in 2001.

It's easy to succumb to a group mindset that results in farmers being drowned in the emotional mire because of the huge slump in dairy prices this year.

But it is an industry which has displayed it can dream and act big when it wants to. Perhaps it's time to use the current downturn and pause and rethink on the strategy front.

A bit of that feeling came through at Tuesday's funeral in Hawera for Fonterra's founding chief executive Craig Norgate who died in London at 50 from a heart attack.

His brother Geoff alluded to this when he said "he had a massive heart and perhaps that's why it gave way in the end."

The eulogies revealed Norgate as a man of many parts. Despite rising to great heights in New Zealand business he stayed in touch with his Taranaki mates; was passionately devoted to his family and his rugby and was a businessman virtually 24/7 (the 2am emails were legendary).

A Who's Who of New Zealand agribusiness gathered in Hawera.

Fonterra chairman John Wilson and fellow directors David MacLeod and John Monaghan were among those paying tribute to their chief executive.

It's hard to credit now but it took considerable courage by the dairy industry to appoint a 36-year old to head what was to become New Zealand's largest company.

But Norgate had already had a stellar career leading Kiwi Co-operative Dairies from the age of 29 and building it into a $4.4 billion company by the time it merged with the NZ Dairy Group.

Former Kiwi chairman Morris Roberts and former director Harry Bayliss were also present.

Plus a raft of senior Auckland business people: CEOs, advisory firm representatives and others Norgate had touched were also there.

Talking later there was a lot of discussion on the fringes about the current dairy industry doldrums.

In particular, Fonterra chairman John Wilson was having to do a fair bit of reassuring to some of his constituents. Primary Industries Minister Nathan Guy was also lending a reassuring voice.

Wilson had consistently championed Norgate and given him support after his two-year contract as CEO was not renewed. He was among the many feeling he had it within him to make another run in a key NZ agribusiness role after a period overseas.

There were plenty of anecdotes about how Norgate found himself lined up against former Fonterra executives like Graham Stuart when they faced off over Wrightson's future.

The picture was of a man perpetually in a race to get thingsdone.

This would resonate with current Fonterra CEO Theo Spierings who had recently become friendly with Norgate.

Spierings has been after stepping up the velocity of Fonterra. Norgate would have used different words.

But they would have been in agreement on the need to refocus the company in a lean and nimble fashion.