{"id":19530,"date":"2019-09-23T11:03:15","date_gmt":"2019-09-23T11:03:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ceo-na.com\/?p=19530"},"modified":"2019-12-20T16:13:01","modified_gmt":"2019-12-20T16:13:01","slug":"in-a-class-of-their-own","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/servidor-mxigen1.com\/ceona-antiguo\/executive-interviews\/in-a-class-of-their-own\/","title":{"rendered":"In a class of their own"},"content":{"rendered":"
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President and General Manager of Sales, Eric Raby, is looking for opportunities to take\u00a0CLAAS of America into a new era.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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In 2013, Ohio farmer Merle Henry purchased the 450,000th combine harvester to roll off a CLAAS assembly line.<\/p>\n

The purchase was significant for a couple of reasons. To begin with, it corresponded with the centenary celebration of CLAAS\u2019s foundation in Germany. Yet even more significantly, the combine in question was built by American workers in Omaha, Nebraska.<\/p>\n

In 2019, the global company\u2019s North American sales organization, CLAAS of America, will celebrate forty years of existence.<\/p>\n

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\u201cFirst of all, CLAAS is the largest ag equipment company that is still privately held, so there\u2019s a little more flexibility,\u201d Eric Raby, President and General Manager of Sales for CLAAS of America, told CEO Magazine on the opportunities he saw when he stepped into the role.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat\u2019s more, CLAAS\u2019s presence in North America really has a lot of room to grow, not only in terms of the product portfolio, but also from a branding standpoint.\u201d<\/p>\n

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CLAAS is an agricultural machinery manufacturer founded in 1913 and based in Harsewinkel, Germany, in the state of North Rhine Westphalia. Its US subsidiary, CLAAS of America, is headquartered in Omaha, Nebraska, and offers a product range that includes combine harvesters, forage harvesters, balers, mowers, rakes, tedders, and tractors, among other harvesting machines.<\/p>\n

In 2017, the global CLAAS company boasted revenue of \u20ac3.76 billion.<\/p>\n

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For many years, its US subsidiary was listed as a short-line manufacturer in the North American market, however, its continually expanding list of equipment has not gone unrecognized.<\/p>\n

Just this year, the Equipment Dealers Association awarded the company its Dealers Choice Award among full-line manufacturers. Yet Raby, and the company as a whole, refuse to sit on their laurels.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are very proud of that award, but at the same time, we looked at the scores and asked ourselves which ones we could improve,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

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Going long line<\/h1>\n
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Agricultural equipment manufacturers in the US are generally divided into two categories: short-line, focusing on a narrow segment of the industry, and full-line, boasting a full array of tractors, harvesting, spraying, seeding, and tillage equipment.<\/p>\n

For many years, CLAAS was regarded as a short-line manufacturer, meaning its offerings were fairly specialized, yet Raby takes great pride in the fact that the company is carving out a unique niche for itself as a long-line producer.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat we really want to do is carve out an area in between, which we call the \u2018long line,\u2019\u201d he explained. \u201cFarms continue to get larger. Farmers are looking to be more productive, more efficient in their operations. We\u2019ve really proven that our machines are efficient, whether it\u2019s fuel economy or the amount of grain that we save. Those metrics are vitally important to our customers in terms of managing their costs, and ultimately, their farm finances.\u201d<\/p>\n

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As far as medium-to-long-term growth, Raby sees CLAAS concentrating itself on two focal points. One is the aforementioned expansion of its product portfolio, including looking at the products it sells elsewhere in the world and how they can be introduced to the North American market.<\/p>\n

Secondly, he sees the company growing its distribution channel, forming relationships with its dealers that go beyond the transactional aspect.<\/p>\n

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\u201cIt\u2019s all for nothing if we don\u2019t have an effective distribution channel,\u201d Raby explained. \u201cThe true test of our value proposition with customers and dealers is what happens after the sale, what we do if they have a mechanical issue or they want to more finely tune their machine for their conditions.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Looking to the future<\/h1>\n
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As far as the future of farming, and the manufacturing of farming equipment, in particular, Raby views digitalization as key.<\/p>\n

\u201cLast year, we implemented a new process to more closely engage with the dealer,\u201d he outlined. \u201cWe still have a lot of different systems that feed into this: parts performance is one system, sales performance is another. But we\u2019ve created a dashboard that pulls all of those things together. So, our teams, regardless of function, get to see the entire dashboard while honing in on their area of expertise.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhether it\u2019s at a CLAAS management level or a dealer management level, we can have discussions using the same dashboard and really understand what the drivers of the business are and cut out the paperwork.\u201d<\/p>\n

Raby doesn\u2019t believe that technology should get in the way of the more traditional side of business, which for him means forging strong and enduring relationships with customers, dealers, and suppliers. It\u2019s these relationships that enable firms in the industry to survive amid the cyclical nature of agriculture where commodity prices and climate, amid other factors, can mean the difference between good times and bad.<\/p>\n

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\u201cJust as our dealers and growers need flexibility from us, we need flexibility with our suppliers,\u201d Raby stressed. \u201cWe\u2019re not experts in every single field, so if a supplier sees a more advantageous way for us to do something, they\u2019re likely to see a beneficial result of that, whether it\u2019s increased sales or more efficiency in their operations.<\/p>\n

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\u201cHow we go about cultivating or maintaining those kinds of relationships is obviously changing,\u201d he said. \u201cBut at the end of the day, we still have to show the customers and the dealers that we are real people, that they are real people, and that we value the relationship that we have with them.\u201d<\/p>\n

Raby also firmly believes in supporting local manufacturing, albeit at global standards. \u201cWhen we first started manufacturing in Omaha, it was more of a roll-on, roll-off process using German parts to localize pre-built machines to meet North American sizing and standards,\u201d he explained.<\/p>\n

\u201cOver time, we\u2019ve expanded our manufacturing role and dramatically increased our local sourcing of parts. Now, close to 50% of the content of our combines is sourced here in North America. Most of that comes from a radius not too far from Omaha.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s plenty of business out there for all of us,\u201d Raby said of the competition in the agricultural machinery industry. \u201cBut we want to be better, we want to be different, and really be something a bit unique in terms of providing a solution to the farmers and the dealers.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

President and General Manager of Sales, Eric Raby, is looking […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":21,"featured_media":19532,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[52],"tags":[99,1385,1585,1586,1583,1576,1584],"class_list":["post-19530","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-executive-interviews","tag-ceo","tag-ceo-northam","tag-claas","tag-claas-of-america","tag-eric-raby","tag-interview","tag-manufacturers"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/servidor-mxigen1.com\/ceona-antiguo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19530","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/servidor-mxigen1.com\/ceona-antiguo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/servidor-mxigen1.com\/ceona-antiguo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/servidor-mxigen1.com\/ceona-antiguo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/21"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/servidor-mxigen1.com\/ceona-antiguo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19530"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"http:\/\/servidor-mxigen1.com\/ceona-antiguo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19530\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24255,"href":"http:\/\/servidor-mxigen1.com\/ceona-antiguo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19530\/revisions\/24255"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/servidor-mxigen1.com\/ceona-antiguo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19532"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/servidor-mxigen1.com\/ceona-antiguo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19530"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/servidor-mxigen1.com\/ceona-antiguo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19530"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/servidor-mxigen1.com\/ceona-antiguo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19530"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}