If there’s such a thing as a reluctant Hall of Famer, Ron Offutt might be it. In the time we’ve known him, he appears more comfortable behind the scenes, elevating and promoting the achievements of his staff when it comes to taking a bow. When he got the news of his induction in Arizona before Christmas, we imagine he was more excited by what it would mean to those rowing the boat for him than accepting another piece of hardware for his crowded office wall.
RDO Equipment Co. (so-named for his initials) is the 8th largest farm equipment company in North America with 34 ag stores that focus on agricultural equipment (and 86 in total with construction and Vermeer), with additional locations in Australia, Mexico and Ukraine. In total, RDO employs 3,500.
If you’ve met Ron at an industry meeting or while touring an RDO facility, you already know that he isn’t one to seek the limelight. While leaders are built with a wide array of skill sets, Offutt’s understanding of himself may be what most contributed to his success.
That is, he never needed to be “the man,” and he wasn’t even all that excited about running a dealership business, instead he hired the best he could find.
For this article on a humble leader, Farm Equipment went into its past articles for context on Offutt as change was happening in real time.
“After running the store for about 2 months, I realized I wasn’t going to be very good at it,” said Offutt. “I very quickly found it was easier for me to manage a manager than to do it myself.”
Management was not his bag, but leadership would be. And these ideals would culminate in a culture that attracted the best of the best. Offutt saw early on what some entrepreneurs fail to realize in their professional lifetime. That is, goals can be achieved much faster by joining up with co-workers, customers and other businesses and foregoing control.
R.D. Offutt Company: More Than Just Equipment
The equipment dealership group is only one part of Ron Offutt’s business interests. R.D. Offutt Company is a family owned and operated entity with two additional business units that include agriculture and food/food processing.
The operation’s cornerstone is a 5-state farming operation, which is one of the largest potato producers in the U.S., with most of its potato acres under center pivot irrigation. In addition, the farming operation includes 39,500 acres of irrigated farmland and a dairy in Boardman, Ore., which consists of 3 dairies milking 36,000 cows. The company also operates food processing plants and markets its crops through relationships with major processors such as Simplot, Lamb-Weston and McCain Foods. Its french-fry plant processes 450 million pounds of french fries annually.
From that one single-store dealership (Casselton, N.D.) grew a juggernaut of a John Deere group of 80-plus stores spanning 12 states, not to mention expansions into construction, irrigation solutions and advanced technologies.
So many of Offutt’s accomplishments seem obvious today, but there was a time when they were major breakthroughs and departures in the industry.
“It was apparent that Ron was a man with a vision,” says Charlie Gause, retired VP of marketing. “He followed that vision and was highly motivated in achieving his goal. He was the first dealer to expand into many locations and turn the management of each location over to someone who did not have ownership in the business.”
Getting Started
Offutt never expected to run a dealership; he was built to farm. He worked alongside his dad, Ron Sr., on their Moorhead, Minn., potato operation from age 6, including driving the truck — a true story.
After college, he joined his dad on the farm for 3 years before an opportune visit to the John Deere, Melroe and Versatile dealership in Casselton, N.D., that they rented their green equipment from. In 1968, the dealer-principal, Grant Mattson, shared his plans to retire. He told the 26-year-old Offutt that he had what it took, but Offutt promptly dismissed his offer. He didn’t have any capital to speak of.
“Grant was a good equipment dealer and the first in the country to rent farm equipment,” said Offutt. After some repeated coaxing, Offutt agreed.
In 1968, with the help of a farm loan, the liquidation of a potato warehouse and 160 acres of farmland, and $10,000 borrowed from his grandmother, Offutt became the owner of the store. Mattson lived up to his promise to mentor the young Offutt and help him learn the business, get to know the customers and find his rhythm of operating an equipment dealership.
Offutt quickly established himself with moxie and earned the trust of farmers. In fact, he convinced customers to pre-pay their invoices so he could make payroll.
Observers say the reluctant dealer was equipped with several traits that would serve him well over his 55-year career.
“Ron saw the need and opportunity for consolidation, and built one of the largest and most successful 'extra-large' dealer groups. He saw the need, and responded to it with courage and well-funded leverage…” – Stan Jackson, retired manager of Deere dealer development
First, as a wrestler and football player, he is instinctively competitive and thrives on a challenge. Once he got a taste of entrepreneurship, he never stopped the quest for continuous improvement, spurring him to pursue the economies of scale that came en route to becoming one of the industry’s first large dealer groups.
Appetite for Growth
Because he quickly staffed up to give him time to pursue his farming passions, Offutt was always closer to walking in the customer’s shoes than most dealers. He saw what was most important when it came to choosing an equipment dealer, and what wasn’t. This would also prove fortuitous as growth opportunities revealed themselves.
After 8 years in Casselton, he bought and expanded the Deere dealership in Lisbon, N.D., (also the location of Titan Machinery’s second dealership) in 1976, followed in 1979 by a third in LaMoure, N.D. Three more North Dakota stores were quickly added: Breckenridge in 1983, Kindred in 1986 and Fargo in 1987.
RDO was blazing trails with multi-store locations at a time when the majors wanted no part of this dealership structure, says Bob Lamp, retired executive of the North Dakota Implement Dealers Assn. , which he led from 1978-2010.
In the first Big Dealer Report from Ag Equipment Intelligence in 2011, RDO was the 3rd largest ag dealer in North America with 28 stores, a trend that the dealership started and others embraced. Today, 7 other dealership groups operate more than RDO’s 34 ag stores.
As RDO grew, so too did the opportunity to diversify. In 1989, the business expanded into a new industry — construction — with the acquisition of 4 stores in North Dakota.
By the early 1990s, RDO had operations in Arizona and California, and figured out how to successfully navigate management from a “faraway land” decades before that challenge was addressed at industry meetings and in Farm Equipment articles. The foundation of culture induced by Offutt and RDO’s highly empowered store managers made it work.
Going Public
After steady acquisition, RDO’s 11 ag stores and 21 construction equipment stores became a publicly owned company in 1997.
The decision to go public was based on thoughts of his mortality, Offutt said.
“With John Deere having the right to name its dealers, this is a poor business to die in without a successor,” he said. Offutt thought public ownership would solve that problem as well as bring liquidity to his investments in the business.
Inaugural Farm Equipment Hall of Fame Class of 2024: Ronald D. Offutt
In 1997, with Deere’s blessing, the initial public offering of company shares exceeded all expectations, nearly doubling the $35 million projection. But with Wall Street demanding growth, the company found itself with few places to grow after Deere did an about-face.
“Moline became fearful thinking that they had created a monster,” said Offutt. “They shut the gate and wouldn’t let us buy anything. We were paralyzed and decided to develop other platforms of growth.”
That included the ill-fated trucking business in Texas, California and Minneapolis that RDO exited after just 18 months.
Meanwhile, as RDO entered the public markets, the company added layers of general management with people outside the business (what Offutt would later call “the shiny shoes” who had no knowledge nor passion for the business) who undermined the very culture that built the business. What followed was an expensive lesson in extending a company beyond its expertise and letting Wall Street thwart the investments RDO wanted to flow back into the business, including training, facilities and service vehicles.
This chapter produced the oft-repeated maxim “Don’t fall for shiny shoes.” Offutt yanked the reins from the “shiny shoes” and handed them to his youngest daughter, Christi. She managed to chart a new course, and she later returned the firm to private ownership in 2003 — a messy, costly and painful chapter for all. Christi would lead RDO Equipment for nearly 2 decades, and the decision was a “lightning bolt” epiphany that returned Offutt to his vision of home-grown talent that would breathe the culture he wanted.
Training as a Core Strength
In its Dealership of the Year recognition, Farm Equipment shared how RDO was spending twice the national dealer average on training, a commitment that is not accidental.
As reported in that same Dealership of Year article, Offutt was among the first dealer-principals in the industry to develop a home-grown program, then called RDO University, described as a 2-year MBA-like curriculum that prepared staff for general management posts. At that same time, it also introduced a management trainee program that prepared newer employees for departmental management roles and relocation opportunities.
RDO still maintains a learning portal with hundreds of classes for all employees to access.
Rewriting the Management Structure
RDO is unique among large, multi-store organizations is the non-contiguous territory it manages, thought to be nearly impossible. But Offutt and his team discovered structural change could make it work.
Earlier Farm Equipment articles reported that in the late 1990s, Deere had been encouraging dealers to add customer service reps to more actively sell parts and service. RDO’s team, meanwhile, pondered whether properly trained and motivated wholegoods salespeople could pick up that responsibility.
What Others Have to Say About Hall of Famer Ronald D. Offutt, Founder of RDO Equipment Company
Ron's unique experience building a company from just one equipment store in North Dakota to more than 110 locations in the U.S., Australia, and Ukraine is testament to his true calling as a leader and entrepreneur.
Ron crafted his leadership skills while working on his family farm before venturing into the business world. In 1968, he bought his first store and founded RDO Equipment Co. From the get-go, Ron focused on building a business that succeeds financially while also serving the community.
Ron developed strong relationships with customers and partners that are part of his legacy today at RDO. He did that by being a deep listener; he listens carefully and truly seeks to understand the interests and needs of the other person. That translates into long-term partnerships with our customers, team members, manufacturers, and communities. There are RDO customers that we have supported for generations, which speaks volumes to the importance we put on relationships.
Ron's competitive side also comes out in his business approach. He was a competitive wrestler and a football player growing up and loves a good challenge as well as building a team’s capabilities to take on that challenge. This idea of banding together toward a common goal is the foundation for one of our core values, which is that we Play to Win.
Because he’s both a competitor and an entrepreneur, Ron is incredibly energized when exploring new business opportunities. Whether expanding into dairy farming, investing in frozen French fries or making one of the most popular dehydrated potato products on the market today, Ron has a nose for a great deal.
Ron has long supported the stakeholder philosophy that was championed by his daughter, Christi Offutt, who served as CEO of RDO Equipment for almost two decades. Throughout our business, we are always looking for ways to add value to different stakeholder groups, one of which is our communities.
Since 2008, the Offutt Family Foundation has committed to improving the quality of life in communities where RDO does business. RDO team members are engaged in this, too. The prime example is the Community Builder program, where team members are encouraged to nominate causes in their communities for grant consideration by the Foundation. Since 2015, through the Community Builder program, the Offutt Family Foundation has awarded $1.4 million in grants to nonprofits and causes that RDO team members are passionate about.
In addition to our stakeholder philosophy, our team members find guidance in RDO’s core values. It may sound cliché, but our values are truly more than just words on a wall, and that becomes clear when you talk to our team members about their work. They believe in these values and strive to live them every day. The core values are another concept Christi championed during her time as CEO, but they’re derived from the way Ron has always done business. For all his deal-making and competitiveness, he is always a man of utmost integrity first. Today, that’s reflected in everything we do — how we treat our team members, how we make deals, how we care for customers and all other stakeholders.
—By Tim Curoe, CEO, R.D. Offutt Co.
Ron has been a wealth of insight into our industry. RDO is a very forward-looking organization, and productive and successful. Ron led it for a long time then incorporated his daughter, Christi, into the business and attracted top management people who kept it on the right track. He’s a very creative guy.
He didn’t embrace the spotlight even when he was credited for success, but rather pushed others forward. He’s been a leader who led top management people but also let them do their thing.
As an example, Ron made sure that he always had his top management involved in our dealer association and on our board of directors, and not just one. Person after person, they’d bring new insights into the board and give invaluable input. All of his team were top-notch board members.
My best story on his influence was when we were working on important issues in the state of North Dakota on a variety of legislative issues. On so many issues while in Bismarck, we’d get a question of ‘Well, what does Ron Offutt think of that?’
—By Bob Lamp, Retired executive of the North Dakota Implement Dealers Assn. (1978-2010).
One of the things I love about RDO is that it’s driven by Ron’s entrepreneurial spirit, where people are encouraged to create solutions for customers. As our footprint has grown to include 80 locations in 12 states, our success can be largely attributed to the daily decisions our team members make at the local level, in the service of meeting our customers’ needs.
We have more than 3,400 team members in the U.S. working across multiple locations and each of them are empowered to serve our customers in the best way they can.
After nearly two decades of working with Ron, I have been inspired by the legacy he has created through his commitment to take care of our stakeholders. He grew this business from the ground up and our leaders today are tremendously inspired by his example. They see how focusing on relationships, service and integrity pays off over the long term. They adapt that approach as their own and work to pass it on to the next generation of leaders.
There are people at all levels within RDO who can tell you a memory of a conversation or interaction they had with Ron, whether it happened yesterday or 30 years ago. I think part of what makes those experiences so memorable is the fact that Ron is about as down-to-Earth as they come. Initially, people can be stunned by how genuine he is. He treats everyone he meets with respect and integrity. That’s who he is. That’s how he works, and that’s the type of culture he’s infused into RDO over the years.
—By Chris Cooper, President of RDO Equipment Co.
It's been an amazing feat to watch how his business has grown, not only domestically but internationally, The folks that I've worked with from RDO have a very autonomous kind of feel to what they do. Their people know the guide rails yet operate freely. That’s evident of a strong top-down mentality, but they can also autonomously on their own to make things happen.
Feel free to add your own Ron Offutt memories, anecdotes and observations by using the “Post a Comment” feature below.
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By Casey Seymour, Owner, Moving Iron LLC
Making such a change would cause deep structural changes, however. Almost a decade later, a looming industry downturn brought the lever to enact that change.
RDO developed a playbook that gave general managers more stores to oversee, appointed a GM of sales, gave store managers dual responsibilities that were usually a hybrid job (either parts or service management), created the new account manager role, and introduced a sales support function to assist in administrative tasks. Everything that could be centralized was done so at what was called the Fargo Field Support Office that handles all the administrative duties, including asset management, where emotion could be removed.
“We centralized the back room,” explained Offutt, “but we’re non centralized in the areas important for meeting customer needs.”
In February 2007, RDO moved forward on this sweeping structural change. Success hinged on the new account manager model, in which trained salespeople were asked to promote parts and service, too.
RDO set the pace in the industry with the account manager model that tasked sales pros — each assigned a small, core group of important customers — with not only selling the large equipment, but also the parts and service. Because they were rewarded for the growth in the aftermarket business, they became experts on their customers’ entire operation.
As the program evolved, two things became clear. First, a great deal of training was required for the account manager model. Second, it was apparent how highly respected and esteemed the precision ag specialists were to farmers.
As a result, RDO pushed the envelope by insisting its account managers, as well as parts and techs, were highly trained in precision technologies. This was a step toward the mainstreaming movement Deere would extol just a few years after the industry first embraced standalone precision farming departments.
Hall of Fame Digital Extras
For a complete archive of Farm Equipment articles on Ron Offutt and RDO Equipment, click here!
RDO is the first and only dealership to couple a Farm Equipment Dealership of the Year honor (2010) with Precision Farming Dealer’s Most Valuable Dealership (2020), an indication of the dealership’s innovative approach to dealership management and precision ag. Offutt’s team also had the foresight to realize internal investment and expansion in technology training would be essential to their evolution. In 2020, RDO’s ag technology service sales grew by 80% in 3 years.
RDO was also the first dealer visited by Farm Equipment editors that operated a stand-alone call center, located off-site from the dealership. RDO hired transactional sales pros to handle smaller customers or those 200 miles or more away, so the account managers could focus on the big fish.
RDO set up a phone system that directed the customer to call-center staff after 4 rings at the store. No longer were parts counter people overwhelmed by both the phone and the farmer in front of them. Since most of the calls are parts related, RDO programmed its computers to handle the lookups and inventory and ticket-entering as though they were in the store themselves.
Check out more from the Dealer Hall of Fame Class of 2024:
- Ronald D. Offutt, RDO Equipment, Fargo, N.D.
- Cleve Buttars, Agri-Service, Kimberly, Idaho
- Charlie Hoober, Hoober Inc., Intercourse, Pa.
- Paul Wallem, Wallem International, Belvidere, Ill, & Central Sands International, Plainfield, Wis.
- David Meyer and Peter Christianson, Titan Machinery, Fargo, N.D.
- Ferenc (1932-2017) & Tom Rosztoczy, Avondale, Ariz.
- Earl Livingston, Livingston Machinery (Parallel Ag), Chickasha, Okla.
- Orhan Yirmibesh, Badger Farm Store, Clinton & Avalon, Wis.
- Derek Stimson, Rocky Mountain Equipment, Calgary, Alta.
Read Farm Equipment's Inaugural Hall of Fame
RDO’s Next Chapter
In 2018, RDO hired its first non-family CEO in Tim Curoe, previously of Target and GE. For the first time in history, an Offutt was not at the helm.
“Going outside for a professional manager is a sign of organizational maturity,” commented George Russell of Machinery Advisory Consortium. “It’s an indication of the scale of these businesses that allows them to attract outside professional managers with the capability to continue their growth.”
Delegating that responsibility and giving others the room to maneuver was a process Offutt, the reluctant dealer, started almost immediately 55 years ago.
While the absence of children in the business had prompted the publicly traded era, all four of Offutt’s children are involved in the R.D. Offutt Co. today. His two oldest daughters, Rondi and Shelly, are members of the Offutt Family Foundation, with daughter Christi chairing R.D. Offutt Co.
Rondi’s husband, Keith, most recently served as president of R.D. Offutt Farms, while Shelley’s husband, Scott, led the company’s real estate division for many years. Son Ryan Offutt is executive vice president of RDO International.
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