Home | Register | Program | Attendee List | Hotel Video > 2011 AED Lawson Executive Forum Moderator Jeff Lefebvre, Ph.D. Founder, PriSim Business War Games Adjunct Faculty, Northwestern University AED/Lawson Forum moderator, Jeff Lefebvre leads dealer executives through a 1 1/2 day quest for distribution ingenuity. Jeff consults with companies in diverse industries. He assists his clients in formulating and implementing actionable visions and strategies to capitalize on changing environments. Jeff founded PriSim Business War Games as a management education and consulting firm that is dedicated to empowering organizations through the evolution and advancement of their one sustainable competitive advantage – the knowledge capital of their employees. Through the use of models and business simulations, Jeff works with his clients to improve their understanding of the business environment and their ability to adapt to changes in this environment. Jeff is actively involved in all phases of PriSim service delivery including modeling, simulation and seminar development and program instruction/facilitation. A partial list of Jeff's clients includes: ADP Dealer Services, Advanta, BBA Aviation – Signature Flight Support, Chubb Insurance, Delphi Automotive, Harley-Davidson, Hollister Inc., the Magazine Publishers Association, the Mortgage Bankers Association of America, National City Mortgage, National Semiconductor, Northwestern University, PNC Mortgage Corp., Raytheon and Rodale Press. Prior to forming PriSim, Jeff was a consultant with the World Headquarters Division of Andersen Consulting (now Accenture). At Andersen, Jeff led information technology, strategy, re-engineering, business process design and systems integration engagements. Video > Headine Event: Creating a Culture of Execution Chris McChesney National Execution Practice Leader FranklinCovey Getting your people and teams to do the right things at the right times – the wildly important projects, tasks, and initiatives that ultimately matter most – remains an enormous challenge for organizations today. As a leader in your organization, you know how difficult it is to cascade the goals and vision from the top into actionable behaviors among frontline workers to achieve the critical objectives. How much time is spent on activities that aren’t aligned with your organization’s goals? Chris will focus on three simple questions that have lasting impressions when followed through precisely: What are the business effects that result from the lack of clarity, focus, and execution? What needs to change in order to adequately address this issue? What actions can you, as a leader, taker to create a stronger culture of execution within your organization? The 4 Disciplines of Execution are a simple, powerful method for helping organizations EXECUTE in the midst of a whirlwind of competing priorities. No matter how effective your current methods, applying these disciplines will take the performance of your organization to a new level. Chris helps organizations achieve results through these improved execution of strategy. Currently the National Execution Practice Leader for FranklinCovey, Chris McChesney has participated in numerous client-requested case study videos. He is featured in several of FranklinCovey's The 4 Disciplines of Execution overview videos, as well as in one of Amazon's top 10 best-selling business audios, FranklinCovey's The 4 Disciplines of Execution. Chris has been with Franklin Covey for 20 years. He started working for Dr. Stephen R. Covey in 1991 as Covey's publicist and later became a consultant and General Manager within the organization. For the last decade, Chris has been the leader in developing FranklinCovey's Execution Methodology. Chris has driven change efforts that have resulted in significant improvements: 50 percent increase in guest satisfaction within six months (for a large convention hotel chain) 60 percent reduction in reoccurrence of child maltreatment (for a statewide health and human services agency) 45 percent increase in customer engagement within six months (for a grocery chain) 50 percent reduction in Six Sigma project completion time (for a global carpet manufacturer) Leading many of the change efforts that have resulted in case studies for FranklinCovey, Chris has worked directly with Governor Sonny Purdue and the State of Georgia, Coca Cola, Shaw Industries, Kroger supermarkets, Home Depot, Frito Lay, Quaker Oats, Lockheed Martin, Gaylord Entertainment, and Northrop Grumman. Market Analysis & Forecast Eli Lustgarten Senior Vice President and Senior Analyst Longbow Securities Eli is a senior research analyst, industrial machinery & equipment, at Longbow Research for the industrial manufacturing and technology sector. Eli will deliver construction market data and forecasting, providing executives with the facts and figures for next year's planning. Eli began his Wall Street career more than three decades ago at Mitchell Hutchins; he then was at Paine Webber after their 1977 merger, where he led the Industrial Manufacturing Group; he was at Schroder (Wertheim) from 1995 until their acquisition in 2000. And most recently, he was the senior analyst and director of Research for research boutique start-ups HC Wainwright and JB Hanauer. Eli is a six-time Wall Street Journal All Star and was elected as a member of the Institutional Investor All-America Research Team over two decades until his coverage shifted. Rental and Used Equipment Trends Gary McArdle Vice President Rouse Asset Services Gary has served as Vice President of Rouse Asset Services since April 2000 and manages the appraisal activity for all rental, dealer and construction fleet appraisals. His experience includes the direct management of over $100 million in machinery and equipment auction and liquidation sales across the United States and Canada and the supervision and analysis of over $1.5 billion of retail and wholesale inventories. He also managed the financial reporting of retail and wholesale liquidation sale events. Gary served as an accountant at Coopers & Lybrand, Executive Vice President of a $55 million/year national auction firm and Vice President of Business Development and Analysis (Industrial Equipment and Non-Retail Inventory Appraisal Division) for an International Liquidation, Appraisal and Consulting Firm. Gary will share his perspective on today's construction equipment rental market. In this presentation he will provide insight into national and regional equipment rental business strategies and explain the fundamentals of valuing construction equipment. He will also discuss auction and retail equipment value trends over the last year and decade, and identify sales trends and current fleet composition. With over 25 years of experience in all areas of asset recovery and valuation, his expertise in identifying trends in rental and the used equipment market at the AED/Lawson Executive Forum will be invaluable. Rouse Asset Services has been serving clients in the equipment appraisal, auction and liquidation industry for over eighty years and is widely recognized as the industry's leading appraiser of rental fleets. In 2010, Rouse performed monthly or quarterly recurring appraisals for most of the top rental and dealer construction fleets in North America comprising over $20 billion of equipment over a wide range of categories. Video > OEM's Global Perspective on North American Distribution Kelly Granatier Director of Sales, Construction & Forestry John Deere Kelly J. Granatier is Director of Sales for Hitachi and John Deere Construction & Forestry Europe, Africa, Middle East, Asia and Oceania, a position he has held since May of 2009. Kelly will discuss the markets, money and momentum from an OEM's perspective and how global activity affects North America. Kelly has held various management positions within Canada, the United States and Europe over his 23-year career with John Deere, including: Marketing Manager for John Deere Harvester Works, Parts & Service Marketing Manager for Europe, Africa and the Middle East, and Division Sales Manager for Oklahoma and East Texas. Prior to this position, Kelly was the Sales Branch Manager and Vice President of John Deere Ltd. in Canada. Kelly has a bachelor's degree in Commerce from the University of Saskatchewan, and an MBA from the University of Iowa. Video > Best Practices for Boosting Your Profitability Barry Lawrence, Ph.D. Program Director, Industrial Distribution Texas A&M University Best practices have doubled profitability and tripled Return on Investment for many distributors. Most best practice implementations fail, however, due to failure to establish the link to the firm's financial statements. This session examines the most significant best practices and demonstrates the process of linking best practice implementation to financial statements. The process creates measurable goals that can be tracked to ensure implementation is successful. This session will demonstrate the top best practices and how to link them to profitability using real case examples. Dr. Barry Lawrence holds the Leonard and Valerie Bruce Leadership Chair, the Program Director of the Industrial Distribution Program, Director of the Thomas and Joan Read Center, and Director of the Global Supply Chain Laboratory at Texas A&M University. As a faculty member of the Industrial Distribution Program, he is involved in graduate, undergraduate, and professional continuing education teaching activities, funded research projects, publications and industry presentations. His teaching activities surround classes in manufacturer/distributor relationships, Supply Chain Management, distributor profitability, and distribution strategy. He is a frequent speaker for distribution associations, buying groups and companies on topics ranging from distributor profitability, distribution growth & market share, pricing optimization, inventory asset management, sales and marketing optimization, global distribution, and numerous other topics. Dr. Lawrence is a fellow of the National Association of Wholesaler Distributors (NAW) institute and the author of four books on distributor competitiveness. Dr. Lawrence holds a Ph.D. in Information and Operations Management from Texas A&M University, an M.B.A. from Texas State University and a B.B.A .in Finance from University of Texas at Austin. He has more than 10 years of industry experience in sales and retail business before joining Texas A&M. Article from CED Magazine Building a Customer-Driven Dealership Brian Giamo Founder & CEO Channel Economics Marketing the Dealership – Part I Building a Customer-Driven Dealership Building the customer-driven dealership is so much more than saying thank you after the sale. It's about creating tangible value for customers. At the AED Executive Forum I'll discuss how, where, when and why customers buy. And, I'll cover how dealers are shifting their businesses to anticipate as opposed to react to customer needs. There's no question that the market conditions over the past few years have required dealers to adapt. Many of our customers have had dramatic changes in their businesses and require new solutions from their dealers. As a result it's become more important than ever to really know our customers and the new realities of their world. No longer can we win business by just selling! Rather we need to offer solutions that make a measurable impact to our customers' bottom line. Brian delivers critical insights about how, where, when and why customers do business with equipment dealers. Brian will discuss the altered customer landscape, what comprises a customer-driven dealership and define the broad meaning of marketing. Brian's work with his dealer clients has driven both top and bottom line performance taking them from 100K foot strategies to successful implementation of ground floor tactics through growing market share, delivering superior customer experiences, improving profitability, acquiring new customers and creating loyal customers. Through case studies and examples, he'll provide the first steps to making it happen for your dealership. Brian Giamo is the Founder and CEO of Channel Economics. Based in Chicago, Ill., Channel Economics designs, develops and implements strategies and solutions that drive improved business performance. In his role at Channel Economics, Brian has spent the past 10 years working with equipment dealers in the U.S. and internationally. His experience spans dealers of all types and sizes in a wide variety of markets. In addition to his equipment dealer experience, Brian has delivered services and solutions to leading organizations such as Caterpillar, CNH, MasterCard, Best Buy, CDW and many other leading companies. Video > Article from CED Magazine Marketing the Dealership – Take a Ride on the Auto Side Ed Steenman President Steenman & Associates Marketing the Dealership – Part II Best Practices in Dealership Marketing – Take a Ride on the Auto Side. Ed Steenman is the owner of Steenman Associates, a full service traditional media and digital media services with a specialty in the automotive and retail area. In addition to extensive traditional media capabilities, Steenman is a proven leader in creating digital strategies that get results. Their work includes PR micro-sites, viral videos to promote Live Earth (the most downloaded event in history), and more. In 2009 Steenman and his crew of green humans conducted the World's longest test drive taking a VW Jetta Diesel and Toyota Prius over 7,000 miles for Portland, Maine to Portland, Oregon, all the while using digital media to tell the story. Steenman has worked with automotive dealerships, regional dealer groups and automobile manufacturers including Volkswagen, Subaru, Mazda, Honda, Chevrolet and more. His offbeat advertising style had been seen in local markets across the country and even the 2008 Superbowl. Steenman began his media career at age of fourteen doing baseball re-creates for a local radio station in Honolulu, Hawaii. From Search Engine Optimization and creative on-line campaigns to social media campaigns that creates buzz, Steenman and his team know how to use both traditional and new media tools to engage consumers and create results. Video > Building Employee Leadership in Your Dealership Christine Corelli Corelli & Associates Luncheon keynote speaker Christine Corelli will identify methods to encourage and build organizational leadership in your dealership. Leadership is not conferred by a title or limited to executives and managers. Rather, it is demonstrated by employees who "take charge," display initiative beyond their job description and are engaged in your competitive strategy. Author, renowned business speaker, seminar leader and consultant, Christine has also shared her business insights in numerous radio and TV interviews including CNBC. Energetic and relentless in the pursuit of new ideas for her clients, she is a veteran business presenter acclaimed for recharging, refocusing and rearming her audiences with "how-to" applications. A frequent AED Foundation seminar and webinar leader, Christine's expertise in the construction equipment industry has been gained through her work with many dealer organizations, as well as Caterpillar, Komatsu, CNH, Link-Belt/LBX, Vermeer, AGC, CONEXPO, and the American Subcontractors Association. Friday Main Event Don't Sue Me The Torture of Tort and How to Stay Out of Court A legal panel addressing product liability and employee-related law suits. Audience participation will play an important part in this painfully relevant session Friday morning – bring your questions. You don't have to have been named in a law suit to know that from the moment that envelope hits your desk, the money spigot will suddenly be cranked on – you have no choice, whether you choose to fight or settle. Your best option? Avoid the obvious potholes and be vigilant in your zero-tolerance when it comes to safety and labor compliance issues. Everything your company does trickles from the top down, so set the right tone now before it costs you down the road. Our panel of attorneys bring you more than scary news of actual cases. They've been tapped for their expertise so that you can take away tangible applications to begin safeguarding your dealership immediately. Northwestern University Faculty Member and Forum Moderator Jeff Lefebvre facilitates a stimulating, hard-hitting dialogue and draws attendees in with their own anecdotes and questions. Joe Goldberg serves as the panel's product liability expert; Jim Hendricks is our labor issues go-to man; and former Bush and Reagan campaign and administration insider Ed Murnane serves up the big picture on tort reform around the U.S. Joseph (Joe) M. Goldberg, Assistant General Counsel and Director Legal Services, Sentry Insurance manages the day-to-day operation of the Corporate Legal Department, advises the company regarding reinsurance and extra-contractual exposures, consults on litigation management matters, supervises on selected pieces of litigation and develops and maintains relations with other P&C carriers through industry and bar organizations. Prior to joining Sentry Insurance, Joe was a managing partner with Miller & Neary in Minneapolis and has numerous teaching and speaking experiences. James (Jim) F. Hendricks, Partner, Ford Harrison, focuses his representation on assisting management with labor matters before the National Labor Relations Board and involving collective bargaining and arbitrations. He also defends employers in charges before the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, the U.S. Department of Labor and various state agencies. A large portion of his practice is devoted to assisting clients in maintaining a union-free atmosphere and positive employee relations programs and training. Jim has represented employers in more than 250 union organizing campaigns. He has also handled numerous employment litigation cases involving discrimination, harassment, retaliatory discharge, wage and hour, and noncompete and restrictive covenant agreements. Prior to joining the firm, Jim was the founding and managing partner of Fisher & Phillips' Chicago office. Ed Murnane was named President of the Illinois Civil Justice League early in 1993 after serving for four years in the Reagan and Bush Administrations, including three years as the Midwest Regional Administrator for the U.S. Small Business Administration. He also served in the White House as an Assistant to President Bush and Director of Presidential Advance. He managed the successful Bush campaign in Illinois in 1988 and served in senior management positions in the Reagan campaigns in 1976, 1980 and 1984. Prior to joining the Bush Administration, Murnane was the Public Affairs Director for the Regional Transportation Authority and was responsible for the public affairs and government relations programs for the RTA, the second largest transportation system in the United States. He directed the RTA's legislative programs in both Springfield and Washington, D.C. Murnane is a former award-winning journalist and was the political editor of The Daily Herald in Chicago's suburbs. In 1970, he was honored by the American Political Science Association for Distinguished Reporting of Public Affairs for his coverage of the Illinois Constitutional Convention. He later served as a Congressional aide in Washington, D.C. and operated a public affairs consulting firm in Illinois in the late 1970s which specialized in government and political affairs, including lobbying in the Illinois General Assembly. He has served on the board of directors of the American Tort Reform Association since 1997 and is former chairman of the organization.