The challenges facing the food industry in today's global economy are significant - from commodity volatility, to expanding demand across global marketplaces, to dynamic merger and acquisition activity, to ensuring food safety, to navigating disruptive scientific and social forces, to promoting better health, and finding ways to feed the world. Managing successfully in agribusiness today is truly a "Food Fight", where the answers to these challenges will shape the global economy we live in and define the world for generations to come.
Minnesota occupies a unique leadership position in the food industry. Often described as the "silicon valley of food", the region is home to leading companies from farm to fork - Buffalo Wild Wings, Cargill, CHS, General Mills, Hormel, Land O'Lakes, Mosaic, Schwan's, Supervalu, and Target- as well as being home to defining agribusiness research in the University of Minnesota system.
Led by Jeff Ettinger (Carlson Executive Fellow, and former CEO of Hormel) and Mark Bergen (the James D. Watkins Chair in Marketing) the class presents a Minnesota perspective on these contemporary challenges. They combine what is known in industry and academics to provide practical, contemporary frameworks being used to address these challenges. Class sessions will use a combination of cases, lectures, exercises, and discussions to provide an industry-focused forum for students to develop and apply their MBA skillset, in this case agribusiness.