Consulting Focus: Markets of Expertise
Food & Agribusiness, Broadly
Dan has 17+ years in Marketing, Strategy, Innovation, and Business Development roles at The Pillsbury Company, General Mills, 3M and Land O'Lakes. Food and agribusiness are big, broad, and diverse, but there are many connections and parallels that make expertise highly transferable. Dan's experiences include work on products for human food, animal feed, ingredients derived from fractionating milk and plants, and applications for co-products that include Food, Feed, Fiber, and Fuel.
Ingredient Development
Dan spent his last 8+ years working in dairy ingredients and novel, plant-based ingredients. Further, much of Dan's prior experience in food and agribusiness was in ingredients. These can be for animal feed, human food, or nutraceuticals applications. The focus can be nutrition and/or functionality.
B2B and B2C
Dan has experience in both B2B and B2C businesses. In fact, the key to success in B2B is to have the end consumer/user in mind. If you are not expert in understanding the end consumer/user, then your B2B competitors may have a leg up on you.
Co-Product Valorization
In agriculture, there is often a focus on the most valuable components of the animal, milk, grain, leaf, or similar that represent the core product offerings of a company. However, in the process, there are often several co-products that can represent a production bottleneck and/or a financial drag on the overall business. A key focus of any agricultural business needs to be on sufficiently valorizing as much as possible. Otherwise, the co-products can sink the ship. Dan has much experience in this area.
Food, Feed, Fiber, & Fuel: The "4 F's"
In agriculture, the 4 F's should be in focus. Generally, Food will be at the top of the value pyramid, followed by (animal) Feed. Fuels tend to be the lowest-value on the pyramid, and Fiber value can be highly variable, depending upon the specifications and application for the fiber. All of these verticals can be in play for an opportunity, as each product and co-product may have a unique target market. Dan has experience in all 4 F's.
Value-Added or Commodity
Much of Dan's career has been focused on identifying opportunities to add value to enhance returns. However, the reality is that most companies have a portfolio of products, some of which are more differentiated and value-added than others. Dan has experience in both commodities and value-added products and ingredients.
Consulting Tailored to Your Needs
Serendipity Consulting: Your Partner in Business Growth
The number of ways I can help you are limitless, but the basic process is the same:
- Complimentary Discovery Call: Let's talk about the challenge you would like me to consider tackling with you. I seek first to understand, ask lots of questions, and determine if I am a fit for the challenge.
- Proposal: I provide a written proposal detailing the scope of the project or need, a high-level plan for the research and analysis that I will conduct, the deliverables that I will provide, and an estimate for the amount of time it will take to meet your needs.
- Alignment: We discuss and align on the details provided in the proposal.
- Go Time: I dive in, work with you and/or your team, and provide regular progress updates.
Examples of How I Can Accelerate Your Growth
Strategy Assessment
Opportunity Assessments
Strategy Assessment
You have plans. What you need is a fresh set of eyes to understand them, challenge them, and help you to refine, sharpen, and prioritize your efforts.
Market Exploration
Opportunity Assessments
Strategy Assessment
You have some insight into trends in your business, and you may even have a short list of big ideas, but before you dive in, you want to make sure you aren't missing other ideas that should be considered, as well.
Opportunity Assessments
Opportunity Assessments
Go-to-Market Strategy Development
How do you define your market? Who will be your competitors? How big is the market opportunity? What do we believe about future growth prospects in the market? How much market share would make the opportunity attractive?
Go-to-Market Strategy Development
Business & Financial Model Development
Go-to-Market Strategy Development
How will you differentiate your solution in order to win the share that you expect? How ownable is that differentiation, and how does it fit with your core competencies today? What are the range of options that could be considered, and what are the risk and investment requirements for those options?
Business & Financial Model Development
Business & Financial Model Development
Business & Financial Model Development
What are all the assumptions that we need to make in order to start building a business/financial model for how you will make money? What resources will be required? What rate of return does the model suggest you can make? Is the return sufficient, given the risk? How do we tweak the model to make this opportunity work for all stakeholders?
Proof of Concept Work
Business & Financial Model Development
Business & Financial Model Development
Is your idea one that needs work to develop and test in a laboratory? If so, how can we do that efficiently and effectively by combining your own resources with outside service providers, including universities, product developers, and potential business partners?
Pilot-Scale Development
Collaborative Customer Development
Collaborative Customer Development
How do we build a bridge from a big idea to a commercial reality while managing investment scale and risk? How do we get the right resources engaged that will not only ensure pilot-scale success, but also pave the way for scaling your solution afterwards.
Collaborative Customer Development
Collaborative Customer Development
Collaborative Customer Development
You have a big idea. What you really need is a prospective customer or two willing to work with you on it, to refine it and make it just right. When this collaboration is completed, you will have new business, and your idea will have legs to support greater investment.
Pitch Deck Development
Collaborative Customer Development
External Resource Exploration & Coordination
How do you tell your story and present a compelling business case to sell this idea internally to senior leadership, or to get the external investors you need in order to succeed?
External Resource Exploration & Coordination
External Resource Exploration & Coordination
External Resource Exploration & Coordination
Innovation requires nimbleness. You may not have all the resources or expertise to do everything. Not to worry. We can find the development, testing, engineering, investment, or other resources that you need to test, scale, and commercialize your big opportunities.