Agri-Tech and changing skill requirements in agriculture

 In this episode, Thomas Slattery takes a closer look at how technological advancements and the changing requirements in the agricultural farming sector are shaping the skill sets and capabilities needed for success. Our guest, Darren Houghton, Head of Agritech at Eden Search is an expert talent specialist for agri-tech and agriculture and works with businesses to find senior leaders and support their efforts in tackling the challenges of food security and sustainability across the agri-food value chain. We explore the emerging trends in the industry, the changing skill sets required for success, and the challenges of finding and developing the right talent. From supporting startups to working with established businesses, we discuss the exciting opportunities and challenges that lie ahead as the industry continues to evolve and adapt. Join us for an engaging conversation on the future of agriculture and the role of technology in driving innovation and growth. 

Transcript

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Hello and welcome to another episode of Seedling Sessions. Today's episode is going to be slightly different, a unique one. Normally we speak to a tech developer about a specific product. Today we're going to take a broader look at how the increasing technological needs and the advancements in the agricultural farming sector are changing the requirements for capability and skill sets. So I'm going to be speaking with Darren Horton, who's the director and head of Agritech for Eden search. Hi Darren, thanks very much for coming on and having a chat with me. Hi Tom, thanks for having me. First off, it would probably be a little bit helpful if you just introduce who Eden are but then importantly kind of more specifically about your role around agri tech and agriculture and how you see the kind of changing requirements in the agricultural farming sector. Yeah, absolutely. So, Eden Search, we are a specialist executive search company that really works with businesses to find senior talent, typically at a board level, director level, and also helping them to find non executives and chairs. Most specifically working with businesses that are looking to tackle the big challenges of our time around food security, sustainability, kind of everything else in between really. But our remit is very much across that agri food value chain. My role specifically sits within the agricultural and so supporting businesses where that will involve working with startup companies, often working with founders, owners of businesses that are taking new technologies, looking to commercialize them into the marketplace. And that could be helping them to find people on a consultancy basis, perhaps advisory roles, or maybe even helping to shape their executive teams for the future. And then the other element of my work is to further up the supply chain as well. So working with maybe more established businesses, perhaps more corporate companies, and often to fill a need, perhaps someone has moved on or someone has retired and helping around big projects with succession as well. And I think that space is really interesting at the moment, particularly from a talent perspective, because we all know it is hard to find people. It's been a tough market, particularly over the last few years, but agriculture and agri technology really has come up a lot, has changed a lot. And I think it's perhaps changed the requirements of the skills of people. And I think Eden, one of the things that we note is that perhaps those teams, senior teams of today and of yesterday are going to look very different tomorrow. Just from a practical perspective throughout his people retire. And perhaps those skill sets are changing. The emergence of businesses focus software and requirements around data and other bits and pieces like that, such as your AI for instance, and automation. It's really sort of changing, I suppose, those skill set requirements, which is a fascinating sort of piece of work. And it feels like we're very much in this sort of, I guess, transition pace of the old to the new. And a lot of our work is my work, and particularly supporting businesses on that sort of that transition and helping them with people that can help, I suppose, to translate some of those technologies into real commercial outcomes. But also be mindful that in that supply chain at some point there is a consumer, certainly, but there might be a farmer and being able to influence those sorts of people as well. So I guess in a somewhat slightly kind of waffle nutshell that is kind of what we do and my kind of focus is very much there. So at Agri-EPI obviously one of the things that we spend a lot of time doing is trying to bridge this gap between tech developers and these tech startups and grow ups and the agriculture farm community. Are you finding that the requirement for more technically and technically savvy capabilities, are you finding that on both sides? Or are you just particularly recruiting for more for the startups and the tech developers? Or you also finding that you have some larger farm enterprises that are also looking for people who understand these technologies and are able to implement technologies, whether it's communications or robotics or whatever it is. Yeah, I think it's both right, I think it's right across the supply chain. It feels like there's a sense of agritech is clearly something has existed here for many years but we all know the last few years it's been a really exciting space where there's been lots to new concepts and ideas. I also think perhaps as well, the context of the kind of bigger picture stuff, the world we lived in the last few years, the pandemic challenges, particularly around Brexit war in war in Ukraine. I think these big things such as food security and also your climate, they're very much lived experiences for many people. And I think that those shocks to the system, in a way, I think have really given people focus on how are we going to solve those problems in the future? So perhaps conventional businesses are now looking at well how can I apply that technology one because it just makes good economic sense as well longer term drive profitability ways to improve yield, perhaps tackle that challenge of finding labor to do certain jobs is going to get even more difficult. So if we can get software to do it, perhaps robots to do it, that perhaps solves a problem. And then I think the other area clearly there's a big sort of interest as well for very technically minded people to solve some of those problems. So I think there's a need right across the board for talent with that technical capability. And I guess the thing that we look to support Eden is being mindful. That is great. But ultimately if businesses are going to be sustainable, not just from an environmental perspective but from a social financial perspective, then these ideas need to have great commercial viability and they need to work and also be conscious of I guess the consumer or the farmer within that supply chain. I guess that's where our network of people that we work with that have probably cut their teeth many years ago, leading shaping businesses are able to offer support with that sort of new generation coming through. So sustainability in agricultural regenerative thing, which phrase you want to use is an area of one I'd love to come back to that, but just to focus for a minute, I guess one of the big issues that we've seen historically and probably to something still now in Agritech is often innovators kind of finding solutions for problems that don't necessarily 100% exist. And so it's about kind of trying to make sure that we put developers together closer with the farmers to understand what are the actual solutions and what are the barriers to adopting those tech solutions. With Eden's background in the farming agriculture, is that something which you are in a good position to enable or as in making that connection between and making sure that there's a good, I guess you'd call it, for market fit and that tech developers are making these solutions that are going to work well for farmers? Yeah, I think so. I think the bit about us, as I guess business as well, is that our DNA in a way very much goes back to the farm. We were founded by a farmer's son and therefore grounded in some of the practicalities, I suppose, of running a farming business. And also we have sort of people in our business sort of sat the other side of the table and worked within the industry. So I suppose therefore, naturally we have an eye on that kind of detail and we support businesses and showing that they are solving the problems that need to be solved. But that's not to say that look, a lot of innovators will kind of come up with things that actually weren't necessarily sort of thinking of and that's the whole point of innovation, isn't it? To drive new ideas and to see things from a slightly different avenue. I think a side point that is agriculture. I agree tech has really benefited from new perspectives and actually having people coming from those kind of non farming kind of backgrounds and bringing those new ideas has been really powerful and really important. But yeah, I would say that part of what we're able to do in supporting businesses is that linked to senior non executives or chairs that have been previous MDs or directors or leaders of businesses. I guess what they're able to do to support lots of these new emerging companies and making sure that they are focused on solving the problem that needs to be solved and helping to sort of, as I say, translate that into practical sort of commercial actionable outcomes. Do you think there's kind of a feel good factor at some level sometimes, particularly with these senior positions in that? I think it's quite clear now that food farming and agriculture is an area where we can make a massive dent in a net positive way. Not just carbon net positive, but net positive in a lot of different ways. And that added to the fact that technology and innovation is becoming sort of ever important in that. Do you think that people are kind of finding their second careers, almost or third careers in this sector because of that? Yeah, I think there's an element there's definitely an element of that. I think sustainability is an interesting example, actually because clearly there are people that are trained in a pure sustainability kind of way but it's any kind of emerging as a new, I suppose, discipline. And we're seeing it particularly at Eden in a variety of sustainability leadership roles that we're recruiting for. And we're probably not too far away from becoming a fairly standard element on a board to have your sustainability director probably sitting next to your data director and your procurement director, for instance, is spending as much time buying software and artificial intelligence as they are perhaps buying commodities. So I think sustainability is one example of that. And I think that goes back to the point I made earlier around. These are all lived experiences. We've all gone through these various sort of shocks to the system in a way. And I think maybe that has kind of pivoted people towards looking for solutions and also an awareness now, actually, of the food chain and where things come from. But I think there's still a lot of work to do there. I think, in a way, we don't necessarily shout loud enough from the sector to attract new entrants with those new ideas. Because maybe historically, it's been perhaps a bit of a closed club. Unless you know about it. You're? Not really sort of in it, but that's changing and it is partly forced because of technology in a way because of the challenges. But I think there is that element of purposeful feel good factor. But I think the point of that as well is that we shouldn't shy away from the fact that the food farming agri tech sector is a brilliant industry that people can come into as their first point of their career. And they could be the next finance director or operations director or managing director or whatever it may be. And they can do it within the industry. But I think it is an interesting view that more people will look at it slightly. Differently because of that sense of purpose and the fact that actually it is ultimately kind of a net positive industry in a way. Unsurprising. We have a lot of agri-tech startups and scale ups and also entrepreneurs who are looking to start a venture in this area. Am I right in thinking that anyone who's listening, who's looking to hire a specific sort of machine learning engineer, you're not necessarily the 100% right place for that. You're potentially much more useful. If people are looking for an adviser. A consultant, NED, someone who might have knowledge of further up the food chain. Would that be a good yeah, exactly that. So our work is very much on that senior level end. So those businesses that are at that sort of development startup phase perhaps looking to go through the funding cycle series a sort of beyond and they're looking to build a team of exceptional advisers and Eden is in a position to be able to build the help on that basis, but also, as well as part of that particularly Agri-EPI and the wider kind of agri-tech sort of tech ecosystem always we're invested in wanting the industry to be a success. So able to offer advice and support around what that might look like, recognizing that it's not necessarily going to be the right time to go and build that next board for the future, but also we can help with that when the time. Is the time is right as well. But I guess it's that network we have of industry leading individuals that have led businesses and they're at that kind of point where they are able to kind of offer some insights. To hopefully help these businesses to be a real success and ensure that that technology connects right the right way, I guess, with the consumer, with the farmer, with the individuals within that chain. It's interesting because the rate of pace of change, of skill set and I'm just talking about this from a personal point of view although there were certainly a few articles kicking around over Christmas feels like it's running away and I can even say from a personal point of view, I've just finished a masters in Agri Tech, but by the time I got to Christmas with the launch of something like Chat GTP, I suddenly felt oh, God, my skill set and my knowledge base in artificial intelligence. Machine learning is just not remotely deep enough. And I've had to start doing some online courses to try and get a better handle on that so that I feel like I can have conversations with startups that we work with while I'm speaking knowledgeably looking at it from a kind of changing base of jobs and skills requirements do you also see this increasing speed in change of that? Yeah, I think so. I think it's certainly been if we just look at the last 12 to 18 months or so, it's rapid. Chat GTP... It's a fascinating technology, the application of that, how that is going to influence the industry we operate, there's ways that will influence we can't quite yet sort of understand. And I think the bit that makes it quite exciting in a way, and also slightly terrifying as well, as we don't quite know necessarily what those roles exactly will look like in the future. And I think that we know that they'll be different. I think sometimes there's often the assumption that we'll automate to the point where there'll be less people doing stuff and there will be, I guess to to it an extent but it will just be that the jobs will be different. And I think that sometimes the thing that's often sort of missed is actually you'll have at some point in that AI chain, there's going to be people at some point in and there but the roles will be different. But the pace is significant. And I think some of that is obviously driven by the world we lived in the last few years. Crisis sort of creates opportunity, creates rapidity around change and innovation and we've certainly seen that happen. But I think also it puts a real emphasis on that ability to translate and to have a clear mind ultimately on the end user. That's the thing I think particularly within Agri tech we want to be very conscious and very sensitive. The point in that chain, the practition of the farmer has to remain involved as well and that's the sensitive spot which we have to get right because they're key often a customer and they need to understand and be comfortable with these kind of new concepts and new ideas and believe in them, I guess. Yeah, funny enough, it's a point that comes up on almost every episode of this podcast when we're speaking with tech developers and without a doubt the successful ventures are those that understand that. And this is even with automation, we're not aiming to automate out people from the system necessarily it's about augmenting those people. So we did an interview last week with Chordata, and their point was that rather than trying to automate out a lot of Stockman skills, it was actually to keep all of that in there. And it's just to try and augment and take away some of either some of the more boring tasks with automation dangerous tasks or to just add extra insights that might not be capable. And it's never about trying to remove people's just particularly skilled and knowledgeable people. Yeah, no, absolutely. It's finding that I guess that's a sweet spot to kind of your partnership where you've got people working in conjunction with technology and perhaps AI to solve to solve these big problems. And arguably we will be a bit biased to say that people are going to play a role because ultimately we're a people business but there is a reality there that businesses will continue absolutely to need people. But I think that this transition phase that we're going on from all the ways of operating to do new ways of operating, particularly at pace I do think it is fundamental that businesses are supported with the right potential. Advisers and they've got that council really to be able to make the right decisions, to be able to make a success of those technologies and to keep adding value. If I was an early stage startup with a bit of seed funding, with a great product and a good team, and I was to come to you, what's your advice for building out this kind of network of advisors or board or non executive directors? You're at a very early stage, you know what your product is and you're starting to find a fit and get some traction with that. What's your advice and how would you sort of play that? Yeah, I think businesses are going to have, I guess, a vision and a plan, but it's having that sort of nailed down in terms of what it is, where the business wants to go. I think also being conscious of perhaps the problem that they're looking to solve and having a clear solution which ultimately is going to be adopted by the end user. Really understanding that supply chain. And I think, really, then Eden could help is, as I say, it's unlocking that network, introducing to the various people that perhaps have some experience of scaling business for growth in a similar supply. Chain or also maybe have some experience of supporting that fundraising sort of element of maybe gone through sort of areas like that as well. But I think ultimately it'll be a bespoke process and depending on the business and depending what we're doing I guess what we're saying, Eden, is that we are passionate about the sector, our DNA roots very much go back to the farm and we want to ensure that businesses are a success. So our first sort of, I suppose kind of point is that we create that sort of space to listen to businesses and understand what they need, recognizing the type of individual that might be able to offer value at this from a character perspective or a skill set perspective. But we sort of believe in that sort of old school approach of talking to people listening and kind of understanding what they need. Because it sounds like what you're saying is that building up that network of experienced advisors, whether it's further up the food chain with technical capabilities, et cetera, is something which even early stage startups should be thinking about from an early point of view. If that's the case though, and often these early stage startups pre money, for example, could be quite cash trapped. Can they still engage with you at an early stage then and start to build a relationship and understanding? How does that work? Yeah, absolutely. Our approach, my approach is very much love networking, love talking to businesses, love understanding to the technologies and if we can offer sort of advice and support and build relationships that early stage, that is absolutely what we would love to do. It's very much our offer to the aggregate, the ecosystem and others as well. We're here to listen, to, offer advice and support but I do think it is good, sensible to have a plan? What do you want that sort of advisory team to perhaps look like? What are the skills that are required? Where is the business kind of going? What will perhaps complement the kind of values of the business? And it might not necessarily be that is something that a business looks at from day one, but having that plan will really help. And I guess my view kind of view, the businesses that really, really do make a success of it are the ones that have that council around that are going to ask those critical and challenging questions at times and to enable the businesses to push forward and make a success of it. So look for me in the perspective we are very kind of open and very open to have conversations and discussions and just get to know people and perhaps offer advice and just general networking as well. Yeah, just hands on. Do you get with that? You personally, do you tend to follow and get quite invested in some of these companies that you help build their teams? Yeah, we do. We sort of build long standing, long term relationships over the years aligned to the sectors where we work with businesses right from sort of start up to pre IPO and beyond stage. We very much followed that journey. Something that we're really proud of, I guess it was a track record, but it's actually something that connects with our values that we want to work with. Businesses are tackling those kind of big challenges of our time. So therefore it's not transactional approach, it's about building those long term relationships. Yeah, it makes a lot of sense to me. I think this is it. Sometimes we have this idea of startups, small team of people kind of making it all happen and actually the more that I speak to both for this podcast and the rest of my job, you realize that actually the really successful ones are those that start to build a network of other experienced people outside of that. And so it's really great to know that there's an organization like yourselves that can help to build that early stage. Yeah, absolutely. For us, as I say, it's an old school approach. We listen to people, want to talk to people and get to know, get to know, go to the businesses. And I suppose we like to say that we get it. Having where the businesses come from, that kind of farm based DNA are very much embedded in that ecosystem. I guess also the benefit of operating further across the chain as well and understanding how it all operates. But yeah, we love talking to people, we love listening, we love hearing those success stories and we love supporting businesses on that journey. Yeah. I think before we sort of wrap things up, I think that point you've made about which you've made a couple of times further up the supply chain is an important one because often it feels like AG tech. Is only aimed at the kind of end user which you might think is the farmer. But in actual fact, the value of the insights and data can often be felt way up the food supply chain, whether that's a distributor, retailer level, et cetera. And so having someone who can give contacts into that for other partnerships is actually really vital about making these technologies a commercial success. Yeah, absolutely. I think if the sort of work that we've done over the decade plus aid and working right up to that sort of retail level, understanding how operationally retailers were perhaps, how kind of buyers work, how the influence is sort of further down down the trade as well. And also the other bit is that world of finance, it's an investment, it's a really interesting world and there are plenty of specialists out there and there are lots that sort of stick in the SG box out there. And I guess that's an interesting world that we have, I guess sort of networking as well and I think it's understanding that it's the language of finance due to government, academia, business start of all of that world, connecting all of those dots. I would say that if I was to frame a USP for either, it's that ability to translate right across the chain and understand the different Motivators and how those different people work. And if anything, I guess what we can offer offer to people there's a bit of insight on in terms of that and where business might sit in the chain, where we can perhaps offer advice to the further up. This is how it looks and these are the things to be conscious of a mindful of as well. That makes a lot of sense and that's it. You're talking.