Kevin Hourican, CEO of the food-distribution giant, spoke to TIME about supply-chain crisis aftershocks and more
Attention, food shoppers! The recent steep surge in U.S. food prices will end soon, predicts Kevin Hourican, chief executive of Sysco, a food-distribution giant. “I expect food inflation to decrease over the next year at both the grocery store and in our business of food away from home’’ as product availability improves, he says.The 49-year-old veteran retailer leads the nation’s biggest distributor of food and related items to restaurants, schools, and other food-service operations.
We’re one of the largest supply chains on the planet, [with] a mostly blue-collar workforce. Having deep supply chain experience as the leader of Sysco allows me to be credible up and down the spectrum of our associates. The downturn triggered by COVID-19 forced you to permanently lay off or furlough about 33% of your employees. As a novice CEO, why did you consider the pandemic an opportunity to revamp Sysco through a radical shakeup called Recipe for Growth?
I took sound advice from my CEO peers to be candid in the assessment of talent, then make timely decisions. I moved pretty quickly. Now, my best advice to someone coming into the CEO job is, “Don’t do it all at once. Prioritize.” If you change too many top jobs at the same time, you can lose the company and the trust of tenured associates. I’ve seen CEOs come into companies and not have sufficient respect for tenure, history, or culture.
Home delivery is a tough business. So, I don’t believe Sysco will be in any hurry to [deliver] food to the average consumer’s home. But we are reviewing options to diversify. We’re uniquely qualified to provide restaurants with a lot of support. Adjacent businesses are interesting. For example, there’s a very large supplies and equipment space. Restaurants use things like cups, cutlery, plates, and cookware. We’re in that through our very small Supplies on the Fly business.
In my career, I have found leadership behaviors tend to decline when the going gets the toughest. The complete opposite needs to happen. I try to be my best version of myself when challenges are the most substantial. I’m getting better 1% every day and never declare victory.
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