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<< back to the 2004 archive listing << Food Protection Trends President's Perspective “Our success depends on the linkages we create” Our Success Depends on the Linkages We Create” is a moniker I have used as a manager at Kraft Foods to convey the importance of relationship-building to both our personal, as well as, our organizational success. This is so true in almost every walk of life or any endeavor in which we set out to do. Yes, individual leadership is vital to most successes, but all great leaders have one characteristic in common — the ability to connect with people in ways that lead to successful outcomes. Most great leaders, whether it be through their personal charisma, their power of persuasion or negotiation, or their leadership-by-example, are able to create alliances or connections with individuals or groups in ways that mutually benefit everyone. If a leader is ineffective in creating alliances and linkages, they are usually unsuccessful leaders. I have had the privilege of working with a number of organizations throughout my professional career and I have had the pleasure of bringing many groups together to address common issues or attain common goals in the area of food safety and quality. One of the accomplishments that I am most proud of is the role I played in helping to bring together the North American Branch of the International Life Sciences Institute (ILSI, N.A.) and our professional association, IAFP. Both of these two great organizations share the common goal of protecting and improving the safety of the world’s food supply. So it was only natural for these two professional organizations to come together for their mutual benefit. For those of you who may not be familiar with ILSI, N.A. it is a public non-profit scientific foundation with the mission to advance the understanding and application of scientific issues related to the nutritional quality and safety of the food supply as well as health issues related to consumer self-care products. The mission of the ILSI, N.A. Technical Committee on Food Microbiology is “To improve understanding and control of microbial food safety hazards, primarily through support of research and scientific meetings.” Since 1993, the ILSI, N.A. has collaborated with IAFP by sponsoring the ILSI Symposium Series at the IAFP Annual Meeting. The linkage and partnership between ILSI and IAFP has led to a greater awareness of ILSI across the food safety community and has benefited IAFP by contributing additional leading edge, scientific symposia to our annual meeting. I firmly believe that this partnership has contributed to the success of both organizations. I would like to acknowledge the stellar contributions and leadership of Catherine Nnoka at ILSI over the years in making this linkage with IAFP strong and enduring. Catherine is an inspiration to all of us and should be commended for her great work. IAFP, the Association Staff, and your Executive Board are continually striving to create additional linkages to make your professional organization stronger and to ensure future growth and success. For example, IAFP recently co-sponsored the “First World Congress on Organic Food: Meeting the Challenges of Safety and Quality for Fruits, Vegetables and Grains” organized by the National Food Safety and Toxicology Center at Michigan State University. One of IAFP’s active members, Ewen Todd, was the driving force behind this successful conference. There are many other examples of linkages your Association has already developed or are currently working on. If you have any specific ideas about other linkages we should pursue, please let me, or any of the other Executive Board members know. I would like to charge each of you to develop an idea that could be done to help your Association create new, strong linkages. Your ideas can be big or small, it does not matter. The more good ideas we have and implement, the stronger and more successful our organization will be. As always, I welcome your thoughts and comments at phall@kraft.com. Until next month… |