A major organisational restructure and brand refresh launched four years ago has earned Droughtmaster Australia top honours as the nation's best exponent of excellence in business transformation, an accolade never before awarded to a cattle breed society.
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The cattle breed society will use the Australian Business Award announced on August 31 as endorsement for the strategy they first implemented in 2019 to re-energise their beef-producer membership and re-invigorate their brand.
Previous winners of the highly regarded award, bestowed annually and benchmarked globally, have included Westpac, Swinburne University, MTAQ, National Blood Authority and Sydney Water.
"It is an enormous achievement for our members and all our partners and stakeholders who have collaborated to re-model our organisation and prepare our business for the future," Droughtmaster Australia CEO, Simon Gleeson, said.
"Winning this award tells our members and anyone with an eye to breeding or running Droughtmaster cattle in the years ahead, or doing business with our organisation, that we are professional and future focussed".
Mr Gleeson said the four-year strategy to revitalise the business had four clear goals: grow membership and registered cattle numbers and promote the Droughtmaster breed and brand across the country, from paddock to plate.
He said all four metrics had declined from 2013, when the impact of drought had caused financial and emotional stress across the industry.
"Our organisation was not immune from this reality, and it was clear that if we wanted the outcome to be different then we had to approach our outlook, culture and operation differently as well," Mr Gleeson said.
"Change for any organisation is never easy, but it is absolutely necessary to stay relevant and to build resilience for any future challenges."
Change was driven from the top, with the composition of the organisation's board refreshed and equipped with governance training to ensure a solid foundation for change management was established, such as strategic planning, reporting, and communicating objectives and outcomes.
Office roles were consolidated and clarified to align with the organisation's new goals.
But the boldest move was reserved for the marketing of the Droughtmaster brand, and its repositioning in a highly competitive market composed of several cattle breeds vying for the attention of producers, who are forever looking to maximise their returns in variable seasonal conditions and volatile markets.
Bred to withstand Queensland's harsh conditions, adverse weather and abundant pests, Droughtmaster, as the name would suggest, was never conceived to be a consumer-interfacing brand when it was developed by Queensland cattlemen in the 1930s and registered as a breed in 1962.
Mr Gleeson said the marketing of the brand up until the makeover of the last four years, reflected the breed's functionality over its flavour and natural consumer appeal.
"We reviewed the brand's vivid red colour, and replaced it with softer, earthier tones to signal to the market that Droughtmaster was a more approachable beef product in its own right," Mr Gleeson said.
"Prior to the rebrand, the word Droughtmaster and the original harsh red colour palette carried connotations of heat, dryness, and toughness.
"The perception was that if the cattle were tough, so too was the beef.
"This is far from the truth. Rebranding opened many opportunities for the organisation and raised awareness of the quality of Droughtmaster beef."
Adopting a data-driven mindset will be crucial to the next phase of Droughtmaster Australia's restructure, which will roll through from this year until 2025, five years out from when the Australian cattle industry has committed, with some debate, to a carbon neutral status by 2030.
Mr Gleeson said data demonstrating the high performance of Droughtmaster cattle on grass, as well as grain, could provide something of a natural gravitational pull towards the breed when questions of sustainability and a lower carbon footprint become the key metrics during the decade for environmental-conscious consumers and investors applying an ESG lens to their committed funds.
