Custom-designed programs help give CHS, a Fortune 500 company, the right knowledge for a changing marketplace.

For decades, businesses that focused on commodities such as wheat and soybeans were considered solid, not seductive. But during the past few years, these formerly mundane crops have gotten glamorous: the enormous Chinese market started demanding more soybeans, and increased interest eco-fuels such as ethanol and biodiesel have pushed up prices. “We used to operate in a rather stable environment,” says Tom Traub (left), vice president of human resources for CHS, an Inver Grove Heights-based company that supplies food, grain, and energy products. “But in the past three or four years, it’s been very volatile. We needed to make sure we had the skill sets to operate in a different environment.

That sudden change pushed CHS to make adjustments of its own. In 2004, the company tapped the Carlson School to create a custom executive educationprogram to improve the financial, strategic thinking, and decision-making skills of its top executives and managers. The company wanted to create nimble managers who could react to—and take advantage of—the changes in the environment.

CHS executives worked closely with Carlson Executive Education to get the best possible curriculum for the company’s goals. Though they initially looked at several different options, Traub says Carlson proved to be a good fit. “We were looking for a world-class provider of executive education,” he says. “Carlson was local—and nationally ranked. We also knew other companies had used their programs.” Traub says that Carlson’s willingness to hire outside consultants to complement the expertise of its own faculty was a selling point as well.

So far, about 170 CHS employees have gone through the Strategy Finance Decision-Making class, and a new group enrolls this fall. Traub says that the class is helping top executives navigate the shifting terrain successfully—they’ve used the financial analysis skills they’ve learned in the course, and they apply new tools to help them make key decisions. The bottom line suggests that the work is paying off: profits have gone from $220 million in 2004 to $750 million last year.

Traub says there are less tangible benefits as well. “CHS formed as a merger of two cooperatives in 1998, so we have a lot of diverse businesses,” he says, noting that CHS also has transportation groups, refineries, and businesses that sell specific types of insurance. “Within those business segments, there isn’t a lot of interaction. One of the side benefits of the course is that many people get a chance to build relationships across the company.” The outcomes during the past few years have been so positive that the company is developing a new executive education course on driving execution.

Traub says that the benefit of such customized courses is the ability to hone in on key areas that are specific to your business “If you understand where your business is heading from a strategic perspective, you can design courses to address areas where you need skill sets to grow and take advantage of marketplace changes,” he says.

After all, to be successful, CHS knows that its most valuable commodities aren’t the gas and grains it buys and sells each day: it’s the people who help lead the company to success.