Insight on Business

January 2015

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w w w . i n s i g h t o n b u s i n e s s . c o m J a n u a r y 2 0 15 • I NSIGH T | 23 narrowly. ey recently hired an HR director. Further, communication with the entire team helped. Anika stepped up the meetings with managers and others to ensure everyone stayed on track. She offered optional training sessions to all employees across different disciplines, including "How to Service a Truck" and "Forklis 101." She even taught some herself, including "Business 101," which covered the history, philosophy, mission and goals of the company. She has learned a lot about communication from working with her horses. "You have to keep reinforcing things," she says. "You have to keep your composure. You can get very frustrated as the trainer. You communicate with the animal but it's not verbal communication. I found that I'm very in tune to body language with customers. I realized that as a rider, if you're nervous or upset, the animal feels that — it goes right down through their body and they get upset and uptight. It's part of that training, not only for the horse but for yourself — how to react in situations." But most of all, she says, spending time riding horses is a wonderful way to maintain balance. She enjoys the sport with her 12-year-old daughter and her mother, Chris (who worked in the family business a short time years ago). "My horses today are my therapy," she says. "ey are my getaway. I go into a completely different world with them because I feel a connection into who I am, and my life, and how that's made me to become successful. "ey also taught me a lot about hard work and that there's not necessarily an immediate payoff all the time. You have to keep moving forward, doing what you're doing, and look at what you can do better. It's that persistence." Conger brings us the opportunity to team up with that. "One neat thing is with this master agreement, we can bring all our segments together, and locate the equipment where it's needed most," he adds. "We just announced we'll be opening a facility in Mexico, and some of the li trucks now in the Fox Valley could be going there." us, fork trucks going to Oshkosh Defense — which has been dramatically scaling back with a reduction in orders for military trucks — will remain in the company's fleet and be relocated to other parts of Oshkosh Corp. as needed. e flood of new work was exhilarating, Anika says. "ere was a lot of positive energy, but there was also a lot of angst," she says. "It was a big swirl of positive and anxieties and stress. It was fun, because it wasn't like we were struggling. So we celebrated the positives and worked toward how to make everything fit together." ose in the thick of it attest to the challenges they faced. "It was tough," recalls Winkka, who, in addition to office management, headed up the IT as well as Human Resources department. "Everybody ended up wearing three or four hats. Sometimes we felt overwhelmed. We had to focus on getting one job done before switching to the next." Anika, Gary and the management team hired new employees as needed and defined certain roles more "Conger" line: Members of the Conger family ham it up for a little conga dancing. Racking up the ribbons When it comes to forklifts, Conger ToyotaLift has an edge over its competitors: The Toyota brand. Conger ToyotaLift is the second oldest Toyota forklift dealer out of 72 in the country. Toyota's commitment to continual improvement trickles down into everything they do at Conger ToyotaLift, says Scott Zehms, parts manager for the company. The company often taps the Green Bay operation to pilot new lean initiatives. For example, while they used to stock parts for several months, Toyota asked Conger to begin returning unused parts within a month – something of a challenge, but one they were up to. "The Toyota philosophy flows through everything here," Zehms says. "It takes discipline." Toyota Material Handling U.S.A.'s lift trucks (Conger's distributor), ranked No. 1 for the 10th consecutive year for quality, value and lowest cost of ownership in a 2014 study conducted by Peerless Research Group. With its Toyota Production System and emphasis on lean manufacturing, the brand has been the top selling forklift in the U.S. since 2002. Conger ToyotaLift is also on the top of its heap nationwide. It has won the Toyota President's Award every year since 2007. Fifteen dealers out of 72 dealers nationwide receive the award each year. Dealers are judged on metrics in multiple aspects of their business, including service, support and dedication to customers.

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