GETTING THE BALANCE RIGHT WITH ICL

By Matt Ross

An interview with Regional Manager Vic/SA/Tas, Roger Boyle, and National Technical Manager, Dr Sam Stacey from ICL Specialty Fertilizers

NGIV Bronze Industry Partner, ICL Specialty Fertilizers, is a company that truly values its people. They strive to fill their team with the right blend of expert knowledge and industry experience. It’s this combination that helps them to provide an outstanding service to their customers and build lasting, authentic relationships with them.

We wanted to discover more about ICL’s approach to teamwork and the balance of knowledge and experience, so we caught up with their Regional Manager Vic/SA/Tas, Roger Boyle, and National Technical Manager, Dr Sam Stacey, to find out more.

Could you both provide a brief background on your respective career and educational paths to date?

Roger – I’ve been in the horticultural industry for 40 years, beginning with a Nursery apprenticeship and then a focus on sales and marketing. With experience in wholesale, allied and retail aspects of the industry and long-standing business relationships, I hope I bring a balanced and educated view to my role.

My positions over the years have included; Technical Representation, Sales Management, Business Development, General Management and Marketing. My business mantra is based on assisting businesses to become better businesses through informed solution solving practices, not just selling a product. I have been in my current role with ICL for two and a half years, and I love it.

Sam – I have a PhD in soil chemistry (nutrition) and an honours degree in Agricultural Science, both from Adelaide University. I was a scientist at Adelaide University for six years before joining ICL, mainly publishing on nutrient reactions in fertilisers, soils and uptake by crops.

I have been fortunate to spend time working at the University of Arkansas in the USA and at Sabanci University in Turkey and have also visited and assisted nurseries, turf and crop production sites in many other countries. I have been at ICL for ten years, where I provide technical and regulatory support to the Australian and New Zealand business, and support colleagues based in Asia as needed.

And what would a typical day at ICL look like for you both?

Roger – My role is to visit and consult with growers on their fertiliser and weed management practices and advise if there are options that could lead to a better result. I spend around 50 per cent of my time on the road servicing the needs of growers in Vic, SA and Tas, and the rest of the time in my home office in the SE suburbs. Although some of the calls I make are initiated directly, often a request comes from our distributor network and their in-field sales team.

I try to be respectfully critical of grower practices because we are looking for opportunities to improve production or make it more efficient. Hopefully that means growers look on us as being a valuable contributor to their business. If I don’t have a good answer, I can reach out to other team members or to experts in the industry. Of course, the best days are when we visit growers who are doing things right because they have researched best practices and have been confident enough to make changes.

John Warner (Warners Nurseries) and Roger Boyle inspecting a trial crop

Sam – The most enjoyable tasks include visiting growers, especially when we can help solve an issue, setting up trials, analysing data and preparing seminars and educational material. Regulatory compliance, preparing registration applications, import permits and safety data sheets is crucial work but not quite as interesting!

How do your two roles crossover to complement and inform each other?

Roger – Whilst my role is local, and local relationships are paramount, Sam holds a more holistic and technical role over a much larger territory. Being able to contact Sam for full technical support compliments my locally acquired industry knowledge.

Being located in South Australia, Sam is also incredibly valuable when it is not possible for me to travel. His personable and enquiring nature is respected by growers and distributors alike. Although we don’t do a lot of joint visits due to our separate locations, the influx of online webinars and meetings in the last year, have greatly increased our scope to connect with the end user and our distributor network.

Sam – I am in contact with our Regional Managers every day, and they are also in contact with each other. The team regularly pools ideas to help solve grower issues. We design trials together, share results and work together to support the industry in a meaningful way.

Roger, can you explain how Dr Sam’s scientific background benefits ICL’s customers?

More and more the growing of plants is becoming more specialised and scientific, particularly as growers and their customers strive for consistency and perfection across a crop. Sam’s knowledge of the interaction of nutrients under varying conditions is incredibly valuable as each grower’s conditions and locations vary. Sam is generally able to assess the situation logically, and then clearly suggest a solution that is palatable to the grower.

Dr Sam Stacey [front right] celebrating Spring Blueming charity event with Jason Scroop and the team from Poplar Grove Nursery in South Australia

And Dr Sam, Roger has built up years of experience working across retail, wholesale and allied trades, how does that experience across the horticultural industry benefit ICL’s customers?

A critical part of Roger’s role is to help growers implement nutrition programs that will produce high quality plants and meet their production goals. From our joint visits with growers I know that he is often thinking more broadly about the implications of what we recommend on transport efficiency, shelf-life and how plants will present in retail. These are important considerations that may need to be addressed right at the start of a crop’s production cycle.

Dr Sam, do you think ICL’s approach to embedding scientific know-how into their work is underutilised in our industry?

Research and development (R&D) is core to the ICL business. All our sales and technical staff (globally) are involved with trials and a number have been run at nurseries in Victoria. We have an extensive new product R&D program that is split between our in-house research stations and work at Universities. Of course, this means we are not always able to release new products quickly – some products take years of development. But it gives us confidence that the products will perform and that all product claims are based on extensive research. The trials at nurseries in Australia help us to remain progressive and responsible with our advice. Our whole team in Australia and New Zealand really values this approach.

Roger, can you provide a practical example of a time that your experience and Dr Sam’s scientific expertise have combined to benefit a customer?

In my first 12 months in the role, I went back to a lot of businesses I had known for years, many of whom didn’t really have a relationship with ICL. This opened the door to new conversations and with Sam’s help we were able to review numerous fertilizer programs for the benefit of growers.

What I have found through visiting growers, is that most are happy with the way the crop is growing, however many growers are topdressing, with all the costs and weed management issues. Being able to use the technical resources of Sam and my experience I can assist growers to eliminate the need for topdressing and assist in increasing profitability of the nursery. We both like to be respectfully critical of existing practices.

Science is often viewed as intimidating and complex, how do you overcome that barrier Dr Sam, when conveying your message to customers?

One of the reasons I was drawn to working with soils and plants is that the science has obvious practical application. In horticulture we don’t usually ask broad, theoretical questions. Instead, the science is about understanding real-life biology and chemistry. The information is not only fascinating, it can also guide us to make good management decisions. When communicating with growers I try to think about practical applications that can be immediately implemented. I want the message to be useful.

Roger, what do you think is the key to developing lasting relationships with your customers?

To me it all comes down to communication; listening before speaking to find out what the real issue is, being respectful of what they have done up until now, developing a solution to their issue that is practical, following it through to fruition, and reviewing the results. I never overpromise, but work with my customers and my employer to find a solution that satisfies everyone. Then do it again, and again, and again.

What was it that led you both to a career in horticulture?

Roger – I stumbled into it after failing in Cartography and having a family history of keen gardeners helped. My first employer (Interior Plantscaping) opened my eyes to corporate horticultural sales and design and was very supportive in allowing me to develop my career down the sales and business development avenue. As I said earlier, I get the most satisfaction from helping businesses to become better businesses. If I can help them, then we both grow.

Sam – I started growing plants in primary school and cultivated an ever-expanding patch of vegetables and culinary herbs right throughout my teen years. When I decided to pursue a career in science, the study of soils and plants was inevitable. I decided to specialise in soil science when I realised how fundamental soil processes were in influencing plant growth. I had to understand what was happening in the soil to be able to understand what was happening in the plant. A major reason that I left a University career to join ICL was the opportunity to work more closely with growers where the science can be applied and explored in real-world situations.

And finally, if you were to choose a quality that you admire in each other, what would it be?

Roger – Although I thoroughly respect Sam’s knowledge, I admire his ability to relay that knowledge in a balanced, comprehensible and free of ‘spin’ manner even more. You just have to watch one of his webinars to see how he is able to translate the scientific facts into practical ones.

Sam – Without wanting to make this sound like a lovefest, I admire Roger’s honesty and integrity. His comments about wanting to get the best outcome for growers isn’t just for the interview. He expresses the same view behind closed doors and in the car before and after visiting growers.

A big thank you to Roger and Sam for those insights. Every day, around the world, ICL experts work with end users to optimise plant nutrition and provide advice, know-how and expertise on location. The combination of world-class technology and a down-to-earth personal touch are the seeds of ICL Specialty Fertilizers’ success.