20 th

AnnuAl IPSA ConferenCe

Highlights Agenda

• How Independent Seed Companies Tuesday, Jan. 20th can build a sustainable and • Pre-conference Tours competitive advantage

• General Session I

• Educational sessions in each of

• Casino Night four tracks: Owners, Sales, Office

Wednesday, Jan. 21st

Administration and Production

• General Session II

• 30 Trade show exhibits

• Annual Members Luncheon

• General Sessions addressing • Educational Breakout change in the industry Sessions for Owners,

• Shopping, Museums and and

Sales, Office Adminitration
IMAX Theater all nearby
and Production

• “Sock Hop” Dinner and Entertainment

Thursday, Jan. 22nd

• General Session III

Registration Info at www.independentseeds.com

For more details call 402-991-3550

R

Specialists in Wildflowers Since 1965

Hundreds of Species

Regional, Special Use & Custom Mixtures

Native Grasses

Wildflower Seeds

For a Catalog:
Phone: 303.431.7333
Fax: 303.467.7886
Email:
sales@applewoodseed.com

5380 Vivian Street Arvada, CO 80002 USA www.applewoodseed.com

Today, Illinois-based Wyffels Hybrids boasts almost 100 employees, and focuses its efforts and resources solely on the development of corn hybrids and technologies that help their customers maximize their profits.

“Bob and I made the decision early on to remove ourselves from running our own farming operation,” Bill Jr. explains. “We wanted to focus on our customers, which we see as paramount, and remove ourselves from being competitors with them.”

They also realized, early on, how important it was to play to their individual strengths and interests. While Bill Wyffels carries the official title of company President, he shares with Bob a full and equal partnership. Their roles, however, are as different as they are. Bill focuses more on marketing, for example, while Bob takes care of supply and production.

“I think we both understood from the beginning the value of those differences, and understood how much we needed each other,” Bill explains.

There’s even greater diversity around their decision-making table. For many years, the Wyffels brothers have shared decision-making with an executive team of three other employees whose strategic abilities and insight have been critical to the company’s success.

Ownership vs. Leadership

When it comes to succession planning at Wyffels Hybrids, a clear distinction has been drawn: ownership is one thing, leadership another.

Bill and Bob have five children between them – three of whom are still in college. Though none are currently working full time for the family firm, all have spent summers and weekends learning the business from the ground up

“We’ve really encouraged them to get experience, to go find out what’s happening in the rest of the world,” Bill explains. “What we have always tried to tell them is: ‘We want you to do what you love. If you are really driven to work in corn hybrids, then by all means, come work here.’ Right now it’s still too early to tell if that is their passion.”

Wyffels’ highest priority is hiring top talent. “We want the best people leading Wyffels that we can get. If that’s a blood relative, that’s great, but our succession planning involves trying to develop strong people internally,” he adds.

Securing that talent is no easy feat in a booming agricultural industry where competition is fierce. The company has a full-time expert on staff whose role is to manage recruitment and skills development. Once employees are on board, the company strives to provide ample opportunities to learn, to make mistakes without penalty and to lead projects and teams so that they have an opportunity to demonstrate their strengths – and find their passion.

“Passion made up for a lot of mistakes I made,” Bill notes with a laugh.

Of course those who want to lead in the fast-paced seed sector must also have the ability to stay on top of the phenomenal growth in science and technology, understand the needs of a rapidly changing market and interface effectively with increasingly sophisticated customers.

“It takes a very talented individual. For success, the challenge is to find individuals who are up for it,” he says. Leslie Vryenhoek