Rurik B. Halaby is chairman and founder of AgriCapital, which offers private investment banking services to agribusiness companies. Below, he explains why attending the Harvard Business School (HBS) Agribusiness Seminar 30 times over the past 31 years has been so valuable to him—and his business.
HBS professor Ray Goldberg, who founded the HBS Agribusiness Seminar, is the guru of agribusiness. He coined the term "agribusiness" and developed important conceptual frameworks for the global food system. Because I knew and admired Ray and his work, I decided to take the plunge and attend the Seminar 31 years ago. Since then, I have missed only one session. Ray's contribution will live forever. I am delighted that David Bell, the new faculty chair, and his team are continuing that work.
I realized a long time ago that I must never stop learning. The field of agribusiness is constantly changing and has become more global. Currently, technological progress is a driving force in the industry. I have never regretted attending the HBS Agribusiness Seminar because it's a great way to stay on the cutting edge. Every year, we discuss new topics and new cases. I always enjoy myself and leave HBS feeling better than when I arrived.
I love the professors and we get along very well. They are extremely committed and intelligent. We have a wonderful dialogue and learn a lot from each other. It just keeps getting better!
The Seminar helps you stay on top of what people are thinking and doing. You cannot get that intelligence just by sitting in your office, reading a book, or searching online. You have to sit down and talk with people. The Seminar is a great way to do that. It attracts 200 of the top agribusiness people from around the world—from big and small companies and from many different backgrounds.
The agribusiness field includes many high-integrity individuals who are also very generous intellectually. I sit down with them, ask them what's going on, hear what they have to say, and then repay them by explaining some things I know well. It’s a great way for both of us to learn.
By attracting participants from around the world, the Seminar focuses people's thinking on the globalization of agriculture. It's quite interesting to realize that even with so many differences, farmers in France, Iowa, South Africa, and Brazil have so much in common.
I go to more than 20 functions a year, including many industry trade association meetings. To learn, you have to observe, think, touch, exchange, and test ideas. Spending time at HBS is particularly intense—like going to a mental gym. You read some difficult cases and discuss them with really bright people. You have to be on your toes and push yourself. Having stretched yourself, stimulated your thinking, and encountered so many new ideas, you come out ahead of the game.
Life is always throwing you curve balls. When you face a challenge you haven't seen before, you want to figure out the drivers, the facts, and the options, but no model or computer program will give you the magic solution. You draw on your experience to think through very quickly what you need to do.
The case method is fantastic because it prepares you to hit curve balls. When you study a case, you don't just learn facts—you learn how to think, solve problems, and make decisions. You learn from every case—not only from situations that went well but also from people’s mistakes. When you discuss the case with others, you gain exposure to different attitudes, outlooks, and approaches. The older you get, the more new problems you see—but having tackled many other problems in the past through the cases, you have the confidence to say, "There's a solution here if we just think about it."
Anyone in agribusiness who doesn't come to the Agribusiness Seminar at least once in his or her career—if not two or three times—is missing out. The Seminar brings together a balanced set of executives across industries, countries, and backgrounds. The group includes senior executives, scientists, middle managers, farmers, and many others. The result is a very vibrant mix of talent and positions that enables everyone to meet people who are very different and to learn from them.
If you come to the Seminar early in your career, you will learn a lot because you will be exposed to many new things. If you come as a senior executive, you have probably become gradually isolated from reality over the years. In that case, the Seminar will expose you to many new people and ideas you would not have encountered in your executive suite.
