How do they do it?

February 18, 2025
Phil Krone, President

This faith-based not-for-profit achieves 40 percent year-over-year growth for 17 years by applying well-known business principles, one in particular. Why can so few businesses even dream of such growth?

During its first 17 years or so “Feed My Starving Children” (FMSC) assembled and distributed a total of 3 million meals. During its next 17 years that number ballooned last year to a total of 4.8 billion meals. What happened?


FMSC’s mission is, as the name suggests, to feed starving children. And the organization does that around the world in some of the most dangerous, desolate places on Earth. They do that with individual, highly nutritious meals with long shelf lives and a remarkable distribution system.


At his recent retirement celebration, the CEO for those 17 high-growth years shared what he believes drove the dramatic turnaround. Having been actively involved in FMSC’s efforts as an on the-ground-volunteer and having had FMSC as a client, I’ll share my observations and perspective as well.


At a recent retirement celebration the CEO pointed out that 18 years ago, (before he was brought in to lead FMSC), the board of directors made a critical decision. Always a faith-based

Christian organization whose mission was to feed starving children, FMSC rededicated itself to Jesus Christ. The mission became serving the Lord—by serving his children.


The CEO gave several examples of how he and others have seen evidence of Divine Providence at work in what they do. 


It begins with prayer, especially prayer said by volunteers—and there are hundreds at any one session—after they have packed the nutritious, life-saving meals but before the meals are

shipped. They especially pray for safe delivery of the meals to myriad local partners. Their record is, in fact, remarkable: 99.8 percent of all their shipments arrive intact and, for the most

part, on time.


To appreciate this accomplishment, you have to picture not only the routes but also the delivery locations. These shipments go around the world to some of the most difficult

situations: war zones, areas with chronic food insecurity, locations damaged by major weather systems, areas where the government has broken down and there is chaos in the streets,

territories where criminal gangs are routinely looking for profit in whatever comes their way.


“I don’t think companies could ship from Chicago to Cleveland over 17 years,” joked the retiree, “and have 99.8 percent of the shipments arrive successfully.”



He also told of a planned meeting with a Christian bishop at the Kibera ghetto in Nairobi, Kenya, to discuss feeding kids. (I have visited these slums, and they are brutal. Life expectancy is 30 years; about 20 percent of children die before they’re five years old.)


At the last minute, the bishop had to cancel.


Just as the CEO was about to get into his car to drive away something made him turn around. He saw a nun standing there, just looking at him. He closed the car door, walked over, and introduced himself. She asked, why are you here? He told her about the cancelled meeting with the bishop and what it was all about. “The nuns were just praying over how we were going to get food to the kids in this slum,” she said, “and here you are.”


Are business success and religious beliefs related?


Clearly, religious faith doesn’t guarantee business success. However, over the past 30 years or so of helping companies grow, I have noticed that a high percentage of the leaders of companies we’ve worked with have strong religious beliefs. It doesn’t seem to matter what the religion is. In addition, from my interactions with business leaders, my impression is that the percentage of those business leaders who express their beliefs is higher than the estimated percentage of the population that attends religious services regularly.


 


What have I seen that has made Feed My Starving Children so successful in the face of some truly formidable obstacles?


My observations—not in any particular order—also correlate well with what makes just about any business successful:

  1. Strong Distribution: They partner with very strong organizations around the world in more than 60 countries. The partners are given the food but pay for the transportation and security of the shipments. The partners use the food to support their main mission. Those missions vary but include feeding people and supporting hospitals, schools, orphanages, and other causes. 
  2. Talented, Experienced Staff: People who succeed are attracted to work and to organizations that have a meaningful, well-defined purpose—such as feeding starving children. If their belief in the mission is strong enough, they go to work for the organization even if they can earn more elsewhere. FMSC attracts world-class talent that will work for fair compensation. 
  3. Management Scope: Very successful organizations do their best to optimize every aspect of their operations. Coach K at Duke was a good basketball coach, but he was an even stronger chief executive. He made sure he had the strongest recruiting program, the best video system (comparable to those of NBA teams), ready access to the Duke University hospital’s health-care technology to help injured players return faster, and the use of the talents of former players to support training and coaching. In short, he was more than a coach. FMSC does the same thing—that is, working to be the best at every aspect of what they do.                                                                                                                                                                  One going-above-and-beyond effort has been to help to improve the business practices of their distribution partners. Like many businesses and not-for-profits, FMSC’s partners excel at some things, such as logistics or teaching, but not others, such as general management. FMSC encourages all of Its partners to work together to learn best practices from each other that enable everyone to work smarter. FMSC has also coached them on succession planning to avoid common problems that arise when founding leaders retire or otherwise move on. This issue is one that many successful businesses also face, especially family-owned enterprises.                               
  4. Unique Model: There is no other organization with the model used by FMSC. Other organizations have volunteers who pack food, but I am not aware of any that give the food to partners and ask only that they pay for transportation and ensure security.
  5. An Army of Volunteers: Feed My Starving Children attracts more than a million volunteers every year. Those volunteers who donate a couple hours to pack food also become the main source of revenue, thanks to a straightforward, commonsense approach: “Someone else paid for the food you packed today; please donate to buy food for the next volunteer to pack.” FMSC has also leveraged volunteers to run their own fund-raising programs and to speak to companies, schools, and other groups about their FMSC experiences with its programs. A volunteer speaker’s bureau stands ready to answer requests to learn more. I have made such presentations. Other not-for-profits presenting at the same time often comment about how they use paid staff.
  6. Agility: When Covid hit and volunteers were not able to get together to pack meals, FMSC pivoted quickly to machine packing, something they said they would never do. But they then moved quickly to set up the necessary equipment to keep the food shipments flowing.
  7. Raving Fans: Because its mission is so compelling, FMSC attracts what business consultants call “raving fans.” These are customers so thrilled with a product or service that they spread the word enthusiastically, even relentlessly. Several businesses have responded by donating a fixed amount per sale to support the program. (There’s a good business case to be made for such programs.) If you use an Air-Serv compressor at a service station, for example, you’re contributing to FMSC via Air-Serv. (You’re not paying extra, however.) If you buy a Taco from Tacos for Life, you’re supporting a life-saving meal that feeds a hungry child.


In summary I can say that this level of growth is virtually unheard of for any type of organization, for-profit or not-for-profit. Perhaps the key takeaway is that your company or organization can benefit by defining its mission so clearly that people will know exactly what they’re working for and toward. Companies or charities can use that to attract not only the best employees, but also the best customers and the support of good companies.



If you would like to talk about the sales challenges you face in either B2B or B2G, please contact us. 


We have extensive experience in helping our clients overcome them. And there’s no fee for an initial conversation. 


We’re at 847-446-0008 Ext. 1 or pkrone@productivestrategies.com. We look forward to hearing from you.

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By Phil Krone, President June 18, 2024
Several years ago, I helped a Wisconsin piece-part manufacturer compete for a multimillion dollar opportunity. They asked me who I wanted to take along from their company, and I said the chief engineer, the head of quality control, and a production representative. Day 1: On the plane ride to the East Coast, I let everyone know we were looking for information that would give us a competitive advantage. Without it our odds of winning would be one in three or one in four, depending on how many competitors we were facing. The prospect organized a get-to-know-you cocktail event that evening. There we learned that the project involved a complete redesign of a common household appliance. The prospect’s people were excited because they had already received a large Christmas order from a major retailer. Our team debriefed later. Despite getting to know each of our counterparts from the prospect, we had not learned anything that would give us a competitive advantage. Day 2: We met with departmental leaders, including purchasing. Before the meeting our head of quality assurance had breakfast with his counterpart. He had learned that a design issue had not yet been resolved and was causing intermittent failures in the prototypes. Our prospect’s quality assurance head explained that just before going to one of the vice presidents for budget approval, he and his colleagues were playing with a prototype that failed to function intermittently. They went to the meeting and did get the approval. But just as they were heading out the door the VP asked, “Do we have a working prototype?” The engineers said yes, pulled it out of a briefcase, and handed it to him, holding their breath. He tested it, and it worked fine. “Let’s go,” he said. When I heard that, I knew we had learned something that could help us win the business: our competitive advantage. We started the meeting with the buyer’s procurement team by asking what the project we were bidding on would mean to each of them. We heard a range of responses: • “This project has the potential to help me be promoted from a line manager to production manager.” • “There should be so few quality issues I might be able to go on vacation this year.” • “The bonuses will help me pay for my kids’ college expenses.” Clearly, the success of this program was important to everyone on their team. More Stories about Winning the Business Read similar stories in my new book, B2B Selling: Business-to-Business Marketplace Insights and Observations, which is available on Amazon . We asked about what might derail the project. Despite soft questions from us, nobody brought up the problem of intermittent failures that we knew about. Finally, I did bring it up without revealing how we knew about it. The discussion then turned more serious. Not only did the appliance not work, but to make the delivery promised to a major retailer for Christmas, the tooling construction had to be started immediately. But before that the design issue had to be fixed. We said we would like to spend the afternoon addressing the design problem and come back the next morning with a solution, if we could come up with one. Day 3: We were sitting in the buyer’s office waiting for the morning meeting to begin when our competitor called the buyer to see “how he looked” on the program. (We could hear the buyer say, “I don’t know how you stack up. I haven’t made the spreadsheet yet.”) This was a really interesting response for two reasons. First, adding up the piece price and the tooling amortization figure for three or four potential vendors in a spreadsheet would take five minutes, so the spreadsheet probably existed already. Second, and more important, was that even though the person calling was a current supplier the buyer did not tell him about the design issue. The company did not want a lot of people to know about the problem until they had fixed it. We knew about it because we were there. We had shown up. At the meeting with the procurement team, we reviewed what we had learned about their objectives for the project and the need to address the design issue. Before sharing our solution, I asked what would happen if they delayed the project to reengineer the product and missed their Christmas commitment to the retailer. The answer was that they would have a hard time getting an order for the following Christmas. I then asked what would happen if they went ahead and produced the product knowing there would be intermittent quality issues. The answer was that not only would this product have a hard time getting shelf space in the future, but the retailer might also reduce shelf space for other legacy products our prospect supplied. Of course, I wasn’t suggesting they do either of these things. I just wanted them to state the cost of the status quo out loud to emphasize the consequences of not resolving the issue. That in turn would emphasize the value of our solution. We then presented our solution to address the “have to start . . . can’t start” issue. We proposed starting the tooling immediately but staying away from the gear centers, which we believed were the source of the design issue. We also proposed building prototypes with different gear centers to resolve whatever issues there were. The prototype experiment would produce an optimal design in time to keep the tooling on schedule. Everyone was happy, and they asked us to drop by the next morning to pick up the order. Day 4: When we walked into the meeting, we could see something was wrong. We learned that they couldn’t award the contract to us because the approved project plan required them to use a current vendor to reduce risk. Why had we been asked to bid at all then? The plan also called for them to get three bids and one of their current suppliers had declined to bid. Key Point: When this kind of roadblock comes up, it’s important to stay calm and to focus on how to get the ball back in your hands. Before asking them if they could change the plan, I went over everything we had covered since day one: The importance of the success of the project for each person on the team, including what it meant to each of them personally; the importance of meeting the retailer’s demand for delivery in time for Christmas; that we were the only ones that knew of the design issue, and, most important, that we were the only ones with a potential solution. Then I asked if they could modify the plan. They had of course thought of that, but the VP who had approved the plan was out of the country. When this happens it is important to just ask the question that can bring the businesses back to you, in this case: Can we call him to see if he would approve the change? They made the call on a speaker phone so everyone could hear. His response wasn’t surprising. He was first of all unhappy that he hadn’t learned about the design issue sooner and that the vice president wasn’t told before approving the capital budget. Then he summed up the situation: “So what you’re telling me is that, first, we have a design problem none of our current vendors even know about let alone have a solution for. And, second, that you have a potential vendor on the spot who does have a solution and who can make the Christmas delivery date. Is that right?” After a pause, he said, “Change the plan!” We flew home that afternoon with the order. Here are the major takeaways: 1) The best way to gain an information advantage is to show up and do discovery in person. 2) If you can build bridges in addition to sales-to-purchasing, such as quality-to-quality, production-to-production, and engineering-to-engineering, you have increased the odds of learning what you need to know to gain a competitive advantage. 3) When told the business is not coming your way, but you know an order hasn’t been placed yet, keep asking what it would take to bring the project back to you. 4) Make sure your presentation is “prospect-centric”—that it is about the customer and his issues—not “seller-centric” and only about your capabilities. 5) If the program is large enough, or important enough, hiring outside resources to get the win can be a sound investment. 6) When following up on a submitted proposal, don’t ask “how do we look?” That reduces the discussion to price. Please get in touch with us directly at 847-446-0008 Ext. 1 or pkrone@productivestrategies.com .
By Phil Krone, President May 17, 2024
When I was president of a manufacturing company, a colleague and I flew to Little Rock, Arkansas, to compete for a contract for a new U.S. Army rocket program. It was a major piece of business with a multi-year contract as the prize. The people seated in front of us on the flight were talking loudly, and my colleague and I gave each other a look that said: “This is our competition.” We got their attention and suggested they might want to keep their discussion to themselves. (Why didn’t we just keep quiet and continue to listen? Well, spying—intentionally or unintentionally—wasn’t the way we conducted business, and it still isn’t.) And we did win the business. The upshot, of course, is that it’s a small, small world, and you never know who is listening, so be careful what you say. On the other hand, sometimes holding key information close to the vest is not the right strategy for the greater long-term good. When customer relationship management (CRM) software came on the scene, many salespeople resisted loading their contacts and other business intelligence into the corporate database. The thinking was twofold. First, it’s “my” hard-earned information. Second, if I’m the only one who has it, the company needs me. Keeping critical information in “my” little black book would make it harder for the company to lay me off. Clearly, this thinking was wrong on both counts. Unless you’re an independent sales representative, that information belongs to the company and even then be sure to read the fine print. And, of course, if you’re not performing or if larger, structural issues come into play, a little black book won’t save you. Companies must insist that salespeople keep the CRM database up to date and hold them accountable. Especially when used in concert with data from other sources, including other sales reps, that information can be leveraged into knowledge that leads to larger sales. You still don’t want the little black book information to walk out the door when a sales rep moves on either on their own initiative or yours. While not all companies think about another, perhaps more subtle component, great leverage also comes in the form of a proprietary sales process that all salespeople should be trained in. That way if a top performer leaves, the process doesn’t leave with them. (Ask us about our popular consultative sales training course, FOCIS®, which helps our clients build proprietary sales processes and trains business developers to use them.) Are your salespeople presenting your company’s product or service accurately? Two examples. We once worked with a company whose people told prospects that they were in the oil business. No, they were not. Their highly effective service was helping to absorb oil off shop floors and disposing of it. The shortcut explanation made it sound like they were in the oil exploration business. Not even close. And not only was that description confusing, but it also called the reps’ competence into question. Another instance that’s perhaps a little more subtle comes from a networking group I was in. Whenever one of our members gave the elevator speech version of his product, he said he provided sexual harassment training. No, just the opposite. He provided sexual harassment prevention training. He was not offering training in how to harass people. Protecting how you’re different from competition can be a valuable investment. For the Lettuce Entertain You restaurant group, restaurant design is a key differentiator. Before launching a new concept, the design is top secret, down to details like the tablecloths and the kind of wood that provided the concept’s style and personality. These things were protected with the help of intellectual property (IP) attorneys. At one point we trained the business developers of the company that supplied the wood elements for a Lettuce Entertain You restaurant design—in this case, Maggiano’s Little Italy. The specific elements that made up the various woods themselves as well as how they were incorporated into the design were extremely detailed. You don’t have to be in the restaurant business to take away a key lesson here. We’ve found that too many business owners and executives assume that what they do is not different enough from what their competitors do to set their businesses apart. In some thirty years of working with myriad B2B companies, we have never come across a business that didn’t have important points of differentiation. Your business is different, whether you think so or not, and that difference can be invaluable not only in marketing but also in sales. Keep in mind that information can be discovered and developed in many different and imaginative ways. For example, Subaru reportedly identified a new color for its cars—Cool Gray Khaki—by tracking trends in ski jackets. The insights improved targeting of at least one marketing segment for cars—young, active people—by better understanding what trends they were buying in other areas. In 2018, 18 percent of all the cars Subaru sold were Cool Gray Khaki. Finally, while we all know this cyber information safety tip, it bears repeating—at least from our own experience as well as that of others. If you’re too eager to come up with new insights, you can put yourself in harm’s way by clicking on email links or attached files whose sources you don’t really know. It’s especially important when their appearance mimics trusted sources you do know. We all also know the solution. To determine a source’s validity, call, text, or email that source separately. Some forty years ago, futurist and author of the mega-bestselling book Megatrends, famously said: “We are drowning in information but starved for knowledge.” That statement might or might not still be true. One thing that is true is that we’ve learned a lot more about how to turn information into knowledge, which makes the information we can absorb without drowning all the more valuable. To learn more, please call us at 847-446-0008 Ext. 1 or pkrone@productivestrategies.com .
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