Now that Burgerville is a household name in the Pacific Northwest, its parent company The Holland Inc., can focus on the big picture – the really big picture. With revenue topping $60 million in 2007, the Vancouver-based company has room to play on a business-to-business level and work toward bringing more sustainable, holistic practices to the food industry as a whole.
“It’s not about moral high ground,” new CEO Jeff Harvey said. It’s just the approach that seems to reap the most benefits for the company, its industry and the communities it serves.
The “approach” has largely stemmed from the company’s take on management and innovation – build leaders from within and then get out of the way – and given rise to The Holland’s Center for Responsible Community Leadership, which could eventually bring its unique methods of employee development outside the company.
On multiple levels, the companies’ leaders are generating ideas to lead the food industry into practices that are good for the environment, communities, employees and the bottom line. That includes offering affordable health benefits, cooking with local ingredients, recycling cooking oils into biodiesel, composting food waste and using wind-powered energy.
From the top
Jeff Harvey replaced Tom Mears as Burgerville’s CEO effective Jan. 2 when Mears became chairman of The Holland. The Holland now owns only Burgervilles – 39 in Washington and Oregon. The company sold its Vancouver Beaches restaurant in December 2007.
Mears made the shift to chairman in order to spend more time on community partnerships and sharing Burgerville’s sustainable business practices.
“Some people have gone to a conclusion that Tom is moving on or moving out, and this is nothing further from the truth,” Harvey said just before the transition was announced Jan. 9. “(He’ll be) directly engaged in what we’re up to.”
Harvey is the first to hold the CEO position outside of the company’s founding family.
“My children weren’t interested in pursuing the business, which is fine,” Mears said. “I have to set it up in a way so it can continue when I’m no longer here.”
A chief operating team
Filling Harvey’s former role will be a unique chief operating team comprised of Kyle Dean, chief financial officer; Tara Wefers, chief development officer; and Janice Williams, chief talent officer.
That leadership structure was in the works well in advance of this change. Harvey expects it to allow for the company’s planned growth, which includes new restaurants in 2008.
“As we looked at what’s going to be necessary for us to support this growth, the idea of a single person being accountable for operations wasn’t creative or powerful enough to ensure that operations will continue as we want,” Harvey said. He added later, “It started to emerge naturally. There wasn’t an individual who showed up, there were three.”
The transition wasn’t hard on the trio. This holistic approach to leadership reflects a commitment to the way Burgerville develops its employees, according to Williams.
“We (already) spent a lot of time on the same things that are going to move the company forward,” Dean said. “None of what we’re working on individually can drop.”
“We’re absolutely committed to being in alignment,” Wefers added.
And at times they even finish each other’s sentences.
Dean started as the company’s controller two years ago. He was hooked as early as the interview process, when he asked Burgerville reps why they were interested in company growth.
“They said, ‘Because we want to help strengthen communities’” he recalled. “They want to make a difference.”
Wefers came on board for similar reasons when she started as vice president of marketing in 2004. “I’d known (of) Burgerville’s commitment to development of people and values of serving with love,” she said. “I was listening for where I could make a difference in the world.”
Williams started with the company 23 years ago as a cashier, and is a prime example of its approach to leadership development. She later became a restaurant training manager and eventually director of the training department. Now she’s a top officer and had a role in creating The Holland’s Center for Responsible Community Leadership.
Big ideas, real results
Restaurant employees have been part of several other significant changes at Burgerville.
In 2006, an ad-hoc “Lean Green Team” of recently promoted restaurant managers took a look at financially viable ways to improve resource stewardship and productivity.
“From the culture and values Tom (Mears) generated, our job was to get the heck out of the way and let them go to work,” Harvey said.
The team’s front-line perspective allowed them to get down to the practical, nitty-gritty elements – garbage contents and kitchen processes.
The company teamed with the city of Portland’s Office of Sustainable Development to create a recycling and composting program that other companies could model, aiming to redirect 85 percent of Burgerville’s restaurant-generated waste. When it’s implemented at all 39 restaurants later this year, garbage hauling fees are expected to drop by $100,000.
In 2005 a team was charged to improve Burgerville’s health insurance offerings. The result was a plan that costs employees $15 per month and is available to those who work an average of 20 hours a week.
Harvey said he expected the new plan to increase recruitment and retention, but was surprised when it also upped productivity. Suddenly employees were interested in working harder to get extra hours and the benefits that came with them.
“We had people stepping up,” Harvey said. “It raises the bar throughout the company.”
All of this is increasing employee engagement and productivity while decreasing turnover, Harvey said.
While ideas for such initiatives are welcome from all levels, Burgerville implements new practices carefully.
“Everyone’s listened to, but what’s enacted really has to support the business case,” Williams said. “People are invited in to see where they can contribute. We come up behind them with development plans and support.”
“It’s about helping people express their empowerment,” Wefers added. “If you align your empowerment with the business case you’re going to see results very quickly.”
The next level
Harvey and Mears don’t seem worried about expanding their customer base because it’s happening naturally. The company saw growth of more than 10 percent in both 2006 and 2007. And the city of Ridgefield recently sent Burgerville a request to build a restaurant for its quickly developing community. It flattered Mears and Harvey, who are considering the offer but haven’t announced a decision.
Letters of intent are out for unnamed locations in Washington and Oregon, but there aren’t plans announced for expansion outside those states.
“We have so much ground to cover in the Northwest,” Harvey said. “We’re going to have to go where there’s alignment with our values.”
The company is developing ways to share those values outside of the customer or employee experience.
Concepts for The Holland’s Center for Responsible Community Leadership have been developed internally to teach employees ways to connect with their work personally and to lead creatively in myriad situations. Harvey would like to eventually market the program to community governments, businesses and other professionals.
Meanwhile, he and other Burgerville representatives are giving presentations at food industry and biofuels events. And over the next couple of years, The Holland will be working toward changing energy policies and supply point strategies.
The work could easily become political, but that’s not Mears’ intent.
“I don’t think we’ll ever become political advocates,” Mears said. “For us to get into politics would be sort of suicidal.” He envisions a community training program somewhat structured like the local Leadership Clark County.
Mears hopes the efforts will give other companies “a powerful base to come from to contribute.” He would like to see more of the industry unite under common causes like affordable health care.
“The food service industry hasn’t moved forward as others have as far as sustainability,” Harvey said. “This could actually be a history-making endeavor.”
Charity Thompson can be reached at cthompson@vbjusa.com.
