In Perfect Harmony

Trading partner collaboration is the cornerstone of business growth in the 21st century.

"No one can whistle a symphony. It takes a whole orchestra to play it."

These are the words of 20th-century scholar Halford E. Luccock, a Yale professor and Methodist minister. Tucked away in an ivory tower and removed from the swirl of commerce and industry, Luccock couldn't have known just how applicable his words would be to the business of selling food, beverages and consumer products in the 21st century.

The Grocery Manufacturers Association (GMA) exists to help its member companies connect with consumers and provide responsible solutions to the pressing industry, social and economic issues of the day. Our customers in the various retail channels share the same goal, knowing that consumers are the engine that drives everything we do. To take a page from Luccock's book, manufacturers can't make beautiful music by themselves; we rely on retailers to pick up their instruments and play alongside us to produce the symphony consumers expect.

GMA has committed significant resources to fostering mutually beneficial collaboration between retailers and manufacturers across all channels of distribution. Developed largely through our Industry Affairs group, these efforts focus on discovering new ways to grow sales, create a more efficient value chain and improve service levels. Specifically, GMA is working with trading partners, both individually and through umbrella groups like Food Marketing Institute (FMI), to facilitate communication and generate game-changing insights around sales and sales promotion, logistics, and global technology for our members and their trading partners.

In our age of digital technology, the ways that individuals and companies are able to connect are seemingly boundless. And while we've all embraced virtual meetings, webinars, mobile devices, Tweets, texts and Facebook as a means of managing both our personal and business relationships, GMA still believes one of the best ways to stimulate collaboration is to bring trading partners together for face-to-face interaction and joint learning.

GMA conference platforms do just that. By building programs that speak to all stakeholders in the value chain, we attract a wide range of stakeholders to our events, ensuring robust discussions in which all perspectives are represented. Agendas are packed with retailer-manufacturer teams sharing the lessons learned from their own innovative collaboration efforts. Away from the main stage, trading partners find ample time for networking, idea sharing and deepening their understanding of their counterparts' business.

What's more, we're hearing from our members and their customers that they want even more opportunities to meet, so GMA has worked in recent years to integrate some of its annual meetings with FMI events. In January of this year, we held the first-ever Joint Industry Supply Chain Conference, sponsored by the FMI-GMA Trading Partner Alliance. This December, GMA and FMI will join forces once more to bring retailers and manufacturers together for a summit on sustainability issues. And as it has for years, the annual Joint Industry Unsaleables Management Conference is being held next month in conjunction with FMI, the National Association of Chain Drug Stores, and the National Grocers Association (N.G.A.), among others.

GMA's flagship gathering of senior industry leadership, the annual Executive Conference, scheduled for Aug. 28 through Aug. 31 at The Broadmoor in Colorado Springs, Colo., has always maintained a sharp focus on customer and channel collaboration, and this year is no exception. GMA member company CEOs will share the stage with a diverse set of customers, including Kroger, Costco, CVS, Wegmans, Wakefern, C & S Wholesale Grocers and Core-Mark as they discuss topics ranging from innovation to value management to integrated marketing and merchandising campaigns. The top executives from FMI, NACDS, N.G.A. and the National Association of Convenience Stores (NACS), along with their respective board leaders, will provide channel-specific insights that will further collaborative initiatives between manufacturers and retailers in these channels.

GMA will continue to listen to, and work with, retailers, both individually and through representative groups, so that together we can continue to provide safe, convenient, affordable products, which, we all agree, is music to consumers' ears.

Pamela G. Bailey is president and CEO of the Grocery Manufacturers Association, a Washington-based trade association representing more than 300 food, beverage and consumer products companies.