Ep. 087 - On Quality Leadership with Bryan Armentrout, Quality and Regulatory Consultant at Food Leadership Group

Oct 9, 2017

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I think this might actually be our first quality manager on our podcast and I am very excited that it’s Bryan. He’s had over 25 years working as a Quality expert in the dairy industry.

Bryan is also offering his new book: The New Manager Mindset to our viewers and all you have to do is go to fsmaexpert.com and just pay for shipping. I read this book, as I’m thinking of management, and it really gave me some great tips and resources to not only understand people, but to build systems.

We go pretty in depth on food safety, quality, leadership and management so if you are interested in this pathway, pay close attention to this interview. My favorite part of this interview is about 20 minutes in where Bryan explains how to have everyone agree on how to deal with warm milk.

Sponsor - FoodGrads

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Sponsor - ICON Foods

Big announcement from our friends at Stevivia. They now go by ICON Foods and you’re seeing a rebranding in action which I find really exciting. Their vision is brighter, their strategy is stronger and their all-natural, clean-label product portfolio is ever growing. So why are they doing this? Even though stevia is an amazing product, there are just so many sweeteners coming up and it’s becoming a bit overwhelming.

Monkfruit, Allulose, Agave, you name it. This is what ICON Foods is here for: to help you find sweetener solutions so you can focus on other challenges in the product development process.

For more information, visit ICON foods at ICONfoods.com

Housekeeping

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I am also inviting you to sign up on our email list at myfoodjobrocks.com. I am doing this new thing called the 5 course meal where I send you 5 pieces of hand picked content and deliver it every Friday morning. Like a meal kit…

If you have any questions or suggestions on how to improve the podcast, don’t be afraid to email me at podcast@myfoodjobrocks.com

Knowledge Bombs

How mentorship brought Bryan to success
Why hiring a consultant is a good idea (especially in growth phase), and when to focus on it
A really good example of how quality and production can work together (20:00)
How to use personality subsets to work together
How the FDA works and how to take advantage of it

Question Summary

How do you introduce yourself: I make sure your food is up to standard (Quality) and make it safe (Food Safety) Quality is making things consistent, Food Safety needs to be in place What do you do?: I’m a quality consultant What’s the best thing about your job?: I love working with different companies Steps it took to get to where you are today: Planned to go to medical school, ended up working in cheese, had to decide between contributor to manager If you want to make a bigger impact, you might need to be a manager A quality manager’s job: to find out why stuff is happening, not fix things right away

How to create a great quality system - Examine a process - Talk to the worker - Determine the key attributes - Develop a buffer (red light, yellow light, green light) that production can understand - Make smart decisison on a yellow light situation

Best skill you can have in quality: Technical competency and the ability to talk to people How do you do better at talking to people?: See if you can find a person’s philosophy and how they view things. Then communicate in a way they relate to it. Managing versus Leadership: You need both, but leadership is a focus on creating new leaders and trusting people to do their job Exciting Food Technology: Blockchain as a tracking mechanism for food Biggest Issue: FDA will eventually target corporate headquarters. Most corporate HQs don’t have systems in place What’s one thing you’d like to know about?: To keep updated on food safety How do you keep up to date?: GMA through Smart Brief, Bill Marler Food Safety News Report, take the info and cut and paste Favorite Kitchen Item: My mom’s ice cream scoop Best thing you’ve ever eaten: a 7 course meal in Copenhagen, Denmark. Michelien Restaurant Advice for people in the quality realm?: Gather up your technical skillset and find things that really exciting If you were to teach something to a class in college, what would you teach?: How to understand the consumer. (found in his book). You shouldn’t base your opinion on CEO feedback, but fanatic customer feedback. Food Leadership Group.com Bryan’s Book is available for free. FSMAexpert.com. Book a 30 minute convo