CEO’s Perspective: For the Win

In the 1991 World Series, the Minnesota Twins were facing off against the Atlanta Braves down three games to two.

With the score tied 3-3 in the bottom of the 11th inning, Twins outfielder Kirby Puckett crushed a game winning homerun, thus extending the season and the World Series to one final game—winner take all. Announcer Jack Buck made the now famous call, “And we’ll see you tomorrow night!”

This feels apropos for where we are right now: we’re closing in on the end of 2024, but the year isn’t quite over yet, there’s still a bit more time to continue honing our businesses and improving how we serve our customers.   

In this edition of Blueprints, we’re serving up a number of deep dives into meaty topics sure to help you improve your business.

On the quantitative side, Bill Zentner, our Ratings vice president, provides an in-depth review of Blue Book scores. Did you know that the Blue Book Credit Score is the only such rating crafted specifically for the produce industry? 

Because our industry moves so quickly, produce leaders rely heavily on ratings to make trading decisions. Bill sheds more light on how scores are determined and the best ways to maintain and improve your own company’s rating.

Another article I wanted to highlight is a very accessible analysis of the Carmack Amendment by Blue Book’s own Doug Nelson, vice president of Claims, Collections & Dispute Resolution. The amendment is often cited with great gusto when it comes to transportation claims; it’s important to know what it does and doesn’t say.

Trust me on this one—save yourself three years of law school and thousands of pages of case law—read this article to ensure you’re adequately informed.

As historians and recovering Minnesota sports fans alike will recall, the Twins actually went on win Game 7 (and thus the World Series) through similar extra inning heroics. So, with that encouragement, I look forward to “seeing you tomorrow night” as we all strive to close this year on a high note and harness all the tailwinds we can to kick off 2025.

From all of us at Blue Book, we want to wish you, your family, and your colleagues a blessed holiday season!

This content was originally published in the November/December 2024 edition.