Inspiration comes with Dairy Women’s Network appointment

MEDIA RELEASE
28 November 2011
Inspiration comes with Dairy Women’s Network appointment

One of the country’s most influential woman business leaders is bringing her inspirational leadership style to the board of agriculture’s fastest growing network.

Sue Lindsay has been appointed to the board of the Dairy Women’s Network (DWN) after the retirement of founding member Christina Baldwin.

“Sue’s high level of energy and inspirational vision for female leadership will be familiar to anyone who has attended some of our successful conferences in recent years,” says DWN chair Michelle Wilson.

Her presence on the board cements DWN as a leading force in rural women’s leadership, and is a personal commitment to see more women move into leadership roles within the industry.

Lindsay brings a strong affinity for the rural sector, having grown up on a farm near Winton and running it for three years following her father’s death.

She was a leading light in agri-business management for nine years, as head of rural supplies company, CRT, in Southland. During her time there she doubled revenues for the Top 200 company and instilled a culture of commitment and passion to service within staff members. She has since been working closely with rural women, developing and delivering BNZ’s Women in Agribusiness leadership courses and collaborating with international business consultant, Tom Peters.

“Over the years I have seen DWN develop a strong nurturing environment, helping women develop on a personal and professional level. There is a wealth of confidence and competence within the group and many of its members are ready to step up within the agribusiness industry,” she says.

She believes it was far sighted and visionary work by DWN founding members to establish a strongly internet-driven forum for dairying women. This structure helped women get together on line and has helped Network numbers build quickly.

“Women need to be able to connect easily given the busy lives so many of them have. The internet-based network has helped dairying women collaborate well and has made the Network a body highly regarded - that is reflected in the calibre of its sponsors and respect it is given.”

Sue Lindsay’s latest research work has provided her with a springboard for identifying and promoting potential leading women from within DWN ranks.

She is about to release the work, titled “The Feminine Perspective – the role of women in the New Zealand economy.”
“Global research indicates women are involved in 64% of all buying decisions, but our work indicates it is nearer 70% in New Zealand. I would suspect it is even higher for women involved in dairying businesses.”

Despite this level of influence, she is concerned at the low level of involvement women have beyond the farm gate in the New Zealand agribusiness sector.

“Only 11.8% of positions on New Zealand agribusiness boards are represented by females, and that figure needs to be at least 30% to generate the critical mass to have meaningful impact.”

She sees DWN as the ideal incubator to push the talent there onto those boards, given the number of women already key partners in dairy businesses rivalling many corporates for turnover and staff levels.

In seeking great leaders for inspiration, Lindsay cites Air New Zealand’s CEO Rob Fyfe and Howard Schultz of Starbucks as two leaders who understand the need to engage their people at all levels of the business to achieve the organisations full potential sustainably.

“The level of engagement of staff in many businesses is low, and there is a need for us to re-examine how we get Generation Y engaged with companies. I believe it is time for a new leadership story and without a commitment to that change a leadership crisis looms.

“There are many studies that show a balance of male and female leaders is beneficial to a company in all respects. We are simply not seeing that in New Zealand agri-business.

“DWN has created a critical mass of like minds and will be a key driver for dairying women wanting to advance to leadership positions in the agri-sector in coming years, it’s great to be part of that from the inside now.”

-ENDS-

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