Management Insights

I enjoy watching football. I enjoy the action, strategy, and the whole concept of a team sport environment. There are many smaller 'teams' or units on a football squad, and each of those units need to practice their craft and hone their particular skills for the entire team to function successfully and win the game, top their division, get to the playoff rounds and ultimately win a championship.

II have always had an extra level of respect for one group in particular, on the defensive side of the ball. The defensive backfield. In a team environment, those 4 or 5 guys are where the line is drawn in the sand. They stand, not huddled together like the linemen, or even closely bunched like the linebackers, but alone. Responsible at times for covering very large amounts of real estate, and knowing that if they fail, their team fails. They are also the clean-up crew, so if the other 10 guys miss their assignment, the DB's must come through to stop the play, or the other team scores. In sudden death overtime, in the playoffs, the other team scoring usually means that you pack your bags and go home...season over.

Many of those analogies can and have been applied to business, we take it a step further and apply the specific defensive backfield analogy to Technology Departments in businesses around the world. At BNW our IT department strives to be the best defensive backfield in business.

Why aren't we the Quarterback, or the Running Back, or the flashy Wide Receiver? Very simply, those titles are reserved for the stars of our offense, the people who feed and care for our cattle. Our 'coaching staff' is made up of some of the brightest, most talented people I have ever worked with spanning almost 40 years in the workforce, our Directors and Managers. The others that make up our team work hard at their jobs, and are eager to learn and apply new things to make their time more productive. Everyone contributes to the effort of being the best at what they do, which makes BNW the best in what we do as a company.

At Beef Northwest, our IT department supports all of the day-to-day technology needs for our 3 feed yards, and the Wilson Cattle ranch. We also provide those services to 5 outside offices of our business partners. In addition, we provide custom programming services to help automate routine tasks which eliminate errors and free up valuable time that can be used to build better relationships with our customers. We provide technical training to our in-house computer users and partners, sometimes in one-on-one sessions, and once a year at an all day seminar. This Summer we will be conducting an Advanced Excel Pivot Table class, combined with an Introduction to Crystal Reports both of which will help provide more analytical reporting which will enhance our decision making capabilities company wide. We cover a LOT of real estate both in scope of work, and in traveling to the various locations necessary to make it all work together and keep everything running.

I remember what one of my coaches told me in high-school football after my telling him how difficult it was to run wind sprints in full uniform when the temperature was over 100º. "If it was easy, little girls would be out here doing it!" Back then, that particular coach was probably a little sexist in his remarks. But his point has stuck with me to this day – take on the 'hard' things, don't give up. Just like the defensive back on the field, someone has to cover or protect the area he is responsible for, no matter what obstacles present themselves. Beef Northwest is a Super Bowl team, and our Technology department is proud to be part of it.