DALLAS — Innovation can take many forms, ranging from new product development to equipment technology … and everything in between.
During an executive panel discussion inside the American Bakers Association (ABA)’s NextGenBaker Leadership Form, which was co-located with NEXUS, powered by BEMA and ABA September 25-26 in Dallas, several industry leaders shared insight into how a company’s purpose can lead to innovation.
Panelists included Tony Martin, president of Martin’s Famous Potato Rolls; Dan Dye, CEO of Ardent Mills; Chimene Ross, president of Killer Brownie Co.; Clay Miller, president of Burford Corp.; and Bill Quigg, president of Richmond Baking Co. and More Than A Bakery. The panel was moderated by ABA’s NextGenBaker co-chairs, Lili Economakis, division VP, customer development non-commercial for Aspire Bakeries, and Bradley Cain, president of Cain Food Industries.
Purpose-driven innovation
The next generation of the industry’s workforce is driven by purpose, which is foundational to a company’s mission, vision and values. When those concepts align, there’s no stopping the innovation that flows from it.
“Our mission is to enhance the quality of life and standard of health,” Dye said. “We want to help make people’s lives better with the flour that we produce, the ingredients that we provide. Our people resonate with the fact that they’re making a difference. And that benefits all of us in the food industry.”
Ardent Mills displays its mission, vision and values in every meeting and event — internal and external — to bolster purpose for the company’s customers and workforce.
“I don’t think you can overcommunicate what you stand for,” Dye said. “It reinforces it to your people. And we try to make sure that people understand that values lead to better results. In fact, we have linked our values to our results.”
Developing purpose was personal for Ross. Although she grew up in the industry — her family founded Dayton, OH-based Dorothy Lane Market before launching Killer Brownie as a spinoff — Ross had pursued a career in healthcare before joining the bakery.
“Looking at what the purpose was for my family’s company had to start with me, personally,” Ross said. “I had to look at what my purpose was in helping people who were going to join this journey with me. Because anyone who is helping grow this business, I felt they were buying into who I am and what my purpose was, so I had to know the answer to that.”
Internally, Killer Brownie’s purpose is “creating an environment where people can reach their fullest potential.” That makes manufacturing ripe for innovation. During the course of what became a rebranding, the company took a deep dive into its core values in terms of what it wanted to stand for.
From that came an employee recognition program called Brownie Points, where people can highlight one another’s good work. While it has been excellent for team building and morale boosting, Killer Brownie leadership used it to uncover common themes around what people found important.
“We went through hundreds of Brownie Points,” Ross said. “From those, our core values came: Love, Tenacity, Creativity and Joy. These are the things that are so important to us that we often say we ‘hire to them and fire to them.’ They’re what we see as the values that are going to grow our company.”
Manufacturing — and food manufacturing in particular — can be a very black-and-white environment where hard skills rule the day. However, Killer Brownie has learned to adopt creativity into the business’ growth trajectory.
“You might think of creativity as artistic people,” Ross said. “But it’s more than that. Creativity is the ability to offer solutions for something where there is a need. And it’s also the ability to accept solutions. For us, that core value is important because it has built a foundation for innovation and growth.”
“These are the things that are so important to us that we often say we ‘hire to them and fire to them.’ They’re what we see as the values that are going to grow our company.” — Chimene Ross | president | Killer Brownie Co.
Purpose-driven business growth
For Martin, who also grew up in his family’s business, innovation lives in the company’s roots. Several years ago, Martin’s acquired the original bakery, which was just a small one-car garage, and moved it to their current headquarters to become “The Golden Roll: Martin’s Visitor Center.” All onboarding for new employees culminates with a tour of this facility where the Martin family started the business more than six decades ago.
“We show them the bakery and talk about where our roots came from,” Martin said. “And then we talk about our Pyramid of Success.”
Martin sees purpose from a multitude of angles, all pointing toward business growth. It’s about being a supplier of choice for customers as well as an employer of choice. And that means not only being good stewards of the workforce but standing up in terms of what it means to be a family-owned company, “working together fairly and with integrity.”
“Being a family business, we want to be an investment of choice,” Martin said. “We try to teach [our employees and coworkers] that it’s not just our investment, but they’re investors in this as well, so the better we do, the better they do. We emphasize those things that are a benefit to being part of the team, and hopefully they catch that spirit.”
At Burford Corp., which became part of Middleby Bakery in 2016, Miller works to disrupt a decades-long status quo to bring about changes that will help provide purpose for the workforce. Sometimes, little things like flexibility can make a big difference.
“As far as empowering the team, I think it’s about hiring the right people and perhaps changing the focus a little bit,” Miller said. “HR is a big part of that. Starting with that core, we can empower our employees — especially managers who are leading teams — to make decisions and even fail, knowing we have their backs and will support them.”
After COVID normalized remote work, especially for new college graduates who spent much of their higher education in isolation, the demand for hybrid work is a hot topic. And it’s not without challenges in an environment that still requires people on the plant floor.
Purpose-driven engagement
At Richmond Baking and More Than A Bakery, togetherness is an inherent part of the culture, starting with the name the company uses for its workforce: Family Members.
“There need to be opportunities and occasions for being together,” Quigg said, describing events like Family Festivals that take place on-site with food trucks, bounce houses and other activities where Family Members can bring their own families.
But in daily life, Quigg called out the importance of engagement, especially these days when teams can be scattered throughout the country.
“We’ve all been on Teams meetings where some people are paying attention and some are not,” he said. “We need to make sure there’s presence, even when they’re not physically in the room.”
That engagement goes back to the importance of core values, and for Quigg, it means focusing on open, honest engagement that fosters an environment of constructive, respectful dialogue, even when people disagree.
Dye pointed out that in open dialogue, listening might be considered a lost art. And it’s a skill that, when incorporated into values, can help develop the purpose the next generation is craving.
“I think sometimes as leaders, we think we have to be the only voice,” Dye said. “But listening can be just as important. We make better decisions when we listen to input from others.”
And when people feel their thoughts and ideas are heard, innovation just might be inevitable.
