http://food-management.com/editors_page/ Read John Lawn's latest food editorial on Food Management's RSS feed. en-us http://food-management.com/editors_page/a-businesspersons-point-of-view0512 editors_page Tue, 01 May 2012 00:00:00 EDT http://food-management.com/editors_page/second-helpings-special-handout-edition0412 These articles highlight important topics for anyone aspiring to a career in foodservice. editors_page Sun, 01 Apr 2012 12:00:00 EDT http://food-management.com/editors_page/towards-universal-theory-foodservice0312 Pretty important sounding column, isn't it? If you're wondering what it means, I'll get to that in a minute. As I said in my last column, I often receive speaker invitations in which the caller is somewhat vague about the topic he or she wants addressed. If one presses for specifics, the answer you get most of the time is, We'd like you to talk about Trends (capital T is usually their emphasis). Other editors_page Thu, 01 Mar 2012 12:00:00 EDT http://food-management.com/editors_page/reputation-management-megatrend0212 In my view, there is a very significant large wave trend that deserves special mention outside of the narrower segment analyses that make up this month's cover story. That trend is reputation management and it's not a new topic, per se. It's been around as long as people, institutions and brands have. But it has taken on vastly new significance in the era of social media and instant communication editors_page Wed, 01 Feb 2012 12:00:00 EDT http://food-management.com/editors_page/how-to-feed-a-feeding-frenzy0112 editors_page Sun, 01 Jan 2012 12:00:00 EDT http://food-management.com/editors_page/things-are-not-and-are-not-what-they-seem1211 As you might guess from the photograph here, I will digress a bit in my column this month. I came across this character in the heart of New York's Times Square, just before Thanksgiving. The sign you see, declaring Occupy Wall Street dictums, was not the version he preferred to show. On the cardboard's other side was a much blunter, hand-scrawled message: Need Money for Weed. It was only when I went editors_page Thu, 01 Dec 2011 12:00:00 EDT http://food-management.com/editors_page/a-big-deal-in-small-transactions1111 Swiping a card to pay for small retail transactions is something most of us take for granted these days, but it's convenience that could disappear at many operations if banks and card networks don't moderate a controversial new policy many of them began to implement in October. First, the background The issue of what banks and processors charge for debit (and credit) card transactions is an obscure editors_page Tue, 01 Nov 2011 12:00:00 EDT http://food-management.com/editors_page/face-time-issues-revisited1011 In my last column, I spoke to some of the consequences I see as a result of modern society's growing adoption of on the run, attention-deficit lifestyles. In particular, I noted how often you find younger people at the intersection of quickservice dining and social media use these days, eating meals almost unconsciously, focused on mobile tweets or Facebook postings rather than in-person socialization. editors_page Sat, 01 Oct 2011 12:00:00 EDT http://food-management.com/editors_page/second-thoughts-pit-stop-dining0911 Not long ago, Bloomberg BusinessWeek ran a story called Fast and Furious, a look into the processes that undergird the fast food drive-through industry. The article's upshot, besides detailed descriptions of the service and production systems used by today's fast food companies, was that the drive-thru isn't just a convenient way to fill your car with fries; it's a supreme achievement in American editors_page Thu, 01 Sep 2011 12:00:00 EDT http://food-management.com/editors_page/changing-of-the-guard0811 A few weeks ago, when NACUFS executive director Joe Spina announced at the group's annual business meeting that he would be retiring next year, it gave immediate focus to most who are active in the college and university foodservice community. After all, he is only the group's second executive director (Clark DeHaven was the first) in NACUFS' 50+ years of existence. It underscored that a time of transition editors_page Mon, 01 Aug 2011 12:00:00 EDT