I thought we could get more aggressive with catering. We had been turning those events down, so I told my supervisors to meet the needs of our client and to build the business. One day we had something like 30 continental events booked. We had them all under control, but my director thought we had overbooked and went ballistic!

I knew my head was on the line. If she got even one complaint it wasn't going to be pretty. I said to my supervisors, “We have to have total perfection.” I knew we could do it and our team performed. After that, the director said to me, “I will never question you again about your plans to grow the business.” I felt we had really earned her respect and recognition.

Our foodservice went self op in 1993. We had a new COO and that's what he wanted. I was the transitional director and every week our transitional team would meet to address every detail. We'd give the COO a weekly update and he would say, “This transition has to be flawless.”

Everyone knew what they had to do. It was a matter of having a good plan and executing. Planning is 95 percent of success, but you need the discipline to follow your plan and still be flexible. If you have a good plan and good people, the people will make it happen.

There are times when you have to let an employee go if they are not dependable or are not meeting performance standards. We try to work with and coach our employees, but ultimately you are responsible for the team. You are all going to either succeed together or fail together, and failure is not an option. That is what I tell my team today.

I believe we won this award because we are constantly innovating in an environment where we have many restrictions on our budgets. We rely on our people instead and on the support of our healthcare executives. I think that what we have been able to achieve in spite of our constraints is really exceptional. In the end, every business is all about people: past, present and forever.