Inside AED
Inside AED President & CEO TOBY MACK Associated Equipment Distributors Oak Brook, Ill. Executive Vice President & COO ROBeRT HendeRsOn Associated Equipment Distributors Oak Brook, Ill. Officers Chairman of the Board G. BenneTT ClOsneR Closner Equipment Co., Inc. Schertz, Texas Vice Chairman of the Board dennis VAndeR MOlen Vermeer MidSouth, Jackson, Miss. Sr. Vice President dennis e. KRuepKe McCann Industries, Inc., Addison, Ill. Vice President MiKe CHRisTOdOulOu Cummins Eastern Canada LP Pointe Claire, PQ Canada Vice President lAwRenCe F. GlYnn CMW Equipment, St. Louis, Mo. Vice President of Finance dennis G. ROMAnsOn Road Machinery, Phoenix, Ariz. Past Chairman pAul w. CAMpBell Wheeler Machinery Co. Salt Lake City, Utah At-LArge DirectOrs JAMes p. COwin Cowin Equipment Company, Inc. Birmingham, Ala. MARK HARBAuGH Ditch Witch Midwest Carol Stream, Ill. wes sTOweRs Stowers Machinery Corp. Knoxville, Tenn. MiKe sOleY, JR. Miller-Bradford & Risberg, Inc. Sussex, Wisc. regiOnAL DirectOrs TiMOTHY J. wATTeRs, Northeast Reg. Hoffman Equipment Co. Piscataway, N.J. MiKe QuiRK, Rocky Mountain Reg. Wagner Equipment Co. Aurora, Colo. MOnTY BOYd, Southeast Reg. Whayne Supply Company Louisville, Ky. CRAiG BuRKeRT, South Central Reg. ROMCO Equipment Co., LP Dallas, Texas diAne BenCK, Upper Midwest Reg. West Side Tractor Sales Co. Naperville, Ill. ex-OfficiO DirectOr R. dAle VAuGHn OCT Equipment, Inc. Oklahoma City, Okla. September 2009 Construction Equipment Distribution www.cedmag.com 9 Proposed new Members AnyDATA Alpharetta, Ga. Brentwood Associates Atlanta, Ga. BUCS Analytics Overland Park, Kan. Ceco Crane Savage, Minn. Komplet Maywood, N.J. N & S Tractor Co., Inc Turlock, Calif. Nationwide Exchange Services Corp. (NES) San Jose, Calif. Smart Business Credit Exton, Pa. Steelhead Machinery Inc Arlington, Wash. WTC Machinery, LLC Ixonia, Wis. This list is published each month as required by AED bylaws. Comments on the applicants should be directed to AED President Toby Mack at 800-388-0650 ext. 326. Managing a Virtual Dealership Provides a Real Learning Experience Dealer-specific simulation game is serious business. Calling Test drive a game belies its real purpose, for the innovative war game simulation is a serious busi-ness learning tool for AED members. There's a reason why simulation games have been used by Fortune 500 compa-nies and governmental agencies like NASA. Complicated concepts are more easily under-stood and retention is better when partici-pants are actively engaged in an activity. The AED Foundation and PriSim Busi-ness War Games have partnered to bring this state-of -the-art business simulation to AED members, and the next Test Drive course will be held Sept. 30-Oct. 1 near Chicago. During Test Drive, dealer partici-pants manage a virtual dealership and compete against other participant teams. Participants from the past Test Drive seminars held in June 2009 came away with a new understanding and apprecia-tion for strategic planning and thinking, said Alison Wechman, manager of profes-sional education for the AED Foundation. Here's what some had to say. I had seen SWOT [Analysis of Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats) done before at our company and didn't understand it, says Russ Huber , branch manager of Cowin Equipment Co, based in Birmingham, Ala., but now I have seen it in action and I will use it. Another strategic planning tool taught at the conference is the MOST frame-work, which breaks the planning process into mission, objectives, strategies and tactics. Our dealership is always looking to find ways to supplement business by taking on new product lines or initia-tives, said Brian Schultz, vice president of product support for Michigan Cat. The information and techniques that I learned, specifically with the MOST frame-work, will give me new tools to help eval-uate these initiatives with my team. Christopher Gaylor, president of Knoxville, Tenn.-based Power Equipment also learned valuable lessons from Test Drive. I learned how to focus on certain things rather than (continued on page 10) In Test Drive, dealers learn the impact of their decisions much faster than they would in a real-world setting.