04-02-2026
Don’t take your eyes off the customer, warned David Pugh, CFO of AgReliant Genetics, in his recent appearance at the Daniels School’s Executive Forum.
Pugh admits this lesson came to him the hard way. After guest teaching sections of Econ 251, he drove home feeling proud. He had walked students through the impact of tariffs, the time value of money, the risk-free rate, and technicalities about what changes in uncertainty mean for a company’s weighted average cost of capital. Somewhere on that drive, though, he realized he had never once mentioned the customer – in his industry: the grower, the farmer or the 180 million acres of corn and soybeans whose economics are transformed when China shifts soybean purchases from the U.S. to Brazil. He had been focused on the “finance velociraptor” right in front of him and had missed the much larger priority, creating a danger lurking just out of view.
That Jurassic Park image became his metaphor for distraction in modern business. It is easy to lock onto the topic of the day – tariffs, interest rates, technology, internal metrics – and forget to ask what any of it means for the person who actually buys your company’s product. Pugh pointed out that business professionals can obsess over those details and miss out on how they can generate revenue by paying attention to the customer’s changing needs.
But “Successful companies will start to mirror the culture of their customers,” meaning companies will anticipate the customer’s priorities and help them meet their goals.
Pugh connects this mindset directly to how he leads teams. He expects his people to bring more than spreadsheets and third‑decimal‑point precision; he wants them to tell him how they feel about the data and what it implies for the customer. Are things getting better or worse for them? What should we do differently to create more value? If you cannot tie your analysis back to a real person – a farmer deciding what to plant, a pet owner choosing a product, a patient facing a diagnosis, a driver deciding on a car purchase, a company seeking innovative software solutions – you are not done.
Pugh’s focus on the customer challenges business leaders to keep themselves focused on creating value for their clients and customers. Yes, everyone must dive into models and data analysis, but don’t forget to ask the central question: “Where is the customer in this story?” The leaders who keep that question front and center will be the ones who see the real velociraptor coming – and are ready for it.
Watch David Pugh's full set of insights on business:
The Daniels School’s Executive Forum is held in person on the West Lafayette campus and is open to the public, as seating permits. Follow the business school on LinkedIn to learn about upcoming Forum speakers and more, and watch past speakers on the Executive Forum podcast.
