Page 45 - BusinessWest November 14, 2022
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 Dennis
Continued from page 36
food is packaged drives plant produc- tion as well, Marcucci noted, such as a move toward squeezable containers some years back for everything from peanut butter to yogurt.
No Slowdown
When the pandemic hit in 2020, Marcucci said, some jobs got put on hold, but the Dennis Group expe- rienced no real downturn. In fact, demand soared for certain food products, like those aforementioned Uncrustables when kids were largely
Dream Teams
Continued from page 44
stuck at home.
“When the economy gets tough,
people have less money to buy food
at restaurants, so they want pre-made grocery food,” Siart said. “That’s when our clients’ orders go through the roof; they can’t keep up with the orders.”
And that’s when they call on the Dennis Group, which has developed a worldwide reputation in its engineer- ing niche.
“There’s nobody with the title ‘sales- person’ in the company,” he added. “The way we look at it here is that everybody’s a salesperson. You’ve got to do good work to bring in repeat cus- tomers, and 80% to 90% of our work is
repeat customers; basically, large food manufacturers come back to us and do multiple projects.
“A smaller percentage is new clients that are finding us through different ways — people moving from one com- pany to another,” he went on. “Some- one might have been working for Nestlé and is now working for another food company, and work comes to us through word of mouth from former clients. Some of it’s cold calling. Some of it’s someone doing a Google search and finding Dennis Group that way. That’s how our sales work: repeat busi- ness and word of mouth.”
It’s business the company’s leaders
don’t expect to slow any time soon, if the way people shop — and the con- venient products they desire — is any indication.
“Food is essential,” Damiano said. “If you go to the grocery store, you have that one section of fresh produce; everything else is processed. The min- ute people stop buying processed food, we’re in trouble.” u
Joseph Bednar can be reached at [email protected]
  they are going to hire or who they need to fill in the gaps on
the current team. It’s a critical element, as 65% of costs in businesses in an average company today are personnel-related.
“Strategies don’t execute themselves; people exe- cute those strategies,” Zani said. “Why wouldn’t you have a plan for 65% of your cost? Talent optimization is linking the third leg of the stool, linking business strategy to results. If you don’t get results, you don’t have the privilege of staying in business.”
Most businesses follow an unstructured interview- ing model, where résumé checkers are taking less than six seconds to review the résumé, and interview- ees are taking less than 10 minutes to prepare for the interview. There is a cycle of questions, such as ‘tell me about a time when you were challenged at work?’
of people
or ‘why do you want to work here?’ And someone will ask the same questions in the following interviews.
This creates a system that doesn’t tell the employer who the best fit for the job will be. Embracing talent optimization creates what Zani calls a ‘T-shirt effect’ — the front of the shirt embraces a person’s strengths and capabilities, but the back ultimately shows their flaws. The PI Assessment helps leaders figure out the behavioral and cognitive abilities needed to create a well-meshed team.
“Becoming self-aware of your own strengths and weaknesses not only benefits the individual, but it also helps you understand others better so you can be a better teacher, a better manager,” he said. “You can modify yourself to get the best out of them so your people can be their best on their best day. It’s about understanding others.”
He continued by saying the onus is on the manag-
er to modify themselves so they can get the most out of their people. The beauty in doing talent optimiza- tion well, he reiterated, is being able to send employ- ees home more energized to be better parents, spous- es, siblings, and neighbors.
“Community kind of stinks right now — like, there’s not a lot of it,” Zani said. “And if we can help create happier, better members of the community, we really impact the world in a positive way.”
The real inspiration is to make sure people feel like they can be successful and have purpose at work. By sending people home more energized, happier, and more fulfilled with purpose, leaders are creating a stronger community, both inside and outside the business world. u
Kailey Houle can be reached at [email protected]
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