World Grain - August 2022 - 28

FEATURE: WIDENING ITS ASIAN FOOTPRINT
Staying the course
through COVID-19
Scoular's Southeast Asia leadership team had just
put its five-year business plan in place, dotting every
" I " and crossing every " T, " and making contingency
plans for potential challenges that might
arise.
Despite the detailed planning, no one anticipated
a global pandemic to emerge from China that
would infect hundreds of millions and kill millions.
There was no business playbook for dealing with
the COVID-19 virus. Nor were Scoular officials
expecting a political coup to occur in Myanmar,
where the company had made significant investments
in what had been a stable political and business
environment.
" If somebody had told us we'd be facing the first
global pandemic in 100 years with strict mobility
restrictions, and that there was going to be a geopolitical
event of a certain magnitude in Myanmar
and asked us: Do you want to change any of your
plans? " said Adrian Gasparian, president of Scoular
Asia. " Obviously, we didn't have that luxury. "
Rather than alter its goals, which would have
been understandable given the circumstances,
Scoular's management team stayed the course and
improvised with creative solutions to challenges
that included everything from months-long pandemic-related
lockdowns, to extreme supply chain
dysfunction, and to a vastly different political environment
to navigate in Myanmar.
" You either do it or you don't, " Gasparian said.
" That is what we were tasked to do so we were
going to do it. We are actually progressing on or
ahead of schedule in a lot of places. Our teams
have been fantastic. We are blessed with having
industry-leading talent that has joined us. "
With shelter-in-place orders being stricter in
Asia than most parts of the world, Gasparian and
his leadership team were basically operating the
business by remote control. The team was prohibited
from visiting Scoular's US headquarters
for 18 months, was unable to visit Vietnam for
nearly three years, faced restrictions on hours that
its facilities could be open and, most importantly,
couldn't meet face to face with customers for
more than two years.
" The lockdown was very difficult and challenging, "
Gasparian said. " This is a part of the world
where people really want to do business in person. "
ment
has become more challenging, with a significant
increase in the number of bureaucratic hurdles
and administrative challenges making doing business
in Myanmar a much more complex endeavor.
Despite these unexpected challenges, Gasparian
said Scoular has not wavered in its commitment to
serve the people of Myanmar as an important cog in
the food supply chain.
The growth potential in the feed sector in
Myanmar, a country of 55 million people, makes it
worthwhile for Scoular to remain committed.
" Feed milling per capita is one-third of other
parts of the region, so it is very underdeveloped
with a lot of room for growth, " Gasparian said.
Prepared for the challenge
Gasparian, a native of Sáo Paulo, Brazil, said he has
carried a passion for the agribusiness industry since
he was a boy. He moved to the United States as a
teenager and graduated from Fairfield University in
Connecticut as well as the Harvard Business School
Executive Education program. Following graduation,
he was hired in 2007 by Chicago, Illinois, USbased
Archer Daniels Midland Co. (ADM) where he
worked as a merchandiser before being promoted to
merchandising manager in Colombia and Ecuador.
In 2011, he became general manager of ADM's Latin
American operations. He later was named director
of commodity distribution of ADM's Asia-Pacific
region operations from 2015-19 before accepting
Scoular's offer to become managing director of Asia
and now president of Asia and head of its internaitonal
grains and oilseeds operations.
Since Gasparian joined Scoular three years ago,
the company has increased its number of employees
in Asia from four to 84. He said the company's
investment strategy wasn't only about installing assets
and infrastructure, but also " investing in human
capital. "
" At the end of the day it should be a lot about
people, not just assets, " he said.
Privately-owned Scoular has more than 100 grain
storage and processing facilities in the United States
and Asia.
It among the largest grain companies in the
United States, as measured by grain-storage capacity.
According to the 2022 Grain & Milling Annual
published by Sosland Publishing Co., Scoular
has 132 million bushels of storage capacity in the
United States.
We want to hear from you - Send comments and inquiries
to worldgrain@sosland.com. For reprints of WG articles,
email reprints@sosland.com.
28
August 2022 / World Grain / World-Grain.com
http://www.World-Grain.com
World Grain - August 2022

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of World Grain - August 2022
