Hitting the Mark in Ag Tech Recruitment

As featured in CropLife

“If you build it, they will come,” James Earl Jones told Kevin Costner as they both looked across the what could be within a picturesque I-state cornfield. More than three decades later, Mike DiPaola, Chief Commercial Officer for Taranis, looks across their digital library of the millions of acres of corn and soybeans…acres that serve as the foundation for the company’s ability to capture leaf-level insights and resounds, “If you build it, they will come.” 

Far from fiction, DiPaola isn’t referring to growers or even the retailers that make up a large and targeted segment of Taranis’ partners, he’s talking about the workforce that fuels technology to drive agriculture forward—the workforce that drives Taranis.

Ag Tech is More than Tech

“We’re agricultural technologies—plural. We’re agricultural services. We’re bringing people together to create a better outcome at scale,” DiPaola says. “So how does that help us recruit people to join your team? Because that message is how people actually work. People rise to their level of expectation, and the level of expectation we set at Taranis is not about technology, but what technology can deliver in rural America for the benefit of the grower, the retailer, the equipment provider, the grain marketer all the way down to the local school district. You don’t recruit people with the “what” or the “how,” you recruit with the “why,” and the “why” is the reason Taranis exists.”

Taranis hasn’t just grown, it has adapted to build and strengthen relationships across the production agriculture value chain. The company known for its AcreForward™ suite of tools, service plans, and resources puts the answers to growing season questions in the hands of retailers in the form of leaf-level information. But what is truly delivered accounts for much more than agronomic insights and answers: trust, connection, engagement, and ultimately, an ongoing relationship, all of which the Taranis team plays an integral role in. What’s truly delivered is the “why.”

The recruiting advice DiPaola provides in building a team is simple in principle.

“Find people who actually understand and care about the communities in which they serve and the industry in which they work,” he says. “When you’re recruiting, you have to know your target, and what’s important to them needs to be aligned with what’s important to you. Work ethic, integrity, and practicality, that’s what I look for. We are 100% aligned with the success of our customer. We don’t make money unless our customers see value year after year. We have one season to get it right, and we have to hire people who get that.”

Understanding the Value Chain in Agriculture

DiPaola says that he and his team understand and respect the value chain, as does the business model Taranis operates from. And because of its addition to the value chain, rather than deletion through competition, Taranis is making the value chain stronger.

“What we do is give retailers the power to know their customers much better. Our technology doesn’t replace an individual, it puts a spotlight on their talents and on a retail advisor’s capabilities,” he says. “And from a retailer’s perspective, you want to be the retailer with this technology versus the one who doesn’t have it trying to hire the same person. We see that from our retail customers. They are able to hire better people and are more attractive to work for as a company, because they are offering technologies that lift the capabilities of their employees.”

To learn more about careers at Taranis, visit taranis.com/careers.