Specialty Food Magazine

JAN-FEB 2013

Specialty Food Magazine is the leading publication for retailers, manufacturers and foodservice professionals in the specialty food trade. It provides news, trends and business-building insights that help readers keep their businesses competitive.

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EDITOR'S LETTER A Powerful Vision for the Specialty Food Trade R egular readers of Specialty Food Magazine know that contributor Ari Weinzweig from Zingerman's Community of Businesses is a big proponent of writing a vision for your company. He has devoted many of his "Educated Retailers' Guide" columns to the benefits to be gained from the visioning process, including his latest in this issue beginning on p. 66. As Weinzweig espouses, a vision should be an aspiration, while also being strategically sound. This is not the time to be timid: The point of the exercise is to paint a picture of what you want to be. A vision must also be documented and communicated if it is to be taken seriously. While the process can be grueling, Weinzweig has written, it ultimately raises the motivation and energy of an organization as it comes together to create a future. The National Association for the Specialty Food Trade has been involved in exactly NASFT has created such a process that brings to life all that Weinzweig has championed. The NASFT recently a brand identity introduced a vision that aims to cultivate and expand over the next decade an even more that captures the thriving specialty food trade than the one that exists today. As the Association representing experience of nearly 3,000 producers, retailers, distributors, importers and brokers of these specialty foods, producing and the NASFT has created a foundation through its new vision for how it will support the entrepreneurs that compose our trade. enjoying specialty This vision features 10 points that touch on relationship-building, advocacy, resources foods. It plans a and outreach. Among them is a commitment to "define and defend the ideals that specialty rollout in 2013 with foods uphold." Foremost in NASFT's vision is the belief that what makes this trade unique is a first peek at the its group of engaged, passionate individuals crafting premium foods and beverages that conWinter Fancy nect with people on a level that's more personal than that of mass-produced foods. Food Show in The NASFT has committed to shaping a brand identity that captures that experience of producing and enjoying specialty foods. To that end, the Association has developed a San Francisco. new brand that it will roll out in 2013 with a first peek at the Winter Fancy Food Show in San Francisco. The vision was 14 months in the making, beginning in February 2011, with input from NASFT's Board of Directors and staff. The end result is a powerful and inspiring document that defines what the Association is, whom it serves and where it intends to go to benefit its constituents. You can read a full draft of NASFT's vision at specialtyfood.com/nasft/meet-nasft. And, if reading it rouses you to think about how visioning can benefit your own business, you can visit specialtyfood.com/onlinehighlights to read more of Weinzweig's writings about why and how to embark on the process. |SFM| By Denise Purcell Editor, Specialty Food Magazine dpurcell@nasft.org HAVE A COMMENT? facebook.com/fancyfoodshows Go to specialtyfood.com/dpurcell/vision. JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2013 1

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