EDUCATION
Thursday, April 10, 2008
Keynote Address: On the Same Page
Presenter: Joe Calhoon
8:30 a.m. – 10:00 a.m.
In the past couple decades, more than 200 management practices have been taught to America’s business leaders. Now, according to an extensive five-year research project, we learn that only a handful really matter to your organization’s future success. In this dynamic presentation, you will learn how to focus on the vital few management practices that create sustainable business success.
You will be challenged to build on your past success, envision a more prosperous future, and maximize the opportunities of the present. Any organization can achieve extraordinary results when their people are on the same page.
Presenter Joe Calhoon has served for more than two decades working with business owners and business leaders to develop higher performing organizations. He has given over 2,000 presentations to more than 400 different organizations. He earned the coveted Certified Speaking Professional (CSP) designation with the National Speakers Association in 1992. His clients include some of the world’s finest organizations, such as 3M, GE, Best Buy, Northwestern Mutual Life and Ritz Carlton Hotels.
Joe's extensive business achievements enhance his professional communication skills. In addition to helping start more than 20 new business ventures, he has been recognized as the National Management Coordinator of the Year and Outstanding Young Man in America. Joe has also been a top ten salesperson with two different national organizations. As a consultant, he has helped his clients increase revenues and profits by as much as 400 percent in one year.
“Hot Topic” Discussion Sessions
Roundtable Discussions with Board Members
11:00 a.m. – 12:00 noon
Join your peers for small group discussions with a Board Member liaison to discuss what you want out of your NFDA membership. Take this opportunity to ask questions and offer positive ideas on how NFDA can better meet your needs.
Friday, April 11, 2008
Mounting Economic Problems For 2009
Presenter: Brian Beaulieu, Institute for Trend Research
8:00 a.m. – 10:00 a.m.
Leading indicators are telling us that sluggish growth will likely prevail through much of 2008 although there will be unfortunate exceptions to this general condition. Trend probabilities are such that a general business cycle downturn is probable for 2009 and most likely at least the first half of 2010. You should know which markets will fare better than others and what Management Objectives™ can be employed to protect the business as we move closer to this cyclical event. Brian Beaulieu will address these topics and other economic trends during this session at the Annual Meeting.
Beaulieu has been an economist with the Institute for Trend Research since 1982 and has served as the executive director since 1987. He is mostly involved with applied research in business and growth cycle trend analysis and the utilization of cyclical analysis at a practical business level. He is also engaged in fundamental research focused on long-range quantitative forecasting and basic industrial and financial trends. If you heard Brian at the 2006 NFDA Fall City Meeting, you know that his session is not one to miss.
WINNERS OR WHINERS? How to create a Success Culture within the sales force
Presenter: Landy Chase, Landy Chase, Inc.
10:00 a.m. – 12:00 noon
Early in his sales career, Landy Chase had the good fortune to be hired as a sales person for a very successful corporation with 44 offices around the United States. He was lucky: this sales office, located in Atlanta, Georgia, was a perennial top producer nationwide, with outstanding management and a stable full of motivated, successful sales people. In one of those years, the “bottom feeder” — the lowest performer on the team — was at 105% of quota; anything less than 115% of goal was just not part of the culture.
A few years later, Chase’s career with the company took him to a different city, this time to serve as a sales manager. In this office — set up in exactly the same business model, selling exactly the same services and products, and with exactly the same organizational structure — Chase found nothing less than a dungeon of utter despair. Like the Atlanta office, this one was also a perennial standout — in this case, a consistent closer at the very bottom of those same 44 field offices. Here, turnover was rampant, employees were miserable, and the office’s reputation for service was so poor that Chase learned to avoid telling people in the business community where he worked! As for sales numbers? In this office, the top producer was at 67% of plan — and it went down from there.
How could two offices within the same company have such completely different cultures — and what implications does the answer hold for you? As proven in the above situation, the employee work environment — and the results attained — are determined by those who manage it. In this groundbreaking session on employee motivation, Chase takes a hard-nosed approach to a traditionally “soft” subject. You will have a first-time opportunity to benchmark your managerial style, and its corresponding impact on the work environment, against Landy's superb ideas in this subject area.
Saturday, April 12, 2008
Zap the Generation GapPresenter: Meagan Johnson, C.S.P.
9:30 a.m. – 11:00 a.m.
Bright, funny and delightfully obnoxious, Meagan Johnson is known as the Generational Humorist! If you think you have heard all there is to hear about the four different generations in the workplace, you have not heard Meagan’s hilarious spin on how to attract, train, market, manage, and retain people from every generation and not strangle someone in the process. You get to laugh while acquiring tools you can use immediately to improve your multi-generational relationships with clients, customers, co-workers and maybe even your own kids!