The future of RFID implants

At first sight, you would be forgiven for thinking this article has nothing to do with Horeca or foodservice. So bear with me, while I explain a bit more about my logic and thought process.

Retail world is familiar with the “traditional” RFID - Radio-frequency identification, used for holding data or security and identification in everything from personal possessions to pets – often the size of a grain of rice, these little gems use electromagnetic fields to hold data that has been stored in or on the larger object. Suddenly, the object becomes intelligent from the data contained inside.

The concept of intelligence and knowledge being “owned” and stored inside a larger organisation is not new – far from it. For centuries, commercial organisations have fiercely protected their “intel” through security, law and practices that preserve their competitive advantage, whether it be computer code, the use of materials or a secret recipe for coating fried chicken.

Data, knowledge and intelligence separate one business from another and increasingly this is the case in foodservice world. It started with recipes, then moved into methods of cooking, preparation techniques, ingredients and implementing new technology. A good chef came with the required skills and knowledge, if you were lucky. Now, with the help of technology and bulk food production that “intelligence” doesn’t have to rest in the kitchen, or the chef, but can be bought in, acquired, bought by the hour or sourced like the food itself.

The same is true of the foodservice consulting industry, especially on a project by project basis. If you want to know how to design a kitchen, organisations don’t generally have their own kitchen designers, they engage with trusted partners, who learn, understand and interpret the requirements and go off and design a new kitchen. You buy what you need, when you need it and accept that you don’t need the intelligence “in house”. Having a passing knowledge, a little understanding is ok, fine, safe and reliable, as there are advisors that can help when needed.

The same is, or was, true for foodservice management consulting and foodservice agency work, especially in shopping centre and leisure world. In the old days, clients would use a third party agent, consultant or “middle man” to bring them the intelligence, the data, the knowledge and the contacts that they needed, to advise and transact with Tenants,  but this is changing, and really fast. Taking the lead from Hotel companies that are doing more and more “in house” to keep the knowledge, differentiation and DNA of their businesses from the competition, developers and landlords are now wanting to own a lot more of the intellect. It is no longer sufficient to rely on others, to re-learn each time and vest your success (or failure) in third party organisations, and you can see why.

Across Europe and especially in the UK, you can see the same Tenant names, in the same configurations delivering part of the foodservice mix for shopping and leisure locations, with very little creativity. You can’t blame people as it is so easy to “rinse and repeat”. However, foodservice is becoming so much more important, it is such a strong emotional connector that the new “RFID Implants” are becoming more and more common, but this time it is “real foodservice intelligence and data” and the implants are people, being acquired and implanted into larger CRE businesses with foodservice.

Major landlords, developers and owners are recruiting the very people that they used to use, and they are encouraging “poachers to turn gamekeepers” in a positive move to controlling and enhancing their own corporate foodservice knowledge, data and intelligence. With multiple locations, multiple countries and cultures, this is a logical and very cost effective way of differentiating and owning the service delivery. They are the owners that form the strong relationships with operators, they measure and monitor the sales, performance metrics and they create the internal advice that provides the leadership on projects.

I often get asked why I encourage our client companies to do this, given that our business is based on charging fees for external advisory services, and especially since we joined JLL, where transactional business representing tenants or landlords is so important. I argue that there is plenty of room, plenty of market share and certainly plenty of scope to improve the professionalism around foodservice. We get as much work from companies that have foodservice category specialists as those that don’t. The brutal fact is that service providers in agency and consulting have to change, stay relevant and appropriate, or die.

In my mind there is no “going back”. Our clients, once they have the taste for “real foodservice intelligence and data” they don’t reverse. They see the benefits, the improved relationships, the diversity and the difference in output. The more foodservice professionals that are recruited into these landlord and developers companies, the more we have to up our game.

At the recent ICSC “Food for Thought” conference in Austin Texas, I was asked what the future of traditional brokerage (agency) work was likely to be and what the reasons behind the changing marketplace were. Both were simple to answer. More clients than ever want to directly employ the people who advise and do deals on their properties and they will generally do it better, faster and more consistently with the company’s goals and objectives clearly in mind.

The future is bright, but it is constantly changing and challenging the status quo. Clients will continue to want to own the real foodservice intelligence and data and therefore, the people who can provide it. We are entering the next phase of foodservice development and the mega owners of real estate around the world are not going to be easy to satisfy. Clients no longer ask “do we need foodservice advice?”, but it is “to employ or not to employ” - that is the question!