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Article Published in The Howard County Business Monthly
Written by: Paul Dongarra of Dionysus’ Kitchen, Inc.

Catering as a Human Resource and Sales Tool

We all know who to call when our business needs food. Those hard working men and women in the exciting field of catering can do more than fill the stomachs of your business associates. If properly orchestrated, catering can be a valuable business tool to help increase a company’s productivity and sales volume. How can this be? Surely you jest? Well actually no. Food and celebration have always been an integral part of socialization, meeting goals, and devising strategies. When our founding fathers were making plans for the American Revolution, they did so in coffee houses. Our religious holiday’s often culminate at or around the dinner table. Life defining moments like marriages, graduations, bar and bat mitzvah’s all use food as the foundation and primary vehicle to express joy and achievement. Cuisine, therefore, is not only a source of nourishment, but a tool that we as individuals can use to express ourselves, share our feelings with and make connections to other people.
The main question remains, how can this fact be applied to the day to day business processes we all encounter? The answers lie primarily within the realm of human resources and sales.

How often have you heard an employer state that the hardest part about running a business is finding and retaining good employees? How often have you met someone dissatisfied with their job because of lack of appreciation and/or inspiration? Where a management team can fail, a good caterer can flourish. Holiday parties and summer company picnics, can be transformed from a token thank you to employees into a celebration of them as individuals and as a team. They are events where meaningful appreciation can be demonstrated in a real memorable way. It is time where associates can let their guard down and learn more about one another. These events can be used as incentives to elicit a desired level of performance. They can serve as icons through out the year to remind a staff that they are capable of greatness. Food can also be presented in a way where the event can be used to increase team effectiveness. Large companies may choose to gather their department heads to develop menus for company outings. Meals can be presented in a way in which the team actually is involved in the preparation of the food itself. Why bother? Coming together in casual ways to brainstorm and solve problems have practical applications to the business world. These are moments where individuals can practice the rapidly disappearing art of risk taking and speaking their mind. Team members learn to listen and entertain all ideas offered. Management can observe the process to assess the human dynamics involved in their assembled teams and make adjustments where necessary. Practice in prototyping and assessing the feasibility of ideas in relation to a given capacity are all inherent in the process. In an age where innovation is the life blood of a company, such practices are necessary to become a product leader.

As a sales tool, the possibilities are even more astute. I believe that reporre building is the single most important aspect of the sales process. You see this in practice everywhere from networking events to the golf course. In order to sign on the line, most buyers require an emotional connection to that which they are purchasing and to those from whom they are buying. Should a sales force, therefore, be given the license to entertain prospects in meaningful ways, absolutely yes. When looking to entertain a client, the act of feeding should be secondary. The meal is used primarily as a vehicle to show the client that the business is willing to go the extra mile to earn and keep their business. A good meal can say you are important to us and we value you as a customer. It can also facilitate the type of emotional response needed not only for the primary purchase but for repeated ones as well.
Look at caterers, therefore, not only as purveyors of fine food, but as a support staff to human resource and sales strategies. Maximize the money you already spend by adopting the ideas present above into your business culture. Doing so will not only fill your belly, but increase your bottom line as well.

Paul D. Dongarra, President and Executive Chef of Dionysus’ Kitchen a local catering company based out of Columbia. Clients include Westinghouse, SONY Design Centers, Business Innovation Consortium, Prudential Securities, Borg Warner, Anderson Consulting, CW Amos, Bank of America, and Teknosurf.

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