The Magazine FastCompnay has launched a series on the 100 most creative business profiles. Here is their take on who are the top 10 creative Foodies.

1. Jean-Georges Vongerichten, Jean-Georges Management
The Alsace-born celebrity chef has built a multimillion-dollar, multi-Michelin-starred empire without slapping his face on a frying pan or frozen pizza. Vongerichten’s unprecedented partnership with Starwood Hotels has given him license to unleash his creativity — and his take on Asian flavors — in 50 new restaurants over the next five years. “If I could have my dream,” he has said, “I would open a new restaurant every month.”

2. Dan Barber, Blue Hill restaurants
Barber is foodies’ latest locavore darling, the driving spirit behind the two acclaimed Blue Hill restaurants, and a passionate advocate for regional farm networks. The winner of the 2009 Outstanding Chef award from the James Beard Foundation, he practices what he preaches at his family’s farm and at the nonprofit Stone Barns Center for Food and Agriculture.

3. Will Allen, Growing Power
Since he used his life savings to buy the last working farm in Milwaukee, Allen has been dedicated to creating a more just food system. Growing Power’s network of urban teaching farms raises vegetables, fish, livestock, and honeybees; supplies local restaurants; creates sustainable cafeteria programs for corporations; and distributes food to more than 100,000 families. “We’re not just growing food, we’re growing people too,” he says.

4. Dan Cutforth and Jane Lispitz, Magical Elves Productions
Top Chef creators and executive producers Cutforth and Lispitz –”the elves,” as they’re known – have used reality television, of all things, to lift up serious cooking rather than reduce it to farce (we’re looking at you, Gordon Ramsey). In the process, Top Chef has become a pillar of the Bravo network’s urban-sophisticate strategy, spawning a popular Web site, cookbooks, and merchandise — making it an example of the 21st century integrated media brand.

5. Floyd Zaiger, Zaiger Genetics
The father of the pluot, 83-year-old Zaiger, has developed — by hand pollination, not genetic manipulation — some 200 new and improved fruits, from low-acid peaches to cherries that grow in warm climates to the golden red apricot-plum cross known as an aprium. “Developing a new cross takes 12 to 15 years,” says Zaiger’s daughter, Leith Gardner. “You need a little patience.” Coming next: a blue-skinned aprium.

6. Ed Kaczmarek, Kraft
Pay for an ad? Only if it’s extra cheesy. Director of innovation Kaczmarek’s Kraft iFood Assistant, which offers Kraft devotees with iPhones, thousands of recipes and more, proves not only that brands can create meaningful mobile experiences but also that customers will pay for them. Kraft’s cooking app ($0.99) cracked the iPhone’s top 100 apps list, rising at one point to the No. 2 slot in the lifestyle section, and helped the $42 billion company better understand its customers and what they’re shopping for.

7. Temple Grandin, Associate professor, Colorado State University
“There are similarities between my autistic mind and animal thinking,” Grandin says. The Woman Who Thinks Like a Cow, the title of her video bio on YouTube, has relied on that understanding to develop more humane ways of treating cattle destined for slaughter. She has no fans in the animal-rights blogosphere, but the walled, curved chutes she has designed and the handling standards she has set up for companies like Swift and McDonald’s — no flapping objects, no shadows, no spraying in the face — reduce stress in the animals and improve the efficiency of the operation as well as the quality of the meat.

8. Becky Frankiewicz, VP of portfolio marketing for Frito-Lay North America
Who says good for you has to mean “tastes like cardboard”? Frankiewicz is leading the shift for Frito-Lay’s Smartfood and Baked Lays brands to appeal to women, using design and taste to communicate that healthy snacking isn’t an oxymoron. New packaging is more elegant, appealing, and signals health benefits, and new technology lets flavor be baked into each crisp.

9. Jeff Jordan, CEO of OpenTable
Jordan, an eBay vet, has helped make restaurant reservations fun, adding features such as detailed users reviews and clever lists to help restaurant fans make better decisions in the same place they make their reservations. Perhaps his neatest trick has been to take OpenTable public in the current market climate — and get a 1999-style response. OpenTable stock hit a high of $35.50 on its opening day in late May, a nice bump from its initial price of $20 a share.

10. David Chang, Momofuku
The intense, award-winning chef launched his quirky downtown Manhattan mini-kingdom with inventive takes on Asian noodles and pork buns. Besides producing great food, Chang hits all the stylish notes — local produce, cool staff, lots and lots of pork. Plus, his latest (and priciest) venture, Ko, is the only restaurant we know that takes reservations only online.

Read more about the 100 Most Creative People in Business

I don’t what to use the “R” word so let just say that market conditions fluctuate and we seem to be in a change phase ;-) One of the positive things that may come out of that is exactly this move from virtual to real networking – and the main driver of this will be Gen-Y.

Gen-Why loves a big calling and a big hairy purpose – and Starbuck’s has seen the opportunity in this. Take a look at this:

When I last checked their website they were well beyond their goal of over a million hours pledged. Well done – now comes the tricky part execution. I for one will be watching how they get that going. Will they build on this and actually cash in the pledges or will it fade out?

But in many ways Starbuck’s is showing the way here.
I am sure that other restaurants and cafes could develop themselves as local networking hubs and in the process keep their turnover from sliding the wrong way.

The possibilities are endless: from hosting cafe workshops or finding solutions to everyday problems, tips on job hunting. Or how about hosting a cooking class for those youngsters that would like to save a few bucks on their food budget (and stay healthy at the same time) by cooking some real food themselves, maybe even encourage them to do it as communal effort – it could become a diner network – and that could be a lot more rewarding than a few posts on facebook.

The first step is to bring back in the communal tables and hang up a message board and see what happens….

One day, while they were looking at a sandwich glass case with despair in their eyes, John Vincent asked his colleague who also happened to be his best buddy from the years of school: ‘Hey, how do you think a fast food restaurant would look like if God had to design one?’ That statement was the very first step in creating ‘Leon’.

On their menu you find salads, soups and wraps for lunch and in the evening more solid meals like lamb and mackerel – but no sandwich in sight. Ingredients used are quinoa, broccoli, alfalfa, chicken, hummus, coriander and cardamom – as if it was a health food store and with reasonable prices between 5 and 8 dollars for a meal. Take a look at their menu here: http://www.leonrestaurants.co.uk/

But don’t be mistaken. Behind this cosy family image there is a powerful determination to make the world a better place. “We have to make an end to our industrial foods”, John Vincent says, “and it won’t happen before we get big enough to influence the development. That is why the goal is to reach 2.020 businesses before the year 2020 – if God will.

Read the post here

Leadership in the computer industry – a different perspective
It was fun reuniting with the management team from Zepto Computers – they did a GROW Leadership programme during 2007/08, and I had been looking very much forward to seeing them all again for a recap and brush up. Working with a group of leaders in the computer industry is a challenging job because of the special nature of their personalities – different from the type in hospitality. But they have definitely begun to develop a deeper understanding of how their interactions have an influence on each other.

Focus on the customer – creating lasting value
We have now kicked-off the 3rd module of our Service Management Diploma cohort. They spent the spring semester working on how to create value in a service organisation – this autumn we keep our focus on the customer. How do we go beyond satisfaction and create real lasting loyalty. That is the big question and we will be looking for some answers here.

If you missed our Feb 08 posting on how they got a grip on strategy take a look at this.

Growing talent the action learning way
We are in the process of designing a talent development programme – all action learning based and all very secret. The customer is one of Denmark’s leading companies, and it’s growing rapidly – partly due to their ability to constantly explore new ideas and ways of learning and we are proud to be contribute to their process.

Conference in Munich
In Munich on 1st of October 2008 I am giving at presentation at the Euro Attractions Show (EAS). The topic will be: “An enlightening and stimulating exploration of how to create and maintain outstanding service in your organisation”. If you are attending the conference or the show drop me a note.

Be prepared to integrate Integral Theory in your future plans
This autumn I have decided to study some more Integral Theory and how we can apply that practically to management and leadership. Exciting workshops will be held in october in Boulder CO in the US. You can learn more about the event here.
Integral Theory is definitely not mainstream thinking – yet – but we are going to see much more of this in the coming years. Here is a taste of what integral leadership is about. My favoured integral leader is Fred Kofman take a look for your self:

The latest trends – we’re off to Shanghai
Come November and we are off again on one of our more exotic Urban Safaris – this year we are taking 12 hotel GM’s to Shanghai to explore the latest hospitality developments. We are staying at the spanking new Renaissance and have 4 full days to explore the city.

No new trends force us to improve the existing trends
Once we get Back to Europe I head of for Manchester and will be presenting “No New Trends” at the FOOD DEVELOPMENT ASSOCIATION CONFERENCE & EXHIBITION on November 11th 2008. I will present my view of what I see as a flourishing creativity – the many new solutions to the well known mega trends such as individuality, health, ecology, industrialisation and automation. We see creative ideas expressed in meal shops, fast casual, co-creation, DIY-Food, minimalist buffets etc.

Wrapping up the season – from south to north and back again
End of November I have an Action Learning facilitation job in Athens, and the last stop for 2008 before I go hibernate in Marseille will be a workshop on Service Profit Chain in Helsinki.

So that’s the game plan – as I mentioned if this offers possibilities for a link up with some of you then please let me know.

Mike

In June we went on a food safari to Madrid – it was spectacular. Especially our vissit to La terazza del Cassio It is part of the El Bulli Group and that shows. -