Management column: Collaboration key to growth and efficiency
October 31, 2024
Bringing business interests together in the floriculture sector is what Royal FloraHolland has derived its right to exist from the beginning of the last century. The power of the clock has remained as important as ever after all these years; I notice this every day when I talk to growers and buyers about our relevance to the sector. In recent years, however, we have worked intensively together to be more than just an auction. Our digital and logistics platform are now literally the heart of the company and offer the entire chain, both in the Netherlands and internationally, plenty of opportunities for growth and innovation.
Seizing opportunities
It is precisely these opportunities I want to seize with and for the sector by developing innovative and tailor-made trading methods, logistics services and financial settlement options. For me, building partnerships with both growers and buyers is indispensable in this, because only through cooperation can we increase the added value of the platform for global floriculture.
Platform growth plan
Royal FloraHolland, as facilitator of the platform, aims to make interaction between growers, members and buyers easy and enable them to achieve collective and individual goals. Our platform helps for optimal cooperation in ornamental plant cultivation worldwide, regardless of cultural or business differences. Customisation where necessary, standardisation where effective and achieving growth for entrepreneurs in floriculture, all these principles come together in our platform and therefore also in our growth plan for the coming years.
Doing business through partnerships
To me, Connect to grow is not just an empty promise in this context, but I see it as essential for the future of the cooperative, the Royal FloraHolland company and entrepreneurship in the sector. For me, steering for joint growth and being able to work as efficiently as possible in the chain are the two most important drivers in value creation. Joint strategic market development, cost control and innovation from partnerships with both buyers and growers, are for me paramount when we talk about growth and innovation.
Shared innovation agenda
Innovating from a shared agenda enables shared success. With the recently concluded covenant with exporters, joining hands for Floriday's future, we have taken an important step in working together for growth. The same goes for the various small-scale experiments we are now doing with growers and buyers to better support day trade. Examples include testing the effect of 100% supply of clock supply on Clock Presale, adjusting the price in between and bringing forward the starting time of buying.
Key to succes
To innovate successfully together from effective partnerships, creating an environment where everyone feels involved and heard is an important key. Therefore, from 2025, we will organise the development of our services, our platform and the contact with growers and buyers on this from two new pillars in our organisational structure. One pillar focuses entirely on value creation for growers (Grower Value Management) and the other focuses specifically on buyers (Buyer Partnership Development). This more customer-oriented organisational structure is one of the outcomes of our ‘Fit For Future’ trajectory. I am confident that both growers and buyers will soon notice positive effects.
Network effect
Finally, the value of our platform for the sector is, for me, fundamentally directly related to investing in scale. This is necessary to maintain our leading position and keep costs under control. The more parties use the platform, the bigger our global combined market share becomes and at the same time the cheaper the management of the platform is.
The entire industry benefits from this network effect. It strengthens the entrepreneurship of growers, members and buyers. Which is ultimately the ultimate goal of our digital and logistics platform and has always been the primary goal of the Royal FloraHolland cooperative.
Pieter Bootsma, Chief Executive Officer
Seizing opportunities
It is precisely these opportunities I want to seize with and for the sector by developing innovative and tailor-made trading methods, logistics services and financial settlement options. For me, building partnerships with both growers and buyers is indispensable in this, because only through cooperation can we increase the added value of the platform for global floriculture.
Platform growth plan
Royal FloraHolland, as facilitator of the platform, aims to make interaction between growers, members and buyers easy and enable them to achieve collective and individual goals. Our platform helps for optimal cooperation in ornamental plant cultivation worldwide, regardless of cultural or business differences. Customisation where necessary, standardisation where effective and achieving growth for entrepreneurs in floriculture, all these principles come together in our platform and therefore also in our growth plan for the coming years.
Doing business through partnerships
To me, Connect to grow is not just an empty promise in this context, but I see it as essential for the future of the cooperative, the Royal FloraHolland company and entrepreneurship in the sector. For me, steering for joint growth and being able to work as efficiently as possible in the chain are the two most important drivers in value creation. Joint strategic market development, cost control and innovation from partnerships with both buyers and growers, are for me paramount when we talk about growth and innovation.
Shared innovation agenda
Innovating from a shared agenda enables shared success. With the recently concluded covenant with exporters, joining hands for Floriday's future, we have taken an important step in working together for growth. The same goes for the various small-scale experiments we are now doing with growers and buyers to better support day trade. Examples include testing the effect of 100% supply of clock supply on Clock Presale, adjusting the price in between and bringing forward the starting time of buying.
Key to succes
To innovate successfully together from effective partnerships, creating an environment where everyone feels involved and heard is an important key. Therefore, from 2025, we will organise the development of our services, our platform and the contact with growers and buyers on this from two new pillars in our organisational structure. One pillar focuses entirely on value creation for growers (Grower Value Management) and the other focuses specifically on buyers (Buyer Partnership Development). This more customer-oriented organisational structure is one of the outcomes of our ‘Fit For Future’ trajectory. I am confident that both growers and buyers will soon notice positive effects.
Network effect
Finally, the value of our platform for the sector is, for me, fundamentally directly related to investing in scale. This is necessary to maintain our leading position and keep costs under control. The more parties use the platform, the bigger our global combined market share becomes and at the same time the cheaper the management of the platform is.
The entire industry benefits from this network effect. It strengthens the entrepreneurship of growers, members and buyers. Which is ultimately the ultimate goal of our digital and logistics platform and has always been the primary goal of the Royal FloraHolland cooperative.
Pieter Bootsma, Chief Executive Officer
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