The grocery industry spends a lot of time talking about labor issues. It spends far less time talking about expertise shortages.
In my relatively short tenure at Best-Met Publishing, I’ve attended dozens of industry events, golf outings, conferences, and trade shows. At nearly every one of them, someone has quietly mentioned they or another respected industry veteran were preparing to retire.
On the surface, it seems like the natural rhythm of business. People build careers, pass the torch, and move on. But beneath that cycle is a more troubling reality today – there are simply fewer people prepared to replace them.
Decades of accumulated experience – hard-earned judgment, relationships, historical context, and practical knowledge – are disappearing from companies’ collective memory. The industry’s reservoir of institutional knowledge is shrinking, and it’s happening faster than many organizations realize.
I’m experiencing this firsthand. One of my primary goals since joining Food World and Food Trade News has been preserving continuity during our ownership transition. Our readers expect thoughtful, informed journalism rooted in decades of industry understanding. That doesn’t happen by accident.
The experience that Kevin Gallagher, Maria Maggio, Jeff Metzger, and Terri Maloney have brought to this publication is extraordinarily difficult to replace. Their knowledge wasn’t learned from a manual or developed over a few successful years. It was earned through decades of conversations, relationships, market cycles, and firsthand experience.
You can’t quickly transfer that. You can only learn from it while you still have the opportunity. It’s been one of the things that I’ve tried to be conscientious about, and yet it feels like trying to swallow a whale – you can only consume so much at a time.
I’m not the only one grasping with trying to codify industry knowledge… And this certainly isn’t a new problem.
Institutional Knowledge From Ancient Egypt
Every generation – and almost every industry – has faced the challenge of preserving knowledge as experienced leaders pass the torch.
Ancient Egypt offers a fascinating example. Their entire agricultural cycle – and, to a degree, the perceived divinity of the pharaoh – depended on accurately predicting the annual flooding of the Nile. Those predictions were based in part on the heliacal rising of the star Sirius, calculated by generations of skilled astronomer-priests. The pharaoh’s ability to forecast the flood reinforced his legitimacy and authority.
One theory on the collapse of ancient Egypt suggests that over the centuries, the knowledge behind those calculations slowly eroded. Successive generations preserved the ritual but not the underlying science, failing to account for the gradual changes in the stars over time. As the predictions became less accurate, so did the planting cycles… and confidence in the pharaoh weakened.
Whether or not this theory is “historically accurate” as the reason why a 3,000-year-old civilization disintegrated, is still up for debate. The thing we can agree on, is that when institutional knowledge is lost, the consequences often extend far beyond the people who held it.
Like the ancient formula used by the Egyptians, today’s technology can store information. But it still struggles to capture judgment. This knowledge – the ability to recognize patterns, understand context, and know which lesson from years ago applies today – remains one of the most valuable assets any organization possesses.
One of the things I’ve tried to understand in my experience here is: Why do we do things a certain way? Is it because we’ve always done it that way, or is it because there’s a really good reason for a process or procedure. In many cases the answer is lost to history. But to ignore the question invites its own problems.
Recently, we heard about a snack company within our industry that decided to replace/retire much of its seasoned sales organization with younger representatives; believing their enthusiasm and energy could substitute for decades of experience. The outcome is about what you’d expect: a sales drop as their customers pulled away from the smooth, shiny arrogance of youth.
This isn’t an isolated example.
There’s a reason experienced brokers, wholesalers, manufacturers’ representatives, and sales professionals (including trade publications) continue to command tremendous value. Their competitive advantage isn’t simply what they know – it’s who they know, how they navigate the industry, and their ability to solve problems before they become crises.
Relationships remain one of grocery’s most valuable currencies. Unfortunately, much of that institutional knowledge is slowly walking out the door. And when it’s gone, it’s gone.
The collapse of institutional knowledge is a slow-moving structural risk to the entire industry. And unlike inflation, labor costs, or AI, it is almost invisible.
AI Is Accelerating the Knowledge Gap
Ironically, artificial intelligence may be making this challenge even more pronounced.
One of AI’s greatest strengths is handling lower-level work. Most of today’s AI tools function as exceptionally capable assistants, allowing experienced professionals to accomplish more with fewer people. It’s a remarkable productivity gain.
But there’s an unintended consequence.
For decades, junior employees learned the business by doing the kinds of grunt work that AI increasingly performs today. They built judgment through repetition. They asked questions. They made mistakes under the guidance of experienced mentors. Over time, those seemingly routine assignments became the foundation for future leadership.
When AI removes much of that work, it also removes many of the learning opportunities that created the next generation of experts.
The grocery industry has never been one where a year or two of experience qualifies someone to sit at the executive table. Its complexity is immense. The learning curve isn’t just steep – it is long.
That’s difficult to accelerate with software. Of course it doesn’t prevent some from trying.
Some organizations have been experimenting with AI-enabled tech as the solution to the institutional knowledge problem itself. One proposal I recently heard bordered on science fiction: equipping senior employees with recording devices that would capture every phone call and conversation, automatically feeding those interactions into an AI knowledge base before they retired.
I appreciate the desire to preserve expertise, and I’m optimistic about technology’s role in doing so… But perhaps there’s a solution that’s less dystopian?
In some industries it makes sense to implement knowledge systems, or workflows which hand off information. But in grocery the unique situational aspect of our business doesn’t always allow for experience to be offboarded.
It’s a real challenge that we face in our business as well.
Parting Is Such Sweet Sorrow
At the end of this month, our full-time editorial director, co-publisher, and vice president, Terri Maloney, will begin transitioning into a consulting editor role with Best-Met Publishing.
We hesitate to call it retirement because we fully expect – and certainly hope – that Terri will continue contributing to special features, market studies, and editorial projects from time to time. After more than three decades with the company, however, she has certainly earned the right to set her own schedule.
Terri’s career with Best-Met began in 1989 as a data-entry clerk. Just two years later, she was promoted to general manager of Food World Information Services, the company’s advertising analytics division. In 2001, she transitioned to the editorial side of the business as editor of Food World and Food Trade News, and in 2007 she was named vice president and editorial director, leading the company’s editorial vision for nearly two decades.
Along the way, she developed an extraordinary understanding of the grocery industry and trade publishing while building lasting relationships throughout the retail, wholesale, manufacturing, and supplier communities. Terri has been part of the foundation of this company for more than 35 years, and her influence can be found throughout nearly every part of the organization.
On a personal note, Terri has been a steady hand during my first year leading the company. She patiently guided me through countless questions, shared her institutional knowledge without hesitation, and helped navigate more changes than anyone should reasonably have to endure from a new owner. Her judgment, professionalism, and deep understanding of both this business and this industry have been invaluable.
Our readers may not always realize how much of Food World and Food Trade News has been shaped by Terri’s work over the years, but her fingerprints are everywhere. Her contributions have helped define this publication.
Terri, on behalf of all of us at Best-Met Publishing, Thank you. Thank you for your leadership, your dedication, your friendship, and for everything you’ve done to make this company what it is today. We wish you every happiness in this well-earned next chapter.