tween a restless night and a good
night’s sleep.
Grokking happens when people see
that your words and actions line up—
that you are for real. For example, we
started making applesauce and there
was a slight off flavor. We had 30 people
watching us like hawks, lots of money
tied up in the production run and 500
gallons of applesauce waiting to be
filled. But it wasn’t right so we made
the decision to dump it. And the next
two days it got better but still wasn’t
right so we dumped it again. By doing
this we showed that we were walking
our talk. We were starting Earth’s Best
Baby Foods, not “Earth’s Good
Enough.” People became believers.
Much of our success was due to the
fact that we focused on relationships
from the beginning. We knew that our
production workers were the gatekeepers and we genuinely cared about their
working conditions and ideas. We developed a rapport with them and in
turn, they became champions for the
quality of the product.
take care of their orchards. I could have been the next guy to come along and
beat the grower up and get the apples as cheap as possible, but I didn’t. I asked
Jordan Smith, one of the growers at the time, “How much do you need per ton
to be here next year and to take care of your orchard?” Now, that’s almost an
unimaginable question for a buyer to ask a supplier, but that was my question.
And when he told me, I believed him. And I said, “Okay, I’ll pay you that and
even when there’s a bumper crop and the price is low, and others are paying
you $120 a ton, I’m still going to pay you $170 per ton. However, when there’s a
short crop, and the price goes up to $250 a ton, I expect to pay you $170 per
ton.” What I was doing was creating a way of relating. I wanted to show Jordan I
Ron: Our employees knew that we
would get on the production line with
them and do whatever it took to make
Earth’s Best. When you have the bosses
out on the floor, listening and treating
employees as partners, then you get
this grokking. This trust is seldom seen
in a manufacturing environment,
where there is too often this silly line
drawn between blue-collar and white-collar. The relationships Arnie and I
built with the production workers
made our baby food manufacturing
plant a very special place to work.
OP: What role did relationships play in
developing supply?
Arnie: Early on, I made a trip to California to buy apples and met many of
the growers. I got the impression that
they were frustrated. Why were they
frustrated? Because they weren’t being
paid enough per ton for their process-ing-grade apples to afford to properly
