From the Pipeline: Q&A with DFA's President and CEO, Dennis Rodenbaugh

Name, Title, Organization: Dennis Rodenbaugh, President and Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Dairy Farmers of America (DFA)

Education: I received a Bachelor of Business Administration from Washburn University, majoring in finance and economics

Favorite Quote: I love many quotes, but I feel this quote by Andrew Carnegie is very applicable to our current goals and efforts.

“Teamwork is the ability to work together toward a common vision. The ability to direct individual accomplishments toward organizational objectives. It is the fuel that allows common people to attain uncommon results.” – Andrew Carnegie, industrialist and philanthropist

Most Valued Books on Business: Extreme Ownership: How U.S. Navy SEALs Lead and Win by Jocko Willink and Leif Babin

With both of my parents having served in the military, and with one of my most significant business mentors and partners being a career officer, ranger and special forces, I’ve always been drawn toward the leadership principles of military strategies. Extreme Ownership demonstrates how to apply techniques used by Navy SEALs to business and life.

If I had to fully condense the principles contained in Extreme Ownership, it would be that in leadership, true value is achieved through embracing ownership, serving others with humility and remaining accountable for every action. By upholding these principles, we can forge a path of excellence and resolute purpose.

Important principles for me are to ensure that our team members feel empowered through a culture of extreme ownership and connectivity, receiving trust and the benefit of the doubt, having permission to fail when pursuing excellence and innovation and applying fair accountability for the execution and outcomes.

This book helped me to better communicate clear expectations and goals and to empower employees to accept the great responsibility that comes with this ownership principle, including the need to quickly adapt, to coordinate as a team across the entire enterprise and to execute at a local and individual level.

Describe your career path.

At an early age, I believed there was risk in over-planning life and that a myopic focus on our own goals would result in a life that pales in comparison to a life of immersing ourselves and dedicating our gifts in a way that helps and advocates for others. I’ve been fortunate throughout my career that I’ve not had to search out or apply for the jobs or responsibilities I’ve held. When asked to help others work through challenging conditions, I’ve been motivated to step into roles of responsibility, accept risks and work to deliver results.

From a young age I’ve worked at, managed and owned diverse forms of businesses, ranging from communications brokerage and investment banking to agricultural businesses. During this time, I discovered a true passion for structuring deals, problem-solving and reaching win-win outcomes. Through working to attract the dairy industry to support the economic health of communities and by serving as a lender, actively seeking and building dairy partnerships, I developed a deep respect for and commitment to the dairy industry and dairy farm families.

When some really incredible people in my life asked for my help, I agreed to step into the ownership and managing partner role of a couple larger-scale dairy farms. That was a transformative time of life as I became enamored with the 24/7, 365 lifestyle of dairy operations, which require a unique dichotomy of executing a business plan with relentless urgency while maintaining a calm, quiet and low-stress environment for livestock.

In 2007, I received a phone call from DFA, which ultimately led to what has now been a 16-year career of relocating my family around the country as I accepted expanding roles of responsibility. And, most recently, my current role, where I now rely daily upon a foundation of faith, family and farming principles as well as things learned throughout each one of the many diverse career choices I’ve made and other challenging life experiences.

What are your key responsibilities?

Our Corporate Board of Directors hires the president and chief executive officer and tasks them with managing the entirety of the business to achieve the mission, vision, values and strategy that the Board has adopted, which includes our core role of marketing our farmer-owners’ milk as well as ensuring strong Cooperative financial performance.

A major lift over the past year has been to develop and adopt a new living strategy. This strategy is aligning our many separate business divisions and functions with a one-team vision and coordinated effort. Some of the efforts our living strategy will focus on include investing heavily into new innovations, securing and building talent and capabilities that enable us to drive performance and to unlock the value and global demand for our farmer-owners' milk in all of the rapidly expanding forms, functions and flavors of dairy.

What is your connection to farming?

While I grew up on a farm, our family hadn’t been involved in dairy since my great grandfather. I came to know dairy and dairy families about 30 years ago as I worked to help dairies relocate across the country and as I built dairy partnerships and operations as a lender. This experience, combined with my involvement in various agri-businesses and my role as the managing partner of a couple of DFA member dairy farms, created a lifelong connection to farming as a business and as a way of life.

Life requires meaning and purpose. In my current role as CEO, and in all the previous ones I’ve held with DFA, I get to work and advocate for dairy farm families all the way through to consumers around the globe who rely upon us for safe, healthy and sustainable nutrition. For me, that is living life with purpose.

What business lessons have you learned that could be applied to farmers?

While there are many learnings that can be gained from a large, complex global business, I think it’s really a question of what business lessons can we learn and adopt from dairy farmers and the rich history of dairy farming. Something that resonates with me is their perseverance through the storm. I’ve always appreciated and connected with Andrew Jackson’s quote, “I was born for the storm, and a calm does not suit me,” but I believe dairy farmers were uniquely born for both the storm and the calm. They are business owners who must wear 10 different hats in one day. They’re the mechanic, the milker, the accountant. They confront the forces of nature and market volatility, and they not only push through, they do it with strength, gratitude and humility. Their passion is evident in their pursuit of excellence. It’s in their daily commitment to what they do. It's in their drive for quality, performance and excellence. It’s what drives the energy, passion and pace of dairy. And sometimes that's, very literally, fueled by blood, sweat and tears. They have no patience for the concepts of pausing, giving up or being afraid. Their passion, perseverance and grit are attributes that embody who they are, and I believe should be applied to how we as DFA work on their behalf.

What is a leadership lesson that you’ve learned in your career?

Being a good business manager requires strong business acumen and judgment. Being a leader requires the ability to develop a continually evolving vision that can be effectively communicated in a way that each individual understands the role they will play. Some leaders have an inherent charisma and charm that can fuel an ignition, but I believe a leader who can truly sustain an organization through its entire journey will foster a culture of authenticity and sincerity, treat others with respect and encouragement and lead by example, promoting empowerment, inclusion, trust, diversity of thought and fair accountability.

What is your leadership philosophy?

For me, it’s all about connectivity. Maybe it sounds like a business buzzword, but not in my mind. I picture our U.S. military: the air force overhead, ground forces below and naval resources off the coast. Each is great alone, but they are unbeatable when working together in a single, united force in a coordinated and effective strategy.

There is nothing quite like DFA — we are the culmination of numerous mergers and the accumulation of many great acquisitions. We will continue to grow and evolve, but we will never change who we are at our foundation — a 100% farmer-owned cooperative built by, owned by and governed by dairy farmers. By now bringing together tremendous capabilities, attributes and talent to act as one team with a common vision and acting as a coordinated force, we’ll achieve a very uncommon vision. That is connectivity, and it doesn't happen by accident. It requires a very deliberate effort and effective strategy.

What is your biggest challenge as a leader?

Anticipating the next major disruption. Great disrupters have been a part of business since the beginning of time, but the pace, scale and scope of change has accelerated exponentially. Keeping up isn’t enough. Anticipating change, understanding potential risks and challenges and placing the organization into a position where change propels us forward is the challenge we set for ourselves. At DFA, we’re constantly working to build that bridge between where we are today, where our farmer-owners will need us and where global consumers will expect us to be in the future. While I feel we have a solid strategy and goals to help guide us, we will experience surprises that cause us to stumble, so we must be disciplined to ensure that we have the strength to regain our balance and drive forward.