Bud Hilton
Posts by Bud Hilton, President & CEO of Answers Systems.
by Bud Hilton
I wish I had coined this phrase but I can’t take credit. My son, who has spent 16 years or so with our company and is now our President, made this statement one day when I said to him, “I wish we could get through the maze and find out who, at this particular company, can approve our project.” He simply directed me to not look for the one who can say “yes” . . . find the one that is saying “NO” and impeding the search. The more I thought of this the more...
Is spending in our foodservice industry on its way back? What could postpone the return of restaurant spending, once the economic conditions begin to loosen up? Can the really smart marketers help to promote the return of spending in foodservice locations? The answers lie in understanding what we did to initially promote spending in a more prosperous economy.
In much better times, when marketers pushed to redirect consumer dollars from retail grocery stores to eating out, we were successful
Among many pieces of information that manufacturers absolutely covet are:
Unit level data
P&L information (by contract, category, SKU, etc.)
Price Optimization capability
Market Share realization
I recently watched a television show featuring a Snowman. My mind’s eye began to conjure up our foodservice industry in relation to the 3 parts of the Snowman. Go ahead and say it . . . I don’t have a real life!!! Maybe so, but let me tell you more about my vision.
Bud Hilton, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Genesis Group, Inc., dba Answers Systems, the leading provider of foodservice trade promotion management solutions, announced the promotion of Greg Hilton to President of Genesis Group, Inc., dba Answers Systems. Bud Hilton, founder of Answers Systems in 1986 and whose career spans over 46 years in the foodservice industry, will continue in his role as Chairman of the Board and CEO. Bud will become even more involved in foodservice industry i
Posted by Bud Hilton
I recently complimented one of our managers at Answers Systems for stepping out on the edge and challenging a client on changing some of the practices they were doing in favor of a proven “best practice” way of accomplishing a task within their contract management system. After covering relentless arguing points and hovering in the “no change-safe zone”, the client agreed to make certain concessions and change their position and practice. I can’t express strongly enough h
Posted by Bud Hilton
Some of you may have been there calling on foodservice distributors and operators. If you were, you probably pulled on more “screen doors” than fancy glass or wood corporate doors. The business was basically in the streets. Chain accounts represented less than 30% of manufacturers and distributors volume. Most were even sensitive to that percent growing, out of concern that the potential loss of a big customer may harm their overall volume/profit structure. Distributors,
The easy answer is “both strategies, all the time”, and most manufacturers will say that they do this religiously. However, if you peel back the onion one will find that certain times are more favorable for choosing one or the other as a primary 80/20 strategy and putting appropriate resources behind it.
There really are only a few tactical applications that fit each of these strategies. Gaining new customers is sometimes the most costly way to expand business. The manufacturer must allocate