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December 14, 2022

How Technology Will Fuel Ten Restaurant Food and Safety Trends in 2023 |

Technology answers are actively playing a essential position in elevating basic safety, quality, accuracy, transparency, and sustainability.

By Kari Hensien, President of RizePoint – 12.13.2022

It’s been a further disruptive yr for the restaurant field. When the pandemic is fortunately in excess of, its ramifications – product shortages, source chain interruptions, and rigid opposition for workers – continue on. In 2022, we’ve also seasoned food generation difficulties, stalled exports out of Ukraine, and excessive climate destroying crops. Additionally, inflation is soaring, with the value of purchaser merchandise hitting a 40-12 months significant.

But there is some excellent news. Traits for 2023 search constructive, with the restaurant marketplace prioritizing sustainability, transparency, basic safety, high quality, and accuracy. Also promising: technological know-how methods will enable brands of all sizes elevate their functions in the new 12 months.

I predict the following tendencies for 2023:

A even bigger concentrate on sustainability. Shuggie’s, a local climate-helpful restaurant in San Francisco, passionately prioritizes sustainability. They delight on their own on “rescuing” components that would have long gone to waste, including irregular or surplus develop, food stuff byproducts, and meat offcuts, working with these objects for their “upcycled” menu. The Countrywide Restaurant Association predicts that zero waste, sustainability, and upcycled meals will trend in 2023, and I concur wholeheartedly. Technology will be instrumental in driving sustainability, assisting us build a lot more sustainable means to deliver meals (like vertical farming), come across greater methods to reduce waste, and minimize our dependence on foreign exports. In 2023, we’ll see ahead-considering dining places boosting sustainability in creative, new techniques.
Adoption of smart tech remedies. Numerous eating places applied tech remedies out of requirement during the pandemic. In the coming 12 months, more places to eat will attribute paperless menus, touchless payment, self-services kiosks, and other tech conveniences. It will also be exciting to see brands employing AI, equipment mastering, and automation to elevate the buyer knowledge.
Loyalty applications will increase. It expenditures five times as substantially to recruit a new customer as it does to keep an current one particular. Therefore, we’ll see a escalating emphasis on raising purchaser loyalty. Many makes have presently carried out loyalty programs – e.g., buy 10 sandwiches and get the 11^th absolutely free – but now they’ll leverage technology to strengthen client engagement, incentivizing shoppers to check out and buy. On top of that, implementing gamification approaches will make rewards even extra attractive.
Workers retention is necessary. Immediately after a long time of staff members shortages, manufacturers will prioritize their employees in 2023, performing diligently to maintain them content. For instance, additional operators will use scheduling software program to assure their workforce are acquiring their preferred shifts – and aren’t getting overutilized, which could guide to burnout. Brand names will use aggressive wages and desirable gains packages to maximize staff members retention. And they’ll glimpse for other means to demonstrate their appreciation for staff, including tuition reimbursement, advancement options, and a lot more PTO. More and more, dining establishments will shift away from “the shopper is always right” and will choose to near early or choose other steps to deal with rude, inappropriate attendees, standing in solidarity with their workers.
Dining establishments will take shipping and delivery in-property. The acceptance of shipping and delivery soared for the duration of the pandemic when consumers were being not able (or unwilling) to dine out, and that pattern will go on. Nonetheless, anticipate to see more manufacturers using shipping and delivery in-home vs. relying on 3rd celebration shipping and delivery businesses. If your cafe works by using exterior delivery products and services, you have no regulate in excess of the security, good quality, or customer knowledge once the orders leave your premises. Considering that a the latest research identified that eight in 10 food delivery drivers ate component of their customers’ orders, using shipping in-household may possibly be a sensible shift! Expect to see far more models deal with their shipping to ensure higher high quality and exceptional customer encounters.
Accuracy is king. Incorrect orders are a leading grievance among customers. A single improper get can stop customers from returning, and a single unhappy shopper can distribute scathing evaluations across the Net, detrimental client loyalty, revenue, and your popularity. Tech instruments help recognize vital parts that effects precision, such as quantity of workers for every change, no matter if exclusive requests are becoming correctly identified, and so forth. Be guaranteed that all workers know how to use your ResTech correctly and are leveraging these resources to maximize accuracy.
Improved transparency through the offer chain. Even if your cafe is prioritizing safety and excellent efforts, are all your suppliers aligned? You could be subsequent suitable protocols, but if a provider delivers you contaminated products and solutions, you are at chance for a foodborne ailment outbreak. Use tech equipment to control supplier certifications, so you can obviously see which suppliers prioritize protection and top quality – and keep away from the kinds that do not.
Coach differently (and greater). It’s common to prepare workforce by telling them what to do and how to do it. The pattern for 2023 will be to educate staff otherwise. As an alternative of just telling staff what to do, reveal why the procedures are in place, and they’ll be far more very likely to comply. Also, rework from a punitive culture – the place staff members dread punishment if they check with issues or position out infractions – to a collaborative a single, where anyone is effective alongside one another to uphold significant safety and top quality specifications. Use tech tools to give facts in bite-sized chunks, amplify instruction initiatives, and fortify information.
Employ a “combination approach” for auditing. The pandemic meant an close to in-person, third-celebration audits as we understood them. But dining establishments identified substitute methods to audit in the course of COVID, like remote audits done by means of Zoom and much more repeated self-inspections. Brand names will continue using this combination approach of in-person and remote audits plus far more repeated self-assessments to make sure their spots are compliant. This indicates they can defend places even if vacation or value constraints prohibit normal onsite third-social gathering audits.
Boost the hybrid product. Buyers have turn into accustomed to the hybrid of in-man or woman, pickup and supply products, so dining places have to present – and excel at – each of these styles. Put into practice good excellent and security protocols whether your visitors are eating onsite, buying up their orders, or obtaining foods sent. Guarantee that all your employees realize your safety protocols and examine every meal all along the output line to assure protection, quality, and precision.

We’re hunting at an fascinating potential, with technologies methods participating in a significant part in elevating basic safety, high quality, precision, transparency, and sustainability in 2023. Fortunately, tech options have develop into significantly more reasonably priced and accessible for dining places of all sizes, and making use of technological know-how is the smartest thing your manufacturer can do in the new 12 months.

As President of RizePoint, the longest-long lasting top quality management vendor in the marketplace, Kari Hensien has been instrumental in launching the company’s Ignite™ Supplier Certification Management remedy and adding new options to make the platform even far more useful. Ignite will allow companies to obtain, arrange, and control supplier documentation and data in a centralized location, observe position and deadlines, assure compliance, and minimize time-consuming administrative jobs.

December 13, 2022

Pac-12 media rights deal on hold as league awaits resolution on UCLA’s Big Ten status from regents meeting

The Pac-12’s long, winding road toward long-term security was never supposed to last this long. It is mid-December, and the league still must wait on the conclusion of Wednesday’s University of California system regents meeting to proceed in its media rights negotiations.

Almost six months after news broke of USC and UCLA departing for the Big Ten in 2024, the league still has not reconfigured. While it is considered almost a formality by some that UCLA will ultimately be allowed to join the Big Ten, the regents’ concerns dragging the process out this long has added a layer of skittishness to the proceedings.

“It has significantly impacted the timeline,” Pac-12 commissioner George Kliavkoff said last week at the SportsBusiness Journal Intercollegiate Athletic Forum in Las Vegas. “The regents have delayed a couple of times that decision. We’re not going to do a media rights deal before that decision. So, that puts you in the second half of December. Media takes the second half of December off, as you guys know.”

On Nov. 17, the regents announced a special meeting Wednesday that will result in “a final determination regarding UCLA’s intention to join the Big Ten.” In essence, the Pac-12 can’t proceed until it — and its media rights partners — know who will be part of the league.

A source familiar with the hearings told CBS Sports there is a “2{515baef3fee8ea94d67a98a2b336e0215adf67d225b0e21a4f5c9b13e8fbd502} chance” UCLA is compelled to stay in the Pac-12. And one person intimately involved in the process speculated, if UCLA is forced to stay in the Pac-12, the Big Ten would then poach more teams from the Pac-12 (Oregon? Washington?) in order to fulfill its media rights contract finalized in August. That deal is the highest valued of its kind nationally at $1.2 billion per year.

Either way, what will be left for the Pac-12 in terms of money, visibility and viewership is up for debate. A deal heavy on streaming is expected. The problem with the emerging technology is that streaming giants haven’t fully latched onto live sports programming just yet.

“It’s a demonstrated fact that, when you go from traditional TV to streaming exclusive, you’re going to take a little bit of a haircut,” Fox executive vice president Mike Mulvihill told the SBJ audience last week. “The people on the conference side and the league side who control these rights have to weigh that revenue opportunity that might exist with a streamer against the loss in average viewership.”

CBS Sports already has reported on the implications now that the Pac-12 is last in line among the Power Five conferences to land a media rights deal in this cycle. It will be more about who will see those Pac-12 games beginning in 2024.

One industry source expressed concern over the “depressed” digital market. That may be reference to reports of Amazon and Google laying off tens of thousands of employees in the coming months.

Earlier this year, Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos discussed taking a shot at live televised sports: “I’m not saying that we’ll never do sports, but we’ll have to see a path to growing a big revenue stream and a great profit stream with it.”

Industry insiders suggested the Big 12 was able to cut in line ahead of the Pac-12 for its media rights deal because of the depth of the conference without Texas and Oklahoma. Over the last two seasons, Oklahoma State, Baylor, TCU and Kansas State have played in the conference title game.

On the other hand, Pac-12 excellence has been concentrated at the top lately with Oregon and Utah each splitting the last four conference titles. In essence, the value of getting second, third and fourth picks from Big 12 inventory allowed more freedom and profitability than getting smaller Tier 1 (top games) inventory from the Pac-12.

The question remains: Will streaming tech giant go all in on that Pac-12 inventory without USC and UCLA involved? There is no doubt streaming will come in the future. It is where we all are going to consume the majority of televised events in coming years.

But how soon? Coaches and administrators everywhere are concerned about going too heavy into streaming at the moment amid concerns about recruiting and visibility. That’s one reason Big Ten commissioner Kevin Warren was urged by members not to pursue California, Oregon, Stanford and Washington earlier this summer.

Mulvihill pointed out that Amazon has capitalized on its “Thursday Night Football” deal with the NFL by getting games televised in the local markets of participating teams. That and NFL infrastructure allows those games to be seen in bars and restaurants.

It is highly doubtful the Pac-12 would allow its streaming content to be seen free on linear TV (cable, broadcast) in local markets. That’s the idea of streaming: gaining subscribers who have to pay a monthly fee.

“If you’re another professional league or college conference and you’re thinking about going streaming exclusive, you’re probably not going to have that distribution,” Mulvihill said. “… It’s going to make a big difference.”

The Pac-12 isn’t expected to go streaming exclusive. In fact, from the beginning, it was thought ESPN would be interested in the Pac-12 to fill a void that exists in its “fourth window” — the late-night broadcast space following primetime games.

The current situation may be resolved by UCLA simply cutting a check to Cal — its UC system partner — each year. UCLA’s all-in figure from the Big Ten may be as much as $100 million annually. In a new deal, the Pac-12 would get significantly less than half that number.

Kliavkoff was among those who suggested, because the Pac-12 is last in line, there is no urgency. (The current deal with ESPN and Fox expires in 2024.) In fact, he said it was an advantage negotiations were delayed this long allowing Deion Sanders to join Colorado.

“He absolutely adds value [to the conference],” Kliavkoff said.

Big 12 commissioner Brett Yormark reiterated at SBJ that his conference is interested in expansion. That could be the reported pursuit of a basketball-only deal with Gonzaga or continued interested in Pac-12 schools.

Yormark has expressed a desire to be in all four time zones to enhance his conference’s reach. Either option would satisfy that want.

October 1, 2022

Pac-12 in danger of eventual collapse as Big Ten considers further expansion, Big 12 interest looms

The Big Ten’s continued pursuit of four Pac-12 schools is leading to concern that another round of expansion could collapse the Pac-12, industry sources tell CBS Sports. This as Big Ten commissioner Kevin Warren continues to seek an offer from Amazon, or potentially another partner, for additional Big Ten football media rights revenue.

An offer deemed substantial enough would likely convince Big Ten presidents that California, Oregon, Stanford and Washington would be valuable additions to the league from the Pac-12. That figure is believed to be less than $100 million annually.

If the Big Ten makes such a move, it would almost certainly increase the likelihood the Big 12 is able to get some combination of Arizona, Arizona State, Colorado and Utah from the Pac-12, thus crushing the Pac-12 and hanging Oregon State and Washington State out to dry.

“If that [Big Ten move] happens, I think the other [four Pac-12] schools will want to jump to our league,” said a Big 12 source familiar with the situation.

Without a clear mandate, Big Ten presidents and athletic directors continue to evaluate whether expansion is “financially viable” and potential candidates are a “cultural fit,” conference sources tell CBS Sports. No vote has been taken on expansion at this time.

The Big Ten completed a historic media rights deal last month worth more than $8 billion over seven years beginning in 2023. Amazon reportedly bid more for the Big Ten’s 3:30 p.m. ET and primetime windows compared to other suitors. Those windows went to CBS and NBC, respectively.

If the Big Ten indeed turned down such an offer, the concerns were likely distribution and visibility. Those same concerns would be in play if the Big Ten accepted the four additional Pac-12 schools.

Industry chatter has Oregon State and Washington State moving to the Mountain West if the Pac-12 collapses. At that point, the MWC would replace the Pac-12 as the largest FBS conference completely located in the Mountain and Pacific Time Zones.

Adding to the intrigue, the Big Ten and Big 12 share the same media rights consultant, Endeavor, a global sports and entertainment company.

CBS Sports reported last month Endeavor was advising the Big 12 about whether it should add Pac-12 programs. Earlier this summer, CBS Sports reported the Big 12 was interested in the aforementioned “Four Corners” programs.

Since then, officials from Oregon and Washington have met with the Big Ten, according to multiple media reports. Earlier this month, Big 12 commissioner Brett Yormark said, for the first time publicly, he was interested in expanding to the Pac-12 footprint.

“Obviously going out west is where I would like to go — entering that fourth time zone,” he told The Athletic.

Whether the Big Ten expands again, the Big 12 is expected to remain interested in either two or four Pac-12 schools.

The potential for further realignment — following the migration of USC and UCLA to the Big Ten — has caused disruption in the industry.

Pac-12 commissioner George Kliavkoff told CBS Sports in July: “Let’s be very clear: No Pac-12 school is joining the Big 12.”

Publicly, the remaining 10 Pac-12 schools have showed a united front. The league moved up negotiations for a new media rights deal in July. The difference is the Big Ten already has its new deal in place. Signed in August, the media rights agreement further solidified the Big Ten’s top spot in earnings. Beginning in 2023, Big Ten schools are expected to earn an average of $75 million annually.

Meanwhile, the current Big 12 deal with Fox and ESPN doesn’t expire until 2025; however, the Big 12 opened media rights discussions with its partners early and hopes to strike a deal earlier and richer than what the Pac-12 can acquire. The conference reported $46.2 million distributed to each of its schools in the last fiscal year. That includes Oklahoma and Texas, which are due to move to the SEC in 2025 at the latest.

Industry sources value a 10-team Pac-12 at $21 million to $30 million per school annually after the loss of USC and UCLA. The Pac-12’s deal with Fox and ESPN expires in 2024.

The possibility of a merger between the Big 12 and Pac-12 was ruled out in July. Any combination of Big 12 and Pac-12 programs would not result in a significant revenue increase compared to those teams remaining with their conferences, multiple industry sources stated repeatedly over the last few months.

Big 12 sources pushed back at that assertion saying the league’s next media rights contract — including newcomers BYU, Cincinnati, Houston and UCF — will reflect an increase from the current deal.

It is believed the Big Ten’s current rightsholders, Fox and ESPN, remain opposed to the conference expanding further. It is in the best interests of both networks for there to be a Pac-12, if for no other reason than cost certainty. After losing out on the new Big Ten deal, ESPN aims to acquire games that can be played in the “fourth window” — after 10 p.m. Fox already has games in that window through its agreement with the Mountain West.

As the Big Ten’s primary partner, Fox would likely consider four additional Pac-12 schools “dilutive” to the Big Ten product. Opponents of Big Ten expansion continue to scratch their heads wondering how Cal, Oregon, Stanford and Washington can bring enough value to the conference.

The answer? They don’t. At least at first glance. However, Warren’s play may be to get in on the ground floor with Amazon during a time in which when streaming is further catching up with linear cable. That hasn’t happened yet despite Amazon’s NFL ratings success this season with “Thursday Night Football.”

Adding four more Pac-12 schools would result in expanded Big Ten content, giving the conference approximately 112 games annually. Amazon, or the newest media partner, would likely get the fifth, sixth or seventh pick of a Big Ten home game each week.

One industry observer compared the level of potentially available content equal to what is currently shown weekly on the Big Ten Network. Think about games like California vs. Rutgers, Northwestern vs. Stanford and Oregon vs. Indiana. (As CBS Sports reported last week, the newest media partner would not get any games involving Michigan, Ohio State or Penn State.)

A different industry critic stressed there is no strategic reason for the Big Ten to expand further. In fact, that person thought expansion might invite lawsuits from slighted programs and possible scrutiny from the federal government.

If the Big Ten and/or Big 12 make a move for Pac-12 programs, the potential collapse of the Pac-12 could come amid FBS commissioners expanding the College Football Playoff. SEC commissioner Greg Sankey is among those who have advocated for CFP expansion to make the sport more of a national game.

The Pac-12 has participated in the CFP only twice in eight years.