Start with What You Have: A Leader’s Path to Innovation

Abstract

On his thirty-first day as the new CEO of Central Florida’s largest food bank, Dave Krepcho faced unprecedented challenges as a wave of devastating hurricanes pummeled the state. Floridians in 2004 were hit by Hurricanes Charley, Frances, Ivan and Jeanne, which left thousands without homes, shelter, water, and food. Across Florida, 114 food service operations and eight comfort stations were established, requiring the team at Second Harvest Food Bank (SHFB) to distribute an additional three million pounds of food. Although Dave was no stranger to disaster relief, having worked as a Director for the Daily Bread Food Bank in the wake of Hurricane Andrew in 1992, this was a major test of a new CEO in a new community. Instead of focusing on the challenges of the hurricanes, he leveraged the surprise crises as a catalyst to create an organizational culture that fostered collaborative innovation.

SHFB was left with two challenges: (1) how to stabilize the new way of operating, and (2) how to maintain the flexibility in funding that allowed them to restructure efficiently during the storm and as needed. Dave believed that SHFB needed to develop new ways of generating funding by creating new enterprises or business ventures consistent with its mission and capabilities. These new social enterprises would seek to achieve social/environmental objectives using market-based mechanisms. They would further support building an innovative culture while increasing revenues from new related lines of business.