When Land O’Lakes CEO Beth Ford was a teenager, she made $ 2 an hour stripping corn and cutting weeds in Iowa’s soybean fields.
That was long before she landed first in one of America’s biggest dairy farmers this summer – joining a small group of women who run Fortune 500 companies and becoming the first openly gay woman to do so. But whether it’s in the cornfield or in the boardroom, Ford maintains her career and the titles she’s amassed along the way have never caught her eye.
“I didn’t try to have a certain platform,” says Ford. “I have sought to be the CEO of this company – and to be the best CEO, to be the best leader and partner with my team, and to do whatever I can for our farmers and our members. “
Ford’s inevitably busy entry to senior post has been complicated by the setbacks in retaliatory tariffs provoked by President Donald Trump trade war. Many farmers in Land O’Lakes, who work with dairy, soybeans and grains are in trouble in the crucial export market as a result, says Ford.
In addition to managing this challenge, in its first six weeks, Ford met its employees, held internship presentations, traveled to 16 different cities to meet local farmers, met with crucial partners like Walmart and Hershey , restructured his team and prepared for a busy fourth quarter, among other tasks. And it pushed Land O’Lakes beyond its reputation for simply selling butter to the forefront of the agricultural industry, where the company has pioneered new technologies and developed more environmentally friendly farming techniques. plants.
Rather, Ford’s first weeks on the job represent her approach of using her career to help uplift others – not just herself. Her CEO job has never been about herself or her identity, but she “doesn’t push him away,” she says. Since her appointment, she has made connections with women across the country, members of the LGBTQ community and families with children who accept their sexual orientation or gender identity.
“What I wish people would remember is to be you,” she says. “Bring the best of yourself. Everything will be alright.
This philosophy has guided Ford throughout her career – and it’s what she hopes to instill in her 10,000 employees as she tells them to come and work like the most genuine themselves.
“If you develop a team atmosphere like that, if you see and feel the excitement, it’s fun to come to work,” says Ford. “Even when there are bumps, it doesn’t seem overwhelming. We will move forward.
This idea is perhaps reflected in the company’s most recent commercial, which debuted on a recent episode of NBC. The voice. The ad, which features an alternate version of “Old MacDonald Had a Farm,” celebrates the cooperative’s women farmers. It was done before Ford became the company’s first female CEO – “I wish I could tell you we were that precise with our timing,” Ford jokes – but comes at a pivotal moment in the history of the company. ‘business. (Thirty-one percent of U.S. farmers are women, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.)
“People have a perspective or a perception that these are all men, and women are not,” says Ford. “And that just couldn’t be further from the truth.”
The same could be said of his business peers. Women – including herself – barely represent 5% of all Fortune 500 CEOs, and many of them certainly faced their own challenges. But Ford is encouraging other women to get promotions, ask for raises and challenge themselves at work.
Asking for a promotion, she says, “could go two ways. They might say, “No, you are not ready,” and you are in fact in the same position as before. You can then ask the following question: “If it’s no, then why?” Tell me. Help me understand where my shortcomings are. Help me to learn.
“But be careful,” she adds, “because you have to be able to take these comments. “
Whatever the outcome, she says, “I try to move forward with confidence and resilience. In the context of good professional success, it is extremely important to move the ball forward.
