Editorial: Share and Share Alike

Other segments of foodservice could teach chains a lot about support.

By Mary Boltz Chapman, Editor-in-Chief -- Chain Leader, 3/1/2006

I recently participated in judging the International Foodservice Manufacturers Association’s Silver Plate Awards. It’s an interesting and thorough process: Foodservice operators in nine segments are nominated based on their menu innovation, human-resources practices, operations and results, and industry leadership. The panel of judges is comprised of the previous year’s winners and trade-press editors. After narrowing the field to the top operators in each segment, we gather to discuss the entries and advocate for our favorites, then elect a winner.

Leading Institutions
Because my knowledge of some of the categories is limited, I depend on this forum to teach me about the nominees beyond what’s on the entry forms so I can make an educated decision. I’m particularly interested in the opinion of last year’s winner in a given segment.

What I find interesting about those in the noncommercial segments like health care and colleges is how often the judges from those segments know the nominees well and have toured their operations. When someone has a great retail program that is building incremental sales in, say, one of their dormitories, they share how they did it with other university foodservice operators. If a hospital foodservice director is serving meals room-service-style within 40 minutes of a patient’s ordering it, other health-care operators are usually welcome to observe the system.

Chains can learn from that.

Share the Wealth
No, I don’t think you should invite all your competitors in the next time you roll out a better way to expedite takeout orders. The noncommercial operators are not generally competing directly against one another, whereas chains certainly are.

But there are ways to share experience with each another for the benefit of the industry in general. A good example of that is diversity. Many chains support organizations like the Women’s Foodservice Forum and MultiCultural Foodservice & Hospitality Alliance. Those who do know that there’s a competitive advantage to hiring and promoting women and minorities throughout the company. They could keep the methods they’ve used to ensure inclusion to themselves. But most of those progressive companies are happy to share their success because it benefits the whole industry.

Another example is food safety. I have never spoken to a restaurant executive in charge of quality and food safety who wasn’t a strong advocate. On the other hand, I have come across media machines within chains who wouldn’t allow access to their food-safety people. If there ever was a topic that should never be supressed due to “competitive issues,” this is it. Would they claim, “My restaurant is safer than yours”?

Our industry offers many outlets to share ideas and best practices. We have a wide range of industry magazines, all of which fill their pages with operators’ successful ideas. There are dozens of gatherings, from the wide-ranging to the tightly focused, both formal and informal. A growing number of Web-based forums let operators pick each other’s brains online.

If you’re not taking advantage of learning all you can from other chain operators and sharing your own knowledge, you’re missing a lot of opportunity. And you may never be discussed at the Silver Plate judging.