LMC: Advancing Business Acumen

Program Experience

Highlights and Key Outcomes

In the LMC: Advancing Business Acumen program, you will:

• Learn frameworks and models that will improve your understanding of the business in key areas of strategy, finance, people, and operations
• Enhance your management ability to solve real-world problems that affect the forest-products and building-materials retail business
• Network with Wharton faculty and fellow leaders across the country in the LMC dealer network
• Apply learning in a real-world case study

Experience & Impact

As the forest-products and building-materials industry ramps up to meet the increase in construction demands, independent lumberyards face some challenges: consolidation, pressure to operate efficiently, and finding new ways to attract and retain the best talent. LMC, a forest-products and building-materials co-op serving over 360 independent lumberyards, has partnered with Wharton to design a unique program to enhance the skills of leaders.

LMC: Advancing Business Acumen offers independent lumberyards a comprehensive management training program hosted by the world’s oldest U.S. business school. The program includes interactive lectures and faculty and peer dialogue on the newest core concepts of business, with the opportunity to apply these concepts in participants’ own businesses. Participants will explore working across organizational boundaries and also receive instruction on finance and negotiation. Additional sessions delve into corporate growth, organizational culture, digital marketing, and succession planning.

Wharton faculty apply their field-based research and the latest strategic insights to help participants learn what they need to know to be a strategic change agent for their organizations.

Session topics include:

• Collaboration and Leadership
• Managing Innovation
• Evaluating Corporate Health: Key Performance Indicators
• Financial Management: Risk, Return, and Investor Expectations
• Frictions and Business Evolution in the Digital Economy
• Marketing Strategy
• Negotiations
• Organizational Culture
• Strategic Execution
• Succession Planning

Through highly interactive lectures, exercises, and case studies, both in the classroom and in smaller work groups, this deep dive into the essentials of management will enable participants to build industry knowledge and business acumen and apply it to their day-to-day roles, positioning them for broader responsibilities.

Forest-Products and Building-Materials Industry Case Study

A key part of the learning for the week is when participants apply what they studied in the classroom to an industry-related case developed by LMC stockholders and Wharton. Working together in teams, participants must formulate their recommendations for the case study. More importantly, on the final day each member of the group presents his/her group’s decision and then has the opportunity to listen and question others sharing different approaches. This last day is an important part of the learning process, enabling participants to apply the basic foundational topics such as finance, marketing, and operations to a real-world scenario.

Due to our application review period, applications submitted after 12:00 p.m. ET on Friday for programs beginning the following Monday may not be processed in time to grant admission. Applicants will be contacted by a member of our Client Relations Team to discuss options for future programs and dates.