The businesses presented some inspiring goals that will help us achieve our collective vision for the year 2020.

Some things that we heard:

• Bakehouse wants to be a Zero Waste business by 2012. Going for a completely smoke-free workplace. Year round composting.
• Coffee Company wants to promote the seasonal nature of coffee. Active cupping room.
• Roadhouse is working on establishing the bar’s identity. Known for service training.
• Bakehouse offering sabbaticals for staffers who have been here forever.
• Mail Order wants to have the coolest warehouse in the country.
• ZingNet exploring entrepreneurial opportunities to develop skills and supplement income.
• Two new potential businesses in the pipeline — Tunisian restaurant and an Asian noodle shop. (YUM!)

Lots more exciting ideas coming in the next few months!

Counting the days till my Dirty Sheed*.

I like the colors and the bar stools. And look, a big window so you can watch the roaster in action.

Robot sees you!

*Dirty Sheed — two shots of espresso, Mexican vanilla syrup, splash of half & half over ice = sweet energy

Here’s but a sampling of what we had to eat…

Zingerman’s Catering espresso bar – Make your own fancy espresso drink with vanilla syrup, chocolate sauce, whipped cream and chocolate shavings. Wow!

Cornbread, Stollen, and Christmas Cookies from the Bakehouse

New Zzang bar called the “Wowza”. It’s got raspberry preserves, marshmallow and dark chocolate. Charlie’s still tweaking the recipe. I think he should just send all his test batches to me.

Tennessee Fried Chicken from the Roadhouse – The batter is spicy. Mmm…

The Deli brought hotdogs with spicy mustard, Landaff cheese (buttery and yummy), and Frantoio and Casados olive oil from Chile. But I ate everything on my plate before I could take a proper picture. Oops!

The Fall Huddle started with an Open Forum where we can ask folks from the different businesses questions about their last quarter numbers and plans for the holidays. Then we learned about a new system that the Training Engineers are working on, namely, “what is the manager’s role in training?” (Answer: 1) provide context for training, 2) reinforce learning 3) help put knowledge to good use.) The Service Group presented on the Zingerman’s Experience Indicator (ZXI), a measure that helps us benchmark the service we provide and shows us how important it is to make sure our customers leave with a stellar experience. Finally, we brainstormed ways to get the word out about the Southside, the area by the A2 airport where the Bakehouse, Creamery, Candy Company, Coffee and ZingNet live. If you want to shop for good food, go to the Deli downtown. Then if you want to meet the people who make the food, come by the Southside!

During the break, there was a T-Shirt Silent Auction to benefit Food Gatherers. Staffers donated their old Zing clothing (some dating back to the 80′s!) and made some neat crafts using old shirts.

We raised over $500 — enough to provide almost a thousand meals through Food Gatherers! Woohoo!

It was a jam-packed session with great people and delicious food. All in a day’s work!

ZingIT (that’s us!)

Marketing and Graphics

Donations

Human Resources

It’s going to be one fun and challenging year ahead!

The presentations were the most creative we’ve seen! From garlic-throwing (Cornman Farms)…

to poetry (Zingerman’s Press)…

to a Monty Python sketch (Creamery)…

to a multimedia presentation (Coffee)…

to an Alice’s Diner skit (Roadhouse)…

to stop motion goodness (M&G)…

and many more!

For years, the Deli has won the Coveted Golden Z with their epic movies and dedicated fanbase. With titles like ZAPocalypse Now and Z½, the movies are huge productions involving dozens of Deli staffers in costume filming at wee hours of the morning. For ZAP Wrap 09, they brought us Zingified renditions of Trainspotting, Night at the Opera, Henry V and Daft Bodies: Harder Better Faster Stronger (very well done!)

But the Bakehouse’s presentation was, by far, the showstopper of the night. Three reasons: they 1) sang their plan, 2) in the form of a Michael Jackson medley, 3) live.

It was incredible! How can you resist catchy lyrics like these?

Girl, close your eyes. Let the aroma get into you.
It may look hard, but there’s nothing you can’t do.
Just take a class. We’ll answer questions asked.
And you can feel the heat
of our new wood-fired oven.
You can bring your friends!
We wanna BAKE with you all week,
teach you all our techniques.
We wanna BAKE with you all week.
Take a BAKE-cation!
- “BAKE! With You” (sung to the tune of “Rock With You”)

Coffee grounds and paper towels mixed with onion skins and bread.
Carrot peels and broken egg shells, flour swept off the floor.
Get it all in a bucket, make sure the lid fits on tight.
Save it all for Cornman Farms to help them grow it right.
When they say “Why? Why?”
Tell ‘em that it’s good for nature.
Why? Why do we compost this way?
For our breads and soups
We just want to use your veggies
That’s why we compost this way.
- “Good For Nature” (sung to the tune of “Human Nature”)

They got a standing ovation and won the Coveted Gold Z! Congratulations Bakehouse! And congratulations Deli for bringing home the Silver Ing!

A week before the Tilt, everyone receives a packet that includes:
1. a very handy Tilt matrix that details who is meeting with whom at which table at what time,
2. worksheets for each meet-up with big spaces for “connections” and “next steps,” and
3. a starter set spreadsheet that lists names from every business in charge of key areas like purchasing, marketing, pricing, storage, green initiatives, etc.

14 businesses (includes ZingNet departments and incubating businesses) / 7 meeting tables * 15 minutes each business pair = a half day of exchanging ideas and identifying synergies!

This year’s general theme from our meetings was that they are ready to explore more forms of intentional technology like cloud computing, VOIP and social media.

It was also exciting to hear from the incubating businesses. There are three of them coming online this fiscal year! Bet you’d like to know what they are.

Scenes from the Tilt-o-whirl:

These are the steps:

1. Vision. The managing partners worked on a vision for the entire ZCoB for the year 2011 that everyone read and supported. Then we write corresponding business and department visions that align with the greater one.

(We’re at this stage right now.)

2. Tilt-o-whirl! This Thursday, representatives from every business will have the chance to discuss relevant points of their plan and find synergies with each other. It’s like speed dating with an agenda for every match-up. It’s a fun and incredibly productive way of getting everyone on the same page.

3. Objectives, Action Steps and Key Measures. Now that we know where we want to be, we break it down into the necessary objectives and action steps to get there. Key Measures are numbers we will track over the next year to see if we’re going in the right direction. For example, we currently track our physical presence at the different Zing locations since we deemed it important to be frequently and readily available to our customers as the ZCoB grows larger.

4. Capital Requirements and Staffing. As we determine our projects, the need for some investments in equipment and staff will emerge. We include this in our plan so we can adjust our budgets.

5. Financial Numbers. The businesses plan their sales, gross margin and net operating profit for the next 2 years. ZingIT is part of Zingerman’s Service Network (ZingNet) which does not in itself make any money. ZingNet gets a percentage of sales from the other businesses in order to fund shared services like IT, HR, Marketing and Graphics, Accounting Support, Service and Donations.

6. Gain Share. Zingerman’s practices open book finance. That means that everyone is expected to learn basic financial concepts, understand and influence how the numbers work in our business, and have a financial stake in the outcome. When the organization is successful, every individual gets a share of that success in their paycheck! During this planning process, we agree on what the gain share rules will be for the next fiscal year. For instance, it could consist of a quarterly payout every time we beat our net operating profit plan by a certain percent. We didn’t make gain share this year but we’re determined to win the next one!

7. Sign Off. By this time, everyone (and we really mean everyone) in the ZCoB has been able to provide feedback on the plan and express their support. The managing partners of the businesses then sign their names on the written plan to show our combined commitment to achieving what we laid out.

The Annual Planning process ends with ZAP Wrap! It’s a big party where each business presents the highlights of their plan in creative ways.

This year’s ZAP is looking pretty exciting already! We’ll keep you posted.