Success Story: Land O’Lakes, Inc.

Summary

Land O’Lakes, Inc., one of the U.S.’s leading agribusiness companies, made the decision to convert its 2021 Annual Meeting to a virtual session held in late February. The event included a Business Meeting where delegates voted on important cooperative governance issues, which required a reliable software platform. Land O’Lakes decided to use Real-Time Voting Software, and the reliable system and seamless integration worked well for the cooperative and its voting members.

For more information, visit https://www.landolakesinc.com/.

About Land O’Lakes, Inc.

Land O’Lakes, Inc., one of America’s premier agribusiness and food companies, is a member- owned cooperative with industry-leading operations that span the spectrum from agricultural production to consumer foods. With 2020 annual sales of $14 billion, Land O’Lakes is one of the nation’s largest cooperatives, ranking 219 on the Fortune 500. Building on a legacy of more than 99 years of operation, Land O’Lakes today operates some of the most respected brands in agribusiness and food production including Land O’Lakes Dairy Foods, Purina Animal Nutrition, WinField United and Truterra. The company does business in all 50 states and more than 60 countries. Land O’Lakes, Inc. corporate headquarters are located in Arden Hills, Minnesota.

The Challenge

The COVID-19 pandemic created unexpected challenges that have required everyone to rethink the way to conduct business in big and small ways. Travel limitations and restrictions on large group gatherings made it clear Land O’Lakes would be unable to deliver a traditional in-person Annual Meeting in February 2021. However, the meeting included important votes on 2021 Policies and Resolutions, proposed bylaw changes and the election of eight directors to the Corporate Board, which meant canceling or significantly postponing the 2021 Annual Meeting was not an option. So the company needed a secure, reliable way to administer the meeting and facilitate member voting.

The Solution 

Land O’Lakes began a search for the best tool(s) to use to host the business meeting and conduct secure and reliable voting. Land O’Lakes contacted Survey & Ballot Systems, given their years-long partnership, for ideas on the best course of action. After a review, the company chose to use real-time voting software, a platform that enables voting groups to securely conduct their business regardless of whether people are physically in the same place or connecting virtually.

Results and Benefits

With the real-time voting software as an integral part of the mix, the 2021 Land O’Lakes Annual Meeting was executed flawlessly.

• Bylaw amendment decisions were conducted as planned/scheduled.
• Within the meeting, vote results and decisions were reported to voting members who participated in the meeting.
• Many members found the platform easy to use. The member log-in process was particularly simple and
• There were only a few support calls for meeting administrators to field and resolve, mostly relating to ensuring voters were signed in and following the agenda. Survey & Ballot Systems also had staff on-site to ensure any issues were swiftly and successfully handled, something that company executives particularly appreciated.

Since the Annual Meeting, Land O’Lakes continues to look at how they could potentially leverage real-time voting during other organizational meetings.

“We loved how seamless the platform worked; our Annual Meeting went off without a hitch. Everything was so transparent and simple. We received many favorable comments from members on how easy it was to use the DVL platform.”

Vanessa O’Neil, Project Manager at Land O’Lakes