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Second in Command: The Chief Behind the Chief with Cameron Herold

Ep. 528 - Land O’Lakes COO Brett Bruggeman on Driving Success in a $16B, 104-Year Cooperative

Second in Command: The Chief Behind the Chief with Cameron Herold

Second in Command with Cameron Herold

Business, Entrepreneurship, Careers, Management

4.9 • 225 Ratings

🗓️ 18 November 2025

⏱️ 46 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

In this episode, Cameron sits down with Brett Bruggeman, Executive Vice President and COO of Land O’Lakes, a 104-year-old, $16B cooperative spanning dairy foods, animal nutrition, and crop inputs. Brett shares how Land O’Lakes manages scale across 20 business units, supports more than 4,000 cooperative owners, and touches half of America’s farmland.

He and Cameron dig into the cooperative model, growth challenges in shrinking markets, how the company is driving new productivity for farmers, and their bold new initiative that partners with retail owners to invest in late-stage ag-tech. Brett also talks about outside-in thinking, the power of data, how to stay ahead of the customer, and why the future of agriculture requires both AI and human EQ.

If you’re a COO navigating large-team complexity, shifting markets, or innovation inside a legacy organization, this conversation is a masterclass in clarity, discipline, and strategic focus.

Timestamped Highlights

00:00 Brett and Cameron kick off the conversation (with a quick cameo from Brett’s comms lead, John).

01:03 How Brett discovered the podcast and the purpose of “the COO story.”

03:30 Land O’Lakes overview: 104-year history, cooperative structure, and national footprint.

07:14 The company’s roots: dairy farmers searching for a market for cream.

08:26 How Land O’Lakes evolved into dairy, animal nutrition, and crop inputs.

10:24 Purina brand clarification: Land O’Lakes vs. Nestlé internationally.

10:44 Revenue breakdown across business units.

12:00 How Brett avoids getting pulled into every detail while leading a massive enterprise.

14:10 How outside-in thinking reshaped corporate strategy.

15:17 The “vital few” → the three-or-four priorities that guide the entire company.

16:49 The six transformation “big bets.”

18:46 Becoming a data-first company: insights, segmentation, and new markets.

20:29 The strategic questions Land O’Lakes uses to break stagnation.

22:45 Their stance on hybrid work and why face-to-face still matters.

25:05 Growth challenges: farmers under pressure, shrinking markets, and opportunities.

26:05 Introducing AgRogue: the new retail growth fund (70–100M) to invest in late-stage ag-tech.

27:39 Why partnering with retail owners creates stronger market access.

28:17 What a cooperative actually is and how it differs from other business models.

31:39 How 4,000 owners create loyalty, but not complacency.

33:31 Why aligning retail owners with Land O’Lakes creates predictable innovation adoption.

36:51 How AI and predictive models are transforming supply chain, waste, and productivity.

38:37 Three AI goals: target growth, eliminate waste, improve customer experience.

40:55 How Land O’Lakes approaches AI responsibly (and without getting “over their skis”).

42:37 What Brett is working on personally as a leader: presence, change management, results.

47:28 Advice to his younger self: ask better questions, seek mentors, take international roles.

Resources & Mentions


About the Guest

Brett Bruggeman is the Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer of Land O’Lakes, a 104-year-old, $16B cooperative spanning dairy foods, animal nutrition, and crop inputs. With more than 11 years inside the organization and a career that includes significant leadership roles at BASF, Brett leads the company’s operations, growth initiatives, strategic planning discipline, and enterprise-wide transformation work. He is known for championing data-driven decision making, outside-in strategic thinking, and building collaborative partnerships across the cooperative ecosystem.

🔗 LinkedIn | Website

Important Links


The Second in Command Podcast is an original production hosted by Cameron Herold. Brought to you by COO Alliance. Production and editing by Podcast Your Brand.

Transcript

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0:00.0

If somebody would have came to me and said, hey, I have this market access approach with this many retail owners and would like to work with a certain product group when we were introducing a new product like Pursuit or another product, I would have been like, that's the most predictable market access model I'd ever been a part of.

0:19.0

It would be automatic.

0:20.2

And that's really what we want to try

0:21.5

to do. We want to be seen as a place to go with new innovation for predictability to scale

0:27.2

innovation. And our owners own that last mile, Cameron. We don't at Landau Lakes. Our retail owners do.

0:34.0

And that's important, especially what's happening with farmer consolidation.

0:43.5

Welcome to the Second in Command podcast, produced by the C.O. Alliance and brought to you by

0:49.9

its founder, Cameron Harold. In the Second in Command podcast, we talk to top COOs who share the

0:56.2

insights, strategies, and tactics that made them the chief behind the chief. And now, here's your host,

1:03.4

Cameron Harold. Hello, listener. It's Cameron Harold here, and I'm fired up for today's episode. We've got Brett Brugman, who's the rock star C-O-O and executive VP of Landa-Lakes, dropping some serious wisdom. This is a company that I bumped into for the first time, believe it or not, only 10 years ago, even though they've been around for 104 years, and they do

1:27.7

$16 billion in revenue. He's leaving their company thinking about the agriculture game, think

1:33.7

crops, think animal nutrition. He also is steering the company's big picture growth. Today, he's

1:39.4

breaking down why co-ops are still a powerhouse. He tackles the wild challenges of today's business world,

1:45.0

and he's also sharing killer concepts like outside in thinking, asking bold strategic questions,

1:50.3

and also zeroing in on what they call the vital few. Buckle up, this one's epic, and make sure

1:55.1

you subscribe and share this episode as well. We'll see you on the inside.

2:04.1

So, Brett, welcome to the Second and Command podcast.

2:07.1

Thanks for having me, Cameron. We appreciate it very much.

2:10.1

Yeah, I'm really looking forward to this. And I need to tell you a funny story to start the

2:13.6

episode off because I grew up in Canada. I was on a plane, gosh, probably 10 or 12 years ago,

2:21.9

and I was flying from, I think it was Vancouver down to Arizona. And I think I was on American Airlines

2:28.5

and they gave me, and I don't love plain food. It's typically not that great. And I got this,

...

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