Poole, in Auckland to attend the Red Meat Sector Conference, declined to elaborate, but industry sources said there was a strong appetite for change from farmers and the meat companies.
Alliance reported an operating loss before restructuring costs of $57 million for the year to last September, down from a profit of $20.7 million in the previous year.
Poole said the company would turn a small profit this trading year. The industry is estimated to have lost about $200 million last year.
Alliance, together with Otago's Silver Fern Farms, represents just over half the meat industry.
Both are farmer-owned co-operatives, with the rest of the sector tied up by several different local and international companies.
Poole said there was a mood for change in the industry.
"There is a suggestion that we need a better model and I don't think anyone has any disagreement with that," Poole said. "The trick is finding a model that we can get agreement on with a wide range of stakeholders that will deliver the business."
The industry was "disparate" in nature with a range of different stakeholders, he said.
"Trying to find the ideal solution in these circumstances is challenging, but we're working on it."
Beef and Lamb chief economist Andrew Burtt told the conference that dairy now takes up 2.3 million hectares of land compared to 1.35 million in 1990-91.
Between 1990-91 and 2013-14, dairy cattle numbers increased by nearly 90 per cent while sheep and beef cattle numbers fell by 47 per cent and 22 per cent respectively, he said.
Taking into account land use changes, livestock number changes and other factors, such as the impact of the drought, Beef and Lamb expects the lamb crop this spring to be down on last season by 9.3 per cent, or 2.5 million lambs.
This would lead to an estimated lamb slaughter of 18.2 million, down 10 per cent compared with 20.3 million in 2012-13.
