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6 Case Study Two—Modelling Business Cycles

• Published: July 2013
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This chapter examines the evolution of econometric research in business cycle analysis mainly during the 1960-90 period. It shows how the research was dominated by an assimilation of the tradition of NBER business cycle analysis by the CC approach, catalysed by time-series statistical methods. It also shows how the research has branched into various directions, such as the DSGE based model simulations for theory verification, device of various cyclical measures, among which forecasting has remained the least successful. Methodological consequences of the assimilation are critically evaluated in light of the meagre achievement of the research in predicting the current global recession.

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A Survey on Business Cycles: History, Theory and Empirical Findings

• Conference paper
• First Online: 14 April 2023
• Cite this conference paper

• Giuseppe Orlando   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0003-2630-5403 5 , 6 &
• Mario Sportelli   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0003-1999-7632 6  

Part of the book series: Springer Proceedings in Business and Economics ((SPBE))

Included in the following conference series:

• X Euro-Asian Symposium on Economic Theory "Viability of Economic Theories: through Order and Chaos"

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This work summarizes recent advances in modelling and econometrics for alternative directions in macroeconomics and cycle theories. Starting from the definition of a cycle and continuing with a historical overview, some basic nonlinear models of the business cycle are introduced. Furthermore, some dynamic stochastic models of general equilibrium (DSGE) and autoregressive models are considered. Advances are then provided in recent applications to economics such as recurrence quantification analysis and numerical tools borrowed from other scientific fields such as physics and engineering. The aim is to embolden interdisciplinary research in the direction of the study of business cycles and related control techniques to broaden the tools available to policymakers.

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Orlando, G., Sportelli, M. (2023). A Survey on Business Cycles: History, Theory and Empirical Findings. In: Kumar, V., Kuzmin, E., Zhang, WB., Lavrikova, Y. (eds) Consequences of Social Transformation for Economic Theory. EASET 2022. Springer Proceedings in Business and Economics. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-27785-6_2

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Business Cycle: Definition and 6 Stages

The economy of every country undergoes periodic fluctuations. Although they are repetitive, it is impossible to avoid them .

Many factors cause these fluctuations, such as GDP, employment, consumer spending, real income, production, and aggregate output.

Smart business owners and policymakers study these economic cycles and patterns to help them make informed financial decisions. Preparing for these periodic fluctuations ensures your business thrives even in unstable economic conditions.

This article explains the workings and stages of the business cycle.

Let’s get started.

Definition and Example of the Business Cycle

The business cycle, otherwise known as the economic cycle or trade cycle, is a term that depicts the increase or decrease in economic activities involving production, trade, and consumption over time.

In other words, a business cycle involves expansions occurring simultaneously in multiple economic activities followed by recessions (general contractions).

Business cycles help measure the downward and upward movement of the amount of productivity of businesses, employees, and consumers alongside the growth cycle of the economy over time.

As the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) fluctuates around its natural long-term growth rate, economic cycles help explain the expansion and contraction phenomena that characterize an economy over time.

Example of the Business Cycle

Every business cycle must have passed at least a single boom and a single contraction sequentially.

In recent decades, major economies and businesses have increased their production level. It has led to the need for more employees and has translated to less spending money. As a result, companies make more profits that help them focus on growth.

In the reverse case, when the economy is slow, there is a decline in the number of employees needed, which translates to a decrease in consumer spending. As a result, companies have less focus on growth.

To fully understand the business cycle, you need to understand two key terms: economic expansion and contraction.

Economic expansion in economic analysis is the rate at which production and consumption change positively, while economic contraction is inversely the rate at which production and consumption change negatively.

The United States as a Case Study

In the United States, for example, the end and start of a business cycle are defined and measured by the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER), a non-profit business cycle dating committee.

The NBER uses quarterly GDP growth rates to determine the current business or economic cycle. It waits till it gets enough economic data to prevent a situation where it would have to make revisions to the business cycle chronology.

Businesses are affected by the expansion and contraction of the economy as they also go through their own distinct set of ups and downs in their trade cycle.

This situation puts the management of the business in a position to devise strategic financial decisions to deal with these challenges head-on. Understanding the time of the business cycle helps businesses make correct investment decisions.

6 Stages of the Business Cycle

The business cycle illustrates how a nation's aggregate economy moves over time, showing ups and downs.

Business cycles are characterized by economic expansions followed by sustained periods of economic recessions. In a business cycle diagram, the straight line is the steady growth line, and every business cycle moves about the line.

All business cycles pass through six distinct identical phases.

1. Expansion Stage

The first stage in every business cycle is the expansion phase. Expansion begins when there is a visible increase in positive economic indicators such as employment, demand, and supply of goods and services, wages, profits, personal income, national income, and output.

Economic expansion is a period of relative growth in a nation's economy. During this phase, productivity increases, as visible as an upward movement in the yield curve.

The economic recovery phase is another name for the expansion stage. It occurs after an economy has been through a contraction for an extended period.

This phase is characterized by debtors paying off their debts on time, high velocity of money supply, and high investments. It continues as long as the economic conditions remain favorable.

GDP growth is the economic measurement index that indicates economic output increase during the expansion phase. When economic output rises, businesses and organizations hire more workers and open up more strategic business units .

The goal of the federal reserve bank during the expansion phase is to keep inflation around 2% for a healthy economy.

During this stage, the stock market also experiences rising prices as investors grow in confidence, businesses receive more funding, and consumer confidence is at an all-time high.

The expansion phase is close to its end or overheating state when the economy begins to grow too fast, which is visible in the employment rate emerging below the natural rate and inflation increasing with stock prices rising to the point of being overvalued.

A country experiences a healthy expansion when the GDP growth rate is in the 2 – 3% range, inflation maintains its 2% target, and the unemployment rate is between 3.5 – 4.5%, with the stock market supporting a bullish run.

2. Peak Stage

The saturation point or peak an economy reaches is the second stage of the business cycle. It is visible by the economic indicator's inability to grow further as it has attained its maximum growth limit.

During the peak phase, prices are at their highest, marking the reversal point in the trend of economic growth as consumers tend to make changes to their budget structure.

At the peak phase, all expansionary indicators begin to level as the economy prepares to transition into the contraction or recession phase.

The peak is visible graphically as the highest portion of the yield curve before the economy begins to experience a downward spiral characterized by a continuous decline in GDP growth below the 2% healthy mark.

Once the nation's economic numbers start growing out of their healthy ranges, the economy is most vulnerable as any factors can throw it off balance at this stage.

Companies expanding recklessly, overconfident investors, buying up of assets, and a significant price increase not supported by their underlying value are several factors that can throw the country's economy off balance in the peak stage.

With no room left for growth and nowhere to go but down, the economy falls into the recession or contraction phase after it has reached the peak and end of the expansion phase. It indicates that prices and production have reached their respective limits.

3. Recession or Contraction Stage

The recession stage comes after the peak phase and is evident by a rapid and steady decline in the demand for goods and services.

Producers in the economy do not readily notice this rapid and steady decline as they go about their regular daily production numbers. Thus creating a situation of excess supply in the market which tends to bring down prices abruptly.

Apart from prices, other positive economic indicators also witness a significant fall, such as income, wages, and output.

A recession graphically spans the time from the peak to the trough, as it is the period when economic activity is at its lowest.

During the recession, unemployment numbers rise, the stock market enters a bearish trend, and the GDP growth is below the 2% healthy value, forcing businesses to cut back on their economic activities.

For an economy to be in recession, the GDP has to have shown a significant decline for two consecutive quarters. It does not return to its original shape and size immediately after the recession phase is over.

4. Depression Stage

After the contraction phase, the nation's economy experiences a significant rise in unemployment across all facets of the economy.

Besides the increase in unemployment, there is also a decline in the growth index for the country's economy, as is evident in its fall below the steady growth line. At this stage of the nation's economy, the country is in its depression stage.

5. Trough Stage

The trough stage is the fifth phase of the business cycle. It is characterized by a decrease in the rate of adverse change in the nation's declining GDP until it eventually turns positive.

In economic terms, a trough represents the negative saturation point for an economy as there is an extensive depletion of national income and expenditure during this stage of the business cycle.

This phase begins when the nation's economy transitions from its contraction phase into its expansion and is represented graphically as the lowest point of the yield curve.

The rebound experienced during the trough phase is not always straight or quick as it continues steadily until the economy reaches full economic recovery.

6. Recovery Stage

After the through phase, a nation's economy enters the recovery stage. This stage is characterized by a significant turnaround in the country's economy, evident by its recovery from its negative growth rate.

Due to prices at their lowest point, demand starts to witness an increase. Consequently, supply and industrial production increase as the population's attitude toward investment and employment is now positive.

During the recovery phase, employment also begins to rise as the accumulated cash balances with the bankers make lending show positives.

Depreciated capital is readily replaced, providing unique opportunities for investment in the production process, which continues until the nation's economy returns to steady growth.

Economic Indicators for Measuring the Business Cycle

Economic indicators used to measure the productivity of a business cycle are very extensive as they are based on financial data of the nation's economy.

Here are the three common categories of economic business cycle indicators.

1. Leading Business Cycle Indicators

A leading business cycle indicator measures aggregate economic activity and predict a business cycle's beginning phase.

The leading business cycle indicators are the average weekly work hours in manufacturing, stock prices, factory orders of goods, index of customer expectations, average weekly claims for unemployment insurance, interest rate spread, and housing permits.

Usually, changing these indicator metrics could significantly point towards a potential shift in the business cycle. Leading economic cycle indicators get the most attention due to their tendency to predict a shift in advance of a business cycle.

These indicators work best alongside coincident and lagging indicators in the same framework. They provide a more thorough understanding of the true nature of economic activity.

2. Lagging Business Cycle Indicators

Lagging economic cycle indicators are designed as confirmatory indicators, confirming the trends predicted by leading indicators. Generally, lagging indicators usually experience a significant shift witnessed after an economy has entered a period of fluctuation.

The average length of employment, labor cost per unit of manufacturing output, consumer price index, commercial lending activity, and average prime rate are all lagging indicators components.

3. Coincident Business Cycle Indicators

Coincidental economic cycle indicators measure the aggregate economic activity that is subject to changes as the business cycle progresses.

As one of the three components of economic business cycle indicators, coincident cycle indicators are economic research tools that help measure the real income of consumers in the market, among other factors.

The unemployment rate, personal finance levels, and industrial production are index components for coincident business cycle indicators.

How is the Business Cycle Influenced?

The fact that periodic business cycles move in phases does not mean they cannot be influenced. Countries can manage the various stages of a business cycle through monetary and fiscal policies.

1. Government Legislations

Generally, the government monitors the business cycle and devises a series of legislations to influence their country's business cycle, primarily around changes in tax and spending.

The government's fiscal policy is designed to increase taxes and reduce spending during an economic expansion, lower taxes and increase spending during an economic contraction. This policy is called the expansionary fiscal policy.

2. Monetary Policy

The Fed and the country's central bank use monetary policy tools that help implement needed changes to the country's interest rates.

This policy helps curtain lending and borrowing by businesses, banks, and consumers and influences the business cycle through rates that target inflation and unemployment.

When the country has slipped from its expansionary phase into a contraction phase, the central bank lowers its target interest rates to encourage borrowing in a request to end the contraction phase.

This policy by the central bank is termed an expansionary monetary policy. It is configured to be the turning point that pushes the business cycle back into the expansionary phase.

In unique situations, when a country's economy is growing faster than the country can afford, the central bank of such a country steps in. It offers preventive measures to contain the fast-growing economy.

The nation's central bank raises its target interest rates to discourage borrowing and spending, curbing the growth of the nation's economy.

This policy by the central bank is termed a contractionary monetary policy as its main aim is to contract economic activity spread and economic output to contain the economic expansion.

Business Cycle FAQ

No defined time frame exists for how long a business cycle should last. It varies from being short for months to being long, lasting several years.  According to the U.S Government National Bureau of Economic Research, the time frame average for business cycles in America to play out is around five and a half years since World War II.  Periods of expansion are generally more prolonged than those of contractions. As observed since WWII by the Congressional Research Service, the economic expansion period lasted 65 months on average, while the financial contraction period lasted about 11 months in the U.S. 

Ranging from technological innovations to wars, a wide variety of factors can shape the business cycle. According to the Congressional Research Service, the critical influence remains on aggregate demand and aggregate supply within an economy. Contraction occurs when demand decreases and when demand increases, expansion occurs. 

The economic expansion that occurred between 2009-2020 in the U.S went down in history as the longest expansion and the latest for a record 128 months. The U.S reached the peak of this longest expansion in February 2020. It was characterized by many variables in an economy fluctuating over time, leading to a shift in economic and non-economic factors.

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Business Cycle Synchronization and Vertical Trade Integration: A Case Study of the Eurozone and East Asia

Business cycle synchronization is one of the crucial conditions for a currency union to be successful. Frankel and Rose (1998) argued that increased trade after euro adoption would increase business cycle synchronization ex-ante. However, the fallout of the Eurozone forcefully demonstrated that their optimistic prediction did not turn out to be true. One thing Frankel and Rose (1998) did not examine is how different types of trade (inter vs. intra, vertical vs. horizontal, etc.) intensify/dampens business cycle synchronization. In this light, this paper empirically examines how different types of trade affect business cycle synchronization in what way. This study takes two major economic blocs that have been going under rapid economic integrations: The original Eurozone members and East Asia – integration of former mainly developing by European government initiative and the latter naturally forming by the global supply chain and associated product segmentation. Comparing these two very different economic blocs with very different factor endowment structures would give us a more convincing answer to how different types of trade can influence business cycle synchronization differently. Our key finding is that, on the contrary to Frankel and Rose (1998) , the impact of increased trade intensity on business cycle co-movement is ambiguous. The impact of trade on business cycle synchronization depends on types of trade. Intra-industry trade, especially vertical intra-industry trade which is rapidly growing in East Asia, has a strong positive effect on business cycle synchronization while inter-industry trade does not.

Article Notes

The earlier version of this paper has been published by De Nederlandsche Bank (the Dutch Central Bank). This paper does not necessarily reflect the views and opinions of De Nederlandsche Bank. The author acknowledges the valuable comments from Henry Sunghyun Kim, Ad Stockman, Peter Lafourcade and Gabriele Galati. The author also thank Rob Vet, Martin Admiraal, and Rene Bierdrager for excellent data support.

Sample countries and their GDP per capita.

Note: Data is as of 2016.

GDP per capita is constant on 2010 USS.

Data from database: World Development Indicators (Data of Taiwan is from FRED database)

Change in Intra-industry (X-axis) and vertical intra-industry (Y-axis) of the Eurozone and East Asia in 10-year intervals.

Source: Author’s calculation based on OECD-ITCS database. For calculation, please refer to the main text.

Correlation of business cycle extracted by different methods.

Source: Author’s calculation

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What Is the Economic Cycle?

• 4 Stages of a Business Cycle
• How to Measure Cycles

Managing Economic Cycles

Economic theory, the bottom line, economic cycle: definition and 4 stages of the business cycle.

An economic cycle, also known as a  business cycle , refers to economic fluctuations between periods of expansion and contraction. Factors such as  gross domestic product (GDP) ,  interest rates , total employment, and consumer spending can help determine the current economic cycle stage.

Understanding the economic period can help investors and businesses determine when to make investments and when to pull their money out, as each cycle impacts stocks and bonds as well as profits and corporate earnings.

Key Takeaways

• An economic cycle is the overall state of the economy as it goes through four stages in a cyclical pattern: expansion, peak, contraction, and trough.
• Factors such as GDP, interest rates, total employment, and consumer spending can help determine the current stage of the economic cycle.
• The causes of a cycle are highly debated among different schools of economics.

Investopedia / Mira Norian

Stages of the Economic Cycle

An economic cycle is the circular movement of an economy as it moves from expansion to  contraction  and back again. Economic expansion is characterized by growth and contraction, including recession, a decline in economic activity that can last several months. Four stages characterize the economic cycle or business cycle.

During expansion, the economy experiences relatively rapid growth,  interest rates tend to be low, and production increases. The economic indicators associated with growth, such as employment and wages, corporate profits and output, aggregate demand, and the supply of goods and services, tend to show sustained uptrends through the expansionary stage. The flow of money through the economy remains healthy and the cost of money is cheap. However, the increase in the money supply may spur inflation during the economic growth phase.

The peak of a cycle is when growth hits its maximum rate. Prices and economic indicators may stabilize for a short period before reversing to the downside. Peak growth typically creates some imbalances in the economy that need to be corrected. As a result, businesses may start to reevaluate their budgets and spending when they believe that the economic cycle has reached its peak.

Contraction

A  correction  occurs when growth slows, employment falls, and prices stagnate. As demand decreases, businesses may not immediately adjust production levels, leading to oversaturated markets with surplus supply and a downward movement in prices. If the contraction continues, the recessionary environment may spiral into a depression .

The trough of the cycle is reached when the economy hits a low point, with supply and demand hitting bottom before recovery. The low point in the cycle represents a painful moment for the economy, with a widespread negative impact from stagnating spending and income. The low point provides an opportunity for individuals and businesses to reconfigure their finances in anticipation of a recovery.

Measuring Economic Cycles

Key  metrics  determine where the economy is and where it's headed. The  National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER)  is the definitive source for marking the official dates for U.S. economic cycles. Relying primarily on changes in GDP, NBER measures the length of economic cycles from trough to trough or peak to peak.

Since the 1950s, a U.S. economic cycle, on average, lasted about five and a half years. However, there is wide variation in the length of cycles, ranging from just 18 months during the peak-to-peak cycle in 1981 to 1982 up to the expansion that began in 2009. According to the NBER, two peaks occurred between 2019 and 2020. The first was in the fourth quarter of 2019, a peak in quarterly economic activity. The monthly peak happened in a different quarter, which was noted as taking place in February 2020.

This wide variation in cycle length dispels the myth that economic cycles are a regular natural activity akin to physical waves or swings of a pendulum. But there is debate as to what factors contribute to the length of an economic cycle and what causes them to exist in the first place.

Businesses and investors need to manage their strategy over economic cycles—not so much to control them but to survive them and perhaps profit from them.

Governments, financial institutions, and investors manage the course and effects of economic cycles differently. During a recession, a government may use expansionary  fiscal policy and rapid  deficit spending . It can also try contractionary fiscal policy by taxing and running a  budget surplus  to reduce aggregate spending to prevent the economy from overheating during expansion.

Central banks may use  monetary policy . When the cycle hits a downturn, a central bank can lower interest rates or implement expansionary monetary policy to boost spending and investment. During expansion, it can employ contractionary monetary policy by raising interest rates and slowing the flow of credit into the economy.

During expansion, investors often find opportunities in the technology, capital goods, and energy sectors. When the economy contracts, investors may purchase companies that  thrive during recessions , such as utilities, consumer staples, and healthcare.

Businesses that track the relationship between their performance and business cycles can plan strategically to protect themselves from approaching downturns and position themselves to take maximum advantage of economic expansions. For example, if your business follows the rest of the economy, warning signs of an impending recession may suggest you shouldn't expand. You may be better off building up your  cash reserves .

Monetarism  suggests that government can achieve economic stability through their  money supply's  growth rate. It ties the economic cycle to the  credit cycle , where changes in interest rates reduce or induce economic activity by making borrowing by households, businesses, and the government more or less expensive.

The  Keynesian  approach argues that changes in aggregate demand, spurred by inherent instability and  volatility  in investment demand, are responsible for generating cycles. When business sentiment turns gloomy and investment slows, a self-fulfilling loop of economic malaise can result. Less spending means less demand, which induces businesses to lay off workers. According to Keynesians, unemployment means less consumer spending , and the whole economy sours, with no clear solution other than government intervention and  economic stimulus .

What Are the Stages of an Economic Cycle?

An economic cycle, or business cycle, has four stages: expansion, peak, contraction, and trough. The average economic cycle in the U.S. has lasted roughly five and a half years since 1950, although these cycles can vary in length. Factors to indicate the stages include gross domestic product, consumer spending, interest rates, and inflation. The National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) is a leading source for indicating the length of a cycle.

What Happens in Each Phase of the Economic Cycle?

In the expansionary phase, the economy experiences growth over two or more consecutive quarters. Interest rates are typically lower, employment rates rise, and consumer confidence strengthens. The peak phase occurs when the economy reaches its maximum productive output, signaling the end of the expansion. After that point, employment numbers and housing starts to decline, leading to a contractionary phase. The lowest point in the business cycle is a trough, which is characterized by higher unemployment, lower availability of credit, and falling prices.

What Causes an Economic Cycle?

The causes of an economic cycle are widely debated among different economic schools of thought. Monetarists, for example, link the economic cycle to the credit cycle. Here, interest rates, which intimately affect the price of debt, influence consumer spending and economic activity. On the other hand, a Keynesian approach suggests that the economic cycle is caused by volatility or investment demand, which in turn affects spending and employment.

The economic or business cycle refers to the cyclical pattern experienced by the economy. The economy remains in an expansion phase until it reaches its peak, reversing to the downside and entering a contraction before a trough, and begins to expand once again. GDP, interest rates, employment levels, and consumer spending can help define the economic cycle. Although there are different economic theories to explain what drives the economic cycle , the conditions associated with each stage can impact business and investment decisions.

Congressional Research Service. " Introduction to U.S. Economy: The Business Cycle and Growth ," Page 1.

National Bureau of Economic Research. " Business Cycle Dating ."

National Bureau of Economic Research. " US Business Cycle Expansions and Contractions ."

National Bureau of Economic Research. " NBER Determination of the February 2020 Peak in Economic Activity ."

International Monetary Fund. " Fiscal Policy: Taking and Giving Away ."

International Monetary Fund. " Monetary Policy: Stabilizing Prices and Output ."

International Monetary Fund. " What Is Keynesian Economics? "

• Recession: Definition, Causes, Examples and FAQs 1 of 37
• What Causes a Recession? 2 of 37
• 7 Ways to Recession-Proof Your Life 3 of 37
• 5 Things You Shouldn’t Do During a Recession 4 of 37
• How Do Asset Bubbles Cause Recessions? 5 of 37
• What Happens to Unemployment During a Recession? 6 of 37
• How the Federal Reserve Fights Recessions 7 of 37
• What Happens to Interest Rates During a Recession? 8 of 37
• Why Is Deflation Bad for the Economy? 9 of 37
• Why Is Stagflation Bad for the Economy? 10 of 37
• Are Economic Recessions Inevitable? 11 of 37
• Do Recessions Have a Silver Lining? 12 of 37
• The Impact of Recessions on Businesses 13 of 37
• 9 Businesses That Thrive in Recessions 14 of 37
• Industries That Can Thrive During Recessions 15 of 37
• What’s the Best Investing Strategy to Have During a Recession? 16 of 37
• How to Spot Recession-Resistant Companies 17 of 37
• 3 Ways to Take Advantage of a Recession 18 of 37
• 4 Ways to Hedge Against the Next Recession 19 of 37
• US Recessions Throughout History: Causes and Effects 20 of 37
• Great Recession: What It Was and What Caused It 21 of 37
• American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA): Objectives and FAQs 22 of 37
• 5 Top Investors Who Profited From the Global Financial Crisis 23 of 37
• Double-Dip Recession: Overview, History, FAQ 24 of 37
• Economic Cycle: Definition and 4 Stages of the Business Cycle 25 of 37
• Economic Recovery: Definition, Process, Signs, and Indicators 26 of 37
• What Is Economic Stimulus? How It Works, Benefits, and Risks 27 of 37
• All About Fiscal Policy: What It Is, Why It Matters, and Examples 28 of 37
• Growth Recession: What It Is, How It Works 29 of 37
• Inverted Yield Curve: Definition, What It Can Tell Investors, and Examples 30 of 37
• Recession Proof: Overview and Example 31 of 37
• Recession Resistant: Definition, How It Works, and Examples 32 of 37
• K-Shaped Recovery: Definition, K-Curve Chart Example, and Causes 33 of 37
• L-Shaped Recovery: Meaning, Examples, FAQs 34 of 37
• U-Shaped Recovery: What It Means, How It Works, and Examples 35 of 37
• V-Shaped Recovery: Definition, Characteristics, Examples 36 of 37
• W-Shaped Recovery: What it is, How it Works, FAQs 37 of 37

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The Agricultural Business Cycle: Managing Through the Booms and Busts

The ups and downs of the global economy, along with local and regional boom and bust cycles affect the agriculture sector and continue to impact farmers and other agri-food system participants, regardless of scale.

Since 1900, real agricultural commodity prices have fallen, while world population growth has more than quadrupled to 7 billion in 2015 (Figure 1). The average price reduction trend has been one percent per year over that time.  Yet, shorter-term boom and bust cycles are evident within the long-term trend.

In the last decades of the nineteenth century and first two decades of the twentieth century, technological changes, population growth and migration set the stage for increased trade and global integration, sparking the “first wave of globalization.” Global demand and prices for agriculture goods were relatively high until 1929.  With the onset of the Great Depression , prices dropped and trade slowed as economies contracted.

Prices rebounded during the boom era of World War II and continued through the post-war era for another two decades. The world per capita economy grew at nearly 2.9 percent annually.  Agricultural trade and prices also grew, spurred on by the creation of multilateral development institutions and trade structures, including the World Bank, the International Finance Corporation and the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT).

Over the period of 1990 to 2007 , economic growth and agricultural prices rebounded, averaging 2.9 percent global economic per capita growth annually. New technologies for farmers, access to lower interest loans and better transportation for goods and services led to a second wave of globalization and growing prices with high food demand from countries like China.

A severe food price crisis began in 2007 , due to a growing global middle class, increased use of biofuels, a series of weather-related poor harvests, high costs of energy and diminishing grain stocks.

Prices of basic staple food crops, particularly rice, spiked upwards and trade in rice halted, further worsening the crisis and leading to even higher prices.

In response to the demand for food, producers ramped up production between 2008 and 2013, and with sufficient supplies and lower demand in China, a new bust cycle of lower commodity prices started again in 2014 that continues until today. These lower prices pose challenges for producers and requires them to adopt a productivity-centered business model to cut costs, as well as seek new markets and focus on improving the quality of their products to gain a price advantage.

Eugenia Saini is currently FONTAGRO’s Executive Secretary. FONTAGRO is the Regional Fund for Agricultural Technology. She leads the investment fund and a portfolio of 70 international operations related to science, technology, and innovation for the Latin America and the Caribbean region. She is from Argentina and is an agronomist by training. She holds a doctorate in agricultural sciences, specializing in total factor productivity analysis. One of her seminal works in this field was the estimation of 120 years of TFP for the agricultural sector in Argentina. She is also a National Public Accountant and holds an MS in Food and Agribusiness and an MS in Applied Economics, both from Universidad de Buenos Aires. She has worked in the private and public sectors, both nationally and internationally, especially in multilateral banks. She was awarded a Fulbright Scholarship at Cornell University and, more recently, with the Abshire-Inamori Leadership Academy (AILA) Scholarship at the Center for Strategic & International Studies (CSIS) in Washington, D.C.

Jessica Agnew holds a Ph.D. in Planning, Governance, and Globalization from Virginia Tech, specializing in International Development Planning. She also holds a Master of Public Health from Virginia Tech and a Master of Science in Food, Agriculture, and Resource Economics from the University of Guelph. As the managing editor for the Global Agricultural Productivity (GAP) Report® and co-lead of the GAP Initiative at Virginia Tech, she draws on a decade of experience working in emerging agricultural sectors and developing resilient, nutritious food systems to advocate for sustainable productivity growth. In addition to her role with the GAP Initiative, she serves as the Associate Director for the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences Global Programs at Virginia Tech. Agnew also has an active research portfolio on innovation for improving access to safe and nutritious foods through agri-food value chains and equitable markets and deploying digital technologies for agricultural sector transformation.

Thomas L. (Tom) Thompson is Associate Dean and Director of Global Programs in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences at Virginia Tech. CALS Global builds partnerships, drives thought leadership, and creates opportunities for students and faculty to serve globally. Thompson earned BS, MS, and PhD degrees in agronomy and soil science. He was department head at Virginia Tech (2011-16) and Texas Tech University (2006-11) and professor and extension specialist at the University of Arizona from 1991 to 2006. Thompson is also a Professor of Agronomy and has published more than 60 refereed journal articles and garnered more than $7 million in extramural funding. His recent research and outreach have focused on the adoption of conservation agriculture in smallholder farming systems in Haiti, Senegal, and Southeast Asia. He has mentored graduate students from Africa, Asia, and Central and South America. Under his leadership, the Global Agricultural Productivity Report (GAP Report) was awarded to Virginia Tech in 2019. The GAP Report tracks global trends in agricultural productivity and is launched annually in Washington, DC. Thompson has completed LEAD21 and the Food Systems Leadership Institute, two nationwide leadership development programs. He is a Fellow of the American Society of Agronomy and the Soil Science Society of America.

Paul Spencer joined Corteva Agriscience in January 2019 and is the Global Trade Policy Advocacy Leader. He provides strategic counsel to the company’s business platforms on a range of trade policy issues, including plant breeding innovations, biotechnology asynchronous approvals, low-level presence, and pesticide maximum residue levels.

Paul represents Corteva externally on the the U.S. Grains Council’s Trade Policy Advisory Team, the National Grain and Feed Association’s Crop Technology Committee and the CropLife America Trade Steering Group. He is currently the Chairman of the BIO Innovation Organization’s Agriculture International Working Group.  Mr. Spencer began his career with the Department of Agriculture in 1993. From 2010-14, he was Agricultural Counselor at the U.S. Embassy in Berlin and was responsible for USDA programs and policies in Austria, Hungary, and Germany. He has also served at U.S. Embassies in Baghdad, Tokyo, and Vienna.

Mr. Spencer holds an MBA in International Business from the Thunderbird School of Global Management and a degree in Economics from Colorado State University. He is married to Sandy MacGregor and they have three children, Grace, Forrest, and John.

Brady J. Deaton was Chancellor of the University of Missouri 2004-2013 and now serves in emeritus status and as Director of the Deaton Institute for University Leadership in International Development at Missouri. He was appointed Chair of BIFAD by President Obama in 2011 and reappointed to a four-year term as a member of BIFAD in January 2016-2020 by President Obama.

He has worked in many countries to strengthen their capacity for agricultural and economic development, and has received three honorary degrees from universities in Thailand and Korea, and an Honorary Doctorate from the University of Kentucky. He was elected to the Missouri Cooperatives Hall of Fame. In 2014, he received the Missourian Award and in 2015 was named to the Alumni Hall of Fame of the University of Kentucky.

Deaton served as chair of the Academic Affairs Council of the Association of Public and Land-grant Universities (APLU) and participates in advisory roles with the U.S. Department of Agriculture. He completed a two-year term as chair of the Missouri Council on Public Higher Education and was chair of the Big 12 Conference Board of Directors. He served as a Board member of the National Foundation of Credit Counselors and is currently a Board member of the Online Computer Library Center (OCLC) and Board member of the Soybean Innovation Lab.

He is a recipient of the Malone Award from the APLU for furthering international education in public higher education, was a member of the board of the Donald Danforth Plant Science Center throughout his time as Chancellor, and served on the International Committee of the Association of American Universities (AAU). During April, 2014 and in 2015, Deaton served as a “Distinguished Guest in Residence” at New York University.

Alexis Taylor is an Iowa native, with a career focused on U.S. agricultural and trade policy.  Prior to her appointment as Under Secretary for Trade and Foreign Agricultural Affairs, Alexis was appointed by Oregon Governor Kate Brown as director of the Oregon Department of Agriculture (ODA) in December 2016. As director, she worked to promote and regulate agriculture and food, keeping the mission to ensure healthy natural resources, environment, and economy for Oregonians now and into the future at the forefront. 

Prior to Alexis’ appointment, she oversaw the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Farm and Foreign Agricultural Services (FFAS). While traveling the world she worked to open new markets and improve the competitive position of U.S. agricultural products in the marketplace. Before joining USDA, Alexis worked for several U.S. Congressman, staffing members from Montana and her home state.  

Alexis is a graduate of Iowa State University and grew up on her family farm in Iowa, which has been in her family for 160 years. While still in high school, she enlisted in the U.S. Army Reserves. During her junior​ year in college her army unit was deployed to Iraq, where she served one tour with the 389th Combat Engineer Battalion. While no longer an active reservist, Alexis continues to advocate for veterans.​​​​​​​​​​​​

With a background in industrial engineering and economic development, Sergio Rivas began his career in international development 22 years ago. His work in the industry includes roles as Contracts Officer Representative, Senior Director, Chief of Party, Country Representative, Board Member, donor, and volunteer on both public and private sector engagements.

For the past 15 years, Rivas has worked for Tanager’s parent company, ACDI/VOCA, in various senior leadership roles, most recently as Regional Managing Director in Honduras. From 2012-2016 he served as Tanager’s Country Representative in Colombia where he got to know the organization, developing an enormous admiration for its work, its people, and its clients.

Rivas assumed the role of President of Tanager in 2022.

Adam van Opzeeland has served as New Zealand’s First Secretary for Agriculture Trade to the United States since July 2022. His responsibilities include managing the bilateral agriculture policy relationship, working with US counterparts to facilitate the bilateral trade of agriculture goods, and collaborating with the US and other partners to advance common agriculture and trade objectives in regional and multilateral fora. Prior to this role, Adam spent eight years representing the New Zealand Government in Free Trade Agreement negotiations and as a delegate to a range of United Nations Conventions and Organizations. He holds a Master’s Degree in Sustainable Development from the University of Queensland.

Ruramiso Mashumba is a young female farmer from Marondera, Zimbabwe, and founder of Mnandi Africa, an organization that helps rural women combat poverty and malnutrition. She holds a BA Degree in Agriculture Business Management from the University of West England (UWE). Postgraduate Diploma in Management from Regent University, South Africa. She Is currently studying for an MBA in sustainable food and agriculture at the Royal Agriculture University in Cirencester, UK.

Rosalind (Roz) Leeck is the Executive Director for Market Access and Strategy as well as Northeast Asia Regional Director at the U.S. Soybean Export Council.  She oversees strategic program development and implementation including trade and market access issues; membership and industry relations; and communications and marketing efforts.  She is also the Regional Director for Northeast Asia responsible for Korea and Japan. 

Roz has more than 10 years of experience in the grain trade field with previous positions at Archer Daniels Midland Co. and Demeter L.P.  She has also worked for Indiana Corn Marketing Council (ICMC), Indiana Soybean Alliance (ISA), and the Indiana State Department of Agriculture.

Roz has been involved in a number of industry activities and is currently serving on the Management Council of the International Grain Trade Coalition and as a cleared advisor and vice chair for the USDA and USTR Agricultural Technical Advisory Committee for Trade in Grains, Feeds, Oilseeds, and Planting Seeds.  Additionally, she serves on the Board of Trustees at Millikin University. Roz originally hails from southern Illinois where she remains a partner in her family’s grain and livestock farm.  She earned a Bachelor of Science Degree in Economics from Millikin University in Decatur, Illinois, a Master of Business Administration from Butler University in Indianapolis, Indiana and a Master of Science in Agricultural Economics from Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana.

Chris is the President & Chief Executive Officer of the Canola Council of Canada.   He is responsible for leading the efforts of the Council’s professional staff and reporting to the Board of Directors on securing the key objectives of the Canadian canola industry.

Chris first joined the Council in August 2021 as Vice President, Stakeholder and Industry Relations. Prior to joining the Council, Chris spent nearly 10 years with a global life sciences company serving as Head of Business Sustainability for North America and prior to that Head of Corporate Affairs for Canada.

Chris also spent several years on the consulting side of the agri-food industry working in government and industry relations, corporate communications and public affairs to advance issues and opportunities at the global, regional, national and sub-national levels for a diverse set of private sector and association clients.

Earlier in his career, Chris worked for the Canadian federal government on animal health, plant health, and food safety related issues in support of Canadian bilateral and multilateral trade relationships and negotiations.

Dr. Saharah Moon Chapotin joined the Foundation for Food & Agriculture Research (FFAR) as the executive director in August 2022.

Chapotin is a plant scientist who is passionate about sharing the importance of plants and agriculture. She has more than 15 years of experience in federal leadership, using science to inform policy and advancing agriculture research. Most recently, Chapotin served as the executive director of the  United States Botanic Garden  (USBG), a position she held from 2018 to 2022.

Prior to her role at USBG, Chapotin worked at the United States Department of Agriculture and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) for over 11 years. She held multiple positions at USAID, serving as the deputy assistant administrator in USAID’s Bureau for Food Security. Earlier in her career, Chapotin completed fellowships at Iowa State University and the National Academies working on issues of biosafety policy, scientific communication and national security. She further conducted research on forest ecology and canopy biology throughout the United States, Madagascar and Costa Rica.

Chapotin holds a bachelor’s degree in biology from Stanford University and a doctorate in plant physiology from Harvard University.

Dan Blaustein-Rejto is the Director of Food & Agriculture at the Breakthrough Institute where he leads work examining how public policy can support environmentally and socially beneficial innovation across the food system. Dan has led multi-stakeholder projects to identify technical options to decarbonize agriculture, assess federal policy gaps and opportunities, and build coalitions to advance climate-smart agriculture. Dan has written for Foreign Policy and MIT Technology Review, among other publications. He and his work have been cited in Bloomberg, LA Times, Agri-Pulse, Beef Magazine, and other outlets.

Tek Sapkota Leads the Climate Change Science group in CIMMYT and is a member of the Climate Investment Committee in OneCGIAR. His research interest includes analysis of cropping systems from food security climate change nexus. He is involved in studying management consequences on nutrient dynamics in agro-ecosystem and their effect on food security, climate change adaptation and mitigation. He has served in IPCC as Lead author as well as Review editor. He is an associate Editor of “Nature Scientific Report” and “Frontiers in Sustainable Food Systems” journals. He is an Agricultural expert in the “India GHG platform” (http://ghgplatform-india.org/).

Paul Rennie was born in Edinburgh and educated at George Heriot’s School, before going on to graduate with an MA in Economics and Politics (Edinburgh University) and an MSc in Economics (York University). He joined the Foreign and Commonwealth Office in 2001 as the first of a new group of Diplomatic Service Economists. He has served at the United Nations (New York), Brazil, India and Malaysia, as well as working on secondment to the Cabinet Office and the Department for International Development. Paul currently serves as the Counsellor for the Global Issues, Economics and Trade Section at the British Embassy, Washington DC. Here he leads the UK’s climate and energy, economic and trade, and science and technology networks across the United States. Paul also speaks five languages (English, French, Dutch, Portuguese and Hindi)!

Christina is a seasoned communications professional with over 30 years’ experience, including 14 in international development. Her background in business development, communications and public relations fully informs her strategic communications initiatives at IFDC.

As Strategic Communications Manager for IFDC, she regularly collaborates with IFDC’s international project staff, partners, and donors to design and implement evidence-based strategic communications campaigns. She tells big stories about the Center’s work in soil health and plant nutrition, inclusive market systems, and innovative technologies for a food-secure and environmentally sustainable world.

Prior to joining IFDC, Christina was with the National Cooperative Business Association CLUSA International (NCBA CLUSA), serving as a technical writer and proposal manager in their International Division. As communications manager at Making Cents International, she developed and implemented project-level communications strategies, especially regarding youth development activities under USAID’s flagship YouthPower Learning project. While at URC as a communications specialist, she developed, executed, and monitored communications strategies to support corporate and project objectives, including creating and facilitating #GBVChat, an annual all-day conversation about ending gender-based violence that engaged 10,000+ unique participants in its first year, while standing up the organization’s social media platforms and story-telling strategies.

As Director of Communications at the Arab American Institute, she created and executed strategies for long-term advocacy as well as for fast-breaking crisis situations, including a daily analysis of the Gaza War (Operation Cast Lead) for media and AAI membership.

Pierre Petelle is the president and CEO of CropLife Canada, the trade association that represents the Canadian manufacturers, developers and distributors of pest control products and plants with novel traits. Pierre joined CropLife Canada in 2008 and is now responsible for the strategic direction and leadership of the association.

CropLife Canada’s goals include improving public confidence in our members’ technologies, facilitating a positive regulatory environment, ensuring proper stewardship of our industry’s products and building collaborative stakeholder relationships.

Prior to joining CropLife Canada, Pierre worked in the policy office at Health Canada’s Pest Management Regulatory Agency where he worked on a wide range of issues relevant to Canada’s plant science industry. Pierre holds degrees from Carleton University and the University of Guelph.

Matthew Worrell currently represents Australia’s agriculture interests in the United States and works with colleagues in the Australian High Commission in Ottawa to progress bilateral agriculture issues with Canada. Matt has extensive experience in agriculture policy development and implementation, and international representation. Matt was based in Europe from 2012 to 2016 where he represented Australia’s interests at the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization and the Organisation for Economic Co–operation and Development. Matt holds a bachelor’s degree in agricultural economics from the University of New England and a master’s degree in public policy from the Crawford School of Public Policy at the Australian National University.

Nikki Dutta, M.S., scientific program officer, advanced animal systems, Foundation for Food and Agriculture Research. At the Foundation for Food and Agriculture Research (FFAR), Ms. Nikki Dutta, is responsible for coordinating several multi- stakeholder collaborative initiatives designed to improve animal welfare and productivity, including the Greener Cattle Initiative, Egg- Tech Prize and the International Consortium for Antimicrobial Stewardship. Nikki earned her master’s degree from American University in sustainability management and studied international business and management at Dickinson College.

Sarah Brown serves as Head of Public Governmental Affairs Agricultural Solutions North America, based in Washington, DC. Sarah previously served as an Executive Director for the American Farm Bureau Federation. Sarah is a graduate of Cornell University, where she currently serves on an advisory board for the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences.

Mr. François Chrétien received his bachelor of sciences in agriculture from McGill University and his master’s degree in Water Sciences from the National Institute of Scientific Research. Following is graduated studies he has been involved in numerous water-focused initiatives throughout Canada and around the world. Within Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada he served as: Water Sourcing and Planning Specialist; Water Management Scientist; Chief of the water management team; before moving on to executive management as Director for Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada’s (AAFC) living labs.

Since 2017, François has been responsible for the development of AAFC’s Living Laboratories Initiative aimed at building resilience in the agricultural landscape. François was also central to the development and implementation of AAFC’s new program, the Agricultural Climate Solutions program, that is establishing a national network of living labs right across Canada to tackle climate change issues. He has worked with multiple Canadian and international partners in order to develop this new approach to agricultural innovation, including the G20 working group on Agroecosystems living labs. Under François leadership, Canada has been paving the way to implement this user-centred approach where farmers and scientists work together from start to finish; where transdisciplinary teams, including experts from various disciplines and backgrounds, tackle a common issue together; and where projects are conducted in real life experimental setups meaning that working farms are the incubators of innovative technologies.

François has real, tangible experience in developing innovative solutions for a productive, sustainable and resilient agriculture sector.

Jocelyn Brown Hall is the Director of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) Liaison Office for North America based in Washington, DC. Prior to this role she served as the Deputy Regional Representative for the FAO Regional Office for Africa, where she oversaw 47 FAO country offices and guided strategy and communications around food security, agriculture, climate change, agrifood trade, animal and plant health, among other topics. She has also served as the FAO Representative for Ghana, where she worked with ministries of agriculture, fisheries, social protection and trade on advancing issues such as healthy school meals, rehabilitating lands contaminated by illegal mining, sustainable aquaculture and fish smoking, and digitalization of agriculture data.

Before joining FAO, Jocelyn was Deputy Administrator in the Foreign Agricultural Service, where she led the USDA’s USD $2 billion food and technical assistance programs in low- and middle-income countries. She oversaw the world’s largest international school meals program, serving over 4 million school children globally, and numerous fellowship programs that served tens and thousands of agriculturalists.

She also served as the lead expert on USDA’s technical relationship with international organizations such as the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation in Agriculture, and various international research centers.

Dr. Elise H. Golan is the Director for Sustainable Development at the U. S. Department of Agriculture. In this role, she provides leadership in planning, coordinating, and analyzing the Department’s policies and programs related to sustainable agricultural development. Prior to taking this position, Dr. Golan served as the Associate Director of the Food Economics Division at the Economic Research Service, USDA. Before joining USDA, she did consulting work for, among others, the World Bank, the International Labor Organization, and the California Department of Finance. Elise served as a senior staff economist on the President’s Council of Economic Advisers from 1998-99. She received her Ph.D. in agricultural economics from the University of California at Berkeley. Dr. Golan’s research has spanned a wide range of sustainability issues, including land tenure and sustainable land management in the Sahel and West Africa; regional and U.S. food-system modeling; food labeling and market development; food access, affordability, and security; and the distributional consequences of food policy.

Keith Fuglie is a senior economist with the Economic Research Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture, where he conducts research on the economics of technological change and science policy for agriculture. While with the Federal Government, Keith has also worked at the U.S. Agency for International Development’s Bureau of Food Security and served as senior staff economist for the White House Council of Economic Advisors. In 2012 Keith was recognized with the USDA Secretary’s Honor Award for Professional Service, and in 2014 he received the Bruce Gardner Memorial Prize for Applied Policy Analysis from the Agricultural and Applied Economics Association. Earlier in his career, Keith spent ten years with the International Potato Center (CIP) stationed in Indonesia and Tunisia, where he headed CIP’s social science research program and was regional representative for CIP in Asia. Keith received his M.S. and PhD in Agricultural and Applied Economics from the University of Minnesota and a BA from Concordia College, Moorhead, Minnesota.

Bob Fries is chief technical officer, overseeing our technical teams as they develop programmatic approaches, share best practices and technical products with projects overseas, and apply evidence to optimize the effectiveness and impact of our work. Bob is also president of AV Ventures, ACDI/VOCA’s subsidiary dedicated to blended finance and impact investment. He has engaged in the design and governance of 10 financial institutions affiliated with ACDI/VOCA, including AV Ventures. Prior to joining ACDI/VOCA in 1989, Bob was a volunteer in Belize and researcher of seasonal labor migration in Guatemala. He holds a bachelor’s degree in political science from Boston College and a master’s degree in economic and social development from the University of Pittsburgh. Bob is proficient in Spanish and has contributed to Value Chains and Their Significance for Addressing the Rural Finance Challenge and Nature-Centered Tourism in Ecuador, published by USAID, Basic Guidelines for Effective Rural Finance Projects, published by the World Bank, and Making Rural Financial Institutions Sustainable, published by the United States Department of Agriculture.

Dr. Canisius Kanangire is the Executive Director at AATF. He previously was the Executive Secretary of the African Ministers’ Council on Water. He has held other positions including, Executive Secretary of the Lake Victoria Basin Commission; Regional Manager for Capacity Building and Head of Strategic Planning and Management at the Nile Basin Initiative; Lecturer and Dean – Faculty of Agriculture, University of Rwanda.

He holds a PhD and MSc in Aquatic Sciences from the University of Namur (Belgium), a Degree in Biology majoring in Environmental Sciences, and an Undergraduate Certificate in Biology and Chemistry from the “Institut Supérieur Pédagogique de Bukavu.

Andrés Rodríguez is the current Agricultural Attaché of Chile to the United States and Canada, based in Washington DC.

He holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Business from Diego Portales University (Chile), a Master’s Degree in Marketing from Griffith University (Queensland, Australia), and a Postgraduate Certificate in International Business from the University of Chile.

He has extensive experience in agribusiness. After his experience in other industries, he landed to the agriculture when he was appointed as Marketing Manager for the US and Latin America in the Chilean Fresh Fruit Exporters Association (ASOEX). Within his background he also was Executive Director of the Chilean Walnut Commission, Executive Director of Chile Prunes, and Representative in Chile of the Produce Marketing Association (PMA), that currently is the International Fresh Produce Association. He was also Board Member and Counselor of the National Society of Agriculture (SNA) and was a member of the Food Export Council of Chile.

Stewart Leeth is chief sustainability officer for Smithfield Foods, Inc. Based at the company’s headquarters in Smithfield, Virginia, Leeth leads the company’s global sustainability strategies, which now focus on seven core pillars: animal welfare; diversity, equity and inclusion; environmental stewardship; food safety and quality; health and wellness; helping local communities and worker health and safety. He also leads Smithfield’s environmental compliance programs.

Leeth joined Smithfield Foods’ legal department in 2008 and served in a variety of legal, regulatory and government affairs roles with the company before being appointed to his current position in 2016. Under his leadership, the company has announced several industry-first carbon reduction goals, met its commitment to move pregnant sows into group housing on company-owned farms and exceeded its goal to source feed from farms utilizing precision farming techniques that reduce fertilizer use in the company’s supply chain. More recently, Smithfield has reported substantial progress toward its original GHG reduction target and has adopted even greater climate targets, including a 30% GHG reduction goal under the Science Based Targets initiative and a pledge to become carbon negative in all U.S. company-owned operations by 2030.

Prior to joining Smithfield Foods, Leeth was a partner at a major global law firm, where he represented the firm’s clients before federal and state courts and agencies in matters involving major federal and state environmental statutes, water rights disputes, cost recovery and contaminated property litigation, rulemaking and permitting. He also focused on state and local government matters and land-use disputes.

Leeth previously served as Assistant Attorney General for the Commonwealth of Virginia, representing a variety of state agencies, and began his legal career working as a law clerk to a federal judge presiding in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia.

Wei Zhang is an assistant professor in the department of agricultural and applied economics at Virginia Tech. Her research focuses on the environmental and resource-use implications of agricultural production and the design of agri-environmental policy. Her ongoing research projects include climate change and agricultural productivity growth, benefits and costs of the USDA Environmental Quality Incentives Program, and on-farm loss and waste of vegetables in the United States.

A veterinarian, clinical pharmacologist, teacher, researcher, and distinguished academic leader, Dr. Cyril R. Clarke became the Executive Vice President and Provost of Virginia Tech in January 2019, after serving in an interim capacity since November 2017.

A native of Johannesburg, South Africa, Clarke earned his professional veterinary degree from the University of Pretoria, South Africa, a Ph.D. in veterinary pharmacology from Louisiana State University, and a master’s degree in higher education from Oklahoma State University. He is certified as a Diplomate of the American College of Veterinary Clinical Pharmacology.

Clarke’s initial faculty appointment in 1987 was at Oklahoma State University, where he also served as an academic department head and associate dean for academic affairs in the Center for Veterinary Health Sciences. Funded by corporate, state, and federal agencies, including the U.S. Department of Agriculture and National Institutes of Health, Clarke’s research focused on the interactions between antibacterial agents, animal patients, and infectious microbes. He is a recipient of the Pfizer Award for Research Excellence.

In 2007, Clarke was appointed to the position of Lois Bates Acheson Dean of the College of Veterinary Medicine at Oregon State University. During his time as dean, Clarke continued to teach pharmacology to veterinary students. In addition to receiving a Certificate of Excellence in Teaching, Clarke was honored with the Oregon Veterinary Medical Association’s President’s Award. He subsequently joined Virginia Tech in October, 2013, as Dean of the Virginia-Maryland College of Veterinary Medicine.

Clarke has held leadership positions in several professional organizations, including the board of directors for the Association of American Veterinary Medical Colleges and past president of the American College of Veterinary Clinical Pharmacology. He is also a past member of the National Agricultural Research, Extension, Education, and Economics Advisory Board and the AVMA Council on Education, the accrediting agency for veterinary medical education in North America.

Dr. Jewel H. Bronaugh was appointed the 16th Commissioner of the Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services in 2018 by Governor Ralph Northam. She previously served as the Virginia State Executive Director for the USDA Farm Service Agency (FSA), appointed by Governor Terry McAuliffe and then-U.S. Secretary of Agriculture, Tom Vilsack, in July 2015. Prior to her FSA appointment, she served as Dean of the College of Agriculture at Virginia State University (VSU) with oversight of Extension, Research and Academic Programs. Previously she was the Associate Administrator for Extension Programs and a 4-H Extension Specialist.

In spring 2019, Dr. Bronaugh launched the Virginia Farmer Stress Task Force to raise awareness and coordinate resources to address farmer stress and mental health challenges in Virginia. In the fall of 2020, she helped establish the Virginia Food Access Investment Fund and Program, the first statewide program of its kind to address food access within historically marginalized communities.

Dr. Bronaugh received her Ph.D. in Career and Technical Education from Virginia Tech. She is passionate about the advancement of youth leadership in agriculture. Dr. Bronaugh is from Petersburg, Virginia. She is married to Cleavon, a retired United States Army Veteran.

Ally Okeyo Mwai is Principal Scientist in the ILRI’s Global Livestock Genetics- Live Gene Research Program. Okeyo is a quantitative geneticist with over 30 years of experience in practical design and implementation of livestock improvement programs in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia regions. Okeyo has in the past led ILRI’s Breeding strategies Research, specifically focusing on development and implementation projects, covering a wide range of research areas including, characterization and genetic diversity of indigenous tropical livestock; their improved utilization, as well as development and application of assisted reproductive technologies in dairy cattle. Prior to joining ILRI, he was head of the Animal Breeding and Genetics Section at the Department of Animal Production, University of Nairobi and Coordinator of Small Ruminant Research Program at the then Kenya Agricultural and Livestock Research organization. Okeyo has and holds several national and international advisory board positions. He is currently leading the development of ILRI led dairy cattle genetic gain development and research programs in eastern Africa region. Okeyo has published extensively (authored and co-authored more than 150 scientific journal and conference papers), and has held several scientific editorials, and national and international advisory board positions. Okeyo holds MSc Animal Science (Animal Genetics) from University of California, Davis and a PhD in Animal Breeding and Genetics from University of Nairobi.

Nancy W. Mungai  is a professor of soil science with research interests in biological nitrogen fixation in grain legumes, biological agricultural inputs, and relevance of soil-based approaches for adaptation & mitigation to climate change. She has successfully coordinated twelve research projects and several student internship programs. Nancy is currently involved in a project titled “Transforming African Agricultural Universities to meaningfully to contribute to Africa’s growth and development ( TAGDev ) a partnership of Egerton university with  Gulu Univers ity funded by  Mastercard Foundation  through  RUFORUM . The project has supported over 110 undergraduate and 110 postgraduate students to pursue various agricultural related disciplines including agronomy, horticulture, agribusiness and food nutrition and security. TAGDev has piloted an innovative model for agricultural training that facilitates agricultural students to work closely with rural communities to foster food system transformation. Community action research approaches have been at the center of TAGDev project implementation.

Nancy is also a member of a research consortium lead by Michigan State University dubbed “Sustainable Agricultural Intensification and Rural Economic Transformation (SAIRET+)” that is developing longer term proposal to support increased agricultural productivity through sustainable fertilizer use in Africa.

Nancy has supervised over 20 graduate students and has published 72 publications in internationally refereed and peer-reviewed journals, conference proceedings and technical reports.

Administratively, Nancy is the Ag. Director in charge of Research and Extension at Egerton University since March 2020. Previously she served as the Director in charge of undergraduate studies and field attachment programs for 9 years.

Dr. Jason Grant is the W.G. Wysor Professor of Agriculture and Director of the Center for Agricultural Trade at Virginia Tech. Dr. Grant joined the Department of Agricultural and Applied Economics in 2007, after completing his Ph.D. at Purdue University. Dr. Grant has built an internationally recognized program in agricultural markets and trade at Virginia Tech, which includes planning and developing the annual Governor’s Conference on Agricultural Trade through a partnership with four other State agencies across the Commonwealth of Virginia. Dr. Grant is passionate about teaching students to be “job ready” and thinking “globally” as they enter careers in agricultural industries.  His research investigates key trends in global markets shaping U.S. commodity production and export, including the impacts of trade disputes, retaliatory trade actions, SPS issues, Codex food safety standards, competitive regionalism, and adaptation to extreme climate events. He has previously served as guest editor of Choices, leading a team of USDA policymakers and academics to assess the economic impacts of the 2018/19 trade dispute and retaliatory trade actions impacting U.S. agriculture. In 2021, this work was recognized by the American Agricultural and Applied Economics Association (AAEA) for the profession’s outstanding Choices article award for outreach contribution. In 2020, he was the recipient of USDA’s Bruce Gardner Award for outstanding contributions by an outside Economist shaping U.S. government programs and policies, and has previously been the recipient of the AAEA’s Honorable Mention award for Outstanding Journal Article; the European Agricultural Economics Association’s Quality of Policy Contribution Award for his work on international trade agreements; and the 2018 APEX award from Purdue University’s Department of Agricultural Economics which recognizes outstanding contributions by an alumni. Dr. Grant currently serves as associate editor of the American Journal of Agricultural Economics .

Florah joined Farm Input Promotions Africa (FIPS) just after college, in 2013 as a monitoring and evaluation officer.

After two years, she was promoted to lead training, which included development of training curriculums and deploying the curriculum to farmers and trainers of trainers.

Florah has also coordinated programs within FIPS such as youth work and potato work.

Currently, she leads the partnership development work that includes developing new relationships, developing ideas for funding, and maintaining existing relationships, among other roles.

Folu serves as the Chief Operating Officer for Hello Tractor, responsible for shaping, executing and measuring the organization’s growth strategy and operations. Prior to joining Hello Tractor in 2019, Folu served as Senior Manager at Accenture focused on defining and implementing large-scale transformational process improvement solutions, primarily within the financial services sector. Folu’s experience extends to driving agricultural systems change at the NEPAD Business Foundation, specifically within the continental agriculture program (CAADP). Folu holds a Master of Business Administration (MBA) from the University of Cape Town (specializing in Leadership and Doing Business in Africa) and a Bachelor of Science degree in Economics from Washington University in St. Louis. Folu’s professional interests lie at the intersection of macroeconomic growth, impact entrepreneurial empowerment, strategic organizational alignment, and technology-led social innovations.

Tim Njagi is a seasoned Development Economist with a wealth of 15 years of experience in the fields of development planning, policy implementation and research. He holds a PhD in Development Economics and Master’s Degree in International Development from the National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies (GRIPS), Japan.

He has experience working in the public sector having worked with the National Treasury and Planning in Kenya and is currently a Fellow with Tegemeo Institute of Agricultural Policy and Development of Egerton University.

His current research focus is on farm productivity, technology adoption, irrigation, governance, resilience and impact evaluation., irrigation, credit, governance, land issues, and resilience, where he has a number of publications.

He is also a member of the International Association of Agricultural Economists (IAAE), African Association of Agricultural Economics (AAAE), African Evaluation Association (AfREA), Evaluation Society of Kenya (ESK), and the Institute of Economic Affairs (EIA) in Kenya.

He aspires to make a significant contribution towards addressing food insecurity and poverty in developing countries.

Isaac Kibwage is currently the Vice-Chancellor of Egerton University. He has variously initiated and/or guided development and implementation of the strategic plan for 2018-2023 and policies of the University.

Isaac Kibwage is on leave of absence from the University of Nairobi where he serves as a Professor of Pharmaceutical Chemistry in the School of Pharmacy. He has published widely in his discipline.

During May 2007- May 2017, Isaac Kibwage served as the Principal of College of Health Sciences, University of Nairobi where he was the Academic Research, Financial and Administrative head of the college. The College comprises the Schools of; Medicine, Pharmacy, Dental Siences, Nursing Sciences and Public Health, the University of Nairobi Institute of Tropical and Infectious Dieases, KAVI-Institute of Clinical Research, the East Africa Kidney Institute and the Centre for HIV/Aids Research and Prevention. He was responsible for all research activities at the College ensuring compliance to project objectives and prudent utilization of resources per approved budgets. Isaac Kibwage handled College responsibilities and guided its expansion and excellent performance culminating in it being awarded a Shield as ”Center of Excellence in the Health Sciences” by the East African Community in 2014. Further, research funding grew about four times and the College had a continuous level of ‘Excellent performance’ in performance contracting amongst the six colleges of the University.

Isaac Kibwage has held various positions in the Pharmaceutical Society of Kenya including the Chairmanship for a period of 6 years. He has broad experience in the pharmaceutical regulatory systems locally and internationally, and specifically in the quality control and quality assurance of medicines. Due to his commitment and exemplary pharmaceutical services, Isaac Kibwage was awarded the “Head of State Commendation“ and the Pharmaceutical Society of Kenya conferred on him the title of “Fellow of the Pharmaceutical Society of Kenya.”

Nassib Mugwanya is Manager of Global Partnerships – Agriculture Engagement & Activation at Bayer and leads the smallholder farmer engagement within the Global Stakeholders Affairs & Strategy Partnerships team. Prior to joining Bayer, Nassib worked with the National Agricultural Research Organization in Uganda, where he spent most of his time in educational and outreach engagements on biotechnology among smallholder farmers. Nassib has a background in agriculture, with a doctorate in agricultural extension and education from North Carolina State University, and a BSc and MSc in agriculture and extension education from Makerere University-Kampala.

Humphrey joined DuPont Pioneer in 2015 as a Marketing Leader for Eastern Southern Central Africa Region. In 2016, he was appointed the Commercial leader for Kenya responsible for the Pioneer and Pannar Seed brands.

In 2017, he was appointed to his current role as Country Leader/Director for Corteva Agriscience Kenya and Greatlakes Countries (Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi & DRC).

Prior to joining Pioneer, Humphrey worked at Syngenta AG for 10 years in various roles; Business Manager for Smallholder Segment, Marketing Manager Strategy and planning, Area Sales Manager amongst other roles.

Education Background:

Masters Business Administration (Strategic Management), The University of Nairobi.

Bachelor of Science Degree in Horticulture, Egerton University.

Benson Mutuku is development and humanitarian professional with over 13 years of experience working with INGOs, NGOs, the private sector, and government institutions. Benson has extensive experience in programmatic design, implementation, and technical advising of gender programs in Agriculture, Food Security and Nutrition, Financial Inclusion & Economic Empowerment, Policy and Advocacy, and Education and Health. Benson has spearheaded and provided technical expertise in multi-country projects in Kenya, Rwanda, Uganda, Djibouti, Tanzania, Mozambique, Ethiopia, Burundi, Zambia, Somalia, Ghana and Uganda. Benson has worked on various policy related initiatives and research activities. He is experienced in monitoring and evaluation hence providing oversight for a program’s planning, evaluation, knowledge management and monitoring. Benson is a seasoned trainer both at the community level as well as at the policy level, having engaged in capacity building processes across the country and beyond. Benson has basic French speaking skills. Benson is passionate about gender transformation at the local, national, regional, and other spheres of influence.

Tony Fernandes became Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Trade Policy and Negotiations in the Bureau of Economic and Business Affairs in March 2022, after having served as Acting Deputy Assistant Secretary since August 2021.

Prior to that, Tony was Director of the Multilateral Trade Affairs Office in the Bureau of Economic and Business Affairs at the U.S. Department of State.

Previously, Tony was Director for Regional Affairs in the Bureau of Legislative Affairs and Director for Africa and Middle East Programs in the Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs. He also served in the Office of the United States Trade Representative, the Diplomatic Readiness Task Force, and the Operations Center. His overseas assignments include positions in Turkey, Nigeria, Russia, Canada, and China.

Tony joined the Foreign Service in 1997 and is a member of the Senior Foreign Service.

He holds a B.A. from Boston College, a J.D. from the University of Minnesota School of Law, and a Master’s in National Security Strategy from the National War College.

Karen Hulebak is a consultant working primarily on Codex Alimentarius matters. She has 20+ years of experience with Codex, having chaired the Codex Committee on Food Hygiene for 7 years, served as Vice Chair of the Commission for two terms (2005-2008) and as Chairperson of the Commission for two terms (2008-2011). Prior to her election as Codex Chairperson, she served as USDA/FSIS Chief Scientist, and as Assistant Administrator for the FSIS Office of Public Health Science. She has an Sc.D. in toxicology from the Johns Hopkins University School of Public Health.

Ann Steensland leads the GAP Report Initiative for CALS Global at the Virginia Tech College of Agriculture and Life Sciences. In this role, she serves as the lead author of the Global Agricultural Productivity Report, or GAP Report, an annual analysis of global progress toward productive sustainable food and agricultural systems. Her research areas include sustainable approaches for increasing the productivity of small-scale agriculture, improving livelihoods for small-scale farmers, and connecting small-scale and emerging farmers to markets. Prior to joining Virginia Tech, Ms. Steensland was the Deputy Director of the Global Harvest Initiative and the Chief of Staff of the Alliance to End Hunger. Ms. Steensland has a B.A. in International Relations and an M.A. in African History. She was awarded the Lawrence Levine Prize for her M.A. thesis exploring racial, political, and environmental aspects of the commercialization of agriculture in South Africa.

Jim Gaffney is a general development officer in the Center for Agricultural Led Growth at USAID. an experienced professional in the seed and crop protection industry with a passion for developing strategy and for designing and driving collaborations to build scientific capacity and encourage appropriate regulatory policy. Prior to joining USAID, Dr. Gaffney worked at Corteva Agriscience for 10 years as Global Regulatory Strategy Lead. He has a strong personal commitment to enable technology for the benefit of farmers and society, with a deep and current understanding of the public and private sectors and for donor organization needs and opportunities. At Corteva, he developed global regulatory approval strategies by working closely with program leadership teams, regulatory science, and researchers to drive aggressive and predictable timelines to product advancement. Dr. Gaffney maintains a passion for agricultural development in Africa, borne from his days as a Peace Corps volunteer in Cameroon, Central Africa, and as a former farm kid. His family raised corn, soybeans, and hogs in southwest Minnesota.

Siboniso “Boni” Moyo is deputy director general for research and development at the International Livestock Research Institute. Between 2015 and 2016, she was program leader of ILRI’s animal science for sustainable productivity program. From 2006−2014, Dr. Moyo was ILRI’s regional representative in Southern Africa. She has 25 years’ experience conducting livestock research and development in Zimbabwe and southern Africa. Her fields of specialization include breed performance evaluation, livestock production systems, livestock research and management, and partnership development. Dr. Moyo has an MSc in animal husbandry from the Patrice Lumumba University in Moscow and a PhD in animal science from the University of Pretoria. Before joining ILRI she was National Director for Livestock Production and Development in Zimbabwe (2002–2005).

Jehiel Oliver is the founder and CEO of Hello Tractor, an innovative shared-economy platform that makes tractor usage affordable to marginalized farmers in sub-Saharan Africa. Mr. Oliver is responsible for the overall management of the Hello Tractor team, strategy, and partnerships. Prior to Hello Tractor, Jehiel founded Aya Consulting, a boutique development. At Aya he worked in over ten countries, including conflict zones. Through his work in agriculture and rural markets, Mr. Oliver recognized a real need for low-income (majority women) farmers to access affordable farm machinery, leading him to found Hello Tractor. In addition to his duties at Hello Tractor, Mr. Oliver also served on the board of H4H, Inc., an impact investment fund providing mortgage reinsurance for South African communities affected by HIV/AIDS. He also serves as board treasurer of Shared Interest, a loan guarantee fund for agriculture and financial sector development in sub-Saharan Africa. Mr. Oliver began his career in the U.S. investment banking and private equity industries.

Yield and total factor productivity are ratios of outputs to inputs, but they are not the same, and the distinction matters.

Yield measures output per unit of a single input, for example, the amount of crops grown on a hectare of land. Yields can increase through productivity growth, but they can also increase by applying more inputs, called input intensification. Therefore, an increase in yield may or may not represent improvements in sustainability.

Total factor productivity captures the interaction between multiple agricultural inputs and outputs. (Ortiz-Bobea et al., 2021) TFP growth indicates that more farmers generate more crops, livestock, and aquaculture products with the same amount or less land, labor, fertilizer, feed, machinery, and livestock. As a result, TFP is a powerful metric for evaluating and monitoring the sustainability of agricultural systems.

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Business process reengineering (BPR) is the radical redesign of core business processes to achieve dramatic improvements in performance, efficiency and effectiveness. BPR examples are not one-time projects, but rather examples of a continuous journey of innovation and change focused on optimizing end-to-end processes and eliminating redundancies. The purpose of BPR is to streamline  workflows , eliminate unnecessary steps and improve resource utilization.

BPR involves business process redesign that challenges norms and methods within an organization. It typically focuses on achieving dramatic, transformative changes to existing processes. It should not be confused with  business process management (BPM) , a more incremental approach to optimizing processes, or business process improvement (BPI), a broader term that encompasses any systematic effort to improve current processes. This blog outlines some BPR examples that benefit from a BPM methodology.

Background of business process reengineering

BPR emerged in the early 1990s as a management approach aimed at radically redesigning business operations to achieve business transformation. The methodology gained prominence with the publication of a 1990 article in the Harvard Business Review, “Reengineering Work: Don’t Automate, Obliterate,” by Michael Hammer, and the 1993 book by Hammer and James Champy, Reengineering the Corporation . An early case study of BPR was Ford Motor Company, which successfully implemented reengineering efforts in the 1990s to streamline its manufacturing processes and improve competitiveness.

Organizations of all sizes and industries implement business process reengineering. Step 1 is to define the goals of BPR, and subsequent steps include assessing the current state, identifying gaps and opportunities, and process mapping.

Successful implementation of BPR requires strong leadership, effective change management and a commitment to continuous improvement. Leaders, senior management, team members and stakeholders must champion the BPR initiative and provide the necessary resources, support and direction to enable new processes and meaningful change.

BPR examples: Use cases

Streamlining supply chain management.

Using BPR for supply chain optimization involves a meticulous reassessment and redesign of every step, including logistics, inventory management and procurement . A comprehensive supply chain overhaul might involve rethinking procurement strategies, implementing just-in-time inventory systems, optimizing production schedules or redesigning transportation and distribution networks. Technologies such as supply chain management software (SCM), enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems, and advanced analytics tools can be used to automate and optimize processes. For example, predictive analytics can be used to forecast demand and optimize inventory levels, while blockchain technology can enhance transparency and traceability in the supply chain.

• Improved efficiency
• Reduced cost
• Enhanced transparency

Customer relationship management (CRM)

BPR is a pivotal strategy for organizations that want to overhaul their customer relationship management (CRM) processes. Steps of business process reengineering for CRM include integrating customer data from disparate sources, using advanced analytics for insights, and optimizing service workflows to provide personalized experiences and shorter wait times.

BPR use cases for CRM might include:

• Implementing integrated CRM software to centralize customer data and enable real-time insights
• Adopting omnichannel communication strategies to provide seamless and consistent experiences across touchpoints
• Empowering frontline staff with training and resources to deliver exceptional service

Using BPR, companies can establish a comprehensive view of each customer, enabling anticipation of their needs, personalization of interactions and prompt issue resolution.

• 360-degree customer view
• Increased sales and retention
• Faster problem resolution

Digitizing administrative processes

Organizations are increasingly turning to BPR to digitize and automate administrative processes to reduce human errors. This transformation entails replacing manual, paper-based workflows with digital systems that use technologies like Robotic Process Automation (RPA) for routine tasks.

This might include streamlining payroll processes, digitizing HR operations or automating invoicing procedures. This can lead to can significant improvements in efficiency, accuracy and scalability and enable the organization to operate more effectively.

• Reduced processing times
• Reduced errors
• Increased adaptability

Improving product development processes

BPR plays a crucial role in optimizing product development processes, from ideation to market launch. This comprehensive overhaul involves evaluating and redesigning workflows, fostering cross-functional collaboration and innovating by using advanced technologies. This can involve implementing cross-functional teams to encourage communication and knowledge sharing, adopting agile methodologies to promote iterative development and rapid prototyping, and by using technology such as product lifecycle management (PLM) software to streamline documentation and version control.

BPR initiatives such as these enable organizations to reduce product development cycle times, respond more quickly to market demands, and deliver innovative products that meet customer needs.

• Faster time-to-market
• Enhanced innovation
• Higher product quality

Updating technology infrastructure

In an era of rapid technological advancement, BPR serves as a vital strategy for organizations that need to update and modernize their technology infrastructure. This transformation involves migrating to cloud-based solutions, adopting emerging technologies like artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) , and integrating disparate systems for improved data management and analysis, which enables more informed decision making. Embracing new technologies helps organizations improve performance, cybersecurity and scalability and positioning themselves for long-term success.

• Enhanced performance
• Improved security
• Increased innovation

Reducing staff redundancy

In response to changing market dynamics and organizational needs, many companies turn to BPR to restructure their workforce and reduce redundancy. These strategic initiatives can involve streamlining organizational hierarchies, consolidating departments and outsourcing non-core functions. Optimizing workforce allocation and eliminating redundant roles allows organizations to reduce costs, enhance operational efficiency and focus resources on key priorities.

• Cost savings
• Increased efficiency
• Focus on core competencies

Cutting costs across operations

BPR is a powerful tool to systematically identify inefficiencies, redundancies and waste within business operations. This enables organizations to streamline processes and cut costs.

BPR focuses on redesigning processes to eliminate non-value-added activities, optimize resource allocation, and enhance operational efficiency. This might entail automating repetitive tasks, reorganizing workflows for minimizing bottlenecks, renegotiating contracts with suppliers to secure better terms, or by using technology to improve collaboration and communication. This can enable significant cost savings and improve profitability.

• Lower costs
• Enhanced competitiveness

Improving output quality

BPR can enhance the quality of output across various business processes, from manufacturing to service delivery. BPR initiatives generally boost key performance indicators (KPIs).

Steps for improving output quality involve implementing quality control measures, fostering a culture of continuous improvement, and using customer feedback and other metrics to drive innovation.

Technology can also be used to automate processes. When employees are freed from distracting processes, they can increase their focus on consistently delivering high-quality products and services. This builds customer trust and loyalty and supports the organization’s long-term success.

• Higher customer satisfaction
• Enhanced brand image

Human resource (HR) process optimization

BPR is crucial for optimizing human resources (HR) processes. Initiatives might include automating the onboarding process with easy-to-use portals, streamlining workflows, creating self-service portals and apps, using AI for talent acquisition , and implementing a data-driven approach to performance management.

Fostering employee engagement can also help attract, develop and retain top talent. Aligning HR processes with organizational goals and values can enhance workforce productivity, satisfaction and business performance.

• Faster recruitment cycles
• Improved employee engagement
• Strategic talent allocation

BPR examples: Case studies

The following case study examples demonstrate a mix of BPR methodologies and use cases working together to yield client benefits.

Bouygues becomes the AI standard bearer in French telecom

Bouygues Telecom , a leading French communications service provider, was plagued by legacy systems that struggled to keep up with an enormous volume of support calls. The result? Frustrated customers were left stranded in call lines and Bouygues at risk of being replaced by its competitors. Thankfully, Bouygues had partnered with IBM previously in one of our first pre- IBM watsonx™ AI deployments. This phase 1 engagement laid the groundwork perfectly for AI’s injection into the telecom’s call center during phase 2.

Today, Bouygues greets over 800,000 calls a month with IBM watsonx Assistant™, and IBM watsonx Orchestrate™ helps alleviate the repetitive tasks that agents previously had to handle manually, freeing them for higher-value work. In all, agents’ pre-and-post-call workloads were reduced by 30%. 1 In addition, 8 million customer-agent conversations—which were, in the past, only partially analyzed—have now been summarized with consistent accuracy for the creation of actionable insights.

Taken together, these technologies have made Bouygues a disruptor in the world of customer care, yielding a USD 5 million projected reduction in yearly operational costs and placing them at the forefront of AI technology. 1

Finance of America promotes lifetime loyalty via customer-centric transformation

By co-creating with IBM, mortgage lender Finance of America was able to recenter their operations around their customers, driving value for both them and the prospective home buyers they serve.

To accomplish this goal, FOA iterated quickly on both new strategies and features that would prioritize customer service and retention. From IBM-facilitated design thinking workshops came roadmaps for a consistent brand experience across channels, simplifying the work of their agents and streamlining the application process for their customers.

As a result of this transformation, FOA is projected to double their customer base in just three years. In the same time frame, they aim to increase revenue by over 50% and income by over 80%. Now, Finance of America is primed to deliver enhanced services—such as debt advisory—that will help promote lifetime customer loyalty. 2

BPR examples and IBM

Business process reengineering (BPR) with IBM takes a critical look at core processes to spot and redesign areas that need improvement. By stepping back, strategists can analyze areas like supply chain, customer experience and finance operations. BPR services experts can embed emerging technologies and overhaul existing processes to improve the business holistically. They can help you build new processes with intelligent workflows that drive profitability, weed out redundancies, and prioritize cost saving.

1. IBM Wow Story: Bouygues Becomes the AI Standard-Bearer in French Telecom. Last updated 10 November 2023.

2. IBM Wow Story: Finance of America Promotes Lifetime Loyalty via Customer-Centric Transformation. Last updated 23 February 2024.

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How to Write a Business Case (Template Included)

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What is a business case, how to write a business case, business case template, watch our business case training video, key elements of a business case, how projectmanager helps with your business case.

A business case is a project management document that explains how the benefits of a project overweigh its costs and why it should be executed. Business cases are prepared during the project initiation phase and their purpose is to include all the project’s objectives, costs and benefits to convince stakeholders of its value.

A business case is an important project document to prove to your client, customer or stakeholder that the project proposal you’re pitching is a sound investment. Below, we illustrate the steps to writing one that will sway them.

The need for a business case is that it collects the financial appraisal, proposal, strategy and marketing plan in one document and offers a full look at how the project will benefit the organization. Once your business case is approved by the project stakeholders, you can begin the project planning phase.

Projects fail without having a solid business case to rest on, as this project document is the base for the project charter and project plan. But if a project business case is not anchored to reality, and doesn’t address a need that aligns with the larger business objectives of the organization, then it is irrelevant.

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Use this free Business Case Template for Word to manage your projects better.

The research you’ll need to create a strong business case is the why, what, how and who of your project. This must be clearly communicated. The elements of your business case will address the why but in greater detail. Think of the business case as a document that is created during the project initiation phase but will be used as a reference throughout the project life cycle.

Whether you’re starting a new project or mid-way through one, take time to write up a business case to justify the project expenditure by identifying the business benefits your project will deliver and that your stakeholders are most interested in reaping from the work. The following four steps will show you how to write a business case.

Step 1: Identify the Business Problem

Projects aren’t created for projects’ sake. They should always be aligned with business goals . Usually, they’re initiated to solve a specific business problem or create a business opportunity.

You should “Lead with the need.” Your first job is to figure out what that problem or opportunity is, describe it, find out where it comes from and then address the time frame needed to deal with it.

This can be a simple statement but is best articulated with some research into the economic climate and the competitive landscape to justify the timing of the project.

Step 2: Identify the Alternative Solutions

How do you know whether the project you’re undertaking is the best possible solution to the problem defined above? Naturally, prioritizing projects is hard, and the path to success is not paved with unfounded assumptions.

One way to narrow down the focus to make the right solution clear is to follow these six steps (after the relevant research, of course):

• Note the alternative solutions.
• For each solution, quantify its benefits.
• Also, forecast the costs involved in each solution.
• Then figure out its feasibility .
• Discern the risks and issues associated with each solution.
• Finally, document all this in your business case.

Step 3: Recommend a Preferred Solution

You’ll next need to rank the solutions, but before doing that it’s best to set up criteria, maybe have a scoring mechanism such as a decision matrix to help you prioritize the solutions to best choose the right one.

Some methodologies you can apply include:

• Depending on the solution’s cost and benefit , give it a score of 1-10.
• Base your score on what’s important to you.
• Add more complexity to your ranking to cover all bases.

Regardless of your approach, once you’ve added up your numbers, the best solution to your problem will become evident. Again, you’ll want to have this process also documented in your business case.

Step 4: Describe the Implementation Approach

So, you’ve identified your business problem or opportunity and how to reach it, now you have to convince your stakeholders that you’re right and have the best way to implement a process to achieve your goals. That’s why documentation is so important; it offers a practical path to solve the core problem you identified.

Now, it’s not just an exercise to appease senior leadership. Who knows what you might uncover in the research you put into exploring the underlying problem and determining alternative solutions? You might save the organization millions with an alternate solution than the one initially proposed. When you put in the work on a strong business case, you’re able to get your sponsors or organizational leadership on board with you and have a clear vision as to how to ensure the delivery of the business benefits they expect.

Our business case template for Word is the perfect tool to start writing a business case. It has 9 key business case areas you can customize as needed. Download the template for free and follow the steps below to create a great business case for all your projects.

One of the key steps to starting a business case is to have a business case checklist. The following is a detailed outline to follow when developing your business case. You can choose which of these elements are the most relevant to your project stakeholders and add them to our business case template. Then once your business case is approved, start managing your projects with a robust project management software such as ProjectManager.

1. Executive Summary

The executive summary is a short version of each section of your business case. It’s used to give stakeholders a quick overview of your project.

2. Project Definition

This section is meant to provide general information about your projects, such as the business objectives that will be achieved and the project plan outline.

3. Vision, Goals and Objectives

First, you have to figure out what you’re trying to do and what is the problem you want to solve. You’ll need to define your project vision, goals and objectives. This will help you shape your project scope and identify project deliverables.

4. Project Scope

The project scope determines all the tasks and deliverables that will be executed in your project to reach your business objectives.

5. Background Information

Here you can provide a context for your project, explaining the problem that it’s meant to solve, and how it aligns with your organization’s vision and strategic plan.

6. Success Criteria and Stakeholder Requirements

Depending on what kind of project you’re working on, the quality requirements will differ, but they are critical to the project’s success. Collect all of them, figure out what determines if you’ve successfully met them and report on the results .

7. Project Plan

It’s time to create the project plan. Figure out the tasks you’ll have to take to get the project done. You can use a work breakdown structure template  to make sure you are through. Once you have all the tasks collected, estimate how long it will take to complete each one.

Project management software makes creating a project plan significantly easier. ProjectManager can upload your work breakdown structure template and all your tasks are populated in our tool. You can organize them according to your production cycle with our kanban board view, or use our Gantt chart view to create a project schedule.

8. Project Budget

Your budget is an estimate of everything in your project plan and what it will cost to complete the project over the scheduled time allotted.

9. Project Schedule

Make a timeline for the project by estimating how long it will take to get each task completed. For a more impactful project schedule , use a tool to make a Gantt chart, and print it out. This will provide that extra flourish of data visualization and skill that Excel sheets lack.

10. Project Governance

Project governance refers to all the project management rules and procedures that apply to your project. For example, it defines the roles and responsibilities of the project team members and the framework for decision-making.

11. Communication Plan

Have milestones for check-ins and status updates, as well as determine how stakeholders will stay aware of the progress over the project life cycle.

12. Progress Reports

Have a plan in place to monitor and track your progress during the project to compare planned to actual progress. There are project tracking tools that can help you monitor progress and performance.

Again, using a project management tool improves your ability to see what’s happening in your project. ProjectManager has tracking tools like dashboards and status reports that give you a high-level view and more detail, respectively. Unlike light-weight apps that make you set up a dashboard, ours is embedded in the tool. Better still, our cloud-based software gives you real-time data for more insightful decision-making. Also, get reports on more than just status updates, but timesheets, workload, portfolio status and much more, all with just one click. Then filter the reports and share them with stakeholders to keep them updated.

13. Financial Appraisal

This is a very important section of your business case because this is where you explain how the financial benefits outweigh the project costs . Compare the financial costs and benefits of your project. You can do this by doing a sensitivity analysis and a cost-benefit analysis.

14. Market Assessment

Research your market, competitors and industry, to find opportunities and threats

15. Competitor Analysis

Identify direct and indirect competitors and do an assessment of their products, strengths, competitive advantages and their business strategy.

16. SWOT Analysis

A SWOT analysis helps you identify your organization’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. The strengths and weaknesses are internal, while the opportunities and threats are external.

17. Marketing Strategy

Describe your product, distribution channels, pricing, target customers among other aspects of your marketing plan or strategy.

18. Risk Assessment

There are many risk categories that can impact your project. The first step to mitigating them is to identify and analyze the risks associated with your project activities.

ProjectManager , an award-winning project management software, can collect and assemble all the various data you’ll be collecting, and then easily share it both with your team and project sponsors.

Once you have a spreadsheet with all your tasks listed, you can import it into our software. Then it’s instantly populated into a Gantt chart . Simply set the duration for each of the tasks, add any dependencies, and your project is now spread across a timeline. You can set milestones, but there is so much more you can do.

You have a project plan now, and from the online Gantt chart, you can assign team members to tasks. Then they can comment directly on the tasks they’re working on, adding as many documents and images as needed, fostering a collaborative environment. You can track their progress and change task durations as needed by dragging and dropping the start and end dates.

But that’s only a taste of what ProjectManager offers. We have kanban boards that visualize your workflow and a real-time dashboard that tracks six project metrics for the most accurate view of your project possible.

Try ProjectManager and see for yourself with this 30-day free trial .

If you want more business case advice, take a moment to watch Jennifer Bridges, PMP, in this short training video. She explains the steps you have to take in order to write a good business case.

Here’s a screenshot for your reference.

Transcription:

Today we’re talking about how to write a business case. Well, over the past few years, we’ve seen the market, or maybe organizations, companies or even projects, move away from doing business cases. But, these days, companies, organizations, and those same projects are scrutinizing the investments and they’re really seeking a rate of return.

So now, think of the business case as your opportunity to package your project, your idea, your opportunity, and show what it means and what the benefits are and how other people can benefit.

We want to take a look today to see what’s in the business case and how to write one. I want to be clear that when you look for information on a business case, it’s not a briefcase.

Someone called the other day and they were confused because they were looking for something, and they kept pulling up briefcases. That’s not what we’re talking about today. What we’re talking about are business cases, and they include information about your strategies, about your goals. It is your business proposal. It has your business outline, your business strategy, and even your marketing plan.

Why Do You Need a Business Case?

And so, why is that so important today? Again, companies are seeking not only their project managers but their team members to have a better understanding of business and more of an idea business acumen. So this business case provides the justification for the proposed business change or plan. It outlines the allocation of capital that you may be seeking and the resources required to implement it. Then, it can be an action plan . It may just serve as a unified vision. And then it also provides the decision-makers with different options.

So let’s look more at the steps required to put these business cases together. There are four main steps. One, you want to research your market. Really look at what’s out there, where are the needs, where are the gaps that you can serve? Look at your competition. How are they approaching this, and how can you maybe provide some other alternatives?

You want to compare and finalize different approaches that you can use to go to market. Then you compile that data and you present strategies, your goals and other options to be considered.

And then you literally document it.

So what does the document look like? Well, there are templates out there today. The components vary, but these are the common ones. And then these are what I consider essential. So there’s the executive summary. This is just a summary of your company, what your management team may look like, a summary of your product and service and your market.

The business description gives a little bit more history about your company and the mission statement and really what your company is about and how this product or service fits in.

Then, you outline the details of the product or service that you’re looking to either expand or roll out or implement. You may even include in their patents may be that you have pending or other trademarks.

Then, you want to identify and lay out your marketing strategy. Like, how are you gonna take this to your customers? Are you going to have a brick-and-mortar store? Are you gonna do this online? And, what are your plans to take it to market?

You also want to include detailed information about your competitor analysis. How are they doing things? And, how are you planning on, I guess, beating your competition?

You also want to look at and identify your SWOT. And the SWOT is your strength. What are the strengths that you have in going to market? And where are the weaknesses? Maybe some of your gaps. And further, where are your opportunities and maybe threats that you need to plan for? Then the overview of the operation includes operational information like your production, even human resources, information about the day-to-day operations of your company.

And then, your financial plan includes your profit statement, your profit and loss, any of your financials, any collateral that you may have, and any kind of investments that you may be seeking.

So these are the components of your business case. This is why it’s so important. And if you need a tool that can help you manage and track this process, then sign up for our software now at ProjectManager .

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Agile Software Development Life Cycle: Case Study

Learn more about our agile software development life cycle from our Mitsubishi case study.

Any software development project, either big or small, requires a great deal of planning and steps that divide the entire development process into several smaller tasks that can be assigned to specific people, completed, measured, and evaluated. Agile Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC), is the process for doing exactly that – planning, developing, testing, and deploying information systems. The benefit of agile SDLC is that project managers can omit, split, or mix certain steps depending on the project’s scope while maintaining the efficiency of the development process and the integrity of the development life cycle. 

Today, we are going to examine a software development life cycle case study from one of Intersog’s previous projects to show how agility plays a crucial role in the successful delivery of the final product. Several years back, we worked with Mitsubishi Motors helping one of the world’s leading automotive manufacturers to develop a new supply chain management system. With the large scope of the project, its complex features, and many stakeholders relying on the outcomes of the project, we had to employ an agile approach to ensure a secure software development life cycle.

Business Requirements

Mitsubishi Motors involves many stakeholders and suppliers around the world, which makes its supply chain rather complex and data-heavy. That is why timely improvements are crucial for the proper functioning of this huge system and a corporation as a whole. Over the years of functioning, the old supply chain has been accumulating some noticeable frictions that resulted in the efficiency bottlenecks, and Intersog offered came ups with just the right set of solutions to make sufficient solutions that would help Mitsubishi ensure a coherent line of communication and cooperation with all the involved suppliers.

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Previously, Mitsubishi used an outdated supply chain management system that involved a large number of spreadsheets that required a lot of manual input. Considering a large number of stakeholders, the problem of synchronization has been a pressing one as well – different stakeholders would input the data at different speeds and at different times of day, which created a degree of confusion among suppliers. Though the system has been sufficient for a long time, the time has come to eliminate all the redundancies and streamline data input. 

The legacy system has been partially automated and ran on the IBM AS400 server, which allows for impressive flexibility, but it no longer sufficed for Mitsubishi’s growing needs. The main requirement, thus, was to create a robust online supply chain solution that would encompass the entire logistics process starting with auto parts and steel suppliers and ending with subcontractors and car dealerships around the world. That being said, Mitsubishi did not want to completely change the system, they opted for overhaul, and we came up with the idea of an integrated web application that was meant to function in conjunction with a DB2 base that was already used on the IBM AS400 server. 

IT Architecture and Agile SDLC

Mitsubishi employs a series of guidelines and rules on how to build, modify, and acquire new IT resources, which is why Intersog had to be truly agile to adapt to the client’s long-established IT architecture. Adapting to the requirements of the client, and especially to the strict regulations of the IT architecture of large corporations like Mitsubishi requires knowledge, flexibility, and strong industry expertise. Each software development company has its own architecture standards and frameworks for building new systems but many face difficulties when working with the existing systems and modifying them to the new requirements.

Intersog has no such problems. We approached Mitsubishi’s case with strong industry expertise and flexibility to account for all the client’s needs and specifications of the existing system. Obviously, following the client’s architecture regulations requires a profound understanding of said regulations, which is why information gathering is an integral phase of the software development life cycle.

Requirements Gathering

The requirements gathering phase can take anywhere from just a couple of days to several weeks. Working with complex and multi-layered legacy systems like the one used by Mitsubishi requires serious analysis and information gathering. In the case of Mitsubishi, our dedicated team had to gain a clear understanding of how the legacy system functions, create new software specifications, map out the development process, gather and create all the necessary documentation, track all the issues related to the functioning of the legacy system, outline the necessary solutions, and allocate all the resources to achieve the project’s goals in the most efficient manner. 

Working on the Mitsubishi project, our team has been gathering all the required information for up to 4 weeks. This included a profound examination of the legacy system, mapping out all of its flaws and specifications, bridging the gaps between the current state of the system and the requirements of the client, and outlining the development process. 

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The design stage includes all the integral decisions regarding the software architecture, its makeover, the tech frameworks that would be used in the system’s rework. During this stage, developers discuss the coding guidelines, the tools, practices, and runtimes that will help the team meet the client’s requirements. Working with large corporations like Mitsubishi, a custom software development team has to work closely with the company’s own developers to better understand the specifics of the architecture and create a design that reflects all the requirements. 

After all the requirements are gathered, we initiated the design stage based on all of the client’s specifications and came up with a number of solutions that matched Mitsubishi’s specs:

• Convenient data model meant to optimize data duplication;
• Permission system that differentiated the users by their access levels;
• Appealing user interface mockup to improve the comfortability of user-system interaction;
• Integration with the legacy RPG system;
• Notifications for the partners to keep them up with the important activities.

This set of essential solutions has been discussed and approved in the course of the design stage that lasted for 2 months. During this stage, Intersog and Mitsubishi development teams worked closely to come up with the solutions that matched the client’s requirements to the tee. Proper functioning of the supply chain is vital for the entire corporation, which is why it was critical to do everything flawlessly. 2 months might seem like quite a timeline, but for this case study on software development life cycle, it was not that long considering how complex Mitsubishi’s legacy system was. 

Solution Development

After approving the solution design, the team can move to develop those solutions. That’s the core of the entire project, a stage at which the teams meet the goals and achieve the outcomes set during previous stages. The success of the development stage depends heavily on how good a job the teams did during the design stage – if everything was designed with laser precision, the team can expect few if any, surprises during the development stage. 

What happens during the development stage is the teams coding their way towards the final product based on decisions that have been made earlier. With Mitsubishi, we followed the guidelines we came up with earlier and implemented a set of essential solutions:

• We built a convenient data model that minimizes the risk of human error by reducing redundant and repetitive data entry and duplication. 
• Improved Mitsubishi’s security system to differentiate the users by their level of access and give them the respective level of control over the data.
• Added the notifications for the users so that they could react to the relevant changes faster.
• Designed an appealing and comfortable user interface using the AJAX framework to make the user-system interaction more comfortable and time-efficient. 
• Deployed the platform running on the IBM AS400 server with the integration of DB2 databases.
• Integrated the existing RPG software into the new system.
• Migrated the existing spreadsheets and all the essential data into the new system.

All of these solutions took us 6 months to implement, which is rather fast for a project of such scale. Such a time-efficiency was possible only thanks to the huge amount of work we’ve done throughout the research and design stages. The lesson to learn from these software development life cycle phases for the example case study is that the speed of development would depend heavily on how well you prepare. 

Depending on the scale of the project, you might be looking at different timelines for the development stage. Small scale projects can be finished in a matter of weeks while some of the most complicated solutions might take more than a year to finish. In the case of the Mitsubishi project, it was essential for the client to get things done faster. Rushing things up is never a good idea, but you can always cut your development timeline by doing all the preparation work properly and having a clear understanding of what needs to be done and in which order.

Quality Assurance                   

Quality assurance is as vital for your project’s success as any other stage; this is where you test your code, assess the quality of solutions, and make sure everything runs smoothly and according to plan. Testing helps you identify all the bugs and defects in your code and eliminate those in a timely manner. Here at Intersog, we prefer testing our software on a regular basis throughout the development process. This approach helps us to identify the issues on the go and fix them before they snowball into serious problems. 

That’s it, quality assurance is a set of procedures aimed at eliminating bugs and optimizing the functioning of the software solutions. Here at Intersog, we run both manual and automated tests so that we can be truly sure of the quality of solutions we develop for our clients. With Mitsubishi, we ran tests throughout the development process and after the development stage was over. It took us an additional month to test all the solutions we’ve developed, after which we were ready for the implementation stage.

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Integration and Support

Following the testing, and once we are sure all the solutions work flawlessly, the development team gets to the implementation stage. Also known as the integration stage, this is where we integrate the new solution into the client’s pre-existing ecosystem. Basically, you are putting new gears into a complex mechanism that has been functioning for many years, and it is essential to make sure all of those gears fit perfectly. 

With such a complex system as the one employed by Mitsubishi and a vast amount of accumulated data, our developers had to be incredibly precise not to lose anything. We are talking about surgical precision because Mitsubishi’s suppliers amassed thousands upon thousands of spreadsheets full of critical data on supplies, material and product deliveries, accounting data, and more. All of that had to be carefully integrated with the new automated solution. 

After 2 months, the solutions have been fully integrated with Mitsubishi’s existing ecosystem. Intersog usually backs the clients up by offering support and maintenance services to ensure flawless functioning of the system over time, but this time, our client was fully capable of maintaining the new system on their own. As said, Mitsubishi has its own development team that is able to take care of the system maintenance, so that our cooperation was finished after the integration stage. 

Final Thoughts and Outtakes

A software development life cycle depends on many factors that are unique for each company. In the case of Mitsubishi, we’ve managed to get things done in just under a year, which is rather fast for a project of such an immense scale. Different projects have different life cycles, and it depends on the scale, the client’s ability to explain their needs, and the development team’s ability to understand those needs, gather all the necessary information, design the appropriate set of solutions, develop said solutions, ensure their quality, and implement them fast.

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Title: Developing the quality culture in public universities: a case study in Vietnam

Authors : Dinh-Thai Do; Mark Treve

Addresses : Sai Gon University, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam ' Walailak University, Tha Sala District, Nakhon Si Thammarat, Thailand

Abstract : This study aims to determine the extent to which public universities are making progress toward the cultures of quality in a developing country. The researchers relied on a Plan-Do-Check-Act (PDCA) to conduct the study. To gather information, the researchers surveyed 517 professors and associate professors from public universities, who currently have been working in Vietnam. According to the findings, the implementation of the PDCA cycle in public universities has a beneficial effect on the growth of quality culture. This study demonstrated a high level of internal coherence, as shown by Cronbach's alpha values, which varied from 0.932 to 0.979. The PDCA cycle is an effective instrument for quality improvement not only in public universities but also in other higher educational institutions in developing countries. The findings can provide policymakers and university administrators with assistance in developing and putting into practice effective strategies for quality culture management. Overall, the results contribute to the existing knowledge on the establishment of a quality culture in public higher educational institutions and shed light on the significance of implementing frameworks for continuous improvement such as the PDCA cycle in a developing country.

Keywords : culture; quality; public university; developing country.

DOI : 10.1504/IJMIE.2024.138241

International Journal of Management in Education, 2024 Vol.18 No.3, pp.198 - 213

Received: 19 Apr 2023 Accepted: 14 Sep 2023 Published online: 30 Apr 2024 *

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