I lost confidence in Brian when he was leading the Protein business, developed a strategy that decided to decrease the exposure of the business to the retail channel but in the first opportunity close to major deals with two major retailers. He doesn't walk his talk, is not strategic and doesn't know how to manage expectations with the family and board stakeholders. If this was a parliamentary government, he would receive a vote of no confidence from this cabinet.
There are multiple culprits to why the company got to these point. These are my highlights:
1- The company doesn't have standard processes and systems, so scaling operations passes by increasing headcount. When profitability problems arise, it's time to call McKinsey to hear the most standard of advices: Increase sales and cut costs to improve margins. And there we go on another wild ride chasing down where to cut staffing and what businesses ought to be sold.
2- The creation of BOSC was an epic mistake that shot the number of FTEs into the sky and didn't bring any synergies, on the contrary. Look at the example of the sustainability team, hundreds of people that cannot come up with a single viable project. Talking about Pilar Cruz, completely loss.
3- IT is a joke and the new CIO is a clown, with no clue on how to lead a global company that makes 60% of its profit outside the US. She's MN centric and lacks the business experience to lead the function outside the twin cities.
4- The new CHRO, another MN centric clown who didn't know about the other countries RIF laws and requirements. Thought that everything could be handled the same way it's done in the USA.
5- John Nash has reached its ceiling in this last promotion (google: Peter's principle). He's only there because of Sikes and has yet to prove he can do something fundamentally new and bold to change the situation.
6- The other business leaders are also very opportunistic and can only blame the functions for their P&L decreases.
7- Cargill is bad a sales, compare it with any other world-class company and our sales force is a joke with no tools, processes and intelligence. We sell a lot because of some dominant positions, it's more like a push to the market and creating new business opportunities that lead to innovation from the outside in.
8- The company has been talking about the importance of being good at changes for the past 20 years, but results are yet to come. IT has spent 20 years trying to rollout a single ERP globally and has failed. The Finance function has been under transformation for the past 10 years. HR outsourced its muscle and walked the brains out the door, it's a zombie function.
9- The family, currently the key family shareholders have long departure from deeply understanding the business and its cyclicality. They receive wealth management advisory from the largest banks in the globe and are growing greed and expecting the company to deliver results on par with companies that Cargill doesn't compare with. This also puts unrealistic expectations of the executive team, which in their turn don't make a good job at educating the family about what's fair to expect. And down to the vicious cycle we go again.
10- As Brian once said he sold the Pork business, every company has the shareholders it deserves. As of now, Cargill's leadership deserves private equity kind. Its employees deserve better.