Over a year ago, when Dr. Hal King reached out to me and asked me to contribute a chapter to his book, Food Safety Leadership in the Business of Food Safety,¹ I was honored to be included as an author alongside so many other experienced and well-respected food safety business leaders. For my chapter, Dr. King asked me to focus on how I was able to work within a large and global restaurant company to set up and sustain a successful food safety management program. My chapter is titled, "Building a Successful Food Safety Management Program by Learning the Business."

In my chapter, I shared the importance of establishing strong working relationships with suppliers, internal departments, and externally with public health departments and other food safety experts in the industry. When Food Safety Leadership in the Business of Food Safety was published and I was able to read the entire book, I was struck by how so many of the other contributing authors also mentioned the importance of establishing strong relationships with other key stakeholders in the business or externally as part of being an effective food safety business leader. For example, in his chapter entitled, "The Attributes and Priorities of a Successful Food Safety Business Leader," Jorge Hernandez of Wendy's shared the following key insight about being an effective food safety leader when he wrote, "The combination of being effective at achieving results that are part of the business and building relationships seems to be the 'secret sauce' of food safety business leadership success."¹

Working for McDonald's Corporation for 35 years and having our own "secret sauce," this statement by Jorge really hit close to home with me in terms of how important building relationships is to being an effective food safety leader. Establishing strong working relationships with suppliers has always been important to McDonald's in terms of business relationships, but it is also important from a food safety and quality standpoint. Ensuring a safe food supply is a critical part of any restaurant food safety program. This requires more than just sourcing and supplying the restaurants with food products; it also requires due diligence to make sure that all food suppliers have strong food safety and sanitation programs at their processing facilities.

By establishing relationships with food safety staff at your suppliers, you can better understand their food safety programs and work with them to improve their programs. Gaining a better understanding your suppliers' processes and systems allows you to ask better questions. Getting supplier input on specifications or new requirements is particularly important to make sure they are realistic and can be implemented. Bringing supplier food safety staff together to share best practices or even work collectively to solve system issues is a terrific way to encourage suppliers to optimize their food safety programs.

It also important to have strong working relationships with cleaning chemical suppliers to the restaurants, as well as service companies for third-party food safety audits and food safety technology. A key part of this is to have frequent touch points with key leadership staff for these companies to make sure the products, services, or technologies provided by these suppliers are meeting the needs of the restaurants and the food safety program, and that everyone is focused on the right things.

“By working shoulder-to-shoulder with other departments on projects, you can establish credibility and build trust with them.”

I also discussed the need to invest in building relationships with key people in operations and other departments at your company to help you integrate food safety into new procedures, products, or equipment and to implement food safety improvements or new programs. By working shoulder-to-shoulder with other departments on projects, you can establish credibility and build trust with them. They can then better realize the value of having food safety expertise at the table early in the development process, when new projects are starting up. By helping find solutions to opportunities or problems, food safety can be a business enabler rather than a barrier. In addition, having strong relationships with key stakeholders in your company can make it much easier to get buy-in to pursue a new food safety innovation or procedure. Other food safety leaders supported my view about the importance of building strong relationships with other internal departments or stakeholders in their chapters of Food Safety Leadership in the Business of Food Safety.

For example, in her chapter titled, "Global Food Safety Business Leadership: 'Being Right is not Enough,'" Mary Gertz of Yum! Brands writes, "Time is well spent during 'peacetime' to build relationships cross-functionally." This can help you get a seat at the table and ensure you are heard. Gertz also states, "We need to actively market the value we provide and intentionally build authentic relationships with cross-functional partners."¹

Sometimes, as a food safety business leader, you will encounter times when you identify a new procedure with a high degree of food safety risk. You always try to work to find a solution to mitigate the food safety risk, but if there is no readily available solution to address the risk, then you will need to educate leadership about the increased risk and make it clear that you are not in favor of allowing this procedure to move forward. In these situations, having established relationships with operations and other key stakeholders will make it easier to work through the issue, as they will better understand your role in protecting the brand and preventing food safety issues.

In her chapter titled, "A Strategy of Food Safety Business Leadership through a Journey in the Food Industry," Mary Wagner, formerly of Starbucks Coffee Company, also realized the importance of having strong relationships in dealing with issues and being successful throughout her many diverse roles in the industry. She writes, "Foster friendships and alliances so that you can quickly resolve issues before they start." She also notes, "This relationship-building can be hard work, but it essential to the business and for your success."¹

In my chapter, I mentioned that it is also important for a food safety business leader to develop relationships with other peers in their industry by participating in industry food safety groups and meetings. In this way, a food safety business leader can learn and stay current on what other companies are doing to manage and assure food safety. By sharing best practices and conducting informal benchmarking, you can better understand if your food safety program is on par or lagging in any key areas. Since food safety is not considered to be a competitive advantage, even companies that may be your direct competitors are often open to sharing what they are doing to manage and assure food safety. If you have established relationships with your peers in the industry, then you can reach out to get input or perspective on an issue or challenge.

In his chapter, Jorge Hernandez wrote about the need for food safety leaders to seek out support and advice through relationships. He wrote, "Effective food safety business leaders know that they cannot succeed on their own over the long run; even the most outwardly confident leaders need support and advice. Without strong relationships to provide perspective, it is easy for a food safety business leader to lose their way."¹

“While developing strong relationships with internal and external stakeholders can seem like common sense, understanding and connecting with others on an emotional level is a key trait of strong leadership.”

For a restaurant business, it is also important for food safety leaders to establish strong working relationships with key public health officials to gain insights into emerging public health issues and proposed changes to regulations, and to build trust. In his chapter, titled, "The Importance of the Food Safety Business Leader to the Regulatory Authority's Mission to Ensure Public Health," Steve Mandernach, J.D. of the Association of Food and Drug Officials (AFDO) discussed the benefits of fostering strong relationships in his former role as Bureau Chief for Food and Consumer Safety for the State of Iowa. He writes, "Building strong relationships between foodservice businesses and regulatory authorities tends to provide positive benefits to both."¹ I certainly found it reassuring to know that both parties benefited from having a strong working relationship.

While developing strong relationships with internal and external stakeholders can seem like common sense, understanding and connecting with others on an emotional level is a key trait of strong leadership, according to Harvard Business School Professor Linda A. Hill, Ph.D., one of the world's top experts on leadership. She also writes, "Leaders must foster relationships, build trust, and actively engage with their team members."²

According to Dr. Hill, it is also imperative for leaders to deliberately seek out people beyond their usual circles and make a point to interact with people from different backgrounds so they can learn more about their perspectives. Dr. Hill says, "Your goal is to build understanding and connection, which will create conditions for your mutual success."²

Other food safety leaders that supported the importance of building strong relationships in their chapters of Food Safety Leadership in the Business of Food Safety were Kerry Bridges of Chipotle Mexican Grill; Mick Miklos, CP-FS, formerly of Waffle House; and Jason Horn, M.B.A., CP-FS of In-N-Out Burger. Kerry Bridges stressed the importance and value of building good relationships to facilitate trust, and Mick Miklos concluded that the building of relationships played a key role in having influence as part of formal business leadership. Jason Horn wrote that intentionally fostering relationships is key to knowing your organization and to helping develop solutions that best serve the entire organization.

Developing relationships with key stakeholders in your company and with suppliers, regulatory officials, and food safety leaders in your industry is vital to being a successful food safety business leader. Building and maintaining these relationships are integral to ensuring food safety and driving continuous improvement for your business. Make sure to structure time for relationship-building into your work routine, and work with your colleagues and partners to develop strategies to achieve your goals and desired results.

References

1. King, Hal, Ed. Food Safety Leadership in the Business of Food Safety. BNP Media. October 30, 2023. https://www.food-safety.com/ebook/food-safety-leadership.
2. Knight, Rebecca. "8 Essential Qualities of Successful Leaders." Harvard Business Review. December 13, 2023. https://hbr.org/2023/12/8-essential-qualities-of-successful-leaders.