Finance and Resource Management Consultants
Celebrating 30 Years of Study Groups
1985
to
2015
30
years
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Featured Seminars
Do What the Pros Do - Watch Your Game Film!
Can you imagine any Professional Team not using “Game Film”? Never!
And Why? Because they know the difference between winning and losing is knowing where their Team is breaking down.
Petroleum Marketers are Professionals, too! We need the equivalent of
month-end “Game Film”. Like our Professional counterparts, we also need to know how our key players are performing. We also understand the margin of scoring profitability is small. We need to be able to show our Team’s key players how their division is performing; what’s working and what’s not.
Look no longer! Petroleum Marketers now have “Game Film” equivalent. It’s an exciting new analytical tool that, automatically, visually, and most important instantaneously, shows management and key players how they performed. It zeros-in on each Fiscal Focal Point of your company to see who is successfully carrying out your strategy and who is not.
Come and enjoy a no non-sense, exciting, practical approach to analyzing your company’s operations in a visual manner, just like watching "Game Film,” And you too will get to see how your key people … “graded out!”
Trends in Foodservice from around the word - Ed Burcher
Learn and experience trends in product offers, equipment and merchandising from some of the best offers both in and out of the convenience store channel. Ed will guide you through a visual tour of some of the best retailers from around the world.
Many innovations and products begin life in other formats. You will see and discuss some innovative ideas being piloted and introduced in other formats which you can use in your store and offer development.
Building an Entrepreneurial Culture - Gene Gerke
Data Security: Real threat? Invest? Wait? EMV? Next Steps?
- Bill McCollough
The banks, VISA and MasterCard are telling merchants they have to invest in EMV and are responsible for card processing fraud. What are the real risks, and will you ever receive a return on this investment? What are the alternatives? We will discuss the latest status of these important topics and recommended “next steps.”
A company with a culture of entrepreneurship and innovation can excel financially, create growth opportunities for employees, and be a lot of fun. The communities where we live and work are more vibrant and have more opportunities for young adults if there are energetic entrepreneurs. This seminar will cover how to develop a culture of entrepreneurship and innovation for your company and community.
A Perspective on the U.S. Economy and Implications for Marketers
- David M. Nelson
This session takes a broad look at recent U.S. economic trends and how they are impacting petroleum marketers and c-store retailers.
Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow:
Change and the Petroleum Marketing Industry
- Jed Brewer
Corporate Coaching Seminar
- John Kleine
This session will look at how firms in the petroleum marketing industry have evolved over the 30 years of Study Groups. We will examine changing firm-demographics, operational trends, and financial performance, and consider possible future industry scenarios.
How Do You Measure Success?
- Dennis Folden
What is the one thing the Super Bowl winner, Masters champion, and World Series victor have in common? They all have a coaching culture focusing on improved listening, questioning, observing and teaching. Can the principles of coaching in sports be applied to individuals in a business situation? Can coaching really work in a corporation? In this workshop we will:
Follow individuals who have learned the benefits of coaching.
We will hear their stories of success and learn how executive coaching has strengthened the individual, the team and corporation
Understand the characteristics of what makes a good coach and learning culture
Choose the best actions for your business
In the convenience store industry, the most important measurement of
service achievement is the customer’s satisfaction. We need to make
a difference in the lives of our customers, after all, our customer’s
satisfaction means greater success for employees and owners alike.
We will explore the four critical requirements for success to help grow
sales and ensure that convenience stores are relevant in our
customers’ lives. Dare to be different! How do you drive increased
frequency of store visits, converting lukewarm customers to
enthusiastic consumers? What makes them feel that stopping at your
store is important? Bottom line, how can we approach the business –
and grow it – through customer focus?
Practicing Successful Wealth Management in the Family Firm: A Life Cycle Approach
- George Overstreet
Software for Petroleum Marketers - Johnny Bertucci
Process automation applications are tools that should be in every marketer’s toolbox. The ability to streamline processes, eliminate paper, and analyze data is instrumental in growing your business.
RowLogic has developed a suite of software solutions to help the growing Petroleum Marketer:
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PriceWorks – a price gathering / price notification tool with best buy capability
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DeliveryWorks – a lubricant dispatching & delivery tool with signature capture
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SkidTrax/ToteTrax – an equipment tracking tool including loan agreements
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CheckPoint – a sales activity & pipeline tracking tool
Come investigate how these tools can assist you in your business.
Enrich Your Relationships
Gottman’s Seven Principles for Making Your Marriage Work - Lynne Nelson
Lynne will present an overview of the Seven Principles based on four decades of research by Dr. John Gottman at the University of Washington as he followed couples over several years. It takes Dr. Gottman five minutes using this information to predict with 91% accuracy whether a relationship will eventually succeed or fail without intervention and change. Gottman’s pragmatic findings are revealed in the Seven Principles that make marriage work. By employing these principles, couples can deepen their friendships, manage conflicts, honor each other’s dreams, and create shared meaning.
Your firm is your primary driver of wealth creation, and the financial benchmarking gained through Study Groups can help you establish what it is worth. Specifically, we will look at strategic value units and return vs. cost on Invested Capital. The session will also address questions pertinent to investments by the family firm:
̈ Which best practices are available to enable you to optimize non-private firm investments, thereby taking advantage of one of the few “free lunches” in economics—efficient portfolio construction?
̈ What should you understand about portfolio theory?
̈ How does commercial real estate fit into an optimal portfolio?
̈ What about individual stocks and bonds versus index funds?
Diving into the Numbers:
Capital Allocation and the Return on Your Investment - Ben Scellick
This session will dive into what the numbers tell you about your investment in your business and the opportunity cost of tying your capital up in your business.
Hybrid Merger - Myth or Magic? - Francis Bologna
The competitive and operational challenges in the Petroleum Marketer industry today are enormous. Businesses following the family-owned and operated distributorship model are forced to re-evaluate how they go to market. Many are reluctant to either sell or merge, either of which requires the end of the heritage company built by perhaps several generations.
Consider the viable alternative of a hybrid merger, whereby two distributors of mutual respect establish a new entity in order to maximize business synergies above and below the gross profit line.
Attendees will learn about the hybrid merger concept and the seven distinct phases of implementation. The goal is to understand the benefits of this non-taxable transaction which creates the synergy of a merger without the dissolution of heritage companies.
Every marketer owes his/her family heritage the examination of the possibilities of hybrid merger before electing one of the other alternatives.
Planning and Budgeting
- Alan Sylvester
An overview of the need for an annual planning and budgeting process/program will be discussed, including the difference between strategic & tactical planning as well as the annual cycle and scheduling for a successful budget process.