Food & Beverage Challenges | Business acumen for the food and beverage industry

I think the food and beverage industry is facing huge challenges post Covid. All organizations face challenges but there are some ones that I think are really fundamental and challenging that this industry has to face and solve for. How important the food and beverage industry is to the global economy, accentuates these challenges. Some are related to the pricing of the inputs, supply chain, availability of goods and services, distribution problems, and manufacturing struggles.

How does business acumen help the food and beverage industry solve some of these challenges? One — it is difficult for an executive team or a business to solve every challenge alone. They really need every leader inside of their companies pulling on the levers that affect profitability. In every choice, every decision, every behavior, every day. Especially around the costs which they can control. Some problems are wildly out of their control. Like commodity pricing, labor availability, labor costs, and supply chain disruption.

The way we see our food and beverage partners and customers dealing with those challenges is by focusing on the things they can control. Inviting all the leaders inside of those organizations to be connected to the things they can control. Contributing in small ways and big ways as they sort of work through the challenge.

We think business acumen can help organizations solve some of these challenges. As you build understanding, you build understanding around the things that you can control. And then encouraging leaders to pull on the levers they can control to help you solve some of the broader challenges that you face. For us, the answer is always engaging the employees to help solve the challenges. They can't control every challenge, they can't solve every challenge. But an awareness of the challenges and the implications to the business help leaders make good choices that will have positive financial outcomes. It might not solve the specific challenge but it might offset it in some small way. And I think that's a worthy goal.

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[powerboatguy]

There is a huge challenge in the industry as people are walking away from it. Unless there is culture change from operators in regards to quality of life issues and compensation, kids coming out of college are going to seek work elsewhere. Young managers are also going to seek other employment opportunities. The culinary side is really getting hit with suicide & depression rates with chefs and them walking from the industry. These issues have to be addressed before we talk about prices in the commodity markets. A lot of companies are finding themselves in a death spiral as they are understaffed and continuing to ask more from their current managers.