We recently caught up with Stephen Edelman, a veteran in the consumer packaged goods industry to talk about working with JIT. Throughout his long and successful career, Stephen has worked at Engage3, Gorillas, LidI US, Target, and Johnson and Johnson
Read on to learn how JIT seamlessly integrated into Stephen’s team to help build out the organization’s quality and assurance practices.
What made you decide to seek out assistance from a CPG consultant?
I have been in private label and regional merchandising since 2011 with Target. But I’ve been in consumer products since 2007.
When I got into private label, one of the key things that I needed was strong partnerships with our quality assurance counterparts to make sure that we were safe from a product safety perspective.
It sort of gets drilled in your head when you’re in private label to make sure that you’re developing safe products with safe facilities.
I was the first US employee in a rapidly growing start-up launching in New York City, tasked with building a commercial organization and launching within three months. And part of that was to set up and finalize a 2,500-item assortment for our customers that were going to be a part of a quick grocery delivery program.
I knew I didn’t want to underscore the importance of having quality assurance (QA) figured out very quickly. I knew there were going to be a lot of parameters around what we needed to do, and protections we needed to build from an operational perspective.
We were also setting up dark stores in New York City where we needed to provide some guidance to our internal teams to make sure that the stores were ready.
While I’ve interacted with a lot of QA people throughout my career, I knew that I didn’t have the technical knowledge to understand all the intricacies. But, I knew the questions to ask and knew what to look for.
I have worked with Neshat, the owner of JIT, in one of my previous roles at Target. Even though I left years prior, I followed Neshat and what she was doing. When I knew I had to bring on some QA support, I reached out to her to see if I could bring on JIT as a thought partner to out the business.
What attracted you to JIT while you were following their journey?
As I mentioned, Neshat and I worked closely together during one of our past jobs. I remember the first time we met we connected really well and had a good conversation.
When I left the role, my company brought on some consultants that had worked on Neshat’s team. That kept her top of mind. She’s been a part of my food safety and quality standards, in a way, throughout my career.
When I knew I had to find a QA counterpart, JIT was one of the first organizations I reached out to establish clear food safety standards for operations, understand the regulatory issues required to operate in New York City, and for supplier questionnaires.
It sounds like you were ready to start the conversation ASAP. How did that go?
In the first meeting that we had, I brought in one of the other employees that started with me.
He was looking to build out some of the operations. He was more familiar with running alcohol stores, so he was looking at QA support with being able to handle licensure and regulatory compliance.
I was looking at QA support as wanting to make sure we had the right agreements in place, the right systems, analyzing potential vendors, handling and food quality, and so on.
My coworker was looking at other contractors at the time. When we met with JIT we both asked questions in the relevant areas of how we could build out the business. We found that the team not only had knowledge in all of the areas we were looking for, but also had the capabilities to support us as an extension of the team almost immediately.
Given that I joined the company a few weeks prior and we needed to launch a few months later, we needed support. So I’ll argue JIT was my first hire on my team, but that is because we knew to get QA right, food safety right and the operational pieces correct – hiring JIT was key.
I was starting from scratch. So I needed the support very quickly. And JIT offered those services to me.
What was it like when you first started working with JIT?
It was very well structured and organized. We sat down and did an information session and walked through what we were looking for.
JIT then came back with a statement of work, breaking down what we had. They were able to provide a step-by-step outline of the meaningful components and parameters of what we would need to be successful. Our organization was talking about high-level end goals. JIT broke those down into meaningful next steps.
From there, we started working with JIT on a regular basis. They ensured we had an understanding of all the different compliance laws, developed an understanding of all the food ordinances for the New York stores, and walked us through how we needed to register the location.
One of the biggest services JIT offered me was to support me during the interview process to hire my head of QA. Even though I was running QA and knew who I was looking for, I didn’t have the technical knowledge to be able to assess if the person I was going to hire had the necessary skill set.
JIT jumped in and offered to help with the interview process so they could provide feedback on whether or not a candidate would meet the competencies that I needed. I was looking for a fit, and JIT could tell me if their resume stacked up for what we would need to be efficient in running the business.
What were your main pain points before you started working with JIT?
When I say I started and hired JIT almost immediately, I mean it. It was quick. I identified that I could get everything else going. But I needed to build and hire a team to take on QA.
I needed to make sure the technical piece of my job was protected and that the food safety elements of my role were going to be protected. So I prioritized hiring an expert consultant.
We were the country to launch with a true QA team. Our structure was then emulated. My organization was able to leverage JIT’s work throughout the company because we took a very specific approach for food safety.
If you develop a private label or run a grocery delivery business and someone is going to consume a product you’re developing or delivering, you need to make sure it’s safe.
Safety was important to me so hiring JIT was the first step I needed to do.
Sounds like they played a big role. What about JIT’s expert consulting practices made them an extension of your team?
I didn’t have to micromanage them. I had a lot of trust with the output that they were providing. As we added new members to the team, it was easy to allocate other people to work with JIT. So, our legal team worked directly with JIT and they were able to ask them to look into different capabilities.
Compared to legal fees this was a significant savings.
It allowed us to be a lot more agile because if we needed to expand or hit certain deadlines JIT could add in additional experts.
Once we hired our head of QA, JIT and the new hire became an inseparable pair. I didn’t need to meet with JIT on a regular basis. I trusted my team was there, and they always spoke very highly of JIT.
By JIT managing Q&A, our team focused on the in-store operations. We still delegated things to JIT, which allowed us the freedom to do what we needed to do.
When you’re in store, traveling through the city, you don’t have the time to sit down and just do documentation. That’s what JIT was able to do. It freed us up a lot which allowed our team to stay lean but be compliant with what we needed to develop.
Are there any direct results that you can tie back to JIT?
First, I hired a really competent and strong head of QA that added instant value to the organization and I wouldn’t have had that had JIT not interviewed candidates for me.
Second, a lot of the documentation, the structure and the programs that we had developed for the QA became replicated throughout the organization. So the head of QA leveraged every piece we had created because the company had not brought in that level of expertise previously.
Once our organization saw what we were developing they were able to emulate that. It was a very big win.
And we were always ahead of licensing and certifications.We were able to easily adapt and get the information faster, because we were already looking down those paths.
JIT helped us come prepared.
How is it different working with JIT vs. other consultants?
I think with other consultants, and those that I’ve worked with on a project basis, they stay within their scope of work. It’s a, “This is what you’ve asked, this is what I’m going to do” type of situation.
With JIT there was the scope of work, plus thought partnership on top of that.
They framed things differently. It was more like, “This is what you’re giving us, this is what you’re asking us to work towards, however have you thought about this? Have you gone after this? Do you really need these elements?”
That allowed us to make sure we were focusing where we needed to. We were able to pivot quickly to re-prioritize and focus when needed.
What would you tell someone else who was considering working with JIT or looking for an expert consultant?
You bring JIT onto your team when you need a true extension of the team.
The reality is, JIT gives you the expertise and speed to be able to move faster when you don’t have the capabilities and competencies on your team. It builds your confidence and your knowledge.
Ultimately you’re expanding your team in a way, coming from a start-up, it’s a lot easier to sell in a consultant’s contract than it is to sell a full-time employee.
It allowed me to have a bigger, broader QA team that touched on all the areas of expertise without having to fight for the headcount at the time that I needed it. Then, it justified why the roles were warranted because we could show the value of having people in those spaces.
Anything else you’d like to share that might be helpful for someone looking for a consultant?
I would say you only know what you know. I say that because oftentimes when you’re talking about the areas that JIT is working in, you don’t understand all the layers and intricacies that really exist.
And because you only know what you know, you may believe you have everything covered, but it doesn’t harm you to dig deeper and understand further because chances are, there’s going to be a lot of things you weren’t aware of, prepared for, or that you have to start developing.
You don’t want to be caught off guard at the moment you need to have things set up.
When you’re talking QA, food safety, supply chain initiatives, all it takes is one surprise audit, or one inspector walking in. If in those moments you’re not prepared, there’s a huge repercussion for that.
I would rather be fully prepared than get a surprise that would have a detrimental impact on the business.
If you’re not sure that you know all the elements, you should bring someone in to tell you what you do and don’t know. You’ll gain more knowledge to run your business more effectively. If you don’t do it, you don’t want to be the one caught on the back end getting surprised you were missing key things that needed to be performed.
If you’re interested in working with an expert consultant on your next project, fill out a form on our contact page. We would love to talk to you about your product launch, supply chain, or overall needs.
