Notes On The NOSH Notables 2023 Awards

0:00How the NOSH Team created the NOSH Notables 2023 list flower growthredictable redictable individuals noteworthy and how is this list reflective of larger industry trends

0:21hi everyone i'm your host carol ortenberg on the nosh podcast we go inside the business of natural organic sustainable and healthy food today the team will discuss the recently released 2023 NOSH Notables list, sharing more about how this project came to life, as well as key takeaways from it. Joining us today is reporter Lucas Southerd. What's kicking, everyone? And editor-in-chief Jeff Kleinman. Thrilled to be here. So I'm going to take the lead on this one because you two were kind of the figureheads of what we are now calling the NOSH Notables project that was released last week. I'd love to know how you guys decided to do this project.

1:08Well, Lucas, it just felt like it was time to give folks a lens into how NOSH sees the industry and some of the key currents that run through it. So to define places like leadership and connection, investment and encouragement and innovation to show gatekeepers as the connecting points in the kind of web that ties the natural, organic, sustainable and healthy CPG business together. And we felt like the best way to do that was to have, it was to show the people who really personify a lot of those links in the web. I'd love to hear kind of how the process looked and kind of what was the goal in making it.

2:07Well, we took all the people in the natural foods industry and got their names and then we crossed all their names off except for 50 of them. I thought we just put them in a hat, Jeff, and drew names, sort of. I caused 50 of those names to levitate out of the hat with my mind. I must have missed that meeting. That sounded like a fun one. You did. You did miss that meeting. I think the key thing for us was that we wanted this to come about organically. It's important to mention we did not go to PR people and solicit applications. We really sat down with core members of the industry and talked to them about who's had an impact on their company.

2:53Who, when they have a question, do they turn to an investor that they would love to have involved with their brand? And the list kind of evolved naturally from that. The other part is it was sort of an opportunity to expose people who aren't necessarily the most self-promotional or who we've managed to find really strong relationships with and recognize the impact that they have that might otherwise go unnoticed. I was joking with one of the folks who made the list that like their secret talent is not really a secret anymore. And I apologize in advance for potentially blowing up their inbox. And then there are some folks who are just moving into key roles within the industry, and you can't really ignore that.

3:52Someone like Deb Conklin from Kehi, who just started the job, but is going to be in a position to control or influence the success or failure of thousands of brands. Well, it's interesting that you guys didn't create like a best of list when it comes to, you know, industry leaders or thought leaders in CPG food, but you created a list that you called the notables list, which I imagine is not just clever alliteration, although it did work. Why did you call it notables and kind of how does that more broadly represent what you envisioned for the project as a whole? I think a lot of it has to do with the fact that it's hard to determine bests when you're dealing with qualitative evaluations.

4:46You can find the most profitable company or the biggest company or the most tweets that are followed. But you take a guy like Nathan Alibach, who became famous because he was the Steakums Twitter guy. It's just, his stuff was really funny and kind of perspective changing for a lot of people. I think the other thing, you know, it's just hard to evaluate whether someone is the best, but we know who's worth being included in the discussion. And, you know, it's a big, big industry. And, you know, there's always the question, well, you know, isn't X notable or isn't Y notable? Sure, they are. But this is important, I think, because they exemplify places of discussion around the industry.

5:53I think it's important to note that you guys didn't rank any of these people in their respective categories. and not every category has the same amount of, you know, same number of people. Some have six, some have eight. How, how did you select these 50 individuals as a whole? We certainly started with some categories in our mind, right? You know, when you're thinking about the makeup of our industry, okay, you've got retailers, you've got investors. And we actually started a lot more narrow in what our categories were, but what we realized was a lot of this rolls up to more common themes like connectors, like gatekeepers.

6:36And then that was a better way to sort of explain the through line between these people. And also to Jeff's point of, you know, how they are notable without kind of getting stuck in the weeds. The not ranking thing, I just hate ranking people. I think everyone on this list is incredible and notable. And like Jeff said, you can't evaluate one person in terms of another, really. So you take, for example, a couple of our connectors who are investment bankers. You know, I think Janica Lane is really a known quantity throughout food, beverage, all of consumer. She does deals and has been doing them for as long as I've been covering this business.

7:28And then we have a young fellow, Brandon Ng, who hasn't done the deal volume or the dollars that Janica has. But we also know that he's a source of connection and discussion within the industry and is notable in that way. And just because things are happening at different levels doesn't mean that they're any less significant. Or valuable. Or notable. So you started to kind of lay out some of these categories. Let's go through them, you know, maybe one by one and kind of explain what you envisioned for each kind of how that crossover of talents and skills and impact in the CPG food world got you guys to land on these five categories.

8:24There were some categories that just became apparent very quickly. Right now, it's very hard to run your business without some capital. And capital is also somewhat in short supply. And in our backers category, these are investors who are actively placing capital into new brands and making really intelligent or interesting bets of where to place that money. Sometimes they're not just putting money in as capital, but also putting in marketing capital. Someone like a Snoop Dogg is a partner who's probably not throwing around so much green dollars, so much as he's throwing around his image or his platform.

9:18Or a Bing Chen, who's just now moving into an investment mode, is also someone who's really been attempting to build a platform for Asian and Pacific Islander background entrepreneurs. And those things are really notable. Kiva Dickinson isn't making huge investments, but he's capable of bringing together a lot of expertise around the investments that he's making. And again, we think those are the kinds of ways that that helps the industry develop, helps brands within the industry develop. And I would add, Jeff, you know, it's not just marketing to your point. There's value in a whole lot of different ways that these folks are bringing to the table, be it also supply chain assistance, scaling your brand.

10:14You know, someone like Peter, okay, I'm going to bring in new leadership. How do I, what does that process look like? So these are not people that are just putting money in. If you do work with these individuals, it's a relationship and they're going to contribute more than just financial assistance. Tell me a little bit about the quarterbacks, because I think this is kind of an interesting one that where they're, you know, these, although most of them are CEOs or executives, they do have a lot of impact in other ways and they could be, you know, put into the gatekeepers category or into the connectors category.

10:57So kind of how do you explain that? The idea behind the quarterback is someone who's leading an organization or moving a team through a particular situation. The basic idea is that they're helping take a team or they've shown the ability to take a team through a rapid growth phase, through a transaction, through any kind of challenge. And they are the kinds of people who you think, who we think might be wonderful heads of a company and are showing it to be again and again. To that point about a challenge, it's, you know, many of these executives are leading companies, especially on the larger CPG and pushing them to think about the business differently.

11:56You know, Diana is very much trying to get Kraft to expand its horizons and appeal to different demographics. I think almost every week you read about Kraft trying something new in a marketing campaign or a partnership or innovation. And not all of them are going to work. It's not about every decision that these quarterbacks make is the right decision. For some of them, it's that they're simply trying these things and are not afraid to try them. You know, and it's very telling also that a lot of the people in this category, when we emailed them to say they had made the notables list, first of all, were responded that it was thanks to their team that they had even landed on the list.

12:38So they had a real appreciation of the organization. But then you saw a lot of their own team members posting because they were so excited that the person who leads them had made this list and really supported them. And it felt like, you know, despite one person being on this list, it was really a unified effort. Yeah. The only other thing I'd add is that, you know, you take a guy like Miguel Lille and, you know, this is someone who hasn't run the company yet up until now, but people are really rooting for him and they want to see what he can do as a leader. It's exciting to see so many of these folks meet with success or be able to inspire.

13:28And it's kind of, you know, it's said a lot, but these are the people who are not afraid to get their hands dirty. They're definitely actively involved. And for Miguel, Jeff, every time I've tried to talk to him at a trade show, he's not meeting with buyers. He's like behind the griddle, literally cooking up the beans or dishing out samples. And that's part of why their teams, I think, in a lot of cases, respect them and appreciate them is because they know it takes a lot to get a business going and they're or scale a larger business and they're not afraid to do that. Two other categories that I was curious about are spark plugs and superheroes, which have not only cool, interesting names, but also have a kind of interesting diversity, diversity of people in there.

14:13I'd love to know how these two groups, although they're separate categories, but how you guys came to put these, these different notables in these two groups. These people inspire change, and they're also making change on their own. And it's interesting because it can be someone who's leading an organization, like Daria Woolos, who's certainly quarterbacking Takambi, but he's also leading a movement to some extent, trying to create a new way to express Mexican culture within the U.S., both in restaurants and through CPG. The spark plugs, too, I think are not, by and large, they kind of are not afraid to make the industry a little uncomfortable and call out where they see a disparity or how things can be better.

15:18they're not ones to necessarily just go with the status quo. And they're definitely unique for that. Jeff, I think you need to share what you originally wanted to call superheroes, though. Yeah, Carol, we were going to call them Neesons because they come with a specific set of skills, much like Liam Neeson. And, you know, those skills are really important at times and can be the difference between life and death, survival and bankruptcy, or the recovery of a small child, or someone getting a product sold at Sprouts. They're both on the same level, completely. Absolutely. Absolutely. Just depends on the day.

16:05How much attention did you pay to diversity and underrepresented constituents on this list? Because there is a really good cross-section of people of different ages and different backgrounds, gender and everything. So how much did that really kind of go into the mix? A lot of it went into the mix. You have to pay attention to diversity because the industry and the consumers are paying attention to diversity. And the industry is growing through its ability to knit together a diverse set of founders and workers and investors. You know, this is something that takes in many viewpoints and, you know, consumers are looking intentionally for products that are women owned or black owned or AAPI owned.

17:07And investors are looking for the brands that consumers are looking for. And retailers are looking for those products and those consumers who are interested in those brands. And those brands are coming from people of diverse backgrounds. Lists tend to be aspirational and inspirational. And it was really important for us to cultivate a group of people that any entrepreneur in the industry could look to and identify with and feel that this was someone they could aspire to be and that they really valued as a role model. And sometimes the lists that are created are very insular in a variety of different ways.

17:52Yeah, obviously inclusivity is a huge part of where we're at as a culture. And you could almost stretch that idea of inclusivity into how consumers are shopping. And so there is a little bit of a, you could call it a divide, but I would say you, you both did a really good job kind of giving both sides of the retail industry as it is right now. So there's a lot of people with online experience and then a lot of people with the brick and mortar retail experience. How did you reconcile these two kind of disparate parts of the CPG industry at this point? Hit records get decided by the kids. And right now the kids are, you know, living their lives online, but the products after a while tend to move to brick and mortar.

18:49And so the online marketplace is still sort of being constructed, you know, built while, you know, they're building the plane while they're flying it. There are people who are, who are certainly showing a, showing themselves to be great mechanics in that regard. And the people who were on the ground, who were in these brick and mortar stores, certainly looking hard at these online companies and the techniques that lure people into purchase, but they're also, you know, dealing with a long retail tradition and the, you know, the fastest way to scale a brand is through brick and mortar retail. Jeff said that a lot of entrepreneurs have to realize sometimes they have to be a connector and sometimes they have to be a spark plug.

19:45Same sort of thing applies on the retail side of things. You can't really choose one or the other. At this point, it feels like you really have to approach that omni-channel direction. Now, that doesn't mean that you have to do it yourself, especially with online. Partake, for example, and Denise, they shut down their own online storefront. They're focused on Amazon. And so when we highlight both sides of this equation, You know, there's different strategies that you can take within each of these channels, but you have to be aware of them. It's in superheroes, though, where we saw a bit of that divide really play out and specialization be important.

20:28You know, Chris Moe is a great Amazon consultant. He's not who you're going to turn to about how to get your brand in Costco. Kendall Dickison is a social media expert, always making me laugh with the memes that she's putting online for brands, but she's not gonna tell you how to run like a trade marketing program. So while entrepreneurs themselves have to kind of focus on both channels, when it comes to the experts that you're turning to, a lot of these have strengths in one area or another. So there are three really big CPGs in here and a few smaller brands as well. What led to those choices, big versus small?

21:13What are those big brands doing that make sense and earn them a place in the notables list? And for that matter, what is special about the small brands? And knowing that there are so many dynamic small brands out there, how did you choose the ones that you chose? For a lot of these emerging players, that doesn't mean that they don't have experience with big companies. Many of them have sold a brand to a larger company or, you know, in the case of Denise, worked for a larger company. But I think they've identified where their strengths lie. I think on the small brand side, these brands become important because they either represent something special or because they come up with a new way of executing.

22:02In both instances, they represent, you know, change and are notable for that. Certainly something like New Primal, you know, started turning up customers in a way that hadn't been done before. And, you know, in the same way, you know, Denise Woodard over at Partake was able to really clarify the message around non -allergenic foods or allergen-free foods in a way that hadn't been done before. I think you're totally right, Jeff. There's an excitement around these brands. You know, Diaspora Spice, I don't think anyone really got too excited about the spice aisle before. And they're going about such a unique way of telling the story, bringing in new products, rethinking what that route to market looks like, and bringing that interest to an untapped category.

23:04When we were talking about this, there are so many brands where we said, oh, well, we love that product, but having a great product is not really enough, right? You need more than that and you need a skillset that's more than that. I think on the big brand side, a lot of these big brands are trying to think like an emerging brand and they're trying to change the perception of how that company is thought about, not just in terms of raising shareholder returns, but also just they're focused on changing the perceptions of how that company is thought about. And that requires them to be more nimble, act like a smaller company.

23:48For example, Mondelez, very established presence in confection has that bakery expertise overseas. In the U.S., that's a bit more of a new area of the store for them to target. And they can't go about that the same way as they would, you know, launch a chocolate bar. So most of the notables on this list are kind of inside baseball, recognizable for those of us in the CPG food industry. There are, I would say, three very recognizable faces snoop obviously as we've alluded to obviously as you you both have alluded to a couple times is on there but there's also two inanimate objects which i i found interesting that made the list one of them barbie is definitely having a moment here and well gummy bear is kind of always had a moment so kind of walk me through the decisions of these three familiar faces shall we say.

24:46Jeff, you've got to take gummy bear. Well, you can't do a list without some fun. And certainly, you know, isn't everyone sticking everything in a gummy right now, you know, from from Ollie to weed and everything in between. So, you know, it's just the you know, I guess we could have made the gummy bear gatekeeper to functionality, but the bear has a superpower that is to be the product that introduces every potential function out there. So we just thought it was fun to point out some of these folks. And then Barbie, I mean, Barbie's everywhere right now. And food brands are not exempt from the Barbie craze.

25:42Even if they're not doing a Barbie product, they're alluding to it in their advertising or emails or social media messaging. The fact that she or it has been able to cross over into so many different categories from personal care to, I think I saw pillowcases, ice cream really shows how versatile that brand is. We discussed, should we put the head of licensing for Barbie on the list? But really, no, it's just Barbie brings everyone together. It is funny. A lot of the people who commented on LinkedIn or emailed noted that they were either really excited to be on the list with Snoop or with Barbie.

26:26We didn't get both in many emails. So it seemed like they were either team Snoop or team Barbie. I'm not sure. Either way, they were probably eating gummy bears while they were going through LinkedIn. You know, I do want to say like, there are a lot of people who obviously aren't on this list and, you know, it's not because they're insignificant. It's one of the things that I hate the most about lists is that you're leaving people, ideas, things off. Purpose of this is to start a conversation and to give a look into how we see the world a little bit. I also think it's a little bit of an inside look into NOSH.

27:19Who do we call when we're looking for a source or a comment on news? I can't say I can call up Snoop, though, anytime or at all. But a lot of these folks are the people that we turn to a lot. Well, kudos to you both. It was, you know, quite an endeavor and it turned out really well. Well, Lucas, thanks so much for turning the tables on us. A slightly odd experience having to answer the questions instead of asking them. But I think it's time for all of us to get back to our desks, start working on the next story. soon enough we'll be working on the NOSH Best Of Awards and for those of you who are listening stay tuned for some future podcast episodes featuring many of the people who made the Notables list how the NOSH team created the NOSH Notables 2023 list what made certain individuals noteworthy and how is this list reflective of larger industry trends that wraps up our episode of the NOSH podcast we hope you'll subscribe leave a review and continue to tune in next week on your podcast platform of choice.