![]() The Daniels Linseed Company, later renamed Archer Daniels Midland and today known simply as ADM, started in 1902 with a linseed oil mill in Minneapolis. In 2019 we unveiled a new corporate purpose-“to unlock the power of nature to enrich the quality of life”-and I believe that over the past decade our heightened focus on innovating for the customer has brought us even closer to fulfilling that purpose. This transformation has been not radical but methodical and mission-driven. ![]() And we have identified three long-term global macro trends-food security, sustainability, and health and well-being-around which we are making capital-allocation, strategic, and operational decisions. In all three units we now sell not just raw or processed commodities but differentiated products. ![]() ![]() Nine years later we have done just that: We’ve reorganized the company into three segments: agricultural services and oilseeds, which procures, transports, trades, crushes, and processes oilseeds and grains carbohydrate solutions, which focuses on processing corn and wheat into starches, sweeteners, and inputs for industrial and consumer products and nutrition, which develops and supplies flavors, specialty ingredients, and formulation services for food, beverage, and animal nutrition customers, along with solutions oriented toward health and well-being. We needed to think more deeply about the end consumers of ADM’s offerings-billions of people and animals around the world-and better serve them. My goal was to focus our business not just on the buying, processing, and selling of commodities-which had for too long left us vulnerable to market volatility-but also on value-added nutrition products and services, which represented a more stable sector in which we could move closer to our customers and build a broader base for growth and impact. Now it was time to turn our full attention to another C: consumers. We had become much more strategic and disciplined about capital, costs, and cash, and had greatly improved our financial position. I’d spent the previous three years as ADM’s COO, working with the rest of the leadership team to streamline and reorganize our divisions and reorient everyone in them toward smart investments and innovation. When I stepped into the CEO role at Archer Daniels Midland, in 2014, I had a clear vision for the future of our century-old agricultural products and services company. This story offers lessons for other companies that are trying to envision and execute similar change efforts. In 2019 ADM unveiled a new corporate purpose-“to unlock the power of nature to enrich the quality of life”-and over the past decade its heightened focus on innovating for the customer has brought it even closer to fulfilling that purpose. This transformation has been methodical and mission-driven. And ADM’s leaders have identified three long-term global macro trends-food security, sustainability, and health and well-being-around which the company is making capital-allocation, strategic, and operational decisions. All three units sell not just raw or processed commodities but differentiated products. Now the company is split into three segments: agricultural services and oilseeds carbohydrate solutions and nutrition. The goal was to reorient the business toward value-added nutrition products and services, a more stable sector in which it could build a broader base for growth and impact. But then the leadership team turned its attention to another important C: customers. It streamlined and reorganized its divisions, refocused its teams on smart investments and innovation, and became more strategic and disciplined about capital, costs, and cash. In the early 2010s ADM, a century-old agricultural products and services company, embarked on a big transformation.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |