Scaling without Silos: World Central Kitchen’s Radical Approach
If you wanted to provide food relief to crises around the world, how would you start?
Most of us, wanting to do the most good possible, would look at the money we have available and go “OK, how can I make as many meals as humanly possible with what I’ve got?”
Reasonable right? You go in thinking that if you minimize the cost of each meal you can feed the most people. This is standard, time-honored resource management at work. It’s about being efficient and getting the most out of what you have. This is how all of our businesses and institutions are organized and run.
But, wait! If you start with the unit cost per meal as your key variable, you’ll probably end up using centralized commissaries (food factories), the cheapest ingredients, and a volunteer meal production workforce. You’ll probably air-lift the meals to a safe place and arrange for them to be handed out to the locals from there.
The thing about silos is — they work. They’re successful (at least for their owners and managers). And they’re easy to implement. Silos are the simplest way to manage resources — centralize and protect. Organizations have done it this way for years — actually, for thousands of years.
Here’s the problem: The success enjoyed by silos usually comes at the expense of the rest of the organization, business ecosystem, or community that needs those resources. Silos can slow down the systems of which they’re a part and even cause their collapse. Silos kill. Especially in the age of AI where speed is going to become essential. More than ever, our companies, institutions, and ecosystems need another way.
The World Central Kitchen Approach
World Central Kitchen does not find the cheapest possible ingredients. It does not get unqualified volunteers to make vast batches in factory conditions. It does not optimize for scale in the way most of us would define it. It does not minimize unit cost and maximize volume output.
Here’s what it does: It pays local restaurants, food trucks, and other related providers to source, cook, and deliver food in and for the communities in need. While significantly more expensive per meal, all the donor money goes straight to the local economy to help it recover faster rather than bypassing it with external services. In this way, World Central Kitchen helps devastated communities recover and establish resilient food systems.
The importance of this cannot be overstated. By engaging with the affected community members themselves and making them a core part of the relief, Chef Andrés and his team change the communities’ perceptions of themselves. Rather than being powerless victims, they are enabled to be part of the solution, to act and to build their own resilience for the future. Their dignity, identity, and culture are never taken from them in the name of assistance. They become the heroes in their own story.
Lesson 1: Shared Success
The first and most important difference is that everyone wins from this approach. The individuals in need get nourishing food that respects their traditions and culture. The local businesses, especially the restaurants, get paid for cooking the food which means they can stay in business and pay their employees, who then, in turn, have money for their family and to spend in other local businesses.
Lesson 2: Scale through Connection, Distribution, and Integration
The second thing we learned about is the principle of Connection. World Central Kitchen engages with its ecosystems and its communities far more intentionally and deeply than the traditional company. WCK listens, observes, respects, and learns — and in this way, it becomes connected to all its partners and other stakeholders. And through Connection, it achieves Scale.
Lesson 3: Speed through Flow and Designing for Movement
The third thing we learned is that WCK is built for speed. It aims to be among the first responders to crises and to have boots on the ground preparing and delivering food — even if it’s only sandwiches — on the first day it’s there. WCK can move fast because it needs minimum infrastructure, activating local resources wherever possible and working with whatever is available on site.
Chefs versus Cooks
To be boundless, we need to adopt a new mindset. We need to operate like chefs, not cooks. “I’ve been a cook all my life, but I am still learning to be a good chef. I’m always learning new techniques and improving beyond my own knowledge because there is always something new to learn and new horizons to discover,” says Chef Jose Andrés.
Conclusion
Scaling without silos is about building organizations that are capable of scaling through connection, distribution, and integration, while prioritizing shared success and speed. It’s about learning to be a chef, not a cook. Chef Andrés and World Central Kitchen demonstrate this new approach to scaling and relief work. In a world dominated by the silo model, becoming Boundless is a crucial step towards achieving our sustainability goals.
FAQs
Q: What is World Central Kitchen?
A: World Central Kitchen is a non-profit organization founded by Chef José Andrés that provides food relief to crises around the world by activating local restaurants, food trucks, and other related providers.
Q: How does World Central Kitchen achieve its scale and speed?
A: World Central Kitchen achieves its scale and speed by engaging with local ecosystems, distributing food through existing networks, and integrating with other stakeholders.
Q: What is the importance of shared success in the World Central Kitchen approach?
A: Shared success is critical to the World Central Kitchen approach because it ensures that everyone benefits from the relief efforts, including the individuals in need, local businesses, and the community at large.
