2. Overview
Project Introduction
Introduction of Marrone Bio Innovations
Company Motivation
Company Management Strategies
Company Decision Making
Company Innovation
Company Expectation
Company/Interview Takeaway
Team Takeaway
3. Project Introduction
Project Goal: To find out Marrone Bio’s sustainability efforts in relation to
Management, Motivation, Innovation & Decision Making.
Methodology:
Analysis of articles
Web sources
In class Seminar by Pamela Marrone
Direct interview with CEO
4. Company Introduction
Headquartered in Davis, CA
Marrone Bio is a global provider of bio-
based pest management and plant
health products for the agriculture, turf
and ornamental, and water treatment
markets.
Innovative agricultural products
Provide many online courses
Sells many brands (organism-based
products)
5. Company Motivation
The company mission & vision
Company is dedicated to discovering, developing, and marketing better biopesticides that support
a better tomorrow
Aim to lead all aspects of the bioprocess technology component in the industry
● The most Innovative time in Agriculture
Freedom in day-to-day operations
Stock Options
6. Company Management
Leadership
Pamela Marrone, Ph.D.
Pamela described her management style as highly communicative.
Management Board:
Consists of 3 Executive Officers and 4 leadership team members
Responsible for leading and take direct control of the company growth, vision and
mission.
8. Company Innovation
● Company aim: Improving crop productivity and sustainability
● Agricultural products (By type)
● “Agile Innovation Model”
9. Company Expectations
Requirement for employees
Marrone Bio is building itself for the long term.
Plan to more than double revenues every
year.
Launch at least two new products every year.
11. Company/Interview Takeaway
How does Marrone Bio benefit from motivating their employees?
Company has very futureproof vision of raising company for the long term
Rogue culture negatively impacted motivation and team dynamics within the company
3 Areas of growth
12. Team Takeaway
Learned that recruitment has changed
Looking for those who are able to fit their culture
Lots of potential in agricultural tech field
In Summary
Analysis of articles
We critically analyzed articles found online or on the media about Marrone Bio and included it in our presentation
Web sources
There were several useful sources found online about the company, on its own website and a business website:
http://marronebioinnovations.com/
http://www.comstocksmag.com/qa/strategy-behind-scientist
http://marronebioinnovations.com/company/board-of-directors/
http://marronebioinnovations.com/ag-products/type/nematicide/
http://marronebioinnovations.com/company/careers/careers-research-scientist-bioprocess-technology/
In class seminar by Pamela Marrone
An hour long seminar about the company conditions and history, management, marketing, etc.
Direct interview with the CEO
We interviewed the CEO herself during class
Headquartered in Davis, CA
There are 100 Employees, 34 from Research and Development
Marrone Bio is a global provider of bio-based pest management and plant health products for the agriculture, turf and ornamental, and water treatment markets.
Innovative agricultural products
Boost yield & quality
Management resistance
Harvest flexibility
Worker-friendly
Provide many online courses
Sells many brands (organism-based products)
Help fight crop diseases
Enhance crop efficiency
Pamela Marrone invests in people who share the same vision as her, the vision of growth for the company. "I need people working for something bigger than them” (quote from her interview with Douglas Curley)
Currently the company believes that it is the most innovative time in agriculture
Interesting many new agricultural technologies
Mechanization
Plant/Insect processed foods which are protein rich
Company is dedicated to discovering, developing, and marketing better biopesticides that support a better tomorrow.
Aim to lead all aspects of the bioprocess technology component in the industry.
Stock Options:
The employees of the company owns shares of the company and this helps raises motivation within the company. Employees try to increase the company’s profits so that their own stocks prices increase.
Leadership
Pamela Marrone, Ph.D.
Pamela described her management style as highly communicative. She believes in value-based organization. Core values are posted on the Website and in common places like company’s lunchroom. Values include being adaptable, agile, creative, having candor, accountability, being performance-oriented, respectful, and fun.
Management Board:
Consists of 3 Executive Officers (including Pamela Marrone as Founder and CEO) and 4 leadership team members
Responsible for leading and take direct control of the company growth, vision and mission.
Marrone Bio offer public shareholders. IPO netted $56.4 million.
Decisions are made directly by Board of Directors
include 5 members & 3 chairs holder
Control the annual audit of the company and make decision based on audit
Management board include 3 executive officers and 4 leadership team members
Company general aim: Improving crop productivity and sustainability, to create product that leaves no chemical residue, and alternatives to pesticides.
Boost yield and quality
Manage resistance
Harvest flexibility
Worker-friendly
Aims to create user-friendly formulas, to develop and scale manufacturing process, conduct field trials, then develop data for regulating submission.
Agricultural products (By type)
Fungicides( Control foliar and soilborne disease)
Insecticides(Managing insects and mites)
Nematicides(Protecting plant root systems from nematodes)
One very interesting thing that the company did was introducing the “Innovate at Speed” or “Agile Innovation Model’ within the niche business field.
This is not rare in other fields, however are never done in this niche plant agricultural field.
The process goes like this:
Version 1.0 -> Feedback -> Version 2.0 -> Feedback, and so on.
This causes lots of criticism, but Pam believes that it brings fast innovation and development.
This is possible due to high safety and low risk of biopesticides
Such method will is very safe for a business because no millions of dollars research has to be done first (which may causes failure)
Requirement for employees
Degree
Spirit
Strong
Confident
Knowledge, skills, and abilities
Able to argue with data, facts and logic
Marrone Bio is building itself for the long term.
Plan to more than double revenues every year.
Launch at least two new products every year.
Pamela Marrone has some great insights about business-startups:
A new business needs to set its vision (where we want to be, movement)
Also, mission
Values and Culture
Strategy of the business itself
Finally, to create alignment and a filter for the type of people you want on your team.
Through her experiences, she found out that the most important decisions are about and around people.
What truly matters are the people around you.
How does Marrone Bio benefit from motivating their employees?
Marrone benefits from employee’s improved workload, they can share the same vision as the rest of the company
Company has very futureproof vision of raising company for the long term
The company aims to double its revenue within such a niche business field
Target of doubling revenues is remarkable in a such a niche business field
Rogue culture negatively impacted motivation and team dynamics within the company
Once an incident of accounting occurred which costed a public company like Marrone millions of dollars
Loyal/quality employees stayed
3 Areas of growth
Current Commercial Products
Near term products
Ramp international Sales
*
What we learned from the interview
Work Culture is very important, that is why surveys may be necessary in keeping up with the employees thoughts and behavior.
Hence, analyzing the company’s problems through employees can benefit the company in both short-run and long-run.
How does Pamela benefit from selecting investors that shares chemistry with her
By doing so, the company will share her vision and culture which enhances efficiency within the company
How we apply the things we learned into a team or a group
Motivation strategies: Enhances the team workload
Creativity: Creativity will brings innovation within the company, also brings up motivation to the team
