Mercer Landmark is a cooperative (coop) deeply rooted in agriculture and community. We serve agricultural producers of everything from grain to feed to agronomy services and energy in Ohio. When I stepped in as CEO five years ago, the company was 90 years old. It was started by a group of agricultural producers back in the 1930s. Our cooperative had seen financial success, but I quickly realized that we needed a significant transformation to ensure our longevity for the next 90 years. 

The fundamental, underlying issue that I found when I came in the door was an incredibly decentralized business model. We had five distinct business units, but they operated independently, with little to no collaboration. Worse, we had locations within the same business unit that were competing against each other.  The root of the issue lay in the managers’ incentives, which were solely tied to the bottom line.  Unfortunately, this had led to a culture of minimal investment in our facilities, as managers prioritized short-term bonuses over long-term sustainability. While Mercer had been financially successful up to that time, we were not thinking about tomorrow; it was all about today.