Share Groups Spark New Ideas
An interview with Ken Gunn of Caliber Consulting and SIGMA Share Group Coordinator.
Q: Hi Ken – thanks for your time today. We’ve been hearing good things about a series of best practices share groups you’re running with SIGMA. Can you tell us more?
A: I work with SIGMA on a series of operational and marketing best practices groups. These sessions are a blend of education with peer-to-peer networking. Select vendors provide case studies and market research, and participants share information on best practices.
We’ve had good feedback from attendees. They come away with a lot of great information and feel it’s a valuable exercise. It’s as if you are playing golf standing next to someone. When the person next to you putts, you wind up seeing the lay of the land. Attendees learn from each other what works, and what doesn’t. In the end, people wind up with a buddy system to bounce ideas off of.
Q: Can you share some intriguing ideas that have come about during the sessions?
A: Our recent sessions were very successful. We had a session in January in San Antonio on wholesale sales development. The discussion around managing a sales force was interesting. Sales management takes time and there is a real need to have technology to manage the pipeline and track the team’s activities. The tech doesn’t have to be really extensive. We heard about using a pen with a memory chip built right into it. You just write on a tablet and it records it and later converts it into a text format, which works well for “PC-impaired” salespeople—and it cost less that $150. DTN was also on hand to show the DTN Fuel Buyer best buy dashboard and there was a lot of interest in that new solution.
DTN was also at our February session in Chicago with a focus on moving up the fuel supply chain and shipping on the pipeline. We got an opportunity to visit the Chicago Board of Trade, which was eye-opening. That group was a real mix of small, midsize and some very large companies. I think the most illuminating takeaway for the smaller and midsize companies was awareness of the required resources it takes to move up supply chain. It’s more significant than they realized. People and tech must be in place, and you need to be pretty sophisticated. It’s not just a “90-day project to get going”—the amount of time, people and money to invest can be sizable.
The SIGMA Share Groups are committed to helping companies conduct research into marketplace alternatives. Attendees had an opportunity to see the DTN Exchange, an electronic order management system that gives people additional selling opportunities without a big dollar commitment. We had great feedback on that session.
Q: Who can attend these SIGMA Share Groups? How do you sign up?
A: Anyone can attend the SIGMA Share Groups—you don’t have to be a SIGMA member to attend. It’s very cost-effective. At the early bird rate, the first person to attend is $375; additional people from the same organization are just $175. We try to keep groups at 40 to maximize sharing. To sign up, go to the SIGMA web site (www.sigma.com), go to the Share Group Tab, print off the registration and fax into SIGMA. Or, if you want to get on a distribution list for information, just send me an email and I’ll add you to the master list. Ken’s e-mail: caliber1mt@aol.com
Q: What topics are coming up?
A: On June 20-21, we have a session on “C-Store Data Mining for Profit.” That will be a fun event, held at Churchill Downs in Louisville, Kentucky. People will be able to see the races on the second day right after share group. We also have the exclusive use of the museum for our reception.
In August, we’ll have “Consumer and Commercial Payment Options,” which will cover credit cards, fleet cards, prepay, and card locks. Attendees can have an opportunity to see which options fit their business model and market best. That one will be held in Memphis.
In September, our “HR Forum” will focus on recruiting, retention, compensation, and benefits. People are the business and technology supports the business. This topic will really get people talking. That will be in San Antonio.
I’m also developing a session on alternative fuels such as ethanol. Did you know that 1/3 of fuel used in cars in Brazil is straight ethanol that comes in part from sugar cane? The session will focus on E85 and biodiesel and we’ll be visiting an ethanol production facility.
Trucking automation, maintenance, and safety is also a topic on the docket. I’m arranging a visit to an assembly plant, for more “hands-on learning.”
Q: Wow - sounds like some fun venues, Ken. Is that one of your objectives?
A: Yes, I’m always looking for suggestions on cities and unique locations. Many people who attend the Share Groups typically aren’t the “big travelers” in the organizations. We find that executive use the SIGMA Share Group as a way to educate key people and also say thank you for hard-working employees. This way, attendees can learn a lot, and see something interesting places in the same trip.
Q: That’s great. I also hear you have a Scholarship Fund—tell us more about that.
A: Sure, the program is called “Pay it Forward.” The goal is to reward hard-working students who are focused on community service even while they are in college. Any college or graduate student with a GPA of 2.5 or above who does volunteer work in their community or school is eligible. One $3000, one $2000, and two $1000 scholarships are available. More details are posted on SIGMA web site.
DTN is proud to be a 2006 premium sponsor for the SIGMA Share Groups.
Meet Ken Gunn
Ken is a 20-year-plus veteran of the petroleum industry and consults as an “operational and organizational internist” assessing a distributors’ cost-effective use of three assets: people, time and technology. Diligent management of all three assets in day-to-day business is becoming more important in the evolving marketplace of super jobbers, industry consolidation, increasing customer expectations, shrinking margins and technology advances.
Technology by itself or adding more people as business grows is not the answer. A blend of technology and people provides the flexibility to adapt to a changing marketplace. Waiting on the technology sidelines until others paved the way may have worked in the past but not today. Doing business the same way as past generations is an overhead that must be purged. Marketers need to maximize the tools they already have and in parallel, targeted and ongoing experimentation as a business tool.
Now a Strategic Business Alliance Partner with SIGMA, Ken has designed a program of topic-based share groups to discuss best practices on a wide variety of subjects, including: operations, sales, transportation, administration, technology and human resources. So far, SIGMA Share Groups have brought a huge amount of value for marketer attendees. DTN will be present for all the SIGMA Share Groups in 2006.
Contact Ken at 800-811-4866, or e-mail him at caliber1mt@aol.com. Interested in joining a SIGMA share group? E-mail Ken or call SIGMA at 703-709-7000. Visit www.sigma.com for more details.
Industry
Experts - are you interested in appearing in the DTN newsletter?
Contact Kate Garwood at 800-775-5775, ext. 8037
The views and opinions expressed in this feature article are designed for educational purposes. The views do not necessarily state or reflect those of DTN
| DTN: 9110 West Dodge Road Omaha, NE 68114 www.dtn.com |
Customer
Service:
24-hour
DTN DiamondControl: |
Sales: Toll Free 800-391-1175 |