Why do you do only Corporate Catering

It seems that almost every foodservice business wants to do Corporate Catering. From the Bagel Shop to Boston Market, from the Espresso Lady to the restaurant on the corner. Everybody wants to try to add a few more dollars to the bottom line and they decide that maybe Corporate Catering is an easy way to do that. Heck, it’s no big deal, they think. Corporate Catering is easy, right? Why we already have food here (maybe even really good food) so why don’t we just put the food in containers and deliver it. Why we’ll even throw in some cheap plastic forks and knives. Voilà! Now we’re in the Corporate Catering business.

Now think about this situation: If you needed a Heart Transplant, would you want a Brain Surgeon to perform the surgery? Of course not. No matter how competent the Brain Surgeon is when it comes to brains, it’s not likely that she would have consistent success at Heart Transplants. And so it is with Corporate Catering. (That is, minus the Medical School bills!)

Customers have very high expectations and if you can’t do an excellent job for them then they simply won’t call back. So just like in other fields (e.g., Construction, Auto Repair, Computer Technology, Law, etc.) those companies that don’t focus their efforts on a specialized area are unlikely to offer consistent success to their Customers. Although we learned this lesson the hard way, it’s had a lasting impact on us:

Do one thing, and do it really well.

That’s why we do only Corporate Catering.