Are You Facing Extinction?

By Joseph Carbonara, Editor-in-Chief -- Foodservice Equipment & Supplies, 11/1/2007

Joseph Carbonara

An article published by Entrepreneur.com handicapped 10 businesses' chances for survival over the next 10 years. Although no members of the foodservice industry made the list, the article was an interesting and thought-provoking exercise. Among the 10 industries on the list were a couple that were once considered mainstays in the American business community.

In some instances, we might wish the business would go away but continue to be amazed by its resilience. (Read: telemarketing.) The fact that others, such as payphones, might be on a list of endangered businesses comes as no real surprise when factoring in technological advancements.

Still, I highly doubt that 10 years ago owners of record stores thought that their businesses might be on the brink of extinction. The Virgin Records store on Chicago's Magnificent Mile served as a symbol of the record store's health and vitality by becoming a regular lunchtime stop for me and countless others as we browsed the seemingly endless offerings of CDs, DVDs and more. But according to the Entrepreneur.com article, record stores do find themselves on the brink of extinction today thanks to the overwhelming popularity of downloadable music and online providers such as Amazon.com.

This example of the record store's rapid decline should serve as a glaring reminder to all of us that our continued growth and success are not guaranteed. And nowhere is that more relevant than in the foodservice industry.

Each segment of the industry has its own worries as to whether its customers and partners will find ways to slowly phase them out of the picture. This is a fatalistic view worthy of only a Chicago sports fan. The fact remains that everyone is in business to make money, plain and simple. And if, for example, manufacturers could have phased out their dealer partners to sell directly to the end-user customer and maintain their profitability, they would have done so long ago. But the reality is that the dealer provides a specific set of values that the manufacturer can't replicate and still continue to operate in the black. Same goes with consultants, service agents, manufacturers' reps and everyone else in the industry. Once you stop providing value to the foodservice operator, though, your relevance begins a rapid decline that lands your company on the endangered list.

For their part, operator customers rely on manufacturers, their representatives, dealers, all forms of consultants, and service agents to keep their foodservice environments humming along at peak efficiency.

So, for the moment, none of the disciplines that comprise the foodservice supply chain faces extinction. What can help them maintain such a solid position for generations to come?

Successful foodservice companies
- regardless of their position in the industry
- will need to continue to be proactive when working with their clients and try to anticipate their needs before the customer demands them. You have to take the goods and services you offer and make them understandable and relevant in the eyes of the customer. That requires developing an intimate understanding of their businesses and customer bases to better know how to apply the products and services you have to offer.

More importantly, the businesses that remain relevant will be those with leadership secure enough to understand there's more power through collaboration than going it alone. By leveraging the collective experience the industry has to offer, its individual players will remain relevant, viable and, more importantly, off the endangered list.

Joseph M. Carbonara, Editor in Chief