 Aline Funk
CEO
Channel Bio Corp.
USA
How does my work benefit from what I learned earlier in
my professional life?
After completing graduate school, the next ten years of
my career were spent in the global financial services
industry. During this period I was involved in many
different businesses ranging from internal mergers and
acquisitions to private banking to the European foreign
exchange markets. I participated on a number of
strategic teams looking at issues such as the future of
the credit card industry, the development of financial
markets in Japan, and the risks associated with
skyrocketing rates of interest rate hedging, among
others. I am frequently told that I have a very unusual
background for a seed industry participant!
While I often look at some of the senior managers in our
industry whose tenure far exceeds my own fifteen years,
and whose deep knowledge of agriculture is
awe-inspiring, I would not trade my prior experience.
While many participants in our industry have a strong ag
background, we do not have many participants with
experience working in an outside, regulated,
consolidating industry – an industry that is also as
complex and risky as agriculture.
I think my current work benefits in four key ways from
my prior experience:
1. Risk management – This is the foundation of global
financial services, and is also at the center of the
seed industry. Understanding how to correctly identify
and measure our risks, which often come from unexpected
sources, is critical to success. Equally important, we
need to understand how our customers are looking at
risk, and what they might be missing. In row crop
seeds, we are truly in the business of helping our
customers manage risk.
2. Understanding that “It’s not just doing a few
things well” – In the seed industry, like so many other
industries, success comes to those who do almost all
things extremely well. Some elements of the business
are more visible than others, but all must be executed
at a very high level: product line management,
production, customer communication, supplier
relationships, financial management, human resources,
and on and on… Financial services was the same.
Margins were thin, and there was little room for error.
One quote we use a lot with our management team is:
“There are no shortcuts to anywhere worth going.”
3. Globalization – Living in Europe and working in a
business that was subject to European regulatory
authorities has given me a greater appreciation for both
the opportunities and challenges of global agriculture.
In addition, travel in Asia, Africa and South America
has played a major role in building my passion for this
wonderful industry and for the tangible benefits, both
environmental and food-related, the seed industry is
poised to bring to the rest of the world.
4. Long term strategic thinking is critical – In
industries such as financial services, very big
strategic bets are made, with large upsides and
downsides for customers. Lead times are long, and
companies who fail to analyze situations correctly and
respond to them with a well thought out strategic view
will quickly fall behind. The seed industry is no
different. My prior experience sensitized me to the
importance of getting the big choices right for the
customer.
Could other companies benefit from what I’ve learned in
the seed industry?
I can only respond relative to the American row crop
seed industry, but I think other industries can learn a
lot from our approach to working with customers. For
farmers, agriculture is not just a job, it’s a way of
life, and good seed professionals understand this.
Other industries could benefit from this more holistic
and personal approach to working with their customers.
A second area in which I think the seed industry is
ahead of many other industries is related to technology
adoption. There are few other industries that have
undergone the incredible technology adoption process
that the US row crop industry has undergone in the last
ten years. Outsiders could learn a lot from the speed
and relative smoothness of this transition.
Aline Funk can be reached at
aline.funk@channelbio.com
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