Tag: Monsanto

Washington University’s Olin Business School was proud to host the second annual Monsanto Olin Supply Chain Case Competition on Friday, February 3. Teams from top business schools across the country competed for bragging rights and the $10,000 grand prize. Participating universities included Michigan State University, the University of Washington, Johns Hopkins University, the University of Maryland, the University of Minnesota, the University of Missouri, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Washington University in St. Louis, and last year’s champs, Texas Christian University. After much deliberation, the judges decided that UNC had delivered the top overall presentation, with second place going to WashU, and third place to Mizzou.

The competition was designed to give graduate students an opportunity to provide innovative business solutions to a case study written about Monsanto’s seed corn supply chain. Monsanto’s motivation for holding the competition was to foster and attract more supply chain management talent to work on food supply chain solutions for an ever-growing world. Monsanto’s Global Customer Care team, led by Mario Morhy and Marcelle Pires, was very pleased with all presentations and impressed by the level of talent and insight displayed by the teams.

1st Place $10,000:  University of North Carolina- Chapel Hill
2nd Place $5000:  Washington University, Team Olin :Tom Siepman, Serena Chen, Ravi Balu and Samantha Feng
3rd Place $2500:  University of Missouri- Columbia

The case study used for the competition, titled “Monsanto Company: Production & Inventory Planning Challenges in Seed Corn Supply Chains,” was written by WashU’s Panos Kouvelis, Emerson Distinguished Professor of Operations and Manufacturing Management and director of The Boeing Center for Supply Chain Innovation. The competition was administered by Olin Business School’s graduate programs office, with Associate Dean Joe Fox acting as the master of ceremonies and his team, including Sarah Miller and Laura Fogarty, providing strong logistical support.

On behalf of the Olin community, The Boeing Center congratulates the UNC team on their victory and thanks all those who helped make this year’s case competition a great success!

For more supply chain digital content and cutting-edge research, check us out on the socials [@theboeingcenter] and our website [olin.wustl.edu/bcsci]

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Supply Chain // Operational Excellence  //  Risk Management

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The Graduate Programs Office is pleased to announce we are once again collaborating with Monsanto on our second national case competition.  This case competition is designed for MBA students interested in global supply chain and technology management in the agribusiness environment. Olin Faculty and Monsanto executives have put together a live case and are looking for innovative, creative and insightful business solutions.

Team Olin took 3rd place in last year’s competition.

Teams of four must include MBA students but are allowed to include Specialized Masters students, as well. The Olin graduate student organization, SCOPA (Supply Chain and Operations Association), is co-sponsoring the event and forming an Olin team for this year’s competition. Team Olin took 3rd place last year.

The competition consists of two rounds, one virtual and one on site.  Finalists will be invited to St. Louis for the two day event including a welcome reception and tour of Monsanto’s Chesterfield campus on Thursday, February 2, and the team competition at WashU on Friday, February 3.  Winners will receive $10,000 for first place, $5000 for second place and $2500 for third place.

To read more about the 2017 competition, visit www.olin.wustl.edu/mocc.

Ryan Rakestraw, MBA’13, Venture Principal at Monsanto Growth Ventures, is featured in a Forbes column discussing his AgTech Hype Curve that puts new technologies used in farming in perspective for investors. It’s a work in progress, but clearly caught the attention of the “The Mixing Bowl” a group that connects the food and agriculture industries with IT innovation.

The Mixing Bowl: So, what compelled you to put this curve together? What’s the background on this document?

Ryan Rakestraw: It was mostly for the team at Monsanto Growth Ventures (MGV) to think about the investment landscape, think about where technologies are in terms of their maturity levels, and think about some new technologies that are just emerging. We wanted to capture some of the more mature technology that is seeing farmer adoption, and some of the less mature technology that has yet to experience any significant adoption. This is a useful representation to remind us that some of these technologies have a little bit further to go before they get to a level where they see wider adoption.

Link to the complete Q&A with Ryan Rakestraw on Forbes.com

Pharma giant Bayer has acquired St. Louis-based Monsanto. After months of negotiation, the German company went back to the bargaining table this week, and on Sept. 14 Monsanto’s board approved the $66 billion cash offer.

Radhakrishnan Gopalan, associate professor of finance at Washington University in St. Louis’ Olin Business School, said Monsanto had virtually no other choice.

“This is a great deal for Monsanto shareholders,” Gopalan said. “The board would have to be foolish to do anything other than accept the deal. The fact that it is all cash makes it very sweet.

Radha Gopalan

“Given the other mergers in the space — Syngenta-ChemChina, Dow-Dupont — the regulatory risk is slightly enhanced, and so the increase in the fee in case of the deal falling through is also good news.”

Gopalan said that while it remains to be seen how Bayer will recover the investment of the acquisition, Monsanto’s position was much more clear.

“In terms of Monsanto, the company has been going through a restructuring the past year or so, and the internal morale is low,” Gopalan said. “They have problems with their product lines and future growth opportunity also appears to be bleak. So this is a great deal for them.

“For St. Louis, we can only hope that the consolidation does not result in too many local job losses.”

PHOTO: Werner Baumann, CEO of Bayer AG and Hugh Grant, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Monsanto. Courtesy of Monsanto.

From the Bayer- Monsanto Sept. 14 News Release:

The acquisition is subject to customary closing conditions, including Monsanto shareholder approval of the merger agreement and receipt of required regulatory approvals. Closing is expected by the end of 2017. The companies will work diligently with regulators to ensure a successful closing. In addition, Bayer has committed to a USD 2 billion reverse antitrust break fee, reaffirming its confidence that it will obtain the necessary regulatory approvals.

Headquarters and Employees

The combined agriculture business will have its global Seeds & Traits and North American commercial headquarters in St. Louis, Missouri, its global Crop Protection and overall Crop Science headquarters in Monheim, Germany, and an important presence in Durham, North Carolina, as well as many other locations throughout the U.S. and around the world. The Digital Farming activities for the combined business will be based in San Francisco, California.

Five teams from business schools around the country competed for the $10,000 first prize in the first annual Monsanto-Olin Case Competition on February 12. The competition was designed to give graduate students an opportunity to provide innovative business solutions to a case study written about Monsanto’s seed corn supply chain. Participating teams represented:Texas Christian University, Rollins College, the University of Missouri, Pennsylvania State University, and Washington University.

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We are thrilled to be hosting the newest, national MBA case competition in collaboration with Monsanto on Feb. 12 at Olin. This case competition was designed for MBA students interested in global supply chain and technology management in the agri-business environment. Olin Faculty and Monsanto executives have put together a live case and are looking for innovative, creative and insightful business solutions. To read more about the case and Monsanto, please visit olin.wustl.edu/mocc.

Five teams have been invited to compete in the final round of the competition being held on Friday, February 12 in Bauer Hall 240 from 9:00am-12:30pm. The final teams represent Olin, TCU, Penn State, Rollins College and University of Missouri-Columbia. Monsanto is also holding a welcome reception at their headquarters on the evening prior to the competition for the finalist teams.

Join us on game day for team presentations from 9:00am – 12:30pm in Bauer Hall 240 with a lunch and awards reception following in Knight Center 340. Email Laura Fogarty at LFogarty@wustl.edu to RSVP for the lunch.

The Graduate Programs Office invited over 50 top ranked MBA programs across the country to participate in the inaugural event. Teams were asked to submit executive summaries and a power-point presentation of their recommendations in round one of the competition. Teams were also asked to create a five-minute video to help judges get to know the team members and allow them to have fun while showing some school spirit.