‘Take risks to lead’. Not the most revolutionary of thoughts, but a central theme for drum I’ve been beating this week. Yesterday, I was fortunate to be invited by Entegra to speak at their flagship Connect 26 event. Bidfood UK and Open Doors had a great presence in the supplier exhibition (particular kudos must go to Anthony Hall, Gemma Benford and Stuart Finn for their work there) but when it came to my keynote, I wanted to focus less on our work, and more on the WHY. The experiences of the last 3 years have shown that getting the type of senior leadership at the event to see/hear firsthand the realities of trying to build in food, is how things happen. It was a degree of a risk to take that approach and try to positively challenge the room, but risk was at the heart of the talk: One side, was explaining the risks in involved in being a F&B entrepreneur. (Spoiler: It’s huge amounts) But the big ask to the room was for risk from the buying and operating side. The role of the at-scale suppliers is to make life as easy as possible for customers, and keep the switching costs high. Marketing spend, resources, in some cases, even ranging. Its a compelling case. But, it leads us all to the same places and whilst they might be safe, they might always be the best. That was effectively my pitch to Andrew and Tim when we first spoke about creating Open Doors- and now i’m fortunate to have the platform to talk about that more widely, it was my pitch again: Collectively, let’s take some risk to lead a better start-up food system. What that risk is can vary, but carving SKUs, budgets, even time can all play that role. It won't always be right, it might not always be universally popular, but that’s leadership, and the upsides when it's right are there to be had. It’s particularly apt for today, given the Waitrose & Partners decision to stop selling Mackerel due to overfishing. Some customers will be disappointed, some trade bodies will moan, but in one statement, they’ve owned the subject and may well influence an industry. And that's the point, as nothing changes if nothing changes. ++ A particular thanks to Richard King for taking a risk and giving me a slot.
I am mourning the mackerel already
Andrew, thank you so much for being apart of our Connect 26 event. Your presentation certainly resonated with me and the audience. We really need to support SME’s and producers. So many great products and ideas coming to market and we all need to help them succeed
Thank you Andrew for your support and participation! It was a thought provoking and engaging session.
Influence isn’t just about safe decisions, it’s about shaping the system, even when it’s uncomfortable.
If everyone keeps making the safest choice, nothing really moves forward. Creating space for new brands and new ideas does take risk, but that’s how real change happens.
Here’s to the positive leaps and here’s to making the risks less risky by working really collaboratively to make them a success!
Really enjoyed this session Andrew, I thought you made some excellent, insightful points that really got me thinking! Thank you!
Karen, Henry, apologies for the repost, I got sent a pic from the talk so updated with that