Helping the Hungry

As v.p. of strategy and marketing, Steve Brady's role is to facilitate communication among the many (and varied) divisions of the company.

While helping to provide direction to the major Total Quality Management undertaking which is shaping the new Sodexho to ensure its place among the first tier contractors on both the American and global stage, he is personally dedicated to expanding corporate efforts on behalf of those who go hungry in this country.

Brady hopes that close-to-headquarters efforts in Boston will soon expand nationwide as other Sodexho units follow the example. And that, long term, other contractors who aren't yet addressing the need—will get the message as well.

Spread over the next three years, Sodexho's commitment is $300,000 targeted at funding the "Kitchen Works" (double entendre intended) project of the Greater Boston Food Bank.

"They receive a lot of perishables and have to turn them around really fast. We'll provide technical support and help them build a central kitchen. They've already created a menu of about 15 recipes to bulk package frozen food for delivery to soup kitchens."

"The next piece of the program will be packaging food for families as well as providing f/s training for individuals who are temporarily out of the job market. We've also made the commitment to hire as many as we possibly can."

Down the line, the third element of the plan includes developing some food products for sale to manufacturers.

"Hunger is a growing problem in the U.S., and as government continues to step back, companies need to step forth. Also, in each of our publications, we're running informative pieces suggesting ways our people can get involved," he says. (Last month, Spirit Cruises, Inc., a member of Sodexho's Leisure Division since 1990, hosted a major Society For Foodservice Mgmt.(SFM)-sponsored fundraiser aboard the Spirit of Boston.)

On target: As one of those helping to steer the company's TQM program, Brady underscores the importance of measurements.

"You can't tell if you're improving without having a baseline. We're not necessarily following any one approach, but one that we have used is 'Hoshin Kanri,' a Japanese methodology for deploying strategy throughout an organization—downwards, upwards and back down—so every one in the company understands how they can contribute and what's expected. This improves client as well as employee retention."