PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE
The Past, Present, and Future of CGA RO N F O N G PR ES IDEN T AN D CEO CALIFOR N IA GR OCER S AS SO CIATIO N
As the Association concludes its “Strategic Plan 2021,” it’s time to cast out in search of the next areas of growth for California’s grocery community. Former President Dwight D. Eisenhower once said, “Plans are useless, but planning is indispensable.” Eisenhower had a point. There’s no doubt that even best laid plans have been foiled by COVID-19. Planning requires us to envision a future that ultimately is unpredictable, and the future’s unpredictability is a lesson we’ve learned well during the pandemic. What’s more important, and I think this is what the former president was getting at, is setting long-term goals – which is also an outcome from the act of planning. Back in 2018, our long-term planning process led to the creation of three big-picture goals, and CGA leadership pledged to do the following by 2021:
Objective 1: Expand Our Reach & Influence Objective 2: Expand Our Community Objective 3: Expand Our Offerings Take “Objective 1: Expand Our Reach & Influence” as an example. The pandemic was the animating force for growing CGA’s connectivity to elected officials and the public. When food was flying off store shelves in March of 2020, the Association took to the airwaves to provide vital
industry information to the public and to dissuade Californians from hoarding food. I personally gave dozens of interviews across T.V., print, and radio. Today, we still reap the benefits from this all-out public-facing campaign as media members return to CGA in search of supply chain updates, inflation information, and numerous other topics. CGA’s relationship with elected officials developed in a similar way. The pandemic has kept the industry top-of-mind for policymakers. Whether it’s the state of the industry’s supply chain or ideas for how to keep stores safe during the pandemic, elected officials know they have a partner in CGA that can provide essential information and perspective. Our industry’s importance also led to me serving on Governor Gavin Newsom’s vaccine and economic recovery taskforces. This growing influence on the public and elected officials has a flywheel effect; it makes the Association more attractive to new members. CGA has expanded its community, as aimed for in “Objective 2.” The fantastic work of our grocery community has helped bring
new organizations into the fold and led to collaborations with groups such as the Fresh Produce & Floral Association. In turn, the industry’s influence grows as a robust membership community delivers a united industry voice. A stronger membership base means CGA can double-down on what membership offers, which was our aim with “Objective 3.” For example, prior to the pandemic, the Association built a series of store manager trainings which were very popular, and CGA partnered with Retail Tomorrow to introduce cutting-edge in-store concepts and new technologies at the 2019 CGA Strategic Conference. In the summer industry leaders gathered at the CGA Leadership Summit in Santa Barbara, Calif. The goal was to inspire the next set of strategic objectives that will go into our strategic plan for 2025. Again, the CGA staff is undertaking the planning process. And while the pandemic showed us how unpredictable the world can be and how unpredictability can upend our plans (to President Eisenhower’s credit), the organization’s ability to still reach our goals – the flexibility CGA demonstrated in doing so – shows how vital the planning process can be to forging an even stronger California grocery community. ■
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