Flight difficulties kept Don Van Tassle, Plant Manager, Bimbo USA, from delivering remarks to the 32 graduates of Baking Science and Technology Class 178, Wednesday, May 25, at AIB in Manhattan, Kan., so Dr. Kirk O’Donnell, Vice President, Education read them to the class.
Class 178 included 16 students from the United States, eight from Japan, two from Mexico and Argentina, and one each from Jordan, China, Mexico, Colombia, and India.
In his prepared remarks, Van Tassle said that graduates needed to be ready to adapt to the developing changes in the baking industry if they want to succeed.
Highlights from Van Tassle’s remarks:
- “Please never forget that speed, technical ability, agility and transformational change are required in everything we do in our industry. If we do not react proactively and reactively to commodity prices, economic conditions, technology, talent development, continuing education, and market demands there is a high probability that success will be realized by others and not the graduates of Class 178. And we will not let that happen, will we?”
- “A plant manager is involved with both tactical and strategic challenges, but most important is the impact a plant manager has on people. This includes interacting with people with associate safety, food safety, food security, and product quality. For each of you, your passion or love in our industry might be in bakery engineering, product quality, food safety, food defense and security, or research and development, but no matter the discipline there is a commonality. All of the work in the baking industry involves people in some way or another. Yes, equipment and technology have changed over the years, but it all gets down to people.”
- “One of the mentors I was fortunate to have in the baking business was Mr. William Entenmann. Mr. Entenmann used to counsel me on points about product quality. One of which was ‘Eye appeal is buy appeal.”
- “As you leave here today, Class 178, focus on people development and building for the future. Sponsor someone that works with you that has potential to be and do more. Focus on their strengths and help them understand and use business approaches that really matter in the baking industry. Also focus on you next steps. Meet with your manager and create a performance plan that includes building upon your strengths. Consider what’s next after AIB. Your past 16 weeks will be hard to top related to your development but remember that education is a life long journey.”
Source: AIB International