SportsTurf provides current, practical and technical content on issues relevant to sports turf managers, including facilities managers. Most readers are athletic field managers from the professional level through parks and recreation, universities.
Issue link: https://read.dmtmag.com/i/338693
36 SportsTurf | July 2014 www.sportsturfonline.com THE TORO COMPANY'S 100 th ANNIVERSARY T ough times never last, but tough companies do. That's evident from the challenges Toro faced from the start. In Toro's first 30 years, the company's lead- ers navigated through the Great Depression and two world wars by staying true to the company's core ethics and values—and those principles have driven the company's longevity and success ever since. Here are some of the surprisingly simple strategies that have worked for Toro over its first 100 years: Intense focus on solving customer problems, first and fore- most. Hard-sell tactics have never been part of Toro's culture; it has always been about finding out what the customer needs, meeting those needs and providing exemplary service. In fact, Toro got its start in the golf industry by listening and solving problems. Our first two prototypes (a fairway roller in 1918 and a fairway mower in 1919) came out of requests from golf clubs in Minneapolis. The staff at each club collaborated with Toro on a number of early products, offering input and helping to test equipment. Taking care of the customer after the sale. Toro co-founder and first president John Samuel Clapper thought that any manufacturer of a complicated piece of machinery should care more about that productafter the sale than before. For the last century, Toro has done that in three key ways: • Standing behind the product. Toro assigned its first manufacturer service representative in the golf business in 1926. Mungo "Scotty" Reid McLaren was charged with traveling the country to visit every golf course that had purchased Toro equipment at least once a year. At each stop, he inspected the equipment with the crew, helped them fix any problems and provided much appreciated training. That tradition of customer service continues today. In the words of a superintendent at a Country Club in Scotland, PA, "I can tell anyone considering purchasing Toro equipment, you won't go wrong. When I had a problem with my fairway unit, Toro took the high road, stood behind its product, and made me a loyal customer." • Standing behind our distributor partners. Scotty McLaren not only supported our customers, he also vis- ited all of our distributors and trained them. To this day, we stand behind all of our distributors with ongoing training, exceptional parts fill rates, sales and technical support, warranty coverage and many other tools to help them provide the level of service our cus- tomers have come to know and trust. As another loyal Toro customer in Boone, NC stated, "It's truly a blessing to have dependable equipment in combination with exemplary service." CElEbRATINg 100 YEARS: Lessons in Building a Company That Lasts John Clapper, Toro's first president, holds 16 patents for Toro innovations. In January 1929, just 10 months prior to the stock market collapse, Toro offered its first common stock to the public at $1.40 per share. During the war in 1942, the company made plans for additional manufacturing space and new products to prepare for the anticipated post-war boom of suburbia and demand for homeowner products. In 1951, Toro opened a new manufacturing plant in Windom, MN, to serve as a primary consumer products production facility. Agronomist James R. Watson, Ph.D., (1920-2013) joined Toro in 1952. Dr. Watson led a team of 25 scientists at Toro's R&D facility, conducting cutting-edge agronomic studies that significantly advanced turf care knowledge and helped revolutionize the industry. Dr. Watson became a living legend in the turf industry. In 1966, Toro helped prepare the field for Super Bowl I, forming a partnership that continues to this day. Toro traded stocks on the New York Stock Exchange for the first time in 1978. Building on the legacy of Dr. James Watson, Toro's Center for Advanced Turf Technology (CATT) was formed in 1998.