Strategy planning

Download: Version of the Strategic Research Plan issued for public debate (in Hungarian) »

Methodology of preparation of the Strategic Research Plan (SRP)

The method used in the initial phase of the strategy planning was an important pillar of the preparation of the Strategic Research Plan. This method was considered relatively new not only in Hungarian aquaculture but in the entire Hungarian agriculture, as well, in contrast with the financial or trade sector where information collection in the form of workshops is an organic part of development. So far, one-sided professional communication and implementation of the decisions of a small group of stakeholders was characteristic of the entire sector. These processes did not allow expression of thoughts and joint thinking of others related to the industry in one way or another. We, however, believe that in some situations one-sided information flow has to be replaced by the creation of something new, progressive, more efficient on a group or ogranizational level by integration and synthesis of the thoughts, experiences and views of a given work group. Efforts were made to explore the interests of different market players and interest groups related to a given professional background were addressed in four workshops (+ one other workshop to draw conclusions). (Figure 1.)

Figure 1. Interest groups and the network of their connections in the Hungarian aquaculture sector

Attention was paid to avoid moderation of these brainstorming-type meetings by a person related to the sector (who is therefore known by the participants and may have good rhetoric skills), thus, Szinergia Kft. a company specialized in this type of work and independent of the sector was invited to carry out the workshops. Thus, dialogs were not conducted along a direction set by a moderator but problems, issues and comments were addressed through the “outsider” approach represented by Szinergia Kft. We believe that professional presentation skills were not sufficient for these procedures and the knowledge of group processes, techniques required to map and explore group opinions, stimulation of the activity of group members as well as ability to utilize surfaced information in a group-level creative process based on joint thinking are all required.

Sector stakeholders had to be identified prior to the workshops (Figure 2.):

1. Producers: those who draw income from the sector,
2. Salespeople: sell fish or means of production as products,
3. Processors: producers of fish products, from Hungarian or foreign production,
4. R&D: Research institutes, universities,
5. Education: currently only higher education, no existing secondary training,
6. Sector control: Ministry, Agricultural and Rural Development Agency, advocacy groups, professional authorities (ÁNTSZ, OÉTI, etc.),
7. Consumers: population, gastronomy and public restaurants.

Figure 2. Information channels in the formation of SRP

Development of SRP

The summary of strengths, opportunities, weaknesses and threats present in the sector was harmonized and synergized by the Scientfic Advisory Body (SAB) of the Platform based on the uniform SWOT analyses and messages formed by participants of individual workshops. This served as a background for strategic focusing points to follow. Subsequently, the Strategic Plan was released by the SAB for public debate by participants of the fisheries sector of other (environmental, veterinary, water management authorities) stakeholders. Feedback information was incorporated by the SAB into the final Strategy.