Find, Move, Build. You may have noticed them in our communications lately, on the website, and in our marketing materials. It was one of those requests where the partners wanted to take the Fresh Avenue business model and condense it– which resulted in these three one-syllable words: find, move, build.
We wanted to take a moment to explain what is going on with these three impactful words. Each are intentional, selected to say the right thing at the right time. Each effectively communicates a business unit, what it does, and what it will do for you. With only thirteen letters, you begin to see a proven methodology from years of industry experience that grows business. Okay, I don’t want you to think I’m just hyping this all up, rather let me tell you how these three words reveal a strategy that is intentional, executed by an effective team, with each component supporting the other to be a comprehensive approach. The result– our partner’s growth and success with their produce business.
Enough with our little intro, let’s take a deeper look into find, move, and build.
Find
Good things come to those who look for them and we all know that when looking for the right shoes to go with our ensemble or the rare find that popped up on eBay that completes a collection. There is even the Biblical admonition to seek and you will find. The point being that the right produce from the right grower with the right shipping lanes does not fall in your lap on demand. It requires an extensive search. However, time is not always on the side of a produce buyer and what shortens the hunt is tapping into the knowledge base of your network (the hive mind) or someone with the right network. In this case, we have a network of growers that we know and trust.
Finding requires foundational knowledge so that you have a general direction to begin your search, knowing the right questions to vet suppliers, knowing when you are talking to someone that truly knows their stuff, and even some relationship established so you know you want to do business with those that pop up in your findings. You need to know if the product you need can be cut to spec, if the pack size will work, or if they even have the shipping lanes that will work with your delivery points. Finding requires knowing where to look, and that is where the right people know the right place to begin the hunt.
Move
What Amazon did to buying was revolutionary. Unparallel access, two day shipping, and making it stupid easy to blow your money. The component that makes this work is the logistics. When you look at what makes their system fast, efficient, and cost effective, you’ll see the individual pieces such as using established shipping routes, pick up points, and consolidation in fulfillment centers because time and miles cannot be wasted!
Some of the same strategy is seen when we put together the move part of our produce plan for customers. Our team knows the lanes and has established routes and as the drop points increase for us, the more we can maximize loads for our customers, sharing that critical truck space. We also have established relationships because a shipper can make or break the quality and timeliness of a load, so you need to know you can rely on the right one. Then it all starts with our centralized hubs that are placed in the major growing regions so that each mile, minute, and man hour count with produce pick up. Time and miles cannot be wasted, and this is more true for a truck with refrigerated product than the 3 pack of tube socks making a mad rush to your doorstep via Amazon Prime.
Build
Build is the result of the first two components being hashed out – the source and the delivery. When these two are working for you, the result is a produce program that will be a boon for your food business.
However, we don’t stop at the initial program. Anything built requires maintenance and continued refinement. That is where we place the final touch of in-market support to our methodology. The initial plan is continually refined and expanded, because sourcing needs are not static but instead dynamic. Our team is located regionally so they understand your market and is routinely checking on you to make sure the program that was initially built is still relevant, making necessary adjustments, additions, whatever you need to make sure the produce side of your business is successful. Because when the produce is fresh, of great quality, your end user will be happy and happy customers tell their friends and become a loyal ally.
It’s a Flywheel
What you may notice from find, move, build is that it is a flywheel. Each component needs the other and it doesn’t stop with build but goes back to find, supported by move, resulting in build until the program changes and we go back to find. As with a flywheel, once you start the motion, it continues and builds momentum as the program feeds more and more energy into that motion— the result, forward propulsion of business.
Don’t forget the Preface
Last, but not least, is the preface to our find, move, build methodology- that we are produce people! This is not a methodology for anyone else, it is for our tribe, our industry, and for anyone dealing with all the challenges, constraints, and short shelf life of the refrigerated supply chain. Also, when we say produce people, it is for all involved in produce – one person who is a competitor may become an ally. Our goal is to build programs that do not have a myopic focus on only one brand of product but has a customer focus that finds the right product fit. So when we talk about produce people, that begins in the industry and bleeds into others, from the grower to the buyer and everyone in-between. Maybe it is a bit idealistic, but the more connections in this network and the more they work together, the more effective find, move, build will be.
