WASHINGTON — Seven months after launching its new strategic plan, the American Bakers Association (ABA) has supported its roll-out by visiting members on its Charting the Course tour, hiring staff to support the various initiatives and doubling down on industry research. All of these aim to provide the infrastructure necessary for ABA to achieve the KPIs associated with its three strategic goals: position the baking industry as a destination workplace, achieve baking category growth and enable a higher level impact of the association itself as it fulfills its mission to serve the industry. 

“The nuts and bolts of implementation have taken place and what that involved from ABA’s standpoint was creating these key performance indicators so we can then measure against how we’re doing in our effectiveness and also hold the whole organization accountable for continuing to move forward,” said Bill Quigg, chairman of ABA and president of Richmond Baking, Richmond, Ind. “The whole organization is really laser-focused on the implementation of the strategic plan, and I’ve been involved in organizations in the past where the strategic plan is just put on the shelf and collects dust for three years, and then you create a new one. That’s not the environment here at all.” 

First steps have been visiting members talking about the strategic plan, something both Quigg and ABA President and Chief Executive Officer Eric Dell have been doing since the roll-out at the ABA Convention in April. To support and meet those KPIs, however, it takes more than simply communicating the plan to members. Dell has been staffing the organization so that it has the key people in place to achieve its advocacy workforce, and culture goals as a champion for the industry. 

“We’ve been working internally and ramping up our team, working on our culture for ABA and our staff, and we have almost all of those positions filled where we need to invest to really give that high value back to the members in terms of membership value,” Dell said. “We fully built out the government relations team on the advocacy front with specialized experts in each issue that ties back to the strategic plan so we can fulfill those areas.” 

To that end, ABA has hired multiple experts in the past few months including Thomas Bailey as director of government relations and Campbell Genn as senior director of government relations. Bailey offers experience in labor and education policy, and Genn brings to ABA expertise in nutrition and labelling policy. Bill Dumais was hired at the beginning of this year as state affairs manager with his experience at the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), the largest nonpartisan membership organization of state legislators in America. 

Dell also noted that ABA hired a human resources professional to work with the team on ABA’s culture and aid in the development of core values for the association but also the team, something Quigg commended. 

“The whole team has embraced the growth of the organization: the membership numbers are up unbelievably, and in a positive way, the staff has grown to support that membership,” he said. “But on the back end of that, Eric is also really working on that culture to figure out what are our values, and what are the things we really stand for, and I think that’s really important work that needs to be done to sustain the growth we’re seeing.”

In addition to strengthening the ABA as an organization, Dell also said the organization is focused on investing in more industry research to not only understand how to better grow the category with consumers but also support workforce issues. The Bakery Playbook series has launched consumer research on the bread and cookie categories and this week three more category reports launched: tortilla, pastries, and buns and rolls, sponsored by Puratos, all available on the ABA website.  

ABA is also looking at the issue of food security as a path toward having a positive impact in communities while also helping drive category growth. 

“That’s not only a really important initiative for the ABA but also for me personally,” Quigg said. “We’re looking at how do we create programs that are really focused on that food security issue not only on a national basis but also worldwide because so many of our members have a footprint outside of the United States.” 

At this year’s board meeting, held alongside the NextGen Baker Leadership Forum, David Beasley, executive director of the World Food Programme and former governor of South Carolina, spoke to board members about how the industry can make a bigger impact on this issue. 

Looking forward to future steps in the strategic plan, Dell noted that the government relations team is working to formalize a Congressional Baking Caucus which will help expand the ABA’s reach with elected officials. 

“Part of that is telling the story of the good work the industry is doing for the communities they serve and providing a platform to amplify that message,”Dell said. 

Much of the current and future challenges of the industry revolve around workforce. ABA has created a working group of HR professionals as a starting point. 

“One of the things the board wanted us to do initially was go to the HR professionals because CEOs can have their input but HR professionals really have their boots on the ground,” Dell explained. 

ABA continues to track what’s happening at the US Department of Labor and advocate for the industry regarding regulations as well as exploring opportunities with different labor pools including veterans and even the possibility of connecting with high school students through the Center for Advanced Professional Studies (CAPS) Network.