Member News & Headlines Blog

Bad hires - those individuals who are not a good fit for their roles or a company because they lack the necessary skills, don't align with the company culture, or fail to meet performance expectations. I know at least some of you are wincing at the memory of a bad hire you’ve encountered (or been involved with) in the past! It happens more than you think. In fact, according to CareerBuilder, 75% of employers admit they have hired the wrong person at some point.

When an ill-suited individual joins a team that shares common values and behaviors, the negative impact can be significant. These bad hires can impact efficiency, cause deadlines to be missed, and strain relationships as other team members compensate for the underperformer.

When a bad hire joins a cohesive team, it can also compromise team dynamics, communication, collaboration, and trust. This disruption can lead to talented individuals becoming disenchanted, potentially resulting in the loss of key team members and that’s when retention challenges begin.

On June 13, 2024, CFBN partnered with the Contract Packaging Association and held the sold out event  'Charting a Path for Success: Navigating Tomorrow's Technology and its Impact on CPG Manufacturing' , hosted at Frain's Industries.

Ron Puvak, Executive Director at the Contract Packaging Association presented the State of the Industry Report Update.  

Going into the 2023 tax year, Manufacturers and Distributors were left uncertain. However, M&D business owners now have the opportunity to take advantage of the summer months to properly plan for compliance with tax initiatives such as:

• Section 174
• Fixed assets
• Section 263A – UNICAP

Dairy farmers are responsible for some of our favorite nutritious and delicious foods. But did you know they’re also charged with producing those foods in a cow-friendly and environmentally sustainable way? Not everyone is familiar with the U.S. dairy’s commitment to communities and the planet. Many people have questions about the sustainability of dairy farming practices, including manure management and wastewater treatment. If that’s you, keep reading to learn the farming practices used to achieve dairy sustainability across the U.S.

ofi (olam food ingredients), a global leader in food and beverage ingredients, has earned America’s first Rainforest Alliance Certification for its California orchards, setting a new standard for the industry, and continuing to emphasize the importance of sustainability in agricultural practices. This significant milestone underscores the company’s commitment to environmentally sound almond production.

We are excited to announce a significant milestone within our community: the merger of our two esteemed members, Forvis and Mazars. This union has resulted in the creation of Forvis Mazars, a new powerhouse in the professional services industry.

On June 1st, Forvis Mazars officially launched as a new global network formed by these leading firms. Mazars, an international partnership operating in over 100 countries and territories, and FORVIS, a top-ranked firm in the United States, have united to establish this formidable entity

Please give a warm welcome to one of our newest members, executive recruitment specialists, The Sterling Choice. With offices in the UK, the US, and the UAE, we are delighted to have The Sterling Choice team on board to share their breadth of recruitment expertise with our network.

In our dynamic and evolving industry, The Sterling Choice is a recruitment powerhouse. With a team that has worked on both sides of the table, they empathize with the many challenges faced by in-house talent teams, and the nuanced skill required to help them hire and retain great talent.

For the 23rd annual year, the Chicago Innovation Awards will celebrate the most innovative new products and services in the Chicago region.  Nominees can cut across all industries, from large corporations to new start-ups, for-profit and non-profit, high tech and low tech.  The key is innovation.

Reasons to nominate:

We encourage all of you who have developed a new product or service in the last 4 years to self-nominate for this year's awards.  Nominating is free, and can be submitted via an online form at https://chicagoinnovation.com/nominations/.  The deadline is July 31st.

AI can help Manufacturing and Distribution businesses reduce costs, drive efficiency, and create value – with the right preparation.

In this article CohnReznick laid out a roadmap to help you start on your journey to AI in the M&D sector including:

• Where to start
• Who to involve in the process
• Industry-specific benefits

If we look back at the beginnings of the Internet, one key thing stands out when we compare this to the introduction to AI-ML. During the early Internet days, we lacked the kinds of technologies to truly make the Internet a high value platform. As an example, a lot of companies created websites introducing their organizations, product lines and or services. However, there were a lot of back-office people manually taking product inquiries and product orders and entering orders into their ERPs or order entry systems.

Yet one of the uniqueness with the introduction of AI-ML when compared to the Internet beginnings is that businesses also have access to Structured AI-ML Design platforms complimented with Generative AI (provided the platform is solid and well designed) and immediately develop more comprehensive business and corporate strategies for their organizations. 

In addition, business leaders can quickly gain access to internal and external knowledge and align existing knowledge and its wisdom into the business and its planning process, core capabilities, competency sets, and products/services. Companies can immediately advance their productivity. Companies also increased their capabilities to uncover incongruities and achieve comprehensive innovation. 

Yet the challenge for any organization is the concern for the current cognitive learning gap. If a business wants to build enterprise AI-ML platforms they will need to develop an understanding of all the kinds of thinking behaviors and models people use every day. They will need to learn how to incorporate these thinking behaviors into their business and system architecture as they design new solutions. The other concern in some cases is you have a lot of don't know don't know advising the don't know don't know......and this is going to be an issue.  Click on link below to read the white paper.

Adapting to Generative AI, Advancing the Business in a Smart Connecting World