The Benefits Of A Benchmarking Program:
More Information At Indianapolis Fall Convention

Most of our industry, and the farmers we serve, have overall experienced a pretty favorable business climate in recent years. However, we know that for every mountain top in agriculture there are also valleys. Better business decisions will be more crucial than ever to position member companies for a tougher business environment.

If you knew where your company had the best opportunities to improve performance, you’d take action on that insight. But how can you know where to focus your team’s efforts to protect and improve profitability?

Fortunately, there is a proven way of providing you with more and better information on where to improve.

Our Association is considering a benchmarking program in which an independent third party collects, compiles, and interprets operational and financial performance information, keeping every member’s individual submissions confidential. The firm handling the survey then compiles aggregated statistics submitted by peer companies in the industry, and produces individual and confidential reports to each member its own performance compared to their peers.

In his Breakout Session at the Indianapolis Fall Convention, Bob Sherlock from The ProAction Group will lead us in a discussion that covers:

• The benefits your company can expect from a benchmarking program
   
• Best practices from benchmarking work that ProAction has done for another industry trade association with characteristics similar to ours
   
• Your hopes and expectations for a FEMA benchmarking program — as well as your concerns, if any
   
• Your input on how a benchmarking program should be structured

We recommend that Session attendees represent general management, financial management, and operational management perspectives. Attendees whose role in their companies is sales may attend and contribute. We do want to make clear that the focus of the Session is primarily on information to improve operational and financial performance.

Headquartered in Chicago, The ProAction Group focuses on information and actionable insights that help manufacturing companies operate better and improve financial results. The firm was founded in 1995.

Bob Sherlock is an executive with over twenty years of management experience and over ten years in consulting at The ProAction Group and Marketwerks. Earlier, Bob was founder and CEO of Delivery Station, a venture-funded logistics service provider. Bob previously served as VP — Marketing for Wickes Lumber, an $850 million distributor and retailer of building materials, and held increasingly responsible management positions in four GE operating businesses and on GE’s corporate staff.