Last Friday, 13 of us from Lessiter Media (publisher of Farm Equipment) attended the Global Leadership Summit. Less than a week after running our two events in Peoria, Ill., including the Dealership Minds Summit (DMS) and the National Strip Tillage Conference, it was good to be on “the other side” as attendees.

My last 5 business days were productive. Before and after a 26-hour conference in Colorado, I had two interviews for “Our Dealer Story,” attended a Far West Equipment Dealers Assn. board event, toured two suppliers and met with a farm machinery analyst. The road miles showed things growing again, albeit the corn was only ankle high.

My last 5 business days were productive. Before and after a 26-hour conference in Colorado, I had two interviews for “Our Dealer Story,” attended a Far West Equipment Dealers Assn. board event, toured two suppliers and met with a farm machinery analyst. The road miles showed things growing again, albeit the corn was only ankle high.

For my last “To the Point” column, I’d written about Jim Collins’ new monograph, Turning the Flywheel, and how it could be worthy exercise for your farm equipment company. Over two meetings in 1 week, we wordsmithed our version of a company flywheel — and the 6 spokes that cycle and power our enterprise.

Last month, the new “Our Dealer Story” podcast featured a one-on-one with Landis Stankievech of Trochu Motors, a large single-store farm equipment dealer in Alberta. It was a fascinating interview, as it isn’t every day that a young Ivy League athlete, Rhodes Scholar and fast-tracked corporate professional moves back into their parents’ basement to join a farm equipment dealership.

Familiar to entire farm equipment business, the flywheel example illustrates how alignment can get your business humming.

We like the famed Wayne Gretzky quote: “Skate to where the puck is going, not where it’s been.”

In this year’s series, the third such project Farm Equipment (FE) has done since 2006, Scott Harris is the newest exec we’ve sat down with and mic’d up, having just 8 months on the job. In the 14 years our company has operated FE magazine, Case IH has shown the greatest interest of all the major lines in the relationship with FE editors and the publication’s position in the dealer universe. (That isn’t to say the coverage pleased them, but dialog and the ability to pick up the phone with our staff has been important to Case IH).

I'm personally proud today to tell you that Frank Lessiter's new book, From Maverick to Mainstream: A History of No-Till Farming, has arrived. It's Dad's 4th book in a long and influential career as an ag journalist.

As many of you know, a favorite “To the Point” theme of late is grit, perseverance and the other intangibles that we want so much from our workforce — and must commit ourselves to bringing out. In my blog on Sept. 11, 2018, I asked for your help. You answered with your emails and web commentary. So, here’s my end of the deal, a FREE just-completed downloadable eGuide — “Talent Development in the Farm Equipment Industry: 3 Ways to Defeat Complacency.”