Man of the Month – Fernando Zimmermann – Bayer Crop Science

First, I would like to say thank you very much for this great opportunity. I’ve been seeing and admiring what you do in DBWT, and it is certainly inspirational to all of us. I’m really proud of being able to provide a small contribution to the women promotion you leverage in your everyday activities. All you do and encourage during the exciting journey of empowering women is fundamentally connected to my personal views of the future, human evolution, equality, and fairness.

Going back to your question, I was invited by our Company to participate in our Vegetables Production Operation here in APAC, based in Bangkok. Bayer has a solid purpose of Science for a Better Life, and Thailand, along with India, is a major contributor to deliver on it. In the last 3 decades, our Production Team in the region has been reliably providing vegetable seed varieties that growers around the world can cultivate into the quality and highly nutritious produce.

Last year I received different offers to move into a variety of Bayer businesses, but when Thailand came as an option it was a no-brainer. The tremendous opportunity to know this country, its incomparable people, and the thought-provoking culture were more than enough elements to bring me and my family to live what we consider to be a dream-made reality.

I come from a family of a smallholder (smallholders refer to farmers who own and farm less than 2 hectares of land). My entire childhood was surrounded by all kinds of farm animals, agriculture machinery, planting, blooming, and harvesting. In my homeland, Toledo-Brazil, I learned what for me was crucial in my decision on which career to pursue. Firstly, I understood that every single year is different in agriculture. The seasons never repeat, and the challenges are always different. There is always a new weather issue to face, a new pest taking place, and new varieties that need an entirely new agronomical package to be grown.

At that time, it was the response I was looking for to fulfill my adventurer spirit of continuously desiring something different to do. Also, I learned that sowing a new season is a rebirth process. The previous crop is gone but with the new one, we can have another chance to succeed, apply the knowledge gained from mistakes in the preceding plantation and try to find our best version again. Equally important was to see that farming is like the life movie in small pieces: the generosity of the soil allows us to plant whatever we want, but at the same time its fairness makes us harvest exactly what we planted. So, it is the law of cause and consequence we all need to comprehend.

There are dozens of concepts presently surrounding Smart Farming. For me, it is the rational or intelligent use of information to improve farming in many aspects. We usually relate the improvement with a higher yield, lower cost, higher quality, and faster cycles. What is totally understandable as the farming activities are becoming more and more professional. Increasing the margins is necessary and part of the business. But Smart Farming can be also used to achieve not so obvious targets, like enhancing the workers’ activities by minimizing ergonomic problems, reducing greenhouse gas emissions, and optimizing water consumption, which moves the agriculture itself towards a condition of higher acceptance by the entire society, and also positioning agriculture as part of the solution (rather than a contributor) to climate change and sustainability.

It goes similarly to the previous question, I think. The innovation is progressing at a faster pace than we can even read. As leaders and more than that as opinion-makers, we need to head our efforts to reduce our footprint on this planet.

Technology allowed humans to produce plastic, but at the same technology will bring solutions to eliminate it. In agriculture, we have a big slice of responsibility in our hands. Using all the innovation in a favorable and sustainable way is the only solution we have in long term. So more than foreseeing trends for the future, here I share my invitation to all leaders and all the communities, in order to link our arms and face together the challenges we ourselves created but that we are more than capable to solve.

This is probably one of the most complex questions and at the same time provides a great opportunity for reflection. Diversity has several perspectives and culture could be one of the most intricate. There are no good or bad cultures; they are the result of an infinite number of variables that interacted along the time and made us – society – as we are. With a culturally diverse team we can have at the same meeting someone that sees the world in an egalitarian way, where being flexible about rules and treating everyone about the same is kind of natural, and on the other side someone that prefers the formalities of a well-defined hierarchical system. The other example could be having a conversation involving two colleagues where one places high value on reaching goals and objectives and the other views time building relationships as a key to achieving good results. None of these examples is better or worse; what we leaders need to do is to provide conditions for everybody to express their opinions and build together. It is impressive to see how common goals and a shared vision can put different profiles in the same place and create momentum in a unique direction.

Unfortunately, we still live in a sexist society, especially in a predominantly male-dominated industry such as agriculture. The evolution in this matter and the last decade is remarkable, but we can still observe carry-over from the past.

I remember that some years ago, I was working in a different company, and we were talking about the gender index performance during the year. There was a repetitive period in our calendar where the percentage of ladies significantly reduced. When wondering why that happened, one of our staff managers said: “That situation occurs when we enter in maintenance time. As the women are not suited to those tasks, we predominantly hire men.” I can still remember like it was today, the mix of confusion and sad emotions I felt. We were officially stating that women are more fragile, and there are activities that they cannot perform properly.

But as always, the opportunities are created from difficult situations. Being the head of the operation, I came up with an innovative program to monitor and incentive the increase and development of women in our operation, at all levels from the factory floor up to Leadership. Years later that program was used as an example by women organizations to implement similar initiatives in other geographies. The reality here in APAC is much better than the one I was used to in Latin America. Specially, in Thailand as our best example, here our operation counts on 60% of women with the most varied areas of responsibility. We are immensely proud and at the same time conscious that we cannot relax; diversity and inclusion not only in gender, but also in sexual orientation, race, ethnicity, religious beliefs, background, and experience will remain as a top priority for us and we hope all industries engage in this everyday challenge.

I once heard a very simple phrase that changed my perspective on careers and professional growth. “Happiness buys money and not the opposite.” It is not about wealth, being a millionaire, or something like that. My suggestion is uniquely to pursue what they are passionate about and what follows will be success and joy. The new generations have a huge portfolio of careers, and the options increase every day. Nowadays, there are more opportunities to be assertive when choosing something they love. In the particular case of vegetable seed production, I use to make a joke when welcoming new members to our organization. It is something like this: “Among all the industries you are entering the best one, the food industry. We guarantee the future of our families, friends, and the entire world, providing them with the necessary nutrients for a healthy life. Among the food industries, you are in the most privileged one, the seed business because all we eat is coming from what was a seed once. And last but not least, among the seed businesses you are in the most fantastic one, the vegetable seeds production, where every single seed will generate delicious vegetables or fruits that will directly go to all dining tables, hospitals, schools, and the most diverse genuine ends.” I hope this could motivate some DBWT young readers to embrace a career in agriculture in the future.