3 minute read
CHAIR’S MESSAGE
Where is Our Hope?
PHIL MILLER
C&S WHOLESALE GROCERS
If there is one thing each of us most definitely has learned in 2020, it’s never to say never.
We have navigated through this year amid multiple individual, personal and professional challenges.
Where is our hope?
How do we survive and ultimately thrive through these winds of chaos and change? The power of progress always comes through the journey of pain. During this journey, I ask where our hope is because it seems so close and yet so far away from reality.
Hope is an optimistic state of mind that is typically based on the expectations of positive outcomes, events, or circumstances in our life’s journey. We each generally long for our family to achieve certain goals and objectives in life. We generally have personal or professional goals and ambitions in our careers and businesses, and we all have dreams of what will bring our lives the most joy and happiness.
Our country’s fabric has always been challenged and sometimes fractured as we struggle to educate, communicate and listen to each other’s joys and pains. While that particular journey continues, we must remain diligent and committed to working daily to realize racial harmony with liberty and justice for all.
We live in a complex but interconnected world, a world where diversity has shaped the modern society and our businesses. The benefits for businesses that foster a diverse and inclusive workforce go way beyond the simple optics of race and gender. The coming-together of all people with unique life experiences is the real driver of innovation. Look at our industry; the very food we serve and eat every day is a direct result of a cultural amalgamation.
Substantial research shows that diversity brings many advantages to businesses and organizations: increased profitability and creativity, stronger governance, and better problem-solving abilities. Employees with diverse backgrounds bring unique experiences, all combined to create resilient and highly effective performing organizations.
The older generations typically view diversity through the lens of race and gender, but Millennials see diversity as a collection of varying experiences, backgrounds and individual perspectives. It is estimated that by 2025, 75 percent of our workforce will be made up of multicultural Millennials and our very important company discussions and decisions should be inclusive of their opinions as well.
The food industry is rapidly changing, not only globally but locally as well – from food retailing and production to how it is merchandised and even as to how and where it is grown. After the impacts of COVID-19, the future of food up and down the supply chain will result in new realities for our industry, and by example, the one-time hopes and dreams of vertical farming are now a reality.
Underlying these rapid changes are the collective forces of diversity and inclusion that influence how the world produces, transports, distributes, buys, sells, and consumes every item in our grocery stores.
Regardless of ethnicity, wealth inequality, or socioeconomic disparities, consumers will continue to research and identify
ways to improve their health and wellness through their food choices. The information empowering these decisions has never been more widely available. Not only does this dynamic mean gaps will continue to close, but it may even accelerate as new innovations are derived from the industry’s use of artificial intelligence and advanced learning platforms.
So what does the future hold? Where is our hope?
The future of retail is one that caters more exactly to consumers’ desires all who have a fragmented, shifting sense of identity. It is a future empowered by access to information and unlocked for businesses by technological innovation. This trend runs counter to how the industry has historically operated, a history where retailers enjoyed success with a very loyal and culturally static customer base.
Anyway you carve out our future, it’s almost impossible to see it as anything but demanding that we recognize the need to have a diverse and inclusive society and workforce which accounts for and pays close attention to the fragmented consumer base we all serve. And although we have a long way to go, as an industry that feeds every American, there is tremendous opportunity reinforcing the immediate need to embrace this future. ■
Criteria: Is a member of the Association in good standing, exceeded a minimum annual participation of $60,000 and participate in a minimum of five individual sponsorship opportunities with the California Grocers Association and/or CGA Educational Foundation.
Anheuser-Busch InBev Bimbo Bakeries USA C&S Wholesale Grocers Coca-Cola North America/Reyes Coca-Cola Bottling, LLC Kellogg Company Kimberly-Clark Corporation Molson Coors Tyson Foods, Inc.
