At the end of the day, ADM Animal Nutrition’s Milan Hruby wants to know that he was not just busy for the sake of being busy that day, but rather that what he did that day made a difference. For Hruby, director of technical services at ADM Animal Nutrition, finding the right career is about finding the one that allows you to constantly be growing.
“There are peaks and valleys in every career. We all have them,” Hruby says. “But, in the end, you should be able to see how you made a difference with your products and solutions, but more importantly in yourself, in terms of personal growth and development.”
Based near St. Paul, Minn., Hruby has found that fit in his role while also leading a team of 11 animal nutritionists across North America who provide technical support to ADM Pancosma-branded feed additives and ingredients as well as ADM’s premix and commercial feed solutions. He shares his views on the industry, leadership strategy and what he’s learned along the way.
Q. What is your company’s why?
A. ADM’s purpose is to unlock the power of nature to enrich the quality of life. As a business, we transform natural products into a complete portfolio of ingredients and flavors, not just for animal nutrition, but also food, beverages, supplements, pets and other areas. We want to be the first source of information for our customers. We want to make sure that we have daily interactions with customers, understand what their issues are, and see whether we have anything in our portfolio that can help them. If we don’t have an immediate solution, our goal is to collaborate on research projects to bring something customized to them or bring an idea back to our research and development team to potentially develop down the road.
Q. Describe a typical day on the job for you.
A. My role is to make my team’s life easier. I want to make sure my team is engaged with our technology, with ADM, with other teams at ADM and also our customers. My job is to clear any obstacles from their paths so they can focus on what they are good at. I want to be clear about our team’s goal – to provide unparalleled technical support from a strong team that ensures the technical credibility of ADM is growing year by year because of what our team does. I also like being directly involved with customers and key influencers in the swine industry. I believe we should interact and have contact with the industry so we don’t lose perspective of what’s happening in the real world. If there’s any time left, I enjoy technical writing, presenting and sharing our research with others. I also enjoy working on applied research opportunities with our customers to help solve their problems.
Q. What is your business philosophy?
A. Enjoy what you do and take a long view of what you are doing. I think agricultural businesses understand the importance of a longer view. It’s not just about what’s happening today, this week or this month. Build a relationship with the customers that will be here for a long period of time. For example, the sales process is not short. If I come to a customer, I cannot just do one visit and sell a product or select technology. It’s all about understanding the issues and needs and building rapport with the customer. I think it is really important to take a longer view because you want to make sure the customers you’re working with today are your customers five or 10 years down the road.
Q. How does your company help and work with its customers?
A. As a business, we want to maintain close involvement with customers. I know many businesses say that, but here at ADM, that’s a very real part of who we are. What that means to me, even during the pandemic, is being in close contact with customers on a daily basis, whether it’s in virtual meetings or directly being on the farm, in their offices or other contexts. Do we understand, as the entire ADM team, the issues, needs and areas of opportunities for us as a business? The only way we can do that is to have regular contact with customers.
Q. What do you enjoy most about your job?
A. For me, it’s about the interaction with the people I work with each day. When I was thinking about applying for a position at ADM, I had two reasons. I knew the people who would be on the technical team. I was excited by the opportunity to connect with them closer on a daily basis and to be able to learn from them and how they interact with customers. The second part was ADM itself. The company has always focused on agriculture. And even today, we say the purpose of ADM is to unlock the power of nature to enrich the quality of life. To me, that is truly what the business is about.
Q. How has the business changed since you started?
A. When I started in the animal nutrition business 25 years ago, my first job was in Europe working with customers in Benelux, Germany, the United Kingdom, Scandinavia and North Africa. It was a time when a lot of new feed additives were coming to the market. I was closely involved with feed enzymes, which was a very new technology at the time. There was a lot of excitement in the market with feed additives immediately showing results in performance, efficiency, sustainability and excretion. I can see a lot of changes in the industry between then and now, in terms of consumers being more aware of how animals are being grown, as an example. I also see more close interaction between consumers and producers. There are tools veterinarians and nutritionists might have had in their toolbox 25 years ago, that are not there anymore. On the other hand, we are seeing a lot of information about housing, genetics, efficiency, health, environment, sustainability – things we didn’t even discuss as animal nutritionists 25 years ago. Although we might not like these changes right away when they come, in the long run they are helping the business but probably more importantly, animal welfare.
Q. Who inspired you?
A. I’ve been fortunate in my career to interact with strong salespeople over the years who have shown me how to build a strong relationship with the customer. They’ve shown me what it takes to listen and understand the issues customers are having. I remember when I started in my first position 25 years ago, I was very influenced by what I did at the university. I saw the word “salesperson” as people trying to sell something to customers. I was fortunate to learn that I was wrong early on in my career as I worked with experienced people who had the interest of customers in mind, who listened and tried to understand their issues. I think that made me a better technical person to try to copy what they did. If you meet someone like that early on in your career, that can help you for many years to come and shape your interaction with customers and ultimately, your success in the industry.
Q. What concerns do you have about the swine industry?
A. Given variability in feed ingredient cost and availability, many are focused on how to reduce costs. Are there any technologies which can improve the efficiency of what we feed? When we think of improving nutrient digestibility, we immediately think about compounds like feed enzymes. However, phytogenics and essential oils can also improve nutrient digestibility. Customers may not realize that you can impact what the pig produces in terms of its own endogenous enzymes to improve digestibility of the feeds and ingredients we are using today. It’s actually a very good time to look at technologies that can improve nutrient digestibility, because the payback is much higher.
Q. What are the greatest opportunities in the swine industry today?
A. I see a big opportunity around sustainability and the environment by more sustainably producing animal protein. Nutritional feed additives that can improve efficiency actually support some of those sustainability and environmental goals. We tend to focus on things like weight gain and feed conversion as the key parameters for why we are using a technology, but in the end, because of those impacts on efficiency, we are contributing to lower excretion of nutrients, lower excretion of volume of manure, less nitrogen to the environment, and less excretion of trace minerals such as copper and zinc.
Q. What will the business look like 20 years from now?
A. I have no crystal ball here, but from my view, I think efficiency of production is key. Considering what is expected of us in terms of population growth and the demand for animal protein globally, and if we say land and resources are limited, it’s all about being more efficient in what we do today. As I look at my junior colleagues around me who will be in industry for another 20 to 30 years, I’m very impressed in terms of their drive, knowledge, interest in the business and moving the business forward. Now, it will be that generation who will hopefully take us to that point where we are able to produce efficiently, sustainably, focusing on environmental goals and animal welfare to produce what’s needed for the growing population. I think more technology will be embraced, but it will be more natural for my younger colleagues than it has been for me to focus on something like precision feeding. I think we’ll be even more precise in our formulations, reducing wastage and really following that requirement of the animal. We’ll incorporate more behavior and performance evaluation, and that will require various ways of monitoring the animals. I believe their generation will help us harness the technology to become even more efficient in livestock production.
Q. What advice do you have for someone who might like to do what you do someday?
A. Talk to as many people as possible in your field of interest and get different opinions and perspectives. Reach out and talk to people in the feed additive industry, commercial feed industry and allied swine industry. Also, become active in various associations. Don’t underestimate the role you can play in bringing input into their discussions. Embrace technologies outside your immediate field, too.
Q. If you could go back and do something differently in your career, what would it be and why?
A. I would take more courses outside of nutrition, such as immunology, microbiology, feed milling, health and disease. Anything we do on the nutrition side impacts the performance of the animal, its health and potential disease as well. Find a mentor, both at the universities and in your jobs. Whether you are in your 20s or your 60s, I think it’s important to have a mentor. Be a mentor to others, too. Even though you think you might not have anything to contribute, there are definitely things you can do to help others.
More from Farm Journal’s PORK:
PORK Perspectives: A Minute with Pat Joyce
PORK Perspectives: A Minute with Kent Bang
PORK Perspectives: A Minute with John Waddell
PORK Perspectives is a recurring column that provides business and leadership strategy tips from some of the pork industry’s finest. Opinions expressed in this column are the opinions of Milan Hruby and do not represent the opinions of Farm Journal’s PORK. Watch for future columns featuring advice and insights from more of the pork industry’s leaders.
