When the FoodService Director editors first started tossing around the idea of an “influencers” issue, our minds immediately turned to, well, foodservice directors. After all, so much of the learning in this industry is a peer-to-peer experience, and it’s your influence that inspires the content in every single issue of this magazine.
Then we imagined the massive infighting that would occur if we tried to whittle ourselves down to a list of just 20 influential operators and thought better of it. There’s already enough arguing for us to do about which pizza toppings are best (pineapple and bacon are a personal favorite).
Instead, we’ve decided to look at the forces that affect all operators across the industry and bring you a list of some folks outside the everyday realm of noncommercial life. Some are hot names in the news right now, such as President Trump’s political picks Andy Puzder and Sonny Perdue; while others, like scientist Marc Edwards—who exposed the Flint, Mich., lead crisis—may have flown under your radar. Nonetheless, their careers, interests and ambitions are shaping the face of the industry today and beyond. Will on-campus drone delivery soon become the norm? Will all-beef burgers become a thing of the past, replaced by mushroom blends? Maybe, if our influencers have anything to say about it.
Elsewhere in this issue, we’ve examined other factors shaping FSDs’ day-to-day work, including the millennial workforce, the stalled overtime regulation changes and massive windows. That last one, a feature in the University of Colorado at Boulder’s latest dining hall, allows the front-of-house seating area to be lit only by daylight from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Hey, a solution doesn’t always have to be exceptionally complicated to have an influence on the way business gets done.
As always, we’d love to hear more about who or what’s having a big influence on your operations—so don’t hesitate to reach out. If you’d like to debate pizza toppings, well, we’d like to hear about that too.