Blacksmith Applications Launches Smoke Jumpers Industry Expert Group

Trump Hotel, Chicago, IL -- The inaugural meeting of the industry expert group Smoke Jumpers commenced with the mission of bringing together leading industry experts to discuss and work to solve major industry challenges.  

Solving major industry challenges is difficult to do alone.  Trailblazers often become bogged down attempting a solo assault given the challenges of getting to actions beyond the ideas.

A team approach increases the odds of success through the synergy of comprehensive solutions that are more broadly accepted by peers.  

Paul Wietecha, President/CEO, Blacksmith Applications, stated “The issues we are planning to tackle are common in the industry and in need of solutions for a broad range of manufacturers.  This group of industry experts will help pave the way for evolution across significant, yet common, manufacturer challenges with actionable ideas that will drive results within their respective organizations and the industry as a whole.”

The inaugural meeting’s topic was entitled “Analytics: Avoid Flying Blind with Consistent Key Performance Indicators.” A significant and common challenge for pricing and trade spending in the foodservice business is the absence of similar common metrics to quickly and consistently describe the current state.  The purpose of the session was to define a set of measures that can be applied to several scenarios of “how are we doing?”, specifically to identify, rationalize and prioritize a set of measures that can be quantified relative to distribution, operator and organization-based spending.

Smoke Jumpers was selected as a symbol for this group given the parallels to this team of industry experts ~ 

Immediate & Action Oriented 
Pragmatic, Practical, Problem Solving 
Expert & Knowledgeable 
Responsible & Accountable 
Desire to Tackle Big Problems 

Solutions Driven
Work to Strategy with a Plan of Attack                   
In Need of the Right Tools
Mentally Alert 
Thrill Seeking, Independent                    
Yet Knows the Power of a Team 

Their situation ~ 

What Has Taken Years to Build is at Risk 

The Work is Often Arduous 

Can be Extreme & Filled with Both Brush Fires & Infernos

Not Everyone Outside of This Group Understands the Risk, Skill & Effort Required

 
Yet the Outcome Without These Efforts is Unacceptable if Not Catastrophic

The value of action!  The group differentiates itself from others in both idea development and the follow-on piloting and execution, evaluating the quantifiable results in order for each organization to determine the best course of action for their own path forward,  

Welcome Smoke Jumpers!