Taking the business view of how to tackle world hunger

Business Interview:There is a growing view in world capitals that the old charity model is outdated, says Irishman Liam Condon, the chief executive of Bayer CropScience

Taoiseach Enda Kenny was not the only Irishman Bill Gates met on his recent trip to Europe. After Dublin and Davos, the Microsoft founder and billionaire philanthropist had a date in Berlin. One of his hosts: Navan Road native Liam Condon, the chief executive of Bayer CropScience.

The agricultural division of the German multinational, with annual sales of €7.2 billion, is one of 35 companies that has joined forces with Berlin’s federal development ministry (BMZ) to tackle the global scourge of hunger that affects two billion worldwide.

These German efforts at pooling resources and knowledge have now garnered global attention thanks to the imprimatur of the Bill Melinda Gates Foundation, an organisation known for matching generosity with demanding standards.

After their Berlin meeting, Gates announced he would contribute €20 million to match German government funding to the campaign, while Condon presented a €40 million funding commitment on behalf of the industry-supported “German Food Partnership”.

“German aid investments and private sector partnerships have helped fund many successful programmes, helping lift millions out of hunger and poverty,” said Gates at the press conference alongside Condon and German federal development minister, Dirk Niebel. “By setting clear goals, such as a global productivity target in agriculture, we can continue to deliver real progress and save lives.”

Condon says recognition from the US foundation is an important step in pushing forward both the German food project and the wider notion of public-private partnerships as the best way forward.

“The Bill Melinda Gates Foundation is not a normal charity; it is run like a professional business and they set very high standards, which keeps up the pace for everybody,” he says approvingly.

“They insist on measuring success and they tailor their approach to things that are proven to be working. They don’t give money and pull back. They test how approach is working and decide based on results.”

Condon speaks the same language as Gates. To tackle world hunger effectively, he says, companies, states and civil society need to stop ploughing their own furrows and embrace public-private partnerships.

But is an approach familiar for building motorways suitable for tackling global development questions such as world hunger?

“Food security and poverty are issues so big that no government, no company or group of companies is big enough to tackle alone,” argues Condon.

Two months ago, he took the helm of Bayer CropScience, which describes itself as an “innovative crop science company”, operating in 120 countries with a workforce of 21,000.

Bayer CropScience develops and markets so-called “high value seed” offerings, with built-in crop protection – thanks to both breeding and genetic modification as well as biological and chemical crop protection.

So what is Bayer’s interest in world hunger? While cynics might see a corporation anxious to tap a new market, Condon disagrees. Every company should have some form of societal responsibility, he says, and should contribute to the society in which it operates. Bayer’s interest, though not selfless, he says, is not entirely selfish either.

“There is no sense that this is going to lead to any short-term increases in profitability, so ultimately we would see this as a long-term investment,” he says. “If we are helping pull people out of poverty, that generates more income for society and eventually this will benefit our business as well.”

Acting as a corporate wolf in charitable clothing would not be credible for another reason, he argues, as there is a growing view in world capitals that the old charity model is outdated. Thus, he says, Germany’s new initiative to fight world hunger is not charity “in the classic sense”.

“It is about long-term investment that needs to be run professionally,” he says. “What is clear is the state needs to play a key role in terms of governance, to make sure right rules are in place, that things getting done in the right way.”

Already the German Food Partnership, in which Bayer is involved, is rolling out a rice initiative in Asia that has seen up to 24 per cent higher yields for farmers, boosting their incomes by up to a third.

Pilot programmes

The secret to the programme’s greater yields, Condon says, lies in participating companies, such as Bayer and BASF, pooling their knowledge to provide farmers with a holistic programme. This should ideally address everything from soil fertility and irrigation training to courses on how best to sow seeds and store the harvest.

“In the past companies only looked at their bit of the puzzle and where things tended to break down was in the connections between the pieces,” says Condon. “This is a fully-fledged programme that cuts across the value chain.”

Farmers who participated in pilot programmes were so impressed by the increased productivity that they are happy to stay on board, he says..

“They can go back to what they were doing before: there is no bind or tie in that sense,” he says. “But the results speak for themselves and, if the results are good, the farmers will go with it.”

Not everyone is convinced that producing more food is necessarily the best way to address world hunger. Responding to the Berlin partnership announcement, Oxfam Germany expressed concern that “industrialised agriculture pushed by agribusiness ignores small-hold farmers’ needs and damages the environment”.

Condon concedes that larger farmers are the first port of call for companies such as Bayer, but simply for reasons of practicality. There is nothing to stop local governments ensuring the programme benefits are made available to smaller farmers.

Boosting their incomes, allowing them to stay on their farms and slowing migration to cities, is, he says, one of the programme’s main goals.

Condon’s new position is not all good news announcements. Besides a steep learning curve in the last two months, the Irishman has inherited a serious stand-off over one of Bayer’s best-selling pesticides, clothianidin.

The product has come under close scrutiny on both sides of the Atlantic in recent years in the hunt for the cause of death of millions of honeybees. Beekeepers and consumer groups claim the Bayer product, used to coat plants to protect them from pests, is potentially toxic for bees.

For Bayer CropScience, the accusations are very serious: clothianidin and related products generate over €1 billion in total annual sales.

Historical phenomenon

Last month, a European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) study found a “high acute risk to honeybees” from a drift of pesticide dust as well as via nectar and pollen residues for products including oilseed rape. However, it conceded there were gaps in its knowledge and that not all risks could be accurately assessed.

Scientists examining so-called “colony collapse disorder” worldwide say it is a complex issue. Beyond possible chemical causes, they are looking at viruses, parasites and other stresses that might compromise bees’ immune systems.

Bayer does not accept that there is any indisputable scientific evidence linking its products to colony collapse disorder, which it describes as a symptom of a long-term, historical phenomenon in bee colonies worldwide.

Either way, Condon has a difficult role. For Bayer, he insists it is more than a mere profit issue.

“If we were convinced, based on scientific evidence, that one of our products was having a serious negative impact on any part of society, we would have to immediately withdraw, no question about it,” says Condon, a position for which he says he has full backing all the way up through the company.

“Insecticides, of course, can be toxic for bees if used in the wrong way. But if used properly that is not a major problem.”

He says the company acts quickly when it becomes aware of improper use of its products. For instance, a German case in 2008 saw incorrectly treated corn seed cause losses in local bee colonies. Condon describes this as an “accident that we immediately followed up on”.

As well as an investigation in Germany, Bayer is involved in delicate negotiations with European authorities on the future of one of its best-selling products. With campaigns and websites targeting Bayer, Condon notes there is a “heated, quite emotional debate” which doesn’t always heed scientific data.

Nobody likes bees dying, given the huge impact on eco-systems. But Condon is energetic in defending Bayer’s motivation in this long-running affair, saying there is no contradiction between its commercial interests and the wider environmental concerns.

“There seems to be an impression that a company like Bayer wouldn’t care about bees,” he says. “But without bees we have no business, so of course we have a huge interest in the health of bees. This is crucial.”

As a high-flying Irishman in corporate Germany, Condon is anxious to build bridges between the two countries. He is already active in the Irish Business Network in Germany, while Bayer CropScience has partnerships with UCD and Teagasc, including tests of products to tackle potato blight in Irish conditions.

Career opportunities

Condon says he has watched the euro- zone crisis increase attention in Ireland on his adoptive home. Beyond recent German-critical crisis headlines in Ireland, however, he senses a respect on return visits home for how Germany managed its affairs to ensure steady growth without economic bubbles.

“A lot of people allowed the Irish bubble to happen but not everyone benefited. But everyone got hurt when it burst,” he says. “I sense a lot of respect for how Germany managed its economy: it never went significantly up or significantly down. There is an idea here of continuous progress and improvement for the economy.”

One positive effect of the economic crisis, he said, is increasing awareness in Ireland of huge career opportunities in Germany. In many ways the two countries face complementary problems: too few jobs in Ireland, too few skilled candidates in Germany.

“There are jobs available here at all levels,” says Condon. “If you look at the demographics this talent shortage is going to be a much bigger issue in the future.”

The main bottleneck for Irish pursuing careers in Germany remains the lack of jobseekers who can speak the language. But he sees signs of improvement on the Irish side. One of his own nephews is currently in Germany on a school exchange, living with a host family.

“Starting early helps a lot, as the earlier you start the easier it is to learn a new language, which is why such school programmes are essential,“ he says.

But with languages, as in life, he says the key is not to expect others to do the work. “It is much more about really wanting to learn a new language.”

CV: Liam Condon

Name: Liam Condon

Age: 44

Position: Chief executive of Bayer CropScience

Family: Married with two sons

Career: Studied international marketing and languages at NIHE, later Dublin City University, in the 1980s and, with graduate prospects then as dim as they are now, moved to Berlin to study for a year in 1987.

A student strike during most of his time left him with plenty of time to learn German and explore the still divided city. Condon was in Berlin when the wall fell in 1989 and found work with the pharmaceuticals company Schering.

In 1996 he moved with Schering to Japan. On his return to Berlin, he was appointed Scherings marketing director for the Asia-Pacific region and moved to Shanghai, from where he watched pharma giant Bayer swallow his Berlin employer. Rather than show him the door, they promoted him to be manager of China. His success there – up to 50 per cent annual growth – got him noticed at home.

He returned to Germany in January 2010 to head Bayer Vital, the healthcare division responsible for a product portfolio including Aspirin and diabetes medication, in Germany. On December 1st last, he took the helm at Bayer CropScience

Something you might expect: A language graduate, he is fluent in Japanese (learned after complete immersion with a host family in a rural town following his posting there in 1996), German, French and Mandarin (also acquired on posting to China).

Something that might surprise: He is a passionate marathon man. He ran the Düsseldorf marathon, he says, in "two hours 58 minutes and 30 seconds". His next big race looms next month.