Alum helps corporations embrace change

photo and story by Nicholas Jain, posted May 3, 2010

From a farm in rural Edina, Mo., Brian Stevenson has served as a vice-president of Interstate Bakeries and now operates B. Stevenson Associates, a consulting firm in Kansas City, Mo.

In high school, Stevenson describes himself as “the FFA guy,” and he participated in all the activities the organization offered before he came to the University of Missouri. He enjoyed his time at the university and was interested in the fact that he could understand economics. He became a teaching assistant in the Agricultural Economics department and was often paired in lectures with then T.A. and current professor, Jan Dauve.

Brian Stevenson, B.S.in Agricultural Economics, 1976, recently visited the MU campus to share his expertise with students.

Stevenson worked for the U.S. Department of Agriculture Statistical Reporting Service, now known as the National Agricultural Statistical Service. Working for the USDA taught him about statistical methods and it taught him to not make decisions based on someone’s opinions, but instead to look at numbers and act based on the facts. The Statistical Reporting Service also required him to take a math and statistics course every semester. Stevenson says that although economics is always in the background, he uses the statistics he learned then on an everyday basis now to sort through and make decisions based on numbers.

After graduating with a B.S. in Agricultural Economics in 1976, Stevenson started his 20-year tenure in the grain industry. He worked for elevators that bought grain from farmers or smaller elevators and consolidated it. He then worked for an export grain trading firm for 17 years.  In 1996, Stevenson went to work for Interstate Bakeries as a vice president of procurement and a member of the senior management council.

“I was part of the team that sat there and made strategic decisions that put us in a position to go bankrupt,” Stevenson said.

He decided to leave the company because it was clear to him the company was instituting policies and tactics that would drive them into bankruptcy, but other members of the council and the CEO did not agree with him. Stevenson thought the company needed to change, but the new CEO thought the company didn’t have enough money to hire a new team to replace the people who didn’t want to change.

Stevenson said this behavior was typical — it made sense for the existing team to resist change as they had come up through that system and been well compensated in the process.

He knew that he needed to leave, but he stayed for 18 months to restructure the company as it went though bankruptcy. He became the head of Project S.O.A.R. (Systems Optimization And Restructuring) and evaluated how the company should operate from the CEO on down. He said the company was not using its capacity well, as 10,500 trucks started each day half full, so only half the truck and the driver were being used.

After he left Interstate Bakeries, which emerged from bankruptcy as Hostess Brands, Stevenson started a consulting firm and made pitches to companies to help them with procurement and assessing and managing price risk. It turned out that the companies didn’t necessarily need help with procurement, but there were other issues he could help them solve. They valued his restructuring experience. He initially started with a specific goal, but he realized that the market needed help with more general issues.

“I help all the firms along the value chain from the farm gate to the center of the plate or gas tank,” Stevenson said about his firm. He mostly helps venture capital firms invest in the agriculture space. Stevenson is a high-energy person who loves and embraces change.

“People who don’t embrace change are, generally speaking, not very high energy people,” Stevenson said.

He tells potential clients who are looking for someone to help preserve that status quo, that he is a poor choice. He wants to help firms manage change.

Stevenson thinks agriculture is going to change because currently the farmer is having to manage the most risk in agriculture’s value chain. Everyone else in the chain, such as the elevators and distributors, are currently required to manage less risk. An example of farmers taking less risk would be Tyson owning chickens and feed and farmers just owning the labor and the space.

Stevenson said a situation where farmers are taking all the risks is not a sustainable practice, and farms are going to have to become larger to compete. The farms that he worked for were a $3 million sales company and a $5 million sales company.

“People don’t talk about a farm in that way,” Stevenson said, and he thinks that is a problem and something that needs to change. “Most $5 million dollars businesses have a CEO, a COO, a director of production and an accountant, but a 5,000 acre farm, which is a $5 million business has a mom, dad and son, and three guys that come and help during harvest and planting. No one understands commodity price risk management, and that model needs to change."

Stevenson used to be an avid runner and has run eight marathons. He used to run during lunch and always required his office have a shower. Five years ago, he started riding a bike and has put 10,000 miles on it so far. He even crossed Iowa three times on bicycle.

Stevenson encourages college students to find what they are passionate about and not just go for the most money. He says if you’re taking a job only for the money, then it’s the wrong job, and if you don’t like it, your life will be miserable.

Stevenson welcomes, encourages and facilitates change in the companies with which he consults. He believes that agriculture is evolving and will have to become more sustainable with the farmers taking on less risk.

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