Food. We eat at least three times a day. And if we are not shopping for groceries, ordering takeout or sitting down for a fine dining experience, then we are making a plan to do so in the near future.
With all that opportunity to eat, comes opportunity to serve. And the food industry is busting with opportunities to serve in areas unbeknownst to many.
Renee Guilbault, Food Industry Leader and Activist, candidly shares how to join, how to navigate and how to step up and lead within a trillion dollar industry in her new book, A Taste of Opportunity, released in January. Renee has held leadership roles at Pret A Manger, Bon Appetit Management Company at Google, Compass Group and held a role on the Los Angeles Food Policy Council Leadership Board and its Coordinating Committee.
Here’s an excerpt from the book! You can also catch Renee’s recipe for an amazing Sausage and Baby Kale Omelette in our cookbook!
A Taste of Opportunity Excerpt
Chapter Eight: The Management Big Five — Balancing the Flavor of Leadership
THE MOST INCREDIBLE, memorable chefs in the world are able to balance their plates masterfully between the five basic tastes: sweet, salty, bitter, sour, and umami. The Big Five. Chefs who get this wrong don’t last very long. The way a dish is balanced is “make or break” in terms of whether a patron will enjoy the experience and whether they will love it enough to come back in search of more.
There’s a second Big Five that every food business in every sector of the industry has to balance successfully as well: sight, sound, smell, taste, touch—the five basic human senses. Whether it’s packaged cookies from Mondelēz, or gorgeous, fresh bowls from Chopt Creative Salad Company, or a plate of butter-poached lobster from your favorite fine dining restaurant, they all have to deliver these five experiences brilliantly if the business is going to survive over the long term.
Everything communicates in the world of food, so things like packaging, design, materials, lighting, furniture, the sound of a bite or of a room, and so many others factors all matter just as much as how a given dish looks and tastes. You and I could have an endless conversation about the various sensory touch points that affect the customer experience and the very real business purpose behind most of it. (Like the fact that hard, uncomfortable seating is sometimes intentional. Yep. True!) But for the purpose of this exercise, let’s boil it down to this: Balancing the sensory, human experience matters enormously in the food world, and the intentionality behind it is fierce.
And that brings us to yet another Big Five, and this one is all about you, your career, and how well you can align your efforts to meet these critical demands:
- The needs of the business
- The needs of your bosses
- The needs of your customers
- The needs of your team
- And, finally, the needs of yourself
I call these the Management Big Five. These business pillars make up the lens you need to look through every time you make a decision in management. When you step into the role of manager, you’ll soon learn that keeping them in balance is the difference between amateur hour and respected professionalism.
I remember being struck by how heavy, and sometimes impossible, it felt as I realized I had to consider all of these different and complex areas and relationships on top of the other Big Fives in my professional life. I mean, was I supposed to become a professional juggler all of the sudden? How many balls of thoughtful consideration can one actually keep in the air? As it turns out, quite a few.
The understanding that the game had changed—along with the criteria for success by which my performance was going to be measured—was a defining moment in my career. So please allow me to share this hard-earned pearl of wisdom with you. Once you step out of hourly roles and into a salaried role, the way your performance is going to be judged will make a complete pivot. It is no longer about what you can do with your own bare hands. Welcome to management.
