Inflation is worrisome to the public and so politicians feel compelled to deflect any blame from themselves. Thus, President Biden called for an FTC investigation of oil companies for rising gasoline prices even as his Administration has frozen certain federal lands from exploration and has raised lease prices on others. Not to be outdone, populist Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren (D) demanded a Justice Department investigation into poultry companies for the higher price of turkey approaching the Thanksgiving holiday. The four top poultry firms control 54 percent of the market share. The Senator did not mention the equally high rise in the cost of used automobiles, or the fact that rental cars have risen 78 percent more than turkey pr...
Illuminating the value of technical research
On behalf of a commodity producer organization, WPI evaluated the outputs from a project that featured a $5 million investment into technical research over multiple years. WPI’s team captured the results of this extensive effort and synthesized them for presentation to the organization’s governing board; among the findings uncovered and presented for the first time was the development of genomic traits proven, via rigorous testing, to provide crop yield advantages of 50 percent or more to U.S. farmers in times of drought. Capturing measurable results from long-term efforts can be challenging. Educating clients on the dynamics of success measurement when quantifiable results are not readily available requires deep client-consultant collaboration and an ability to consider both near- and long-term client aspirations with market/policy dynamics – attributes that WPI brings to every consulting engagement.