GreenStone is continuing to evolve each year with projects focused on improving the way we do business, creating efficiency, and evolving customer solutions. Here’s a glimpse of a few of the team behind these different projects:
Eric Thompson,
Project Manager,
14 Years
How does your role help carry out GreenStone’s mission of supporting rural communities and agriculture?
A project manager is essentially a change agent, helping to guide teams to bring about positive change for our customers.
What do you enjoy about your role?
For me the most enjoyable part of my job is working with the project team members who share a common vision for the organization.
How does your portion of the loan process ensure great customer service?
A key aspect of project management is identifying risks that may impede or prevent a project from bringing value to the organization. This forward-thinking model allows me to guide the team to have a plan in place to react to a risk proactively rather than reactively.
What do you enjoy in your free time?
One of my passions is to coach high school boys lacrosse, which is a sport I learned as a young man growing up in New York. Working with young people keeps my outlook on life fresh and gives me hope for our future as I have a chance to show these athletes how discipline in sport can directly impact how they make lifelong decisions, and be part of something bigger than themselves.
How has your work changed over the years?
Some aspects of my work have remained steady – namely attention to detail, take care of the little things and the big things will take care of themselves. Project management is evolving as the model that I worked with a few years ago was highly predictive, planning a project from start to finish then managing change as needed through a structured method of approval. The new model we have been employing here at GreenStone is to be more adaptive, setting our initial goals for the project at the start but empowering the team to make decisions and trust them to get the work done to achieve our vision and deliver value.
Taylor Martin,
Business Analyst,
5 years
How does your role help carry out GreenStone’s mission of supporting rural communities and agriculture?
My role as a business analyst is to improve GreenStone's internal processes and systems to provide value and increase efficiency across all departments to give our frontline staff the tools they need to provide quality service to our customers. I have a bachelor’s degree in horticulture from Michigan State University and we have a decent size dairy farm so I am not the “normal” person that you would usually see in a business analyst position. I use my degree and industry knowledge every day to improve GreenStone’s internal processes thinking about each project I work on and assisting my peers in thinking about their projects from the customer’s perspective. I try to keep in mind, especially in our current economy, how each item I work on will ultimately help us provide our customers with consistent financing, crop insurance, tax services, and so much more to help their farms and agricultural business be successful!
What do you enjoy about your role?
I love that there are so many jobs you wouldn't ever think of as having an impact on the agriculture industry, including mine, but I get to support the industry I love every day.
How does your work ensure great customer service?
My role helps enhance business process and systems for our staff to follow and use to assist our customers. Without consistent processes and tools, GreenStone could not provide the level of service we do to our customers.
What do you enjoy in your free time?
Spending time with my husband, and our 2-year-old and 6-month-old children on our family dairy farm!
How has your work changed over the years?
I have been with the company five years. GreenStone implemented change management approximately three years ago to help improve the way we roll out changes. We have continued to become more and more efficient across the board, implemented better, more consistent communication across our internal teams, and reinforce changes with our staff. Change management has helped us to really streamline the process, which ultimately leads to a higher adoption rate and more consistency with our customer service.
To view the spring 2024 issue of Partners magazine in its entirety, click here.
