Food and beverage executives have spent decades optimizing for scale, efficiency, and structure. But according to John Linehan, president of Irresistible Foods Group, that approach is no longer enough.
Appearing on a recent episode of The Food Institute Podcast with guest host Shahe Kassardjian of City National Bank, Linehan argued that companies are moving into what he calls the “Capability Era” — a period in which competitive advantage will be defined less by hierarchy and more by what an organization can actually do better than anyone else.
“What’s coming up is what I call the Capability Era,” Linehan said.
To explain the shift, Linehan pointed to the Industrial Revolution, which rewarded control, consistency, and rigid hierarchy. That model made sense for its time, he said, but the next phase of business will demand something different.
From Plans to Capabilities
In the Capability Era, companies will still need scale and capital discipline. But those qualities alone will not separate winners from losers.
Instead, Linehan said leadership teams need to identify the “three or four or five, not the 10 or 12 things” they must do exceptionally well to win. Too often, executives spend more time talking about plans than about the underlying strengths that actually drive results.
“You don’t hear CEOs and presidents talking a lot about developing leaders or these are the three things we’re really, really good at,” he said. “We have them talking a lot about their plans, but not capabilities.”
That philosophy has shaped the growth of Kings Hawaiian and the broader Irresistible Foods Group platform.
What Great Companies Hire For
Linehan said one of the biggest drivers of success has been an intense focus on people. The company looks for four core traits: emotional intelligence, what he called the “3C of thinking” — “critical thinking, collaborative thinking and incredible, curious thinking” — shared values, and leadership.
“We believe leadership belongs at every position in the company,” he said. “In order to be a leader, you have to care.”
That mindset also informs his view of traditional organizational design. While “org charts have a place,” Linehan argued they are still rooted in an older model of management. “Org charts, really today, are about how things used to work,” he said.
In his view, org charts show authority, but they do not explain what a business is truly good at. “What it doesn’t tell you is what’s the organization good at?” he said.
Focus Is a Strategic Advantage
That same thinking shapes his approach to centralization and decentralization. Some functions, like tax, can be centralized because they do not need to be reinvented within every operating company. But the real benefit, he argued, is not just efficiency. It is freeing up leaders to focus on higher-value work.
If operating teams can spend most of their time on “development of their people, product innovation, customer relationships,” that creates a stronger business. Linehan described that as the “concept of focus as a strategic asset.”
Curiosity Will Matter More
Linehan also said companies need senior leaders who spend real time looking beyond today’s urgent demands. That includes thinking more deeply about how technology and AI will shape the work organizations do in the future.
Underlying all of it, however, is curiosity. Linehan emphasized the importance of getting out of the office, talking to people, and connecting ideas. “There are ideas in the room,” he said. “But they’re all dots, and the dots won’t do you any good until you get out and you talk to people and connect the dots.”
For Linehan, that mindset may be one of the defining traits of success in the Capability Era.
