World Grain - October 2008 - 79

FEATURE: CARGILL HISTORY BECOMES REVEALING, DYNAMIC GUIDE

no disagreements are neglected, in telling how Cargill reacted to and then adopted to fundamental shifts in how it
could best do business in the late 20th
century. Tough battles, both within the
company and within the two families
- the Cargills and MacMillans - who
own the business are spelled out in intriguing detail. Any reader involved in
a family-owned enterprise, which are
still very important in the global grain
and grain-based food industry, will find
amazing, yet also real, the disputes and
the acrimony that somehow culminated
in creating and establishing the presentday business. It was not always easy, but
the company's culture - something that
appears to mean more at Cargill than in
almost any other large company - and
its strategies shifted to fit momentous
global developments.
Nothing is more instructive than
the way Cargill changed from a business managed by family members and
owned solely by the family to one that
is now partly employee-owned and with
a board of directors comprised of family members, non-family executives
and independent outside directors. The
internal discussions and arguments that
led to this form of management, which
is probably unique to Cargill, are among
the most fascinating insights offered by
Professor Broehl.
The first four chief executives of Cargill dominated in the two earlier books.
They are the founder, William Wallace

Cargill, who led the company from
its start in 1865 to 1909, followed by
his son-in-law, John MacMillan, from
1910 to 1936, John MacMillan, Jr.,
from 1936 to 1960, and Erwin Kelm,
from 1960 to 1977.
The return of a family member as chief
executive, with Whitney MacMillan as
chief executive officer (CEO) from 1977
to 1995, provides the focal point of this
third volume. MacMillan, as the deter-

Any reader involved in a family-owned enterprise, which
are still very important in the
global grain and grain-based
foods industry, will find amazing, yet also real, the disputes
and acrimoney that somehow
culminated in creating and
establishing the present-day
business.

mined leader and principal player who
brought Cargill to its current stellar position on the global stage, is credited with
guiding the company through a period
of dramatic growth, diversification and
globalization. How he worked with management colleagues and family members
in reacting to complex issues of corporate governance, including a board that
eventually gained genuine independence,
make a major part of the Broehl story.

An example of how Cargill followed a
path different from its traditional competitors in grain trading and grain processing
is the decision to enter into beef and later
pork processing. Professor Broehl notes
that this entry became a significant point
of differentiation, requiring the company to develop new skills in managing
labor-intensive disassembly businesses
and also bringing a different cyclicality.
"And it pushed Cargill into closer contact
with a new world of customers, including
supermarket chains and the restaurant
trade," he notes.
Another significant step taken under MacMillan's guidance was bringing C.K. Prahalad, then a University
of Michigan professor and a highly
regarded management theorist, into
a consulting role at Cargill. Professor
Prahalad's focus was to urge corporations to think of themselves as a set of
skills, rather than a group of businesses.
It was agreed that Cargill's competencies were in risk management, distribution, transportation and commodity
trading. It also was agreed that "more
were needed, particularly marketing
skills and the ability to identify and
manage the nuances of new environmental threats arising on all the agendas of American corporations."
This approach prompted MacMillan
to warn against insularity, which he defined as "the trap of being so locked into
diverse lines of business and different
geographies that we lose our ability to

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World Grain - October 2008

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