Foodservice Equipment & Supplies magazines is an industry resource connecting foodservice operators, equipment and supplies manufacturers and dealers, and facility design consultants.
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60 • FOODSERVICE EQUIPMENT & SUPPLIES • MAY 2015 FE&S;: You don't seem risk averse. In fact, many of your people say it is ok to make a mistake. Explain how trying things and some- times failing makes your company better? FC: Mistakes: you have to go out and make them. The problem is not making the mistake. The problem is not acknowledging the mistake. The real mistake is when you keep doing the same thing the same way even though you know it is wrong. Acknowledge the mistake, learn from it, reevaluate and move forward. I consider the cost of a mistake tuition because you are getting an education. We hire young people and they come with a certain skill set. What's unique about the foodservice industry is that there really is not a degree they can show up with and say they are ready to go in our in- dustry. So what we do is try to encourage them to try stuf and make mistakes. FE&S;: Describe the attributes the ideal Clark associate will have. FC: We hire for two things: intelligence and work ethic. If they have intelligence and work ethic we can teach them everything else and they can get up to speed in this industry real quick. FE&S;: You really place an emphasis on hiring young people. So many people in today's foodservice industry complain about not having enough young talent but you really do something about that. You motivate your associates to bring that younger perspective to the company. Why? FC: Young people don't come with baggage or any preconceived notions about how a business should run. When you start with someone out of college you have a fresh plate. They are only learning that culture for the frst time. Yes, we have a lot of people from a lot of diferent industries, but when you start fresh with people you have a better shot of keeping and maintaining that culture. FE&S;: There is an opportunity for everyone in this business. People always talk about the fact that if you are an accountant or an engineer there's plenty of opportunity for you in foodservice. And yet once they are brought into the business, everyone seems to celebrate the foodservice component more so than their other skills. You, though, go at a slightly diferent angle. Your company looks for people that are passionate about account- ing or even purchasing. FC: All of those talents we hire can be pulled from various industries and applied to food- service. Whether it is a web developer or an accountant or someone in purchasing, all of those skills they can get in other industries. But our management and training helps make them specialists in foodservice. And we do spend a lot of time training and mentoring our associates. You constantly have to be trying things. Cash and carry was a major change for us. The frst couple years we got into that business, I was thinking what did we do? And then it started to come around and as we started to add stores we were able to spread the costs of advertising, for example, across all of the locations, and it really has become a successful entity. FE&S;: Your company has a unique culture. How does it make Clark Associates successful? FC: As the company has gotten bigger, we fght to keep a corporate-type culture from getting into our organization. We still like to think of ourselves as a bunch of smaller companies strung together. Every- one has a job to do but nothing is beneath you. We treat everyone like adults. Everyone has their own responsibilities and there is a strong work ethic. FE&S;: How do you keep the individual business units with all of their diferent skill sets rowing in the same direction? FC: Each one of those businesses requires specifc skill sets and when you are hiring you try to address those specifc skill sets. And fnding people with those specifc skill sets and matching them to the appropriate positions has made us successful. We have some great unit presidents and unit manag- ers. They do great in their felds because they have a natural born skill set that allows them to be successful in that industry. FE&S;: What is the experience you want the customer to have? FC: It depends on which channel you are talking about. Diferent channels will provide diferent experiences for the customer. They might be someone that's price conscious or they might need some handholding or even higher level skills such as engineering. So focusing on the customer gets them to the right place where they need to be. FE&S;: The foodservice industry has been slow to embrace technology while your company has been quick to embrace it. How does this help you run your business better and service your customers better? FC: Technology at its core is a cost savings part of the business. The more you can do with technol- ogy, the more you can lower your costs. Why the industry doesn't embrace technology and do more with it — I am not sure. I don't see how you can't do more with technology today. When I get to work with these young people that are so smart and so fast, it makes me work harder just to keep up with them because I won't let them pass me up. FE&S;: Your company is very data driven and the management team measures everything it does. Why is being that data-driven important? FC: Sharing that data is something that's always made sense to me. The more our associates know, the more decisions they can make for themselves. So we share that data as much as possible. We are really empowering them. FE&S;: While your dealership difers greatly from others in the industry, the one tie that binds you all is the fact that Clark Associates, Mistakes: you have to go out and make them. The problem is not making the mistake. The problem is not acknowledging the mistake. The real mistake is when you keep doing the same thing the same way even though you know it is wrong.