Director selection too important to neglect

You want to get a feel for the person, their experience, whether they'll be a good fit in the team. A good hour can go by, and then a bit more work goes into checking references before making a choice. Often we have a second interview to get a real feel for the person. It all takes time but it is important; it's time well spent.

Compare that to the process we use to select our Fonterra directors. The process is totally unsatisfactory.

We read their 'job application' in their candidate profile. We listen to them speak for two minutes, then we ask questions for 10 minutes with a group of other people. It's just not working: we are using a broken process to select our representative. The skill and ability of a person on the Fonterra board has a major influence on all our businesses' success and is arguably one of the most important roles in the country and in New Zealand's success.

How can we properly understand the skills, ability and character of a person who is going to be our leader and representative on the Fonterra board? It is too important a decision to leave to such an inadequate process. I wouldn't use this process to select people to join my team so why use it to select a person to lead our co-op?

We need directors with the skills to create a dynamic and skilful management team and they need the skills to be able to direct that team. They need the skills and experience to understand our customers. They need to understand it is a dynamic world and our customers will change. We need to be ahead of that change, not behind it.

They need the market knowledge to know who our customers will be in the future. They need the vision to see what our competitors are doing, and be there before they are. They need to lead NZ's most successful organisation and industry. They need the skill and integrity to make us proud and, most important of all, they need to be able to take us, the Fonterra farmers, with them.

I'm not knocking the current line-up, but we need to do it better. Repeating the process from the past will get the same results.

We have to look forward and make it better, for ourselves today and for the next generation who will thrive off what we do.

The governance talk seems like an unimportant side-line matter -- more of a power play between the old guard and the new; but it is more than that: it is setting up this co-op to perform in the future.

In this tough year everyone has more important pressing needs. But we need to address this now. We owe it to ourselves and all the farmers before us to be involved. Over 150 years has gone into building a great industry by working together in a cooperative. We have seen our parents and grandparents work and struggle to see their farms succeed and our cooperatives grow. Would we tell them change now for the better is too much trouble? What we and they have created is worth protecting.

Times are changing fast. The question is, what are we going to do? Staying put now is not going to propel us into the future. The leadership and the skill of our directors today are not what was needed 50 years ago, or even 10 years ago. We need great leaders who to represent this industry we have created -- leaders and directors who represent us and make us proud. They need to have the skill to represent us at home to the rest of NZ, and overseas, to make us proud and successful.

I support changing how we choose our directors. This is the ultimate job interview for a serious position in our co-op, one of leadership designed to take us forward. It should be measured, thorough and able to match skills and qualities with the job at hand.

Remember we still will have the final say on who gets selected as our directors. We have the power to veto a selection. Just vote; it is too important to not care.

• Stu Taylor is a Rangitikei farmer, milking 900 cows and is a Fonterra supplier.