Slide presentation for IE Business school MBA application

1. STUCK IN THE
MUDWhat is holding back entrepreneurship
and economic growth in the
agricultural world?
Juan Pablo Hurtado L.
Pereira, Colombia
2013Image: Brazilian Pantanal Landscape (J.P. Hurtado 2013).

2. Express yourself Question
• H. What do you believe are the greatest
challenges facing the sector or industry
you would like to specialize in at IE? What
role do you hope to be able to play in this
sector or industry in the medium term?

3. Going on a trip
down meory lane
to my childhood in
Colombia.
Images by Corbis

4. Coffee was everywhere.
(Juan Valdez genuinely
could have been your
neighbor)
Images by Procafecol

5. The growth of this magical
bean ran the economy,
maintained social equality,
and even allowed us to
have lots of fun.
Me having fun on a
coffee plantation as a
teenager
Images by J.P. Hurtado

6. The coffee growing hub of
Colombia was richer than
most other regions in the
Country, but more
importantly it was an oasis
of peace in a war torn
country.
Typical family farm in
Colombia's Coffee growing
hub.
Images by J.P. Hurtado

7. But this relative prosperity that had
been achieved did not last.
• Colombia went from the second to the 6th place of top coffee exporters in
between 2002 and 2012
• The importance of coffee production in the Colombian trade balance fell from
around 71% in the 1950´s to about 3.8% in 2009
• Crop yields fell from 14.7 Ton/Ha. In 2007 to 8.5 Ton/Ha. In 2011 .
• The Coffee growing hub of Colombia became the region with the highest
unemployment in Colombia despite having some of the highest % of population
with higher education degrees.
• The mass economic migration phenomenon that Colombia suffered on the late
90s´s and early 00´s was largely focused on the same region that used to be a
staple of economic and social development.
Scary Statistics
Sources: Dane, Fedecafé, FAO

8. Working on agriculture is only for
those not smart enough to find a good
job elsewhere
Behind this there was a long standing
social paradigm…
Many factors contributed to this situation. However above all it was
easy to see Colombian farmers which were the cornerstone of the
economy were not ready to compete with the world market.

9. Mothers would tell their
children that if they don´t
study hard enough, they
would then be stuck
working on a farm.
Even people that were made
rich by agriculture preferred
to be referred to as land
owners rather than farmers.
Son, I made enough wealth
out of this land to make sure
you never have to work on it.
Images by J.P. Hurtado

10. People working in agriculture
Social imagery
of failure

11. As I got to travel around the world
setting up IT projects for agriculture
and having to deal directly with
farmers of all types, the pattern
seemed to repeat itself.
Sugarcane in
Swaziland
Pineapple in
The Philippines
Vineyards in California
Images by J.P. Hurtado
Oil Palm in
Indonesia
Almonds in
Australia

12. However we can no longer afford to have
agriculture as the underdog of the world economy.
• The UN estimates world population will double by 2050.
• Due to global warming, soil erosion and water sources depletion our capacity to
produce sufficient food to feed an ever growing population will be highly
diminished.
• Many top producers of staple crops such as rice, maize, and wheat are suffering
worrying trends of decreasing outputs due to the unpredictability of weather
patterns and water scarcity.
• Millions of people in developing countries have entered the middle class and thus
have changed their diets demanding more animal protein which take
significantly more resources to produce.
Even Scarier StatisticsSources: FAO

13. A Paradigm shift on the way society views people
who work in agroindustry and agro industrial
technology.
• Highly educated
• Successful
• Valuable member of
society
• A model to emulate

14. 1) Bringing some our best and brightest people back into
agriculture at a time we need them most.
2) Just as Taylor, Fayol and Ford changed forever the way we
manage industrial firms, we should create new management
parameters and best practices for agroindustry.
3) Many engineers and scientists should be lured into work on
agriculture´s most pressing technical challenges, creating on
their way companies that will become the new technological
giants that could potentially generate thousands of highly
qualified jobs.

15. Ensuring that all of these efforts translate into a
reality where having a rich and nutritious meal 3
times a day will be certainty instead a luxury for
all of the inhabitants of this planet.
Images by Corbis

16. Some Conclusions
• Reversing human capital divestment in the agro industrial sector is
on of the major challenges for the industry.
• One of the main causes for this divestment is the low social value
associated with working on agroindustry and agro technology
related jobs.
• There is a pressing need to reinvent agroindustry as a whole due to
environmental and demographic challenges of unprecedented
nature.
• Bringing fresh talent to the technological and organizational
development areas might cause a ripple effect that revitalizes the
entire sector.

17. “When the Last Tree Is Cut Down, the
Last Fish Eaten, and the Last Stream
Poisoned, You Will Realize That You
Cannot Eat Money”
Image: Colombian coffee growing hub landscape (J.P. Hurtado 2013).
Unkown Author