Today, Titan Machinery is North America’s largest farm equipment dealership group. In 2006, the group was selected as Farm Equipment’s Dealership of the Year. At that point, Titan owned and operated 29 dealer locations.

One could argue that nearly every dealer in North America will be on one side or the other of an acquisition in the years ahead. This report focuses on the first 100 days of integrating a new store into another dealership group following an acquisition, and what it take to successfully meld one organization’s culture into another with a minimum or no loss of performance.

While last month’s column focused on some of the ups and downs that afflicted the agricultural equipment industry over the past 40 years, this column will take a look at what one can expect over the next several years. But first, it should be apparent after reading the previous column, that one of the primary drivers for the demise of manufacturers during the aforementioned time period was their feckless hiring of top management that were either devoid of pertinent and relevant experience, or their background was from the financial side of the business. Concerning the latter, when that is the case, management will generally save themselves into bankruptcy rather than marketing themselves into prosperity.

According to at least one industry analyst who studies the distribution part of the farm equipment business, the consolidation of the industry's dealers is inevitable and necessary.