by Jeff Ustin, VP of Western Bagel
The world was a totally totally different place when my household opened our neighborhood bagel store in 1947. The web didn’t exist, town was nonetheless rising into the metropolis it’s at this time, and the concept of a worldwide pandemic shutting down the economic system was a matter of science fiction. However right here we’re, over 75 years later, nonetheless baking bagels day by day.
Folks usually ask what the key is to that type of longevity. There’s no secret. It’s a dedication to a couple core ideas which have seen us by recessions, inflation, altering client tastes, and seismic shifts in how enterprise is completed.
For any founder or enterprise chief feeling the strain of a risky market, these are the teachings which have saved us open for nearly 80 years.
Innovate from Your Core, Not Away from It
The best problem for any legacy model is balancing innovation with custom. There’s a purpose why clients turn out to be loyal to any model: safeguard the core worth you supply, and guarantee it by no means will get diluted as your corporation evolves. For instance, our traditional recipe is the muse of our identification. We solely embrace new tendencies that construct upon that basis, not ones that will utterly alter it.
To search out these tendencies, we needed to turn out to be college students of the market, however experimenting with our product line was a steep studying curve. Not each new product, in fact, earned a everlasting spot on the menu, however a number of grew to become new staples. This course of emphasised that whereas innovation is crucial for progress, it should all the time be anchored in our model’s identification. For a brand new product to earn its place on our menu, it needed to do extra than simply style good — it needed to be an genuine extension of our model. That meant delivering the unmistakable high quality and character our clients have come to count on.
Your Community is Your Web Value in a Downturn
Managing uncertainty throughout financial downturns and inflation spikes demanded a radical give attention to our stock prices. I personally spearheaded these efforts, which concerned a relentless technique of analysis and trial and error to search out companions and processes that might shield our margins throughout these financial shifts. The aim was by no means to easily discover the most cost effective components — that will have compromised our core product and violated our clients’ belief. As an alternative, we created a resilient provide chain that delivered effectivity and the standard that continues to outline our model. It was a tricky stability, however obsessing over your value construction could be one of the vital highly effective survival instruments you may have.
These similar financial pressures pushed us to diversify our income past simply our direct foot site visitors. I leveraged my whole community — from earlier trade connections and native Los Angeles distributors to even our firm’s CPA—to construct new pathways for progress. These focused conversations led on to strategic partnerships with main big-box retailers like Walmart, which bought our merchandise in entrance of totally new audiences and strengthened our food-service relationships. This taught me that your community isn’t only a security internet for a disaster however could be a proactive device for progress.
Methods to Weave Your Model into the Neighborhood
Immediately’s startups spend an excessive amount of vitality on their launch. However a profitable launch doesn’t assure a sustainable enterprise. To final for many years, you’ll want to construct robust and significant connections inside your group. From the very starting, we knew our success was tied to the well-being of our hometown. This meant group giveback as a core a part of our operations. Whenever you present up to your group, your group reveals up for you. These deep roots are what can maintain your model regular when market tendencies shift and nationwide opponents transfer in.
We additionally centered on constructing our model presence in a method that felt natural and native. One among our only methods has been partnering with native eating places, delis, and cafes. Getting our identify on their menus is extra highly effective than any commercial. It’s a third-party endorsement from a fellow native enterprise. It builds belief and embeds our model within the day by day lives of our clients. Keep in mind, when individuals see your identify persistently related to different companies they love, you construct a model that may stand up to virtually any change.
Over seventy-five years in enterprise has little to do with luck and the whole lot to do with a transparent technique. That technique is realizing when to adapt whereas defending your core, utilizing crises as a catalyst for innovation, and changing into an indispensable a part of your group. This has been our playbook, and it may be yours — a information to constructing a model that isn’t simply resilient however really related for many years to return.
Jeff Ustin is the President of Western Bagel, the primary bagel store in Los Angeles, the place he carries on his great-grandfather’s 75-year legacy whereas main the model’s nationwide and worldwide enlargement. Below his management, Western Bagel has turn out to be a West Coast staple, mixing New York custom with LA innovation.
