Joan Vieweger
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It is a new year, what are some of your biggest challenges as it pertains to your business this coming year?
Perhaps the biggest challenge is trying to strike a good balance between launching a new business— Choclatique Premium Chocolates— while trying to nurture and grow the base business— Perspectives/The Consulting Group, Inc. Sleep is not an option!
Will you be implementing any new, innovative changes as it relates to your business in 2008?
Yes, thanks to launching Choclatique, a web-based business, I am learning more about implementing “non-traditional” strategies for researching, marketing and communicating with clients, vendors, customers and consumers.
What are some of the biggest challenges you envision for our industry this coming year?
Overcoming the blind acceptance of mediocrity, particularly when it comes to the declining standards of the hospitality experience. Our industry leaders are more focused on the bottom line, rather than the guest experience. They are not charismatic or inspirational. Look at the phenomena Barack Obama generated. He inspired everyday people to believe in something great while demonstrating the significance of human connection with one another; the very element driving “new mainstream media” to which I referenced earlier.
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Are you spotting any new demographic shifts out there that you think will have an impact on our industry long-term?
The growing diversity of our country; with a relatively low cost of entry, starting a food business, whether specialty grocery or restaurant, is often one of the first expressions of greater ethnic diversity by new immigrants and their families. These shifts have all kinds of implications – assumed standards of food safety and sanitation, work ethic, language barriers and the experience/value equation. If “the rest of us” could learn to open our minds a bit, adjust, adapt and integrate, it could mean a very exciting, tasty food and restaurant future for all of us!
Any new restaurant recommendations in LA or anywhere you have traveled lately?
I just returned from my first trip to Italy and had a memorable dining experience. A rustic, homey, 1,200 seat restaurant just outside of Rimini called Casa Zanni operated by an 86-year-old woman. All the guests walk through her kitchen and watch in amazement as Mama hurls large chunks of wood to the back of the vertical fire box to stoke the coals of her 30 foot grill. People were gracious and hospitable; the food was simple and delicious! Mama would have it no other way!
For more information: www.perspectives-la.com
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