16 GERMINATION.CA MARCH 2019 Collins serves as BASF’s North American seed marketing manager. He recently came to BASF from Bayer, making the move after Bayer’s seed assets were acquired by BASF on Aug. 1, 2018. BASF signed agreements in October 2017 and April 2018 to acquire the busi- nesses and assets Bayer offered to divest as part of its acquisition of Monsanto. About 4,500 employees joined BASF through the acquisition, many here in Canada. The agreements include Bayer’s seeds businesses including traits, research and breeding capabilities, glufosinate ammo- nium herbicide brands, several aspects of Bayers seed treatment business, trademarks for key row crops in select markets and Bayer’s vegetable seeds business. The arrangement puts Collins and Barton — and all of BASF — in a unique spot. “BASF has been an innovative com- pany — we’ve been looking at seed assets for most of the 20 years I’ve been with the company, but for various reason we weren’t able to get into the seed business until now,” Barton says. “From a Canadian perspective, to acquire these assets couldn’t have come at a better time. We’ve essentially been given the chance to disrupt our own business. People often talk of disruption in a nega- tive or scary sense, but for us this was an ideal disruption all the way.” Disruption from Within Disruptive innovation is a term coined by Clayton Christiansen’s 1997 article The Innovator’s Dilemma. Disruption occurs when a smaller company with fewer resources unseats an established business. The smaller company is able to achieve “disruptive innovation” by targeting seg- ments of the marketplace that have been neglected by the larger company. This typically happens because the larger company is focused on the more profitable areas of their business and improving service for their most demand- ing customers. The new company is able to attract the overlooked customers with a new or innovative technology better suited for their needs. Think Netflix. But when that disruption comes about willingly from within a company rather than outside of it, it offers a chance to fundamen- tally change things within that business. “Every project we take on globally now has a bigger bang in Canada than it had before because we now have seed to go along with it,” Collins says. “When a company that has a history in crop protection gets into the seed busi- ness, that already has a solid go-to-market strategy to deliver seed into the market- place, it’s a major evolution. Both Bayer and BASF have lots of similarities in terms of the corporate culture, namely a focus on innovation and delivering value to the grower, so it’s been a very effective transi- tion. It’s felt very natural.” Culture Shift That meshing of business cultures is inte- gral to an effective transition, especially in regard to BASF’s new product offerings which it inherited from Bayer. “We want to ensure a seamless transi- tion, especially for our InVigor customers,” Barton says. In the ag space, corporate culture can make or break a successful consolidation experience. “We can’t just use existing cultures. We’re two different companies — one is German and one is American, so there will be differences,” says Leticia Goncalves, U.S. country head for Bayer’s Crop Science division. Part of her job is helping Bayer and legacy Monsanto employees through the transition after Bayer’s purchase of Monsanto in 2018. “We need to create a new culture by defining our values and what we want to stand for. We just formed the new company last August. Our first priority is focused on customers and not disrupting the business while we integrate. It will take a few years to realize the benefits of the combination, and in the meantime, ensur- ing our cultural values are aligned is key.” At the same time, Syngenta’s president Global Seeds, North America and China believes two corporate cultures can have more in common than differences. Jeff Rowe says ChemChina’s acquisition of Syngenta has provided a lot of stability that is helping Syngenta through a chal- Brent Collins, BASF’s North American seed marketing manager. Wayne Barton is BASF Canada’s manager of research and commercial development. “EVERYPROJECTWE TAKEONGLOBALLY NOWHASABIGGER BANGINCANADA THANITHADBEFORE BECAUSEWENOWHAVE SEEDTOGOALONG WITHIT.” –BrentCollins