- So if I'm halfway
through my tenure
and I've got another
five years to go,
you start to think about
what difference can we make
in the world
through our company,
through our products,
through our employees.
And so you go from being,
I'll call it tactical,
in just figuring out the
job to being strategic,
and how can I help us
live out our purpose?
(gentle music)
- Hello.
I'm Magalie Laguerre-Wilkinson.
Welcome to Ethics in
Business: In Their Own Words.
To celebrate the fifth annual
Global Ethics Day
in October 2018,
ACCA, the Association of
Chartered Certified Accountants,
has teamed up with Carnegie
Council and CFA Institute
to produce this
interview series.
It features global
business leaders
exploring how businesses are
preparing for an ethical future
in the face of
threats and challenges
presented by globalization,
technology, and
human psychology.
Today, we are talking
to David MacLennan,
chairman and CEO of Cargill,
an international food
and agriculture leader.
Cargill's team of 155,000
employees in 70 countries
are working to nourish
the world in a safe,
responsible, and
sustainable way.
Cargill connects
farmers with markets,
customers with ingredients,
and people and animals
with the food they need.
It serves as a partner for
food, agricultural, financial,
and industrial customers
in more than 125 countries.
So, David MacLennan, thank
you for joining us today
as part of this series.
We're really, really honored
that you're doing this with us.
I'm gonna start with a
really simple question
because you're at the helm
of Cargill: What is Cargill?
- Cargill is a 153-year-old
privately owned agriculture,
food, and nutrition company.
We're in 70 countries
around the world.
Our mission is to nourish
the world in a safe,
responsible, and
sustainable way.
We're basically a food company,
not only basic food,
transportation, logistics,
getting it from farmers
to where it's needed,
but also making food ingredients
like cocoa and chocolate,
beef, ground beef, chicken.
So that's who we are.
- What role does Cargill
play in the community?
- Well, we take our role in
any community very seriously.
So we have 1,500 locations
around the world,
and we are not only giving of
our time to those communities,
but also we give financial
support where it's needed.
But we, as part of our
mission and part of our core,
take our commitment to those
communities very seriously.
We're not just in a community
to take labor or
to take resources.
We're there to give back
and to be integrated with
the local community and to be
a responsible citizen there.
- And when you say "integrated
with the local community,"
can you give examples?
In what way?
- Well, it means being
sponsors of local organization.
It means creating opportunities
for our colleagues,
our employees, to volunteer.
It means providing
some financial support
in those communities.
But it means being a citizen
and not just an employer.
- Understood.
So your role has
sort of evolved,
and I'm getting into
a little bit of your,
I don't know if it's
called philanthropic work
or perhaps being a
volunteer in a community,
but you've recently partnered
with the ONE campaign,
which is an unlikely
partnership it seems,
right, to say the least.
Can you talk a little bit,
how that has evolved
and how it's developed?
- Well, we're partners
with ONE, as you know,
and our view is we can't
do it by ourselves.
We need organizations like
ONE to help show us the way,
to help integrate us
with the communities
in terms of ending poverty
and recognizing that
poverty is sexist,
which is a tag line
of the ONE campaign.
It fits with our purpose.
It fits with our culture.
And they're a great partner.
So, on the surface,
it may seem that we're
unlikely partners,
but it is a great partnership,
and we're very proud to
be affiliated with them.
- What are some specific
philanthropic efforts
that Cargill is undertaking?
- I think one that comes to mind
and that really I think captures
a lot of people's imaginations,
is farmer training.
And so we can train them in
some of the basics of farming,
when to water, when to
harvest, how to use pesticides.
For example, in Ghana and
Cote d'Ivoire in West Africa,
we're also putting the money
back into the community
by paying a premium for farmers
that raise their
cocoa sustainably,
so we'll pay more, which
allows them to create a bank,
a medical facility, a school.
So they're gaining skills that
are above and beyond farming,
and so it's kind of a,
call it a two-edged effect,
which is we'll teach
them and help train them
to farm responsibly
and sustainably,
but we'll also reinvest in the
community through a premium
so that they can build
an infrastructure
for their village.
- So that's really unique.
I don't think a
decade ago, even,
we would hear the words
big corporate America
and community in
the same sentence,
and yet we're seeing
this happening,
and you're evident of that.
You're doing this.
Do you do that also
in the United States?
- We do, we do it
throughout the world.
I was in Nicaragua,
so with our
partnership with CARE,
and investing in a local school
where families depend on
their school for their meals.
So we've invested
in a local school
to help them build a kitchen
so that the school can
provide two meals a day
for nutrition for their kids,
where it's a very poor country,
and so this is helping
families there.
So it's something that
we do in every country.
We've built in Vietnam
about 80 schools
in the towns, the villages
where we are doing business
with the shrimp farmers,
and we're on our way
to a hundred schools.
The leader of Vietnam
once referred to us
as the school company.
I kind of like that.
We're a food company,
but we're also a school
company in Vietnam.
- I want to ask you,
you've been at the helm of
Cargill now for five years.
How have you seen
your role there?
How have you evolved as a CEO,
and how has the company
evolved in the last five years?
- I think your first year
your head is kind of spinning.
You're getting used to the job,
you're getting used to
sorting out information
and what do you need to do and
where can you make an impact.
But as you get
four or five years
under your belt of service,
you start to think:
How can we make the
world a better place?
How can I help our employees
and our company
achieve our mission?
And it's going so fast.
And so if I'm halfway
through my tenure
and I've got another
five years to go,
you start to think about
what difference can we make
in the world
through our company,
through our products,
through our employees.
And so you go from being,
I'll call it tactical,
in just figuring out the
job to being strategic,
and how can I help us
live out our purpose?
- You know, it seems as though,
and I'm going back
again as well,
but the CEO is always someone
who seemed to be untouchable,
and yet you're in the company.
You're not just at the
head of the company,
but you're in it.
How have you made
yourself in the company?
- I really work hard
on accessibility.
For example, even
in our headquarters,
I try to eat lunch downstairs
at least once a week.
We have a community table
where we invite anybody
who wants to each lunch so
you don't know each other,
and I'll go and
sit at that table.
I travel the Cargill world,
and I go into the plants and
ask people: How are we doing?
Do you like working here?
Do you feel safe?
Safety is a very important
component of our culture.
I just think authenticity
and transparency,
accessibility for all
of our leadership team
is a value that we place
a lot of importance on.
People want to know
who's running this place,
it's not just me, it's also
our top leadership team,
what are their values,
what do they believe in,
and hopefully touch
them in some way
that makes them feel valued
and makes them feel important.
- So speaking of being involved
in the company and what you do,
having lunch and so
forth with employees,
but I want to ask you:
How does Cargill work
to create diversity in
the industries it serves?
- There's a lot of different
things we're doing,
and it's something that's very
important to me personally.
So our leadership team out of
nine has three women on it,
and it's the first time
in Cargill's history
that we've had women on
our top leadership team.
I have asked our executive team
that if you're asked
to speak on a panel,
it has to be diverse.
So if it's all Caucasian men,
I won't serve on the panel.
It has to have a
level of diversity
either in the moderator
or the other panelists.
I've also asked our
teams that if you show up
with a group of people at a
meeting that isn't diverse,
bring someone along,
female, African American,
Hispanic, for development.
So I think part
of it's a mindset.
We also have specific
targets about diversity
that we want to
achieve over time.
We'll be better as we
get to be more diverse.
In some countries
and around the world,
there are very
diverse populations,
but I think it's something
that I spend a lot of
time thinking about,
and our leadership team is
really focused on improving.
- What are some
of the challenges
you find that minorities
face in the industry?
- I think it depends
on where you're located
and access to minority talent.
So certain cities don't have
a large pool of minority talent.
I would say we have a trading
component in our company.
There are not a lot
of women in trading,
but we are working on
getting women developed
and coming out of college
to have a career in trading.
But you can't just
fall back and say,
well, there's not
enough of a population
for us to create diversity.
So I think you
have to measure it.
You have to see what
are your statistics.
But I also think it's a mindset,
and diversity is inclusion,
it's being aware of
your subconscious bias,
it's allowing people to
come in and be who they are.
So it's part culture, but
it's also part metrics
that merge together to create
an inclusive environment.
- How does Cargill help
management, employees,
and providers adapt to
technological change?
- Well, it's through training.
Again, I think it's cultural,
but it's also skills-based,
and I think part of the message
we try and give culturally
is we all need to adapt our
skills and to be proactive
and not wait until the day comes
when the job can be
given to automation.
And so, for example, we have
a role in our beef business
where there was a person
who would herd the cattle,
which could be dangerous,
you're out in a feed lot,
and these are big,
untamed animals,
and so we developed a robot,
and the robot moves
the cattle along.
The person who used to have
that job now manages the robot.
So it means a different
set of skills.
It means a set of
technological skills,
and so their job has
been rotated upward,
so they now sit above and look
down and control the robot,
which is a more lasting
set of skills over time
than someone who just
moves the cattle along.
- And this individual
has gotten the training
thanks to Cargill to be
able to man the robot.
- Exactly.
And so that's part of
investing in technology skills
where otherwise there
might not have been a need
other than the fact
that we created
a mechanized process for safety.
It's safer to have a
robot amongst the cattle
than it is a person.
- No, that's smart and
I think also reassuring
because usually it's the
robot replaces the person,
and there goes the job.
- Exactly.
- What is the greatest ethical
challenge facing Cargill
and your industry in general?
- I think keeping
people safe every day.
We have 155,000 employees
and 100,000 contractors
in 1,500 locations
around the world,
and our purpose, to nourish
the world in a safe,
responsible, and sustainable
way, I want people to be safe.
I want the food that
we make to be safe,
and I want people to know
that they're also safe
to be who they are and to bring
their whole selves to work,
not to be afraid of who they
are or their backgrounds.
So safety isn't just
about physical safety,
it's about emotional safety.
So it's been one of my
primary objectives as CEO,
but also of our leadership team,
to make Cargill the safest
company in the world.
And also, in our business and
our industries of making food,
there's a lot of
mechanized activities,
there's a lot of danger,
and I just think that's
a moral imperative
for a company like ours
is to keep people safe.
- How has Cargill
transformed communities?
- I think our long-term
commitment to those communities,
being part of the community,
to integrate with the
fabric of the community
through the people that we hire,
through our
volunteer activities,
through being a
responsible citizen,
whether it be the environment,
and being there
for the long term
and not just pulling up
stakes when things go bad.
The fact is, we're
a private company.
We can take a long-term view,
and that's a real advantage.
And I'm lucky.
I don't have to worry about
quarterly earnings reports
and going in front of analysts
or activist shareholders.
We take the long-term view.
And one of our values,
so we have three stated
values, put people first.
That mean we're there
for the long term.
- How do you balance
purpose and profit?
- They're not exclusionary.
You can have both.
There's an example
that was recent,
just about six months ago,
where we had a starches and
sweeteners facility in Indonesia
which we discovered was unsafe.
There were components
that we needed to fix.
So we closed the plant down,
and people went home
for a couple of months
while we made the
repairs to make it safe,
and it cost millions of dollars
in lost profit opportunity
to have closed the plant.
But the employees came back.
They didn't lose their jobs.
It was a safer place
for them to work.
There's never a
doubt in our mind
to put people above profits,
and it was a very easy decision
for us to close the plant.
- You're in over 70
countries around the world,
and you're doing
right by the people,
but there are
certain governments
that operate in different
ways than others.
How do you navigate
that as well?
- Very carefully, you
navigate it very carefully.
But if we feel that
there is a country
where we cannot do business
ethically or responsibly,
we'll leave the country.
In most cases, you create
very close relationships
with local governments.
So, for example, in China,
we have relationships
with the national government,
but also on the
provincial level,
you get to know who
the governors are,
and they want us
there providing jobs,
infrastructure, and investment.
So in those 70 countries, every
country has got its issues,
but we've been
able to do business
successfully and ethically.
But if that day ever comes
when we just feel we can't
do that, we won't be there.
(gentle music)
