Family Business and Workplace Culture A Festival Foods Perspective on Talent Retention Written By: Sheryl Hanson, Festival Foods
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n 1946, Festival Foods was founded as Skogen’s IGA by Paul and Jane Skogen in Onalaska, Wisconsin. With only $500 of borrowed money and a lot of enthusiasm, Paul and Jane opened a small, 3,000-square-foot store adjacent to the family home. The company began operating as Festival Foods in 1990 and today employs over 8,000 associates at 39 full-service supermarkets across Wisconsin. Even after 75 years and tremendous growth, Festival Foods is dedicated to maintaining the family values of its founders, Paul and Jane Skogen. Those values – servant leadership, execution, community involvement, associate development, and service – are the foundation of Festival Foods’ success through three generations of family ownership.
We think of our 27 Boomerang Basics as our instruction guide to executing our vision, mission and values... They’re who we are and what drives our extraordinary success.
12 Collective IMPACT | Winter 2022
We live our values every day through the Boomerang Basics, which are tied to the Festival Foods Boomerang Principle: “Every business decision we make is based on the question, ‘Will it bring the guest back?’” The Boomerang Principle is at the heart of everything we do at Festival Foods. Simply stated, we treat our customers as guests, listen and respond to their needs so they want to come back. We think of our 27 Boomerang Basics as our instruction guide to executing our vision, mission and values. The Basics define how we relate to our guests, each other and our communities. They’re who we are and what drives our extraordinary success. For leaders to have a growth mindset and learn from the past – as well as be prepared for continued growth – a company must have a culture of open communication. That requires nurturing and caring for the success of
each associate. In turn, that culture allows leaders and front line associates to be comfortable occasionally making a mistake or turning a failure into a learning opportunity. Every day, Festival Foods associates support each other’s success and execute our values by living the Boomerang Basics: • In our support offices and in every store, we hold daily team huddles. Huddles take two forms: (1) leaders; and (2) department manager with all associates on each shift. • Huddles are led by any associate who is present and focus on one of the 27 Boomerang Basics, which are scheduled in a repetitive flow every 27 days. Topics and sign-up opportunities are communicated to all associates via email, message boards and other postings. The person leading the huddle reads the Basic of the day aloud from a handy pocket card and shares with the group what this Basic means to them, with either a personal story or a work-related example of living that Basic. Then, everyone in attendance may jump in and share any thought about the Basic of the day. Spending this 3-10 minutes a day focused on what is truly important to building our culture pays huge dividends by helping us connect and support each other in addition to serving our guests in the stores. This constant focus on our mission and values, along with the daily living of our Boomerang Basics, drives a continuous improvement mindset, which translates to great results for Festival Foods’ success and culture.
