The Innovators and The Imitators

CEO Angelo Speranza reflects on how Burlodge Excels at New Product Development

?“We’re often imitated but never replicated,” says Burlodge CEO Angelo Speranza when reflecting on Burlodge’s industry reputation. It’s not in any way a bold claim, merely a statement of fact from someone whose 30+ year career in product development and leadership offers ample insights.

?Speranza insists that the most prominent differentiator for the company has been its active collaboration with clients to devise effective solutions.

?“We work closely with clients to better understand their problems. It’s important we have that interaction and it’s a credit to our clients for being willing to work with us to arrive at those solutions,” he says.??

The Earliest Monitoring System

The HACCP monitoring system is a perfect example of how the company not only introduced an unprecedented approach to solving equipment issues, but the way they changed the landscape of how clients managed operations.

Introduced in 1999, the monitoring system provided software that would track events on trolleys by the minute. If ever there were a technical or operator use issue, then the event history could be sourced, the issue identified and resolved with greater speed than ever. The monitoring system marked a massive shift for food managers. Convenience, control, accuracy, ultimately resulted in improved patient satisfaction – the benefits were a clear breakthrough.

“We won so many bids because of the monitoring system,” recalls Speranza. “Everyone wanted it.”

The Evolution of an Idea

The development of the HACCP system paved the way for further incarnations of Burlodge monitoring systems, including the BNet Wise and, more recently, the BCloud. Each iteration has had to adapt to new technologies, whether it was WIFI/LAN systems or as is the case now, cloud-based operations.

It’s not enough to develop a product and consider it complete. True innovation keeps pace and adapts to operational developments while respecting the client’s initial investment in the solution.

Another example is the creation of a digital food probe that helped operators get beyond the paper-based tracking of temperatures.

“We developed a probe with a button,” recalls Angelo. “It allowed operators to probe the food and register the temperature electronically into the control panel, so there was now an easier and more accurate way to record temperatures and reduce human error.”

Imitations and Limitations

Similarly, he points to the emergence of the dual oven on the Multigen as a ground-breaking evolution for Burlodge. Sure enough, other companies have followed suit, but as Speranza insists, even though most operate with them now, they certainly don’t all produce the same food quality.

“Copying is great, but if you copy without understanding it, then it doesn’t work,” he says. “The key is to understand the customer’s daily needs and challenges, and then develop a solution that truly addresses those needs.”?

And this is a key difference. Angelo points to the fact that Burlodge staff are commonly on-site working with clients and therefore have first-hand experience of what truly happens in health care environments.

“We try to develop things from a different perspective. We conceive systems that challenge convention in the way we construct them and address issues such as layout, size, ergonomics, electronic applications, HACCP monitoring, IQ Control, and more.”

Breakthroughs and Game Changers

“Others have innovated too but not to the extent of creating solutions that have become, for the most part, industry standard such as HACCP, the dual oven, the flat tray or racking systems that fit into trolleys.”

He points to the more recent development of the Logiko as yet another product that distinguishes Burlodge’s reputation for conceiving and developing new ideas. ?

“Clients instantly recognize that it looks and operates in a completely different way to anything that has been on the market before, and they’re drawn to it,” he says. Based on the eager response that the equipment has received so far, it marks yet another achievement for the company as it rolls out this smaller, lighter, smarter, greener and better performing food trolley.

“We don’t sell boxes. We provide solutions and systems that work for the customer in more than one way,” says Angelo. As for the rest of the industry, the stakes are clear: “If you don’t keep developing new, then you’re not moving forward.”

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