The new world of food and drink: Part 2

In this series of articles on 'the new world of food and beverage', we address topics that affect everyone within food & beverage, the hotel industry, food service and food business. How do we adapt our human resources, our revenue model and our entrepreneurship? We want to challenge, inspire and support readers to better understand the new world of food and beverage. Confrontational issues are not avoided in the process. In part 2, Paul van Oers again takes us through his views and provides food for thought. 

Paul van Oers' journey began some 30 years ago in the traditional world of hospitality. He has spent the last 15 years visualising the creation of the new world of food and drink in the international food service arena. 

"One conclusion stands out: the old world of food and drink is finite. We need to transform the hospitality channel, develop new revenue models and form new alliances. 

In this series, we portray the force fields in an international framework. We name the opportunities and encourage the reader to say goodbye to outdated thinking patterns. We need to work together. That applies to the
hospitality providers already as much as for vocational education."

You only have to look around to perceive that old patterns are coming to an end: the energy gap, the dysregulated climate system, double-digit inflation, global depletion. These are all closely linked to Milton Friedman thinking of free-market
capitalism, with its emphasis on short-term returns and monomaniacal steering for more-more-more. We will have to think, live and do business differently.

Many trends stem from these societal changes. For example, young people have
today have a completely different work ethic than their predecessors. They very consciously select who they want to work for. They are certainly not going to line up for burnout by working 60 hours or more a week. 

Moreover, today's young people are a different kind of consumers from the previous generation. They no longer eat at traditional times but prefer to eat small dishes six or seven times, spread throughout the day. Therefore, the traditional prohibition and commandment rules with closing times in the hospitality industry have become untenable. You no longer get the new generation to sit down for two or three hours for a four- or five-course dinner. Socialising briefly with a cocktail and a few bites, that's their lifestyle. 

Let's stop being dismissive of this generation. We desperately need their imagination and design power to reshape society. We will have to start building in values to make society worth living in together. If we don't, more and more people will drop out, polarisation and inequality of opportunity will increase further and you won't get the young generation back on track.  

In case you were not already aware: 'Spray and Pray' management is finaly over. While we are now fully in the transition from supply-driven to demand-driven and personalised, the trend is increasingly towards 'interest-based' E-commerce. Here, based on data obtained from internet traffic, products and concepts are tailored to individual interests, consumer profile preferences and consumption moments. You will not escape this either. Only companies that know how to make this change can continue to fascinate the new demanding generations. 

The first to understand this are retailers. Gen Z and Millennials have now become 'heavy users' of the supermarket. They get their favourite smoothies, salads and pasta dishes there. These are single-product categories with huge growth potential. 

A logical follow-up is that supermarkets will increasingly offer ready-to-eat and ready-to-heat, with the next step being the creation of leisure-related encounters with finger-food moments based on user data, from browser history, search queries, purchase history and social media interactions. This will provide increasingly reliable personalised customer profiles. The development is already so far advanced that our digital customer profile - sooner than we ourselves are aware of it - indicates which products and services we will purchase or purchase where and when. 

There is a lot to learn from system gastronomy in this respect. I am not a direct fan of their products, but companies like McDonalds, New York Pizza and Domino's know how to tightly organise their operations like no other.

For these data-driven companies, it is exactly clear why and when they are doing something. For example, based on weather conditions, they know what sales volumes they will achieve. Because they have a grip on data, they are better able to engage the 'disconnected' generations of Gen Z and Young Millennials. They also have a clear strategic goal: to make the daily lives of this defined group of consumers easier by focusing on convenience, speed and pricing.

In the hotel industry, for example, the data-driven transformation to demand-driven and lifestyle orientation is explicitly taking shape in the 'open house' formula of London-developed concept The Hoxton and also in The Social Hub, evolved from The Student
Hotel Amsterdam. Besides eating, drinking and staying overnight, the offer includes a wide range of options: meeting, co-working, socialising, events, sports and shopping (in the form of merchandising). In doing so, such chains explicitly embrace social values such as inclusiveness and sustainability. 

Besides these types of businesses, there is a very different segment that is found very interesting. These are the often smaller-scale establishments with a 'good story' and a good place to stay. With this category, the guest is not looking at the price or the clock. Instead, they like to make time to experience these concepts with others. Artisanal, authentic and attentive are important keywords. This segment of 'Triple A companies' is doing well, despite the somewhat higher prices, and manages to retain employees longer. Remarkably, many baby boomers look at younger generations with interest, especially the Millennials. In fact, research shows that when Millennials like something, baby boomers go along with it. In other words, there are good opportunities to come up with smart interventions from E-commerce and marketing to connect this segment to your product or service.

I have a lot of respect for the niche of top companies but at the same time see that this 4-5% at the top end of the market is really struggling. Despite the image of richly flowing champagne, these ventures are hard to make profitable. It is an ecosystem of uncompromising innovators. They do outrageously good things and are important because they give our country a high-quality gastronomic image. At the same time, it is an extreme environment, the opposite of efficient and, in the process, debilitating for the entrepreneurs themselves and employees.

The hospitality industry and vocational schools too often take this segment of top companies as an example, when in fact it is only a small niche. So they should especially not do that. The message is: work on your own signature and authenticity, and think carefully about how you will shape the new hospitality. There is no shame in being a top company in a mainstream market. So look carefully at the trends across the spectrum of food, drink and accommodation, and then make informed choices. The motto is: you have to choose to be chosen.