Column chairman FPC Nursery Plants: 'Our constituency talks through the product group'
November 23, 2023
Converting a Volkswagen Crafter into a camper? Hendrik-Jan Blom did it, in addition to being busy at his company Allure Tuinplanten and his commitment to the cooperative. The camper's baptism of fire was last June, with a trip to Pinkpop in Limburg.
Since this year I have been chairman of FPC Nursery Plants. I had been running for a few years, so when the previous chairman quit, I thought, I'd be happy to pick up that gauntlet. In the words of Pippi Longstocking, "I've never done it before, so I think I can do it. And for me, this is another fine challenge. As chairman, you have to prepare everything just that little bit better. Together with Monique (van der Knaap, FPC assistant) I set the agenda. You have to know in advance what's going on.
Questioning
One of the duties of an FPC chairman is to question current issues, such as recently the membership packages. What do we think of the Member Council and company proposals? And what does that mean for our product group? The importance of the FPC is obvious. From our product group we can think along and discuss matters that affect our sales through Royal FloraHolland. And we do that in advance - that is, when the decision-making process is not yet complete. In my opinion, that is more constructive than disagreeing afterwards with decisions that have already been made.
Appropriate for the product group
That sounds great, of course, but does it work in practice? As far as I am concerned, it does. When the membership packages were being drawn up, for example, our FPC was well included. Although we are not the first at the table - in this case the Council of Members conceived and described the initial outlines - we were able to share our thoughts on this several times afterwards. And that's nice. Because in this way we can ensure that the membership packages are also as appropriate as possible for our broad constituency. And indeed: not everything we come up with is picked up. And that's not possible: with 3500 different members, everyone has to make some concessions. And, of course, our product group covers only a small percentage of the entire membership.
Supporters in view
Another task of mine as chairman, but also of the other members in the FPC, is to involve our constituency in advice and decision-making. And therein lies a point of attention for us in the coming period. Because a large part of our supporters are not members of the cooperative, but they do supply many customers. So there is a certain interest. Approaching is not the problem, but engaging is. So we are putting extra effort into that now.
Entrepreneurs among themselves
The importance of the FPC is also that we as entrepreneurs talk among ourselves about the challenges we face in practice. We start every meeting with an excursion or company visit, and then issues like that often come up automatically. Like the issue of using less peat in potting soil. It's not that easy: plants dry out faster without peat. For example, our grasses are already about three days on their way to the end customer without being watered. This creates extra challenges, and then it's nice to discuss that with each other. It gets you out of your own bubble for a while, and that provides new inspiration and ideas. In short: the FPC and the presidency are valuable to me. I enjoy working for our cooperative in this way!
Since this year I have been chairman of FPC Nursery Plants. I had been running for a few years, so when the previous chairman quit, I thought, I'd be happy to pick up that gauntlet. In the words of Pippi Longstocking, "I've never done it before, so I think I can do it. And for me, this is another fine challenge. As chairman, you have to prepare everything just that little bit better. Together with Monique (van der Knaap, FPC assistant) I set the agenda. You have to know in advance what's going on.
Questioning
One of the duties of an FPC chairman is to question current issues, such as recently the membership packages. What do we think of the Member Council and company proposals? And what does that mean for our product group? The importance of the FPC is obvious. From our product group we can think along and discuss matters that affect our sales through Royal FloraHolland. And we do that in advance - that is, when the decision-making process is not yet complete. In my opinion, that is more constructive than disagreeing afterwards with decisions that have already been made.
Appropriate for the product group
That sounds great, of course, but does it work in practice? As far as I am concerned, it does. When the membership packages were being drawn up, for example, our FPC was well included. Although we are not the first at the table - in this case the Council of Members conceived and described the initial outlines - we were able to share our thoughts on this several times afterwards. And that's nice. Because in this way we can ensure that the membership packages are also as appropriate as possible for our broad constituency. And indeed: not everything we come up with is picked up. And that's not possible: with 3500 different members, everyone has to make some concessions. And, of course, our product group covers only a small percentage of the entire membership.
Supporters in view
Another task of mine as chairman, but also of the other members in the FPC, is to involve our constituency in advice and decision-making. And therein lies a point of attention for us in the coming period. Because a large part of our supporters are not members of the cooperative, but they do supply many customers. So there is a certain interest. Approaching is not the problem, but engaging is. So we are putting extra effort into that now.
Entrepreneurs among themselves
The importance of the FPC is also that we as entrepreneurs talk among ourselves about the challenges we face in practice. We start every meeting with an excursion or company visit, and then issues like that often come up automatically. Like the issue of using less peat in potting soil. It's not that easy: plants dry out faster without peat. For example, our grasses are already about three days on their way to the end customer without being watered. This creates extra challenges, and then it's nice to discuss that with each other. It gets you out of your own bubble for a while, and that provides new inspiration and ideas. In short: the FPC and the presidency are valuable to me. I enjoy working for our cooperative in this way!
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