While many CIOs are focused on server farms and supply chains, Mike Macrie is just as likely to be focused on more down-to-earth types of farms and on actual food chains. As senior vice president and CIO of Land O’Lakes, Inc., the $15 billion member-owned agribusiness cooperative, he’s helping drive innovation in an industry that is increasingly drawing the attention of Silicon Valley.
Like CIOs in other industries, Macrie is helping lead his organization through rapid transformation as it deals with powerful forces of consolidation, regulation, and automation. “Agriculture is undergoing a massive infusion of technology, specifically information technology,” he says. It’s a business where technology investment has historically been more closely aligned with crop management than IT, but that’s rapidly changing.
In a recent report, the Stratfor geopolitical analysis and forecasting firm noted that, “Big data and smart technologies will play an increasingly important role in improving agricultural production in the United States over the course of the next 10 years.” Drones “will dramatically improve the way the agricultural sector collects and uses information” while sensors will continuously measure factors such as soil conditions and livestock biometrics, according to the report.
Meanwhile, as the Wall Street Journal recently reported, “New technologies that promise to change how food is grown, transported, and sold are attracting increased interest from the kinds of investors that have fueled Silicon Valley powerhouses.” That, Macrie notes, presents Land O’ Lakes with opportunity for greater innovation, “but also the threat of disintermediation” as entrepreneurs and VCs seek to replace established distribution channels.
“There are many startups trying to automate the advice and decisions we help farmers with every day,” he says. But Land O’Lakes believes it represents a better business model that combines “real agronomics” and engagement with more than 3,600 direct producer-members and 850 member-cooperatives serving more than 300,000 agricultural producers.
“We are focused on harnessing new innovative technologies for competitive advantage with our growers and our members,” he says. He characterizes the organization as a software-as-a-service (SaaS)-first company and envisions that ultimately all computing will be mobile. “We’re looking to get out of data center operations over time,” he adds.
Both agriculture and the food industry are dealing with the impact of massive consolidation, such as Monsanto's pursuit of the Syngenta agribusiness. “Farms are getting bigger, and there are fewer of them,” Macrie notes, while food retailers and manufacturers are also merging into fewer numbers.
Macrie is also anxiously awaiting the conclusion of a prolonged effort by the Federal Drug Administration to create final regulations for implementation of the 2011 Food Safety Modernization Act. “IT’s involvement starts at a very fundamental level, tracking food lots and quantities and shipments and ensuring all data is available whether for regulatory or internal purposes.” His team is helping to automate and streamline data collection and its integration with labs testing and plant testing.
Macrie earned his current position in part from his leadership accomplishments as vice president of IT for the company’s Ag Services organization, which is responsible for developing and delivering products and services that help producers improve on-farm quality, productivity and profitability.
“Five years ago when I was leading IT for Ag Services, we sat down with senior leaders in agronomy R&D, IT, and our businesses and we plotted strategy on not only how IT would support the business but how it would change the industry,” he says.
At Ag Services, Macrie was involved with the company’s proprietary R7 Satellite Imaging Platform, which combines satellite imagery with local seed and crop protection data to provide farmers with personalized field recommendations. Ultimately, and well ahead of Silicon Valley’s allure for agribusiness, Land O’Lakes acquired Geosys, which provided key technology used in R7.
Mike Macrie assumed the role of Senior Vice President and Chief Information Officer of Land O’Lakes in June 2013. Prior to this position, he was Vice President of Ag Services IT. Macrie led the transformation of Ag Services technology and the rebranding of Winfield and Purina across intranet and customer sites. Before joining Land O’Lakes, he held a breadth of roles at Ingersoll Rand, AlliedSignal and several start-ups, G5 Technologies and Multi-Media Solutions. Macrie has an M.B.A. from Duke University and a B.S. from Cornell University in Applied & Engineering Physics.
