Partnerships Through Transparency by Kristopher Spector

My audience is Sysco Executives and high profile customers of theirs.

Transparency is the New Green.

Currently the restaurant industry in America is the 2nd largest private sector employer. Last year alone there were $709 billion in sales and employed 14 million Americans.

Arizona is projected to be #1 in growth at 23.8% for 2015-2025.

Sysco is the largest food distributor in the United States with roughly 50% of the food distribution to restaurants, resorts and other establishments. In 2015 Sysco did $50 billion in sales. In comparison the 2nd largest distributor is US Foods who did roughly $17.9 billion in 2015.

But the food industry is changing and consumers are starting to wake up.

55% of all consumers believe the American food production is on the wrong track

With Millennials that number is over 80%.

Most restaurants in Arizona fail within 2 years. Los Angeles 1 year and New York City 6 months.

Also the Climate is changing. In recent years you have seen the largest floods and worst droughts on record. Demand keeps increasing and food production can not supply the demand.

Climate change is an Economic Tax on the cost of food!!

The National Restaurant Association came out with their top 20 food trends for 2016.
1. Locally Sourced Meat & Seafood
3. Locally Grown Produce
4. Hyper Local Sourcing
6. Environmental Sustainability
9. Sustainable Seafood
19. Food Waste Reduction / Management

Clearly times are changing and the food distributors better listen!

Currently when a restaurant or establishment wants to look into sustainability and what they can do, they look to Sustainability consultants like myself.

We come in and fix problems. Streamline food ordering, clean up process and procedures. Help with employees and of course make sure that the establishment is doing a better job of helping the environment.

But why should these establishments come to a consultant like myself. There has be to a smarter and more efficient way!

Lets change it and get rid of consultants like myself and instead have the food distributors like Sysco do the consulting.

Sysco Partnerships.

This program would assign a market specialist who would work directly with the establishment to develop a customized program free of charge to the customer. Some of the programs would include the following.

Menu Analysis created by Sysco would show not only the nutritional value of the items being ordered but show you complete transparency from the farm to the table. The customer will know where exactly the item has been and how long the item has been in certain places. Giving the customer this type of transparency is unheard of in the industry and will be a complete game changer.

Lets not stop there. What if Sysco was able to show the complete CO2 of every item that it sold!

No longer would the large food buyers have to develop their own numbers for their sustainability reports. Sysco would be able to hand them the numbers directly.

Sysco would take the place of large consulting firms like Deloitt and E&Y saving our customers millions.

Allow our customers to buy food within 250 miles of there location. It doesn't matter if you are in New York City or Ajo, Arizona you will be able to see what is available within 250 miles. Also Sysco will help you by showing menu items that can be created by buying local.

Food that is in season.

Showing the customer every item that is in season and helping them make smart more sustainable choices than buying food from half way around the world.

Menu Items created by Sysco chefs will be shown through out the company. We want to work together as a company and our clients should be able to get Sysco inspired items.

But this isn't going to stop at just food. The Market Specialist will be able to bring in sister companies like Tork and EcoLab to help increase product awareness and restaurant efficiency. Everything from front and back of the house will be looked at. We want to make sure that the customer gets the full benefit of using Sysco and this will hopefully end up in increased sales.

Employee Engagement needs to be a cornerstone of any project. Remember the four E's Empower, Engage, Enhance and Enable. The Market Specialist should be able to walk into any one of their customers and know everyone. If one employee wants to be the captain of a recycling initiative then lets help that employee get it off the ground. Owners will now be able to use Sysco for all training programs and classes that they may need. Remember we are trying to create a partnership and Sysco needs to be there for the customer.

Social Media is the new frontier and Sysco should be leading the food distribution market with social media. Using Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube and more we will be highlighting our customers and employees daily. Our customer should be able to be highlighted with 10-15 second videos. If Sysco has a great new item then lets post about it. Every market specialist needs to be able to help not only improve Syscos social media presence but our partners as well.

So you are all probably asking yourself WHY??

Sysco needs to do this because we need to grow loyalty. The food market is a penny business and the last thing you want to do is bid every year for a customer. By engaging with our customer and offering programs that no one else can offer we will not only build loyalty with them but they will build loyalty with us. This is a partnership in success. The better our customer does the better Sysco does.

Instead of being known as "good things come from Sysco." Sysco will be known as "The most successful partnerships start with Sysco."

Building partnerships through transparency will lead to higher loyalty, lower turnover and profit growth like we have never seen before.

Thank you