Let me start with this: There are no customer surprises. Over the years, I've heard some version of each of these statements so many times. Internally, my first response is always "How did we not know this?" Aloud, I ask "What do they mean by that?" Too often, the answer is: "I don't know... that's just what they told us." That answer should make every business leader uncomfortable. After nearly three decades working with retailers, distributors, foodservice operators, and e-commerce...

A friendship that started at Tropicana and continues 25 years later. Twenty-five years ago, we met at Tropicana. A few weeks ago, we stood together on a Florida beach. In between were careers, marriages, children, moves, promotions, reinventions, losses, triumphs, and countless life lessons. Somehow, through all of it, we found our way back to each other. I moved to Florida in 1999 for a job at Tropicana, knowing almost no one. When you're in that situation, your coworkers become much more...

It’s easy to think of a career as a series of roles, companies, and accomplishments. But when I look back, that’s not what stands out. It’s the people. Most of us spend more waking hours with colleagues than with our own families. Studies have shown that full-time employees spend over 90,000 hours at work over a lifetime—often alongside the same teams, day in and day out. That’s a significant portion of our lives, shared with people who, at least initially, are chosen for us. We come...