b'EDWARD BRUGGEMANNWhy I Hired Someone toDIRECTOR OF GENOMICSSOLUTIONS, NRGENEinfo@nrgene.comDo My Job @NRGenenrgene.comBEFORE YOU GETtoo excited,ing and sales work hand-in-hand. fear not, I am still the presidentWith a marketing funnel supportingHow do we Usher in an Era of Seed World Group. My vac- your sales efforts the cycle can be cine appointment is booked, and Ishortened and you will be stay- of Improved and Faster hope to see your smiling face at aning top-of-mind with your existing industry event soon. But if this titlecustomers.Breeding?got your attention you might be Resources sometimes dictate wondering what I mean. that you just arent quite ready forITS A PROBLEMfaced by many: the right tech- I am most successful when Ithat next hire. This is where it cannological solution is too expensive to utilize it to its am focused on the parts of my jobpay to work smarter, not harder.fullest extent.It is part of our job to solve that problem.that I do best. For me that meansThe first step is to set your com- In modern breeding, DNA marker tests (genotyp-big picture thinking and strategy,panys marketing communicationsing) provide crucial genetic information, facilitating the helping my team to succeed andgoals. With those goals as yourselection of parental lines for sexual mating and the engaging with new clients. I will beroadmap, you can build a clearbest progenies for the next breeding cycle. the first to tell you that I am not atstrategy that allows you to prioritizeMolecular breeding methods such as genomic my best when I need to get intoyour most important activities selection often require high-density genotypic data the nitty gritty details of execution.and where you are most neededfrom many samples, but the cost and complexity of That is why I have hired team mem- and effective. genotyping at this scale may be prohibitive. bers who excel at project manage-When you review this list, askThe use of genotyping tests is expanding, and more ment to make sure that nothingthe following questions:useful knowledge is being generated from DNA data. gets missed.Do I and/or my team have theGenotyping procedures already comprise a significantFor many companies in theexpertise and time to deliver onportion of breeding budgets, hence the urgent need to seed industry the person responsi- these goals?optimize them to best allocate limited R&D funds.ble for marketing also has manage- Do I have an external resourceTo this end, we developed a solution called SNPer, ment and/or sales responsibilities.that can help me strategize and/orwhich optimizes genotyping processes and reduces When hours in the day are finite,deliver on these goals?genotyping costs by up to 70%. SNPer is based on this often means that marketingI LOVE the idea of having atodays most common DNA markers used for geno-tasks get put to the side in favor ofguy that can support me as Ityping named SNPs (single-nucleotide-polymorphism). executing sales. The caution I offercontinue to grow and learnwhatTo begin, we analyze the full genomic diversity used about doing this is that market- support would allow you to reachin a given breeding program, and then identify millions your goals and exceed the expecta- of SNPs segregated in the breeding genetic pool. Next, tions you have your business? a target set of SNPs best representing the genetic dif- P.S. - You also benefit wildlyferences is selected and used in the breeding project. from their established and success- This optimization process reveals more genetic ful process, which can be a greatinformation while reducing the SNP number tested by learning opportunity as you grow10-fold as compared to other genotyping tools. This your marketing program. way, genotyping data generation costs can be reduced while revealing the actual segregating genetic diversity. This helps the breeder understand the broad pic-ture to make the best breeding decision. Historically, plant breeding is a long and costly pro-SHAWN BROOK cess where seed companies collectively spend close PRESIDENT, SEED WORLD GROUP to $10 billion per year on seed breeding. An average sbrook@seedworldgroup.com breeding program takes six to 10 years for product@SeedWorldGroup development, and the average annual yield gain for seedworldgroup.com most crops is less than 1%. Thanks to new technology and human vision, we are beginning to usher in a new era of improved and faster breeding that will benefit the entire globe.32/ SEEDWORLD.COMINTERNATIONAL EDITION 2021'