Leader's Letter
FOLLOW THROUGH
By John Hennenfent, IPSA President
Webster defines follow through as "pursue to a conclusion or bring to a successful issue."
At the 23rd annual IPSA conference last week, your IPSA Business Development Committee and Board of Directors presented enough great learning opportunities that many left the conference with idea overload. Sally Hogshead challenged us to fascinate our customers. The "Gipper" Mike Wagner gave us a lesson in coaching our sales people. Josh Bleill inspired each of us to not let adversity keep us from succeeding. From using social media in today's marketing environment to world seed industry perspectives, and succession planning to supply management issues, the breakout sessions were extremely strong and focused on topics affecting everyone. "I wish I could be in three or four places at once" and "we should have brought more people" were common comments.
With all of the learning and networking opportunities at the conference, we all left with a lot of enthusiasm and ideas to incorporate into our businesses. Now we are back to the office and catching up with all the things we "have" to do.
I challenge you to FOLLOW THROUGH! Follow through on that one idea to make yourself and your company more fascinating. Coach your team to become better in whatever roll they play in your company. Don't let the challenges of all the things you "have to do" keep you from applying the ideas you received. If we do not follow through and use what we learned in Indianapolis, then your time was not well spent.
I would like to thank my fellow Board members for having confidence in me, and for electing president of your organization. One of my goals for the coming year is continuity. How can we have continuity in the seed industry with all the changes we face? My challenge to the IPSA membership is to have continuity in the momentum we have in our industry. Continuity in positive attitudes we have in place. Continuity in the growth and relevance we have in the market. Change is inevitable, but continuity helps us manage change.
If we do not follow through and do not maintain the continuity that brought us to this point, we will be like a Super Bowl champion that doesn't even make the playoffs the next year. I challenge each of you to continue as "Champions of Independence."