This post is multipurpose; it’s such a great example. To my food service industry clients that make or distribute food service related products and services; this is right up your ally. For those of you who attended my first quarter discussion on shock proofing, this is a great example of just what we were talking about in terms of making lemonade from potential lemons.
I’m not going to repeat the entire article, but if you’re interested in how to prepare for potential economic storms or if you’re involved in the food service industry supply chain, you should read this article. The subject firm, Service Foods, correctly identified they were vulnerable in the event of a potential downturn and took steps to migrate their brand from a want or luxury item to a need. Notice you need a sequence of actions to make this work for yourself:
- Conduct a business threat assessment to determine, “what events could impact the organization?”
- Develop Plan A and some alternative Plan B’s to ensure that the business is in a position to survive and even thrive in the event of the likely and high impact threats.
- Work to put whatever preparations are needed in place as early as possible to avoid being unprepared.
- Return to step 1 periodically. Planning is not a static activity that once completed, it is done forever. It needs to be updated periodically.
What has been your experience? Do you consistently have a plan B? Do you ever wind up using it?
