The First Rule of Creating a Winning Culture: We Don’t Hire Knuckleheads!
How do you build and sustain a purpose-driven organization? Chef Joy Crump (FOODĒ and Mercantile) and HUNGRY Chairman Jeff Grass...
About This Episode
How do you build and sustain a purpose-driven organization? Chef Joy Crump (FOODĒ and Mercantile) and HUNGRY Chairman Jeff Grass join Debbie and Billy Shore to talk about the entrepreneurial experience and the core values that drive their organizations. “Our core purpose is to make the lives we touch better - anything we do has to be better for everybody,” says Grass about how his company is elevating the office catering industry while creating new career paths and better pay for chefs. “Loving is management and kindness is part of what can give you structure and discipline. People respond to that,” explains Crump about what underlies the success of her restaurants in Historic Downtown Fredericksburg, VA. In building their teams, both guests are adamant about staying true to the culture they’ve built. “If we sense that you’re not kind or not concerned about the guest experience we won’t welcome you back,” says Crump. “Values and purpose are what help create a foundation for a good culture, and we focus a lot on our people and how to develop them,” notes Grass. Learn from two purpose-driven entrepreneurs explaining why a focus on core values is the key to building a successful business.Resources and Mentions:
Joy Crump
A culinary graduate of the Art Institute of Atlanta. She began her home-based business, FOODĒ in 2009. By 2011, Crump partnered with Beth Black, transitioning FOODĒ to a brick and mortar in Historic Downtown Fredericksburg, Virginia. In 2014, the duo opened their second restaurant Mercantile, also in Fredericksburg. And in May of 2017 they added microbrewery 6 Bears & A Goat to their restaurant group. Crump is an executive chef, restaurateur and property owner with more than 15 years of experience in Culinary Industry training and management. Crump has appeared as a chef contestant on the Emmy Award-winning “Top Chef,” cooked at the James Beard House in both 2016 and 2017, and is actively involved in the James Beard Foundation’s Impact Programs for Food Policy, Chef Advocacy and Change.
Jeff Grass
Has been Chairman of HUNGRY Marketplace since 2017. He is an entrepreneur and engaged leader who is motivated by big, game changing ideas that will make our world a better place. He believes purpose-driven, people/customer-centered and goal-oriented organizations will succeed. Big ideas are hard to achieve, but he relentlessly pursues them with courage, conviction and positivity.
FOODĒ
FOODĒ is about community, through and through. Born in historic downtown Fredericksburg in 2011 with a simple concept: find the best ingredients the region has to offer, hire the most talented team possible, cook the kinds of foods that evoke fond memories, and most importantly, do it with love. From there, the community of Fredericksburg responded. Today FOODĒ is a bit bigger and has a hip little sister called Mercantile and a home in the Historic National Bank Building. FOODĒ is still built on the same principles: do it with love and everything else will be fine.
No Kid Hungry
http://nokidhungry.org/Share Our Strength’s No Kid Hungry campaign is ending child hunger in America by ensuring all children get the healthy food they need, every day.
HUNGRY
Disrupting the $21 billion office food industry with a sharing economy-based, digital marketplace where top local chefs provide insanely awesome office catering. HUNGRY chefs provide offices higher quality, more authentic food and much greater variety, but at prices lower than what they typically order. For great chefs, HUNGRY enables access to offices that want to provide their teams delicious, healthy food and a unique culture enhancing experience. HUNGRY believes office managers deserve a far easier process for ordering and time saving ways to easily accommodate the complex demands of diverse teams. Employees deserve better food that better matches their tastes and preferences. Chefs deserve greater economic opportunity, recognition and culinary freedom.
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