Why Relationships Matter

By Jim Prevor

Originally printed in September, 2016 [with some editing to account for changes over time.]

What have we learned in publishing Produce Business for [nearly 4 decades?] A bunch … and especially this: WHEN ALL IS SAID AND DONE, IT IS ALL ABOUT PEOPLE.

It was more than a quarter century ago that a woman just out of college, working for her family business, was given a task of promoting a new product innovation. The product was broccoli coleslaw, and Lorri Koster of Mann Packing had been charged with turning this innovation into a winner. Lorri’s brother, Joe Nucci, led the development of the project, originally imagined as a way to take the broccoli spears, which were a byproduct of the company’s successful floret business, and turn what was a cost to dispose of into a valuable ingredient.

Produce Business was one of a very few produce companies to have a booth at [The Food Industry Association’s (FMI) annual event in Chicago] — mostly because this columnist had the idea that it would help our media brand to wave the flag in front of supermarket CEOs. Lorri was given the job, but not much budget, and she was looking to unveil the product at FMI. We were not allowed to share a booth, but there was no rule about what favors we could give away. Some exhibitors gave away pens, squeeze balls, magnets or made luggage tags — we gave away servings of Mann Packing’s new Broccoli Cole Slaw!

So, Lorri and this columnist worked the show, giving away a lot of magazines and even more of Mann’s Broccoli Coleslaw. The thing about this was there was no deal, no promise to advertise, no charge for booth-sharing. We did it for the best of all reasons: friendship. We wanted Joe and Lorri to succeed, because we were young people, just starting our careers, and we felt we would find success together. Money? We just figured if we did the right things with the right people, it would all work out.

Yet things do not always work out according to plan. As in all life, there has been some heartache too. Joe Nucci died while he and his family were on vacation with my family at Walt Disney World in Florida. Joe was very successful, right on the verge of becoming chairman of PMA [now IFPA] — but our plans and expectations were thwarted.

But there has been joy. New business ventures, children growing, Lorri and Joe’s sister, Gina, becoming a big part of the company [later to sell to Del Monte] and their sister, Dee Dee, became close friends. One of Joe’s sons interned for us at Produce Business for a summer. Lorri sent a decade of baseball reports. I flew to Salinas when Lorri became chairperson of the Grower-Shipper Association of Central California to give a speech and share in the celebration of her achievement. We launched a Product Innovation Award in Joe’s honor, which we still present each year at the New York Produce Show and Conference.

The thing that has become obvious is that all too many executives in the industry focus solely on immediate, self-serving returns and quid pro quos. Many companies often leave decisions in the hands of people whose focus is very narrow. It could be a retail executive who disregards relationships for the cheapest price or pushes a private label program, or a grower/shipper who dumps a wholesaler that has sold its product for 100 years. Lacking from the company culture is a mechanism of engaging in such a way as to capture the long-term values inherent in a great relationship.

We see it in marketing a great deal. At retail, cross-merchandising non-produce items in produce may increase overall sales for the retailer, but if the “ring” goes to another department, the produce director may not be interested. Equally, selling lemons in the seafood department may be credited to produce, but the seafood director may not be interested because he or she is not evaluated on overall store sales and profits but only on the sales and profits of the seafood department.

Even when it comes to decisions about exhibiting at trade shows, sponsorships or advertising, the overall benefits to the company may not be realized by the person making the decision. In many cases, I have seen huge deals being signed, new employees being hired, new channels of distribution being created, etc., because of these marketing tools. And yet, the person in charge of the booth or ad is only interested in getting “leads” and does not renew.

And, in their narrow calculation, none of these things matter. You can’t blame them — that is their job — but the challenge for companies is to ensure that decisions are not made on such narrow grounds.

In both our business and personal lives, what is the real source of strength? Isn’t it having people who you know are always there to back you up? In engaging with a customer or a vendor, the primary interest should be on the value of the relationship. The cost of specific things becomes the ante you pay to have some equity on these relationships.

There are hundreds of things people do for each other in this business … calls made on behalf of another, meetings taken, deals done. The key to success is rarely transactional. So, from the story of how this columnist and his industry friends stood at that FMI convention so long ago, and from the sincerity of the desire to simply help each other, much has grown.

Produce industry icon Jim Prevor, who founded Produce Business magazine in 1985, died Nov. 7, 2022. To honor his legacy as a maverick thought-leader, this space spotlights the best of Prevor’s “Fruits of Thought” column, which garnered more than 200 awards in business journalism.