Laura Blomme, owner and president of Hedlin Ag, works with agribusinesses and clients for leadership and executive searches and role placements.
Three trends she’s seeing in ag retail the industry:
- Retirements are accelerating the leadership crunch in ag retail.
- Finance skills are becoming table stakes for agronomy/grain/retail executives.
- The leadership profile ag retailers want now: operational, strategic, and culture-first.
Blomme has been with Hedlin in executive recruiting for almost 10 years, and assists in filling roles including CEO, CFO, general manager, and division vice presidents.
“We really try to specialize and hone in on the relationship side of recruitment and working really closely with our clients to provide the best quality experience for them and for the candidates that we work with,” she says.
Regarding the wave of retirements, she says it’s creating an issue where a lot of experience is walking out of the door. Simultaneously, she says there’s an increased need for financial prowess in leadership. Those two factors are really upping the requirements for candidates in addition to their understanding of the grain, agronomy and energy sides of the business.
“At the end of the day, everybody’s looking for the folks that understand the operations and can really have a real strategic vision when it comes to their job, but also really strong people leaders,” she says.
Blomme says it’s important for businesses to be building a leadership bench from within, which includes professional development, cross training and other growth opportunities. With many businesses running lean, it’s become less of a priority to build leaders internally.
And when leaders step in new roles with expanded responsibility, she says the first year is often the most difficult.
“You’ve got to have a good support of people, and hopefully you have a really strong board that you can work with as well, and ideally, the outgoing a general manager or CEO is going to be helpful in that process, too, and available,” she says.
As such she gives these keys to success for a first-time GM/CEO transition:
- Build a reliable network of peers/advisors you can call with questions.
- Have a strong board relationship; board communication is “critical.”
- Ideally get support from the outgoing CEO/GM during handoff.
- Prior exposure/mentoring before the role (more responsibility, cross-functional exposure) improves success—especially in year one.
Additional tips for role seekers and hiring managers are available in the full interview:
