OPA’s proposed food truck purchase
Editor,
My letter is in reference to the OP Board’s recent 3-3 split vote on the purchase of a food truck.
I do not intend to question directors’ individual votes or their decision to purchase or not to purchase a food truck. I am here to suggest that their votes are premature. The OP Board simply does not have the required quality information to make an informed business decision. Allow me to elaborate on this point.
A food truck is a self-contained mobile food service. For those with corporate business experience, you know the OP Board is actually voting on an entirely new LoB (line of business). This means a purchase of required capital equipment, staff hiring and training, food inventory and spoilage factors, required licenses, permits, health certificates, necessary insurance coverage, maintenance and repairs, etc. And, in order to properly track the performance of this new LoB, OPA management must make the necessary modification to its “chart of accounts.”
By now I hope I have convinced the Bayside Gazette readers that the board’s subject “vote” was premature. So what is one to do next? Based on my business experience, the prerequisite for launching a new LoB is to undertake a “proof of concept.” Does the OPA management have the necessary experience for such a complex effort? If not, OPA has another valuable option.
Mr. Warren Rosenfeld is a member of the Ocean Pines association and a successful businessman. He owns a great Jewish deli store and a food truck service. He has already made the necessary start-up investment and survived the learning curve period. So how about conducting a “pilot” with Mr. Rosenfeld’s help? It is a simpler and faster effort compared to a “proof of concept.”
Of course the Board will need to instruct the general manager to develop the required pilot scope and the necessary evaluation criteria.
I hope my comments offer a fresh perspective to Ocean Pines homeowners on how to view general manager’s food-truck purchase request. His proposed acquisition and then “learn as you go” approach is an example of bad management practice. Perhaps a seven “NO” votes by the Board is in order followed by a motion to undertake a “pilot.”
This will enable the collection of credible data and ability to provide answers to many important questions.
Slobodan Trendic
Homeowner
Ocean Pines
Editor,
My letter is in reference to the OP Board’s recent 3-3 split vote on the purchase of a food truck.
I do not intend to question directors’ individual votes or their decision to purchase or not to purchase a food truck. I am here to suggest that their votes are premature. The OP Board simply does not have the required quality information to make an informed business decision. Allow me to elaborate on this point.
A food truck is a self-contained mobile food service. For those with corporate business experience, you know the OP Board is actually voting on an entirely new LoB (line of business). This means a purchase of required capital equipment, staff hiring and training, food inventory and spoilage factors, required licenses, permits, health certificates, necessary insurance coverage, maintenance and repairs, etc. And, in order to properly track the performance of this new LoB, OPA management must make the necessary modification to its “chart of accounts.”
By now I hope I have convinced the Bayside Gazette readers that the board’s subject “vote” was premature. So what is one to do next? Based on my business experience, the prerequisite for launching a new LoB is to undertake a “proof of concept.” Does the OPA management have the necessary experience for such a complex effort? If not, OPA has another valuable option.
Mr. Warren Rosenfeld is a member of the Ocean Pines association and a successful businessman. He owns a great Jewish deli store and a food truck service. He has already made the necessary start-up investment and survived the learning curve period. So how about conducting a “pilot” with Mr. Rosenfeld’s help? It is a simpler and faster effort compared to a “proof of concept.”
Of course the Board will need to instruct the general manager to develop the required pilot scope and the necessary evaluation criteria.
I hope my comments offer a fresh perspective to Ocean Pines homeowners on how to view general manager’s food-truck purchase request. His proposed acquisition and then “learn as you go” approach is an example of bad management practice. Perhaps a seven “NO” votes by the Board is in order followed by a motion to undertake a “pilot.”
This will enable the collection of credible data and ability to provide answers to many important questions.
Slobodan Trendic
Homeowner
Ocean Pines