A conversation with Greg Morris
Good morning Greg. Could you please tell me about your current role within ADM?
Good morning Jonathan. Earlier this year, I was asked to bring together our Origination and Oilseeds business units into what we call today, Ag Services and Oilseeds, which I now lead. This new combined business unit constitutes a significant portion of the employees, the revenues and the profitability of the corporation. Fortunately, it is also made up of some of the best talent in the company and the industry, so I am fortunate to work with a great team every day.
What tonnage of commodities does ADM trade each year?
We process about 60 million tons of ag commodities each year. We don’t disclose the tonnage that we trade, but it would certainly be bigger than that.
Some people would say that ADM is an industrial rather than a trading company. Would you agree?
Many companies that operate in this space feel that their job is to trade. Our philosophy at ADM is different. We trade with a purpose. We don’t trade just to trade; I think that is yesterday’s model.
We trade to support higher utilization rates in our assets. We trade to help provide products for our customers. So no, I wouldn’t say that ADM is necessarily a trading company. We trade as a critical function of managing our portion of the supply chain to serve our global customer base.
Are you affected by the current overcapacity in agricultural production and logistics?
We’ve certainly had some challenges with oversupply of some of raw materials, such as grains and oilseeds, and this has led to margin compression. However, it goes back to having the right philosophy.
Recent trade policies and decisions have resulted in regional dislocations, as has the terrible weather in some of the growing areas in the U.S. Some parts of the U.S. have been badly hit by flooding; others have been relatively okay. Our global footprint has allowed us to keep supplying our customers – when we can’t get something out of the U.S., we can often get it out of Europe or South America, and vice versa. That’s really the critical role for our industry – companies with global reach like ADM are the ones that can move agricultural and food products from areas of supply to areas of demand. So it’s been a dynamic situation, but overall, I think we have fared pretty well in a challenging environment.
Are there any ways that the sector could better meet the challenges it faces?
Looking forward, I believe that partnerships will become more interesting for the industry as a whole.
At ADM we’ve done some partnerships, as have others in the industry, in order to reduce the risk of an investment, or to participate in a new region of the world. For example, we’ve recently entered into two separate joint ventures with Cargill: one, called SoyVen, which owns and operates a soy crush facility in Egypt, and another, called GrainBridge, that is developing a single digital platform for farmers to consolidate information on production economics and grain marketing activities. We’re also a founding member of an industry initiative to standardize and digitize global agricultural shipping transactions.
What advice would you give to a young person starting a career in commodities?
In a trading role, and in the current environment, the best advice I could give would be to keep your head on a swivel. You have to pay constant attention, whether to global economics, geopolitics, the weather, currencies, or the latest consumer trend. As a commodity trader, you can’t read a newspaper or watch the news without naturally connecting it back to your business, because it all matters.
From a career growth perspective it’s important to think beyond whatever your current role is. I would advise any young person in this business to stretch themselves and find other ways to contribute to the corporation and develop good business management and leadership skills. Trading can be a great foundation, but don’t limit your professional options.
Is there anything that you’d like to add?
I think for me it’s important to recognize that ADM has undertaken a lot of change in the recent past but there is one thing has remained constant: we are proud of the role that we play in the world.
Our purpose statement says “We unlock the power of nature to enrich the quality of life.” We believe that is a noble cause. But at the same time we are evolving. We are transforming our portfolio of businesses, our capabilities and the way we interact with our customers across all of our businesses. We are more process focused and disciplined and our growth strategy includes a very robust agenda.
ADM is a much different company than the company I joined 24 years ago. We’re a stronger company and I’m proud to have been part of the evolution.
© Commodity Conversations ®
This is an excerpt of a full-length interview with Greg that I will publish in my book later this year.