April 27, 2023

Sioux Falls-based Raven Industries has hired more than 300 people in the past year, and it’s establishing a corporate hub for global cyber defense capabilities based in Sioux Falls.

That alone gives a glimpse into the investment and trajectory for the company that became part of global agriculture business CNH Industrial in late 2021.

“We’re still in a growth path,” said Nicole Freesemann, vice president of human resources for the Sioux Falls-based office. “As we grow revenue and continue to invest in technology, we have to scale our business.”

Of Raven’s 900 team members, about 650 are in Sioux Falls. About 80 support corporate services, including IT and finance, are here. Priorities in hiring to scale up have included engineering roles and operational support for manufacturing.

“Ramping up our manufacturing has been a challenge, but I think executed quite well,” general manager Eric Shuman said. “We were able to get the labor we needed, and that was certainly a concern coming into the year, so overall I would say it was a very positive first year coming out of the gate.”

Most of the manufacturing is done in Sioux Falls. Engineering, design and sales are done through Raven, including in its offices in Europe and in Arizona, where Raven opened in Scottsdale last year to target talent in artificial intelligence.

Supply chain issues, while not solved are “much, much” better than 12 months ago, Shuman said.

“From a general business standpoint, the business has remained very robust,” he said. “We did see significant business growth in line with pre-acquisition modeling, which was positive; again fighting through supply chain, the team reacted very well to get through that.”

Cyber hub planted 

CNH Industrial historically outsourced its cyber support, both in the U.S. and internationally.

“But with the acquisition of Raven and a changing at our executive level, we decided to go ahead and in-source those capabilities,” said Aaron Carlson, who relocated from Minnesota and now serves as the Sioux Falls-based manager of CNH’s Global Cyber Fusion Center.

“It was pretty quick to identify Sioux Falls as a really good area to host a local in-sourced, in-house security team.”

The biggest factor was nearby Dakota State University’s national reputation for producing a strong pipeline of graduates in the field, he said.

“Being here in Sioux Falls, we have some of the best cybersecurity talent universities can produce, which really compensates for not being able to pull from such a wide geographic pool of candidates.”

The seven-person team is working out of an auxiliary building Raven owns across from its downtown headquarters on Sixth Street. Raven is working with DSU to support internships, with a plan to move toward 24/7 global coverage for CNH Industrial’s security requirements.

Many of Raven’s tech-enabled products also require a high level of security — a relationship Carlson said he hopes to extend with DSU, including work for its new cyber research center being built in Sioux Falls and on campus in Madison.

“Our hope is one day we can drive a tractor up and leave it a few months and see how they can break it,” he said.

Business outlook

Across CNH Industrial, “general business continues to look very strong,” he added. “Getting the access to the CNHI distribution channel is just a huge opportunity for the Raven business. We get thousands of customer-facing touch points we didn’t have access to before, so that’s something we’re continuing to look to leverage and build out.”

Case in point: Raven demonstrated an autonomous tillage system at Tech Day late last year, a CNH event for the industry designed to highlight its emerging technologies.

“We brought in investors and media to look at various projects and programs, and Raven was a huge part of that with the technology we’ve developed over the last decade,” said John Preheim, vice president of product development.

“This was a scale beyond anything Raven would have ever done in the past.”

Raven’s ag-related technology “is built around efficiency and efficacy,” he added. “So reducing inputs and getting better outcomes with what we do. We’re involved heavily with autonomy, helping drive that part of the industry forward.”

There’s “a lot of interest” from the industry in Raven’s products, Shuman said.

“The ag economy is strong, that helps, and certainly labor challenges are on the front of everyone’s minds,” he said. “Finding a competent person to put in a half-million-dollar piece of equipment is not easy. There’s a lot at risk, and there’s a lot of interest (in technology products) primarily because of the labor challenge.”

As for Raven’s own labor situation, “we’ve had phenomenal success with a lot of people coming to Sioux Falls,” Preheim said. “Even new hires, we’re pulling them from larger cities and getting a fair number of transfers in. It’s always a struggle to hire talent, but the tech industry is on a downhill slide a little, and they’re cutting positions while we’re trying to hire.”

It’s also “a compelling mission” to work at Raven, he added.

“And that helps a lot.”

So far, Raven has been able to achieve its growth within its existing facilities as its former divisions Aerostar and engineered films have been acquired by other companies and moved into their own buildings elsewhere in Sioux Falls. Raven did add 40 acres to its campus near Baltic, where it tests many products, and more space will be freed up for manufacturing as a lease with Aerostar expires and that company moves to a new building.

As for the office headquarters, “we’d absolutely remain downtown,” Shuman said. “There’s no vision to replace the downtown facility.”

Based on current conditions, there’s enough space to carry the company through its growth for the next 12 months, he said.

“But we do foresee a time in the not too long term that we will outgrow that. We are starting to talk about what the next phase or next plan would look like.”

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