NAFTA Carrot Vegetable Seeds of Bayer hosted an educational and customer focused team meeting in Loveland Colorado. With global representation from Quality Assurance, Supply Chain, both Regional and Crop global leadership, as well as, regional R&D breeding; participants were exposed to a high level of crop education throughout all departments. Deep dives into how each department plays a critical role within the business of carrots allowed for open discussions to work towards synergies and alignment throughout the crop.

Working groups were formed to approach real time regional must win battles. Clear and concrete pathways were formed to reach targets and were enabled by key decision makers who were present. This way of working empowered the project teams to visualize outcomes and a solid guide to success.

The week was not only focused on the Carrot crop itself, but also a large portion of the events were centered on the customer.

In an effort to learn more about the customers within all the regions of NAFTA, sales department participants were paired with a non-sales department colleague to learn about the history, successes and future potential thus creating a ‘customer story’ to share with the rest of the group. This team work process allowed non sales to really dive deep into the customer’s business creating a full picture of the end user.

Hungenberg is a long standing key customer of the Carrot vegetable seed business and a staple in the Colorado produce industry. Hungenberg opened their business to the group for a day, allowing field harvesters rides, viewing of the cut and peel packing process and a round table discussion with owners to get a firsthand look into the Carrot business today.

“This meeting was truly a success through each key team member’s presence across all departments, regions and leadership roles. The ability to educate each other within the needs of each role is imperative and offers a true platform of interactive teamwork. The group was also able to focus on the business of our customer, which is the reason we do what we do every day. Listening to our customer’s challenges first hand and also their history of successes and partnership with us was a real highlight. Overall this week’s meetings represented a highly evolved spirit of teamwork and customer centricity.” – Emily Watson Crop Sales Manager for Carrots.