Course Overview:

The Seed Business 101 course was created, with input from seasoned industry executives, to accelerate the careers of talented new employees and novice managers. Attracting, motivating, and retaining talented new employees is a critical challenge for the seed industry. By selecting and sponsoring employees to attend this course, companies acknowledge past performance and invest in accelerated professional development.

The course also offers invaluable insights and perspectives to seed dealers and companies offering products and services to the seed industry, including seed treatments, crop protection, seed enhancement, technology, machinery, equipment, etc.

Course Curriculum:

The goal of Seed Business 101 is to shorten the learning curve of current and future seed leaders, seed professionals, ag. investors, and help them avoid costly mistakes. Instructors are experienced and successful seed executives.

Through lectures, case studies, and group assignments, this course would direct your attention to the optimum operations of the five major functional areas of a seed company:

• Plant Breeding and Research
• Production
• Operations
• Sales and Marketing
• Finance and Administration

The course offers participants a broad understanding of the major aspects of a seed company’s operations and a cross-departmental knowledge of best practices for profitability. Four case studies have been custom designed to immerse each participant in decision-making roles covering all five functional areas of a fictitious seed company. The course is designed to maximize interactive participation and exchanges between students and instructors.

Participants are introduced to the fundamentals of genetics and plant breeding, variety life cycle, supply chain and production planning, profitability, and financials of the seed business. The context for the case studies is provided by introducing the company history, organizational structure, sales history, and financials.  The first case study of marketing & sales function is introduced in the afternoon of the first day.

Over the 5 days of the course, participants will be divided into working groups to study critical processes in a seed company’s daily life through the following case studies:

• Gearing up to enter a new market
• Inventory management
• Product Liability
• New Product Introduction

Additional information on production, operations, production research, inventory management, R&D, and budgets, specific to the company activities is introduced during these case studies.  Guest speakers who are industry experts in the areas of the case studies, present before the group work.  At the end of each case study, each group will present the optimum strategy, followed by a discussion and instructors’ recommendations.

A visit to a local seed company site is included in the activities.  The final day offers opportunities to learn about seed technology research and the role of pollinators in seed production. Instructor critiques are conducted, followed by a course recap, final Q&A, and course evaluation. A Certificate of Completion is awarded to each successful graduate.

Instructors:

Mike Pereira, Principal Consultant, Granum Services, LLC, has 45 years of experience in seed production, the majority of which was focused on vegetable seed production, but also more recent experience in biofuels and stevia seed production. Mike has extensive experience in leading global seed production organizations and establishing new production areas around the world. In biofuels, he established the first hybrid seed system for Miscanthus, an ethanol feedstock, and directed hybrid seed production and plantation research of Jatropha, a diesel and jet fuel feedstock. Currently, Mike consults in seeds and alternative crops through his company, Granum Services, LLC.  He also is Chief Agronomist for Finistere Ventures, a leading venture capital company in agricultural technology, and is the lead instructor for three short courses for seed professionals through the Seed Biotechnology Center of UC Davis, Seed Business 101 – Horticulture, Seed Production, and Seed Biology, Quality and Pathology.

David R. Armstrong, CEO, Sakata
Dave Armstrong is president and CEO of Sakata America Holding Company, Inc., a role he has held since 2009. Armstrong leads all operations for Sakata within North and Central America, including research, seed production, sales and marketing, and distribution.  In a career spanning four decades in agriculture, Armstrong has established and developed businesses with direct profit and loss accountability on three continents, from bases in Kuala Lumpur, Tokyo, Amsterdam and the San Francisco Bay Area, among others. He has served as chairman of The American Seed Trade Association and is a member of the board of the International Seed Federation.  Armstrong lives in Palo Alto, California, with his wife, Federica, a documentary photographer and artist. Prior to joining Sakata, Armstrong held senior marketing and management positions with Syngenta. 

John Schoenecker, HM.Clause, retired
John spent over 32 years in the vegetable seed business with stints in sales, product management, marketing, legal, regulatory and intellectual property for HM.CLAUSE and it's legacy companies. John has been active in national and global aspects of the seed business serving as the ASTA (American Seed Trade Association) representative to the vegetable and ornamental section of the International Seed Federation (ISF)  and with the board and as chair of ASTA. John represented ASTA and was involved with developing the AgAccord and testifying to the US Senate to encourage the US to join the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources (ITPGR).

Jovan Djordjevic, Director of Education, Seed Biotechnology Center, UC Davis
Jovan is a plant breeder & seed executive with over 25 years of experience in the field crops and vegetable seed industries. His career began in France in 1996, as a Corn Breeder for Monsanto. Jovan continued in Canada as the Canola Breeding Lead for Monsanto, then in California as the R&D Team lead for Bayer/BASF. Throughout his prolific career, he has been a part of over 200 releases of hybrid varieties of corn, canola, tomato, pepper, sweet corn, watermelon, melon, cucumber, onions, carrots, and leek. In addition to being an SBC director of education, instructor for Plant Breeding academies and other SBC courses, Jovan is one of the founders and board director for Murray River Seeds and an industry consultant for plant breeding and business strategies with F2Gen LLC. He is looking forward, together with the SBC team of instructors, to impart his experiences to future generations of plant breeders and other seed industry professionals.

Questions? Contact Jeffrey Robinson at jerobinson@ucdavis.edu