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800-791-7811
Fax: 519-668-1384
97 Bessemer Rd., #1
London, ON N6E 1P9
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©
2003 Stuart Daw
The year was 1969. We had just acquired a large
roasting plant in
Vancouver
rom the J. Lyons Co. A messenger rushed into our booth at the Canadian
Restaurant Association’s annual convention in Toronto. He told me there had just been a fire at
Vancouver’s only small, independent roaster. The roaster itself had fallen through
three floors to the basement. It was every coffeeman’s nightmare. In business
since 1946, and having been painfully built to around 400 foodservice accounts,
all of a sudden there was no coffee to deliver the next day. The customers would
be forced to buy from a competitor.
I quickly found the owner’s phone number and called him to offer a helping
hand. We had the capacity in the
Vancouver
plant to handle his needs. He gratefully and graciously accepted our offer and,
to paraphrase Humphrey Bogart from the movie Casablanca, it was the beginning of a great relationship. With no obligation on either
party’s part, it continued for many years, with our doing his roasting and
packaging, leaving him to keep in contact with his loyal customers. And of
course there was no competition between us.
All this came like a flashback in my mind, as a good-looking young man, I’d
say maybe a young 40, came over to me as I was about to give one of two
presentations at the Canadian Coffee & Tea Expo in Vancouver this past June.
He identified himself, and I quickly realized with some nostalgia that I was
looking at the grandson of the man I had called to offer help those 34 long
years ago.
Then he dropped another surprise. He suggested I go later to the area of the
show where the barista championships were being held, for his 18-year-old son
was competing there. I was immediately struck by an amazing fact: his son was
the fourth generation representative of a family that had been in coffee since
1946. And I had known all four, even though the relationship had started after I
had already been 19 years in the business.
It brought home a point that had me "connecting the dots." These four
men had obviously all loved the coffee business, and had the good fortune of
being suited to it. Such is not always the case, as evidenced by the second
generation failures one sees in OCS once in a while.
We at Heritage Coffee use the Omnia Profile Company for evaluating prospective
employees. And we have given seminars on the wisdom of using psychological
profiling, perhaps better described as behavioral testing, as a way to avoid
tragic hiring errors.
Our customers and indeed others who have opted to use the Profile have often
been amazed at the accuracy of this simply constructed test. Now Omnia have
expanded it to include students entering higher education -- young people who
are trying to find their direction in life, and are properly concerned about
their future. Omnia calls the online program CareerMaze, and they have a special
on now at $19.95 (US).
Given the generational situation in many OCS operations today, we at Heritage
have decided to help by underwriting one such test per customer. All you
as a client of Heritage have to do is select one young person who is the child
of anyone on your staff, and to whom it would be a real value. We have done this
for some of our own employees, and the results have been gratifying.
For example, a son of one employee was attempting to be accepted at a leading
law school this year, and had barely missed out. On taking the CareerMaze test,
he was struck by how accurately the results described his character and the
goals that he should consider. He told us that the test clearly indicated that
law was among those careers he should avoid.
We feel the importance of doing this kind of profiling is obvious, and because
our very name, Heritage, can signify continuity of succession, we would like to
make this offer from Heritage Coffee as a gesture of our hope for such
continuity in your business. All you have to do is give your name to your
rep, the name of the beneficiary of the test, the email address used by that
beneficiary, and we will do the rest for you. You have nothing to lose by
tapping into this program. We hope you find the results rewarding.
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