SOURCE | Spring 2022 13
COOPERATIVE VENTURES
Employees at all levels of the organization should be empowered to ask questions , solve problems , and anticipate future business needs .
with her counterpart at CHS , along with the help of a third-party firm to manage the fund .
“ The fund management company will provide both administration and venture expertise ,” adds Thompson . “ They are experts in the tech startup world and are already underway with a lot of networking and sourcing on our behalf .”
The goal for Cooperative Ventures is to bring in and evaluate 150 to 200 ideas each year , with the first investments happening before the end of this year . Right now , the strategy is for this to be a ten-year fund which will invest in approximately 10 to 15 companies total , with most of the initial investments occurring in the first five years of the fund .
The remaining five years will consist of follow-on investments , fund monitoring , and managed exits .
When I ask Thompson what drew her to this position , she doesn ’ t hesitate with her answer .
“ It ’ s an opportunity to help drive our System into the future . I ’ m eager to work closely with leaders in product areas and member cooperatives ,” she says . “ Also , being involved in innovation for the last four years with GROWMARK ’ s Winning Innovations team , which has been a core part of the GROW Enterprise strategy , I am excited to formalize our commitment to innovation and really build that from the ground up .”
While Cooperative Ventures currently takes up a good amount of Thompson ’ s time , the ultimate goal is for her duties to be evenly split between the fund and helping to spur further innovative thinking and processes within the System .
All of these initiatives will help bolster the GROWMARK System ’ s commitment to delivering custom solutions to its customers , with an unsurpassed customer experience .
“ Our customers are definitely open to new technology products that are on the market ,” says Thompson . “ They are eager to try things . But we need to have data to show it ’ s an effective project , especially if it ’ s an input that may have an impact on the yield . We need to have our homework done . There is no doubt an appetite for new tools and technologies but it ’ s on us to prove the benefits and value of each product .”