A GUIDING PRINCIPLE FOR READY-MIX INDUSTRY TABLE TALK
In my last post, I suggested Wisconsin’s ready-mix industry needs to de-fragment and reorganize – through the avenues of the Wisconsin Ready Mixed Concrete Association (WRMCA) – as marketing, legislative, and knowledge-management powerhouse.
I called on industry stakeholders, within and outside the WRMCA, to sit at a table and create an engaging vision of success … and warned standing pat as a fragmented juggernaut obsessed with direct competition maintains an underperforming industry at risk of commoditization.
Should industry leaders undertake communal visioneering for Wisconsin’s ready-mix industry, they would do well to heed President Lincoln’s assertions regarding the role of government, as his thoughts provide a guiding principle for organizing discussion.
Paraphrasing Lincoln:
The legitimate role of a trade association is to do for industry stakeholders, whatever they need to have done, but cannot do, or cannot so well do, for themselves.
In all that the ready-mix producers and their vendors and suppliers can individually do as well for themselves, the trade association ought not interfere.
The current mission of the WRMCA suggests three areas where industry stakeholders can be more effective working in association than individually: Legislative action, promotion, and education.
I’ll expound on these, and other areas where working in association would benefit the industry, over the next few weekly posts.
To comment on this post, click HERE. Please include the phrase “at the table” in your subject line.
Post Script
We've sold our home in South Milwaukee, contingent on the buyers receiving a firm loan commitment, and have purchased a home in Rochester, Minnesota, contingent on the successful closing of our South Milwaukee home.
Post Script Two
Assuming everything clicks, I will need to rename this blog. Any suggestions? My leading replacement name (today) is Olmsted County Concrete.
I'm looking forward to saying "good morning" to my wife in person ... and to learning more about the Minnesota ready-mixed concrete industry.