*Cursos son ofrecidos en el idioma ingles*

Program Overview

Micro-courses are short, live, online sessions focused on topics relevant to today’s agribusiness industry environment. These interactive sessions are anything but your traditional webinar! When you participate, you’ll have access to relevant and engaging content, gain tools immediately applicable to your work and directly engage with fellow participants and faculty instructors through topic-focused discussions and activities.

Customize your micro-course experience by choosing the development track right for you or joining us for more than one track for a special rate! Each development track includes two micro-courses where you’ll hear from outstanding faculty and receive a top-quality online learning experience. To ensure a high level of interaction and engagement with faculty, be sure to register at least one week prior to your selected development track as spots are limited!

Development Track Offerings

Track 1: Business Strategy

Changes in the Competitive Landscape
Scenario Analysis Planning

Friday, February 4, 2022

10:00 a.m. – 12:30 p.m. ET
2:00 – 4:30 p.m. ET

Description

The disruptions and uncertainties of today’s marketplace make planning extremely difficult. Traditionally, planning is viewed as a static activity designed to craft the perfect solution, create a written document and then execute that plan without deviation. In reality, effective strategic planning is about embracing change and preparing options for the future that allow us the right — not the obligation — to pursue a strategic path forward depending on how the future unfolds.

During the Business Strategy micro-course development track, Dr. Mike Boehlje will guide you through a discussion around changes in the competitive landscape and the impacts these changes will have on the industry and your organization. After analyzing current trends with your peers, you’ll have the opportunity to learn about options thinking for strategic planning. You’ll also practice scenario planning as a key tool for crafting flexible strategies that prepare your organization for future disruptions. Hands on exercises will address the proper process for developing robust and insightful scenarios and using those scenarios to identify the parts of your strategy that should be executed now and those that should be contingent upon outcomes of future uncertainties.

Key Topics

• Using a scenario planning framework
• Assessing industry drivers of change
• Identifying key uncertainties
• Tracking relevant data to inform sequential decisions
• Developing strategies for alternative futures

Track 2: Sales and Marketing Strategies

Integrating Sales and Marketing
Marketing Through a Dealer Channel

Thursday, February 10, 2022

10:00 a.m. – 12:30 p.m. ET
2:00 – 4:30 p.m. ET

Description

Value creation activities are usually structured through a complex function of research and technology that reveals a unique product performance capability, but the communication of this value takes place through marketing (what the manufacture believes are the performance benefits of a product) and sales (how that performance enables a buyer to accomplish their farm production goals). Most farmers are overwhelmed with brands and performance messages about crop protection, animal health and nutrition, equipment and marketing products, and they must sort through this complex set of brands and traits to make the ideal selections. This makes getting your products to stand out from the crowd difficult (and expensive). In the Integrating Sales and Marketing micro-course, Dr. Scott Downey will lead you through the foundational elements of this process from a farmer perspective.

Marketing communication in the agriculture industry requires a unique combination of “push” and “pull” messaging as manufacturers work through dealers/retailers and farmers to communicate complex value propositions. Whether your company uses an internal dealer network or relies on dealers or retailers that represent multiple brands to communicate value to farmers, managing these networks can be challenging. Marketing can be like the telephone game where the “ideal” message gets changed or diluted as it is repeated. In the Marketing Through a Dealer Channel micro-course, you’ll learn how to determine where scarce marketing resources should be deployed, how to measure effectiveness and how to tap into overlooked, potentially high-impact approaches to communicate value.

Key Topics

• Farmer information gathering and decision processes
• Promotional marketing
• Communication messaging
• Communication strategies
• Channel conflict
• Dealer engagement

Track 3: Financial Management

Interpreting Financial Statements
Interpreting Financial Ratios

Friday, February 18, 2022
10:00 a.m. – 12:30 p.m. ET
2:00 – 4:30 p.m. ET

Description

The ability to confidently extract meaningful data from financial statements and ratio analysis for decision-making purposes is critical in today’s challenging industry.

In the Financial Management development track, Dr. Brady Brewer will aid you in better understanding how relationships among profitability and efficiency measures can be used to suggest business improvements. He’ll introduce the DuPont Profitability Model to evaluate the impact of change, discuss challenges of using this model with cash-based financial statements and draw attention to the relationship between earns (return on sales), turns (asset turnover) and return on assets. You’ll leave with an increased understanding of the development and context in using key financial ratios to measure the success and profitability of your business or area of responsibility. 

Key Topics

• Clarifying financial terminology to communicate more clearly with financial managers
• Analyzing balance sheets, income statements and cash flow statements
• Understanding cash conversion cycle, accounts receivable and inventory turnover
• Evaluating profitability and financial performance
  • DuPont Profitability Model
  • Earns, turns and return on assets
• Debt leverage and return on equity in food and agricultural business

Track 4: Leadership and Development

Leading with Resilience
Leading Change

Friday, February 25, 2022

10:00 a.m. – 12:30 p.m. ET
2:00 – 4:30 p.m. ET 

Description

We all possess individual styles when it comes to approaching change and situations involving change. Leaders in touch with their personal reactions to change are best able to cope with transition.

In this development track, Dr. Pete Hammett will lead you in visualizing what resilience and change management look like and discovering how you can frame and apply a personal, meaningful awareness of your innate change style. You’ll leave with a heightened ability to transition challenges into developmental experiences and apply key resilience-developing skills at home and work.

Key Topics

• Understanding change’s impact on you and others
• Identifying your change styles and tendencies
• Managing your reactions to change
• Understanding what resilience means for you personally
• Accessing key attitudes and skills that develop resilience
• Treating challenges as a developmental experience