By Roger Paulson, Practice Director

We call them “Industry Projects.” They’re the heavy lifting of UWEBC offerings. A company commissions us to partner with them in thorough and careful applied research regarding an issue critical to their business.

Industry Projects are a very important application of a fundamental UWEBC value: collaborative learning that benefits leading Wisconsin companies. Our project partners bring a deep knowledge of their businesses; we bring the applied-research heft of UW-Madison. It’s a combination that always produces results.

We just had the pleasure of completing a major Industry Project for Seneca Foods, a long-term UWEBC member company. Being extremely customer focused, Seneca Foods commissioned us to help them ascertain in detail how key decision makers and influencers in their customer companies perceive them.

44 double-sided pages of quantitative analysis and qualitative responses
We interviewed decision makers in 26 key customer organizations. Questions were designed to gather information about the interviewees’ perceptions on four critical performance dimensions. Questions were both quantitative and qualitative — Likert scales (“strongly disagree” to “strongly agree”) and open-ended. Using a multi-methodology approach, we were able to answer not only the “what” of customer perceptions but also the “why.” The 44-page, double-sided report we delivered to the company’s top leadership contained findings based on a thorough data analysis and a transcript of open-ended responses.

It was a pleasure to work so closely with Seneca Foods on this Industry Project. We are confident the results will help them strengthen strategic relationships with key customers. We look forward as well to assisting other member companies with their strategic initiatives. Give me a call at 608-261-1161 to discuss ways we can assist you.

Roger is UWEBC Practice Director of the Customer Service, Sales Operations and Supply Chain Management focus areas. He holds an MBA in management from the University of St. Thomas in Minneapolis, a Supply Chain Leadership Certificate from UW-Madison School of Business Executive Education and a Certified Marketing Executive (CME) accreditation conferred by Sales and Marketing Executives International. You can reach him at 608-261-1611 or arpaulson@wisc.edu.