CDM, CFPP of the Month - October 2022
Job Title: Director of Contract (Business) Analytics at CPFD since Dec. 2021
Employer: Coastal Pacific Food Distributors, Inc.
Job Location: Stockton, California
Years at Current Facility: Almost 4 Years (since Dec. 2018)
Years in Current Position: 3 Years with Food Category Manager/ Almost 1 Year with Director of Contract (Business) Analytics
CDM Since: October 2012
Why did you decide to become a CDM, CFPP?
While I was pursuing my MBA degree & working as a Culinary Teaching Assistant at Johnson & Wales University in Providence, RI, I prepared the CDM/CPFD exam to learn more about Nutrition, Foodservice and Food Safety. CDM & CFPP credentials have been with me for the past 10 years since 2012. Regardless of my job title or where I work in this food industry, I was always able to use my knowledge & skills as a CDM & CFPP. It means that both Nutrition & Food Safety are very important in any foodservice-related work.
What are your main responsibilities in your current position?
In December 2018, I started my position of Food Category Manager with CPFD (Coastal Pacific Food Distributors, Inc./ www.cpfd.com) which has been the SECOND LARGEST world-wide military distributor of food & related products. Our company has been dedicated to serving the needs of the "US military" since 1986. My food "supply chain" profession was started intensely from this point of time, and it recently led me to be promoted to a Director of Contract (Business) Analytics for all the contract divisions within our company starting from December 2021.While I was working as a Food Category Manager, I was in charge of overseas military commissary (grocery stores) & military retail (food courts/hospital/mini marts) locations in Guam, Japan & Korea. Since I was overseeing and supporting our locations remotely from our HQ office in California, I paid extra attention on the supply chain side to let our locations have enough food ingredients & all the supplies "on time" for their food production & sales happening in each day. With my passion & diligence on communicating well with all of the related divisions & team members, researching & benchmarking industry trends, sourcing & negotiating with different suppliers very strategically, I was able to increase our sales while lowering our food costs (COGS) in the past few years at CPFD. While the sales were increasing significantly, I was also able to control our Product GP (Margin) being always over the budget and staying positive throughout each year. I was making that happen by sourcing, negotiating, purchasing, shipping & communicating properly responding to the current supply chain trends & challenges in each time.
Even as a Director of Contract (Business) Analytics now, I still deal with sourcing/pricing various key food items and provide guidance/advice to our food service staff on Menu, Nutrition, Food Production, Inventory Management, Food Safety and more. That is the reason why I recommend CDM & CFPP credentials to someone who would like to keep growing in this foodservice industry. Once again, Nutrition & Food Safety are important to any food service professionals.
How do you organize your time at work to make sure you accomplish all your responsibilities?
I have been considered as one of the most “efficient” people at work. I was able to manage various tasks & projects efficiently at the maximum level by Prioritizing Tasks, Utilizing All Available Resources, Communicating Well, Focusing on Teamwork (figuring out clearly what I need to do & what others need to do), and etc. Learning and mastering our company’s tools (various software) was also another key recipe for me to be able to accomplish all my responsibilities “always on time”.
What is an example of an innovative way you have made change at your facility and how did you implement it?
As a CDM, CFPP I implemented a new Nutritional Labeling program successfully by working closely with our field culinary & HQ IT teams, and I used it to promote our food (Grab & Go) products to customers as a part of our marketing initiatives. This nutritional labeling program became informational & also promotional to our customers.
What was your first job in the foodservice industry?
I had an externship program at the Ritz-Carlton hotel in Naples, FL (December 2008 - April 2009) which was one of their few flagship hotels in the United States. It was a part of the Associate Degree program at the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, NY. During the 4-month period, I was able to extensively learn how foodservice runs at all food outlets in a large hotel setting.
Who has been your biggest mentor in food service and how have they helped shape your career?
Fortunately, I had numerous foodservice professionals & chefs (at work and schools) who inspired and guided me to who/what I am now. They were/are all very talented and admirable. With each mentor, I learned from them a lot first and then end up with my own ways & solutions next. That was my recipe for constantly growing professionally in this industry for the past 15 years.
What are the biggest challenges you face in your position and how do you handle them?
Any “Food Safety-related” topic would be one of the biggest challenges in this foodservice industry (in general). And as a CFPP, I took care of various food safety related topics/events smoothly & professionally in each time. In each case, I tried to find out “root causes” quickly, came up with (both long term & short term) solutions promptly, provided them to our field teams and also followed up with government food safety officials. At CPFD, I have been sharp & clear on handling any food safety incidents fully based on my experience and knowledge gained in the prior years (as a CFPP since 2012).
What is your favorite part of your job?
As I mentioned, our company has been dedicated to serving the needs of the "US military" since 1986. I have been proud of serving our US troops & families in the past 3.5 years. As a Food Category Manager, I was directly supporting our foodservice operations overseas inside of US military bases. As a Director of Contract (Business) Analytics, I am currently supporting our Operations teams “in the backend” by providing (business and/or supply chain) analytics & insights, so that our teams would be able to supply food & related products smoothly in the most reasonable & efficient ways.
How do you stay up to date with current innovations and trends?
I check through all the industry articles and news online in each day. For example, I check through your ANFP LinkedIn (news feed) & website (www.anfponline.org) pages regularly. I am very grateful that we can access a lot of information just by few clicks online these days. Networking through professional social media (like LinkedIn) has been the most efficient way for me to listen from other professionals & know what’s currently going on in the industry. As you know, “Supply Chain” is one of the hottest topics in our foodservice industry these days.
How do you envision the foodservice industry changing in the next few years?
After/during the pandemic situation, we have been going through “new normal” situations in various topics at work. Remote working, Relying More on Technologies, Online Food Ordering & Deliveries would be just some of the examples. At CPFD, I have been dealing with our Business Intelligence tools to pin-point our operational issues/opportunities in Sales, Product Mix, Product GP, Staffing, Supply Chain, and etc. intensely in the past few years. Approaching foodservice topic more “systematically” by looking through DATA & Key Metrics would be our “new normal” to the industry moving forward, since that’s the best way for us to know/analyze our operations and take proper actions promptly on time.
What is your advice to those just getting started in the foodservice industry?
I was an university student with an Urban-engineering major about 20 years ago, and I joined in this food service industry kind of late compared to other professionals. However, I have been very passionate about what I do/did and kept improving myself as a foodservice professional in the past 15 years or so. I believed (still believe) that “how long” I work on something is not as important as “how well” I work on it at the time. I proved that there is "no limit" and there are great "potentials" with very passionate & hard-working professionals. I can deliver this clear message to other professionals (especially who just started their career journey), and then further inspire them to aim high, work hard & achieve big.