Rob Grimes, CEO of the International Food and Beverage Technology Association (IFBTA) sat down with Dale Grant, Senior Vice President of Global Food and Beverage for Oracle to discuss their involvement in the food and beverage industry and why they decided to become a global industry partner of the IFBTA.
(R) Hi this is Rob Grimes with the IFBTA and I have the pleasure this morning and being with Dale Grant, Senior Vice President of Global Food and Beverage for Oracle so welcome Dale, and welcome to the IFBTA.
(D) Hey Rob. Good day to you and it’s great to be here today. We are excited about the partnership and all the things we’re doing with the IFBTA. It’s a great organization and we feel honored and privileged to be a part of that Rob. So thanks for having me today.
(R) Well, you know, Oracle really stepped up and, under your leadership, you really stepped up to be one of the founding global industry partners and I think that, if you’re talking about a startup trade association, that’s a little bit of a risk and as I see it, Oracle may be a really big company, and may be a little risk-averse. So what is it that you see in a startup trade association for the industry that makes you say it’s worth the risk and let’s back this thing?
(D) Well Rob, it’s a great question, but I’ll tell you the first thing is you’re global and the organization is global and we are a global customer and we just have a presence in, you know, over 100+ countries. And so, the fact that you are global and this organization is, is an exciting facet to us and something we want to be a part of. I also Rob, I think that the key thing that also excited me, personally, is that it had a regional intimacy in the organization. The ability to engage with many different types of customers in different segments within hospitality whether it be quick service operators or fine dining, you’ve got representation from a regional basis and that was really appealing to us. Think about where we are at, we have hundreds of thousands of restaurants, pubs, stadiums, all different segments and this opportunity to participate and engage with the customers, Rob, in a regional but also a global nature was really appealing to us so we are really excited about that part of it.
(R) But you know, no one industry is a silo… and I’m going to guess that you are also able to draw on the experience and customer engagement, and how operators work in those other verticals as well, because they probably bring something to the table that you were able to leverage and share within the global food and beverage world.
(D) Absolutely, everything from best practices and by best practices, our ability is how we manage data centers, how we leverage oracle and manage the data centers, implementing best practices continually to improve but also if you think about some of the other business chains, there are opportunities around back office applications that can be leveraged in multiple industries so that is an extremely good point on something that we are going to continue to leverage across the connectivity between certain other industries that have common thread needs, we have extensions that we can leverage so that horizontal leverage is exciting for us.
(R) If I can put you on the spot, you’re part of an organization and you’re heading up one of the business units. Or you’re within one of the business units heading up a vertical. So how do you actually get access to your peers to be able to do that sharing of the other seven global business units and see what you can pick and choose because they may not be looking after food and beverage – you are – but how do you figure out what may be out there that’s available that you ought to try to leverage?
(D) So to think about that, we have leadership of those global business units reporting – our GBU’s – they all come together. So each of those organizations have a connectivity point and, as we look at those, those are the key organizations that all have connection points with those. So, it’s actually if you think about it, we have organizations that communicate even though they wake up every day thinking about serving an industry yet, that organization as a whole has connectivity points that we can leverage and that’s truly an aspect, a strength and benefit we have. Think about it, we’re investing at such a high percentage rate of anybody else in the industry but then getting that leverage across, those are really good points. Rob, I tell you, it’s great to visit with you today and we sure appreciate being a part of it. We are excited about this industry and this community. Serving it and continuing to improve and drive innovation, be on top of the trends but also being a part of this global and regional community.
(R) So Dale, I really want to thank you for your personal leadership and support and going out there and supporting the IFBTA and also investing in innovation that is supporting those leaders in our industry as far as networking and education is concerned. We can’t do that without your support and without Oracle’s support as well. So thank you so much.
(D) And thank you Rob. We’re excited and happy to be a part of it and as we move forward, to be continued so thank you very much.
(R) Great, thank you.
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