Bunge Limited NYSE: BG (formerly Bunge International and prior to that Bunge Y Born) is a Bermudan food conglomerate with its headquarters in White Plains, New York. As well as being a leading global soybean exporter it is also involved in food processing, grain trading, and fertilizer. It competes with Cargill and Archer Daniels Midland.
Founded in 1818 by Johann Peter Gotlieb Bunge in Amsterdam, it was relocated to Antwerp by Edouard Bounge in 1859. Edouard's brother; Ernest Bunge, took the Bunge name to Argentina in 1884, and in 1905 the business extended to Brazil and later on to the USA.

Building a values-based leadership team
Bunge launched the Leadership Development Program (LDP) to ensure the effectiveness and depth of talent of our current and future management teams, and to instill a leadership style that fits our company’s decentralized and integrated approach.
The LDP is focused on supporting the personal growth of Bunge’s managers and the growth of the company as a whole. It is also designed to facilitate the cultural integration of leaders within Bunge and provide a strategic orientation that enables managers to remain aligned – even as they lead their own teams in 30 countries on five continents.

The LDP aims to develop the following in its managers:

• Vision – the ability to anticipate, define and shape the future direction of the company utilizing innovative ideas.
• Action – the ability to manage business operations in an organized, results-oriented manner with an emphasis on productivity, quality, safety and, ultimately, sustained profitability.
• Relationships – the ability to create and maintain a favorable environment between people (farmers, customers, employees and shareholders) in order to obtain the best results for the company.

Weisser earned a bachelor's degree in business administration from the University of Sao Paulo in Brazil and participated in several postgraduate programs at the Harvard Business School in Cambridge, Massachusetts. He also attended the Management Development Program at INSEAD in Cedex, France. Before his relationship with Bunge, Weisser worked for 15 years, from 1979 to 1993, in various finance-related positions with the German petrochemicals giant BASF in Brazil, Germany, the United States, and Mexico.

In 1990, with the global marketplace expanding after physical and ideological barriers were broken down at the end of the Cold War, the family-owned Bunge changed its general strategies in order to have access to more financial capital and to end the bickering that continued between family members. Professional management was brought in beginning in 1992, and the company prepared itself to become a publicly traded company in order to gain access to equity markets. Weisser joined Bunge in July 1993 as its chief financial officer.

DIRECTING FINANCIAL CHANGE

Weisser immediately began to focus Bunge on agribusiness and food production while divesting the company of noncore assets. To emphasize the trading of soybeans, grain, and fertilizer, Weisser directed the sale of all of the company's consumer food-processing firms, except Bunge Alimentos in Brazil, which dealt with soybeans and margarine.

In 1999 Weisser—who had become chairman of the board and chief executive officer—moved the company to White Plains, New York, in order to be closer to New York City, the center of international finance and trade. In August 2001 Weisser listed the now publicly traded Bunge on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol BG.

Weisser concentrated on three principles that he felt would best sharpen the company's focus within the agribusiness industry. Knowing that Bunge needed to grow in order to survive and prosper, he carefully acquired companies that matched Bunge's strategic plan; he reduced expenses; and he emphasized efficiency. Weisser coordinated ocean shipments more concertedly to allow for intermediate pick-up and drop-off spots along any particular route, and he implemented the backhauling of cargo to its point of origination in order to save costs. Weisser also helped to consolidate the company into three main divisions: agribusiness, food products, and fertilizers. Integration across the company helped Bunge to take advantage of the synergies among these divisions; the resulting cohesion made Bunge an efficient, low-cost operator—Weisser's original intent.

AGRIBUSINESS

Bunge's agribusiness division was its largest, accounting for about 78 percent of sales. The division comprised three subdivisions: grain origination, soybean production/oilseed processing, and international marketing. Weisser helped Bunge to develop processes in which commodities such as soybeans and other oilseeds, grown primarily in North and South America, were processed as animal feed, food products, and vegetable oil in the Americas and in Europe. These operations were about equally divided between North America, South America, and Europe, providing a continuous supply of raw and processed oilseeds in all locations. Bunge Global Markets—the international sales and marketing subdivision within agribusiness—sold commodities throughout the world, including in the largest growth markets: the European Union, China, and India. It operated 21 offices in 18 countries in Asia, Europe, and the Americas in order to provide worldwide coverage to all of the major oil consumption markets.

FOOD PRODUCTS

The production of shortenings, edible oils, mayonnaise, and baked goods made up the majority of operations within Bunge's food-products division. Its subdivisions were origination, processing, and global logistics. The food-products division used raw materials and processed products from the agribusiness division to reduce overall external procurement and logistics costs. Weisser developed this ability to the point where almost three-quarters of the raw materials used to manufacture these products were sourced from within Bunge's network.

With better quality control in place due to the company's ability to track foods through the entire production process, Weisser concluded that food retailers and food-service providers would be much more likely to choose Bunge over its competitors. Weisser believed that such an integrated process would also provide a safer and more accessible food supply.
 
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