NPR - USING BENCHMARKING AND KEY PERFORMANCE INDICATORS TO COMMUNICATE BETWEEN MANAGEMENT AND GOVERNANCE IN LARGE FARMING ENTERPRISES

Abstract

One of the challenges faced by Māori Trusts and Incorporations is complex ownership and the resulting need for timely and useful information to be available to all levels of the organisation that can facilitate good decision-making. A pilot programme involving 6 Māori corporate farming enterprises, used benchmarking, KPI’s and whole farm review as tools to inform changes to meet future objectives. Twenty nine responses were documented highlighting changes from simple examination of current farm practice. Benchmarking provided a set of data to examine the current state of the farm and highlight where changes may be made. However, the group identified many issues with using industry production and profitability benchmarks, mainly due to different governance and management structures, scale and farm objectives. The tools used had the power to provide an appropriate way of communicating both the needs and direction of change between the layers of management and governance.

Keywords: Benchmarking, Complex ownership, Key performance indicators.