Catering and Company Culture: A Visit with Anthony Lambatos

Recently, we had the pleasure of hosting industry expert and guest speaker Anthony Lambatos. Lambatos and his wife April are the owners of Footers Catering Company in Denver, Colorado as well as its sister company, MIBE (Make It Better Everyday) Tribe,which specializes in business coaching with a special emphasis on company culture. With their catering and business expertise, Lambatos and his team travel the country speaking at conventions and to companies in the hospitality industry on best business practices. While in Knoxville, Lambatos delivered two sessions on different business aspects of the catering industry.

7 Key Metrics

Knoxville Chamber of Commerce  held the first session, which was attended by representatives of various local catering companies. The hour-long class focused on 7 key metrics Lambatos believes caterers should track to obtain a better financial picture of their business and track spending, as well as tips to help achieve their goals. Beneficial to all in attendance, this class also provided a unique opportunity for smaller companies that may not have additional resources to travel to attend catering classes or conventions.

Company Culture

Lambatos then joined us at the AOC offices that afternoon for the second session, attended by our staff. This session geared towards culture, leadership and staff development. Through the MIBE tribe mentality, Lambatos stresses providing employees with a positive work atmosphere where they feel valued. His experience has shown that this, coupled with providing more opportunities for advancement within the company, will in turn improve productivity and reduce turnover.

Emphasis on heart leadership and intentional culture are values we share and what prompted us to invite Anthony to Knoxville to speak. At All Occasion Catering, we strive to encourage our co-workers in everyday life and wanted to expand upon this. We believe having a team that operates with a family dynamic is an invaluable asset to any successful business. After this session, we left inspired and ready to utilize our new knowledge to enrich our business and each other.

We look forward to the changes and growth ahead for our team in 2020!

Lambatos and six other Footers team members recently shared their expertise at the 2020 International Catersource Conference in Las Vegas. They touched on diverse topics in the catering industry including innovation, operations, sales and of course, heart leadership.