A quick-response culture

Since the bakery opened six years ago, the food industry has evolved into a much faster-paced environment. Only the most nimble of bakers can take full advantage of shifts in the market as the window of opportunity shrinks, Mr. Mitchell said. As a result, he added, successful companies need to transform themselves into quick-response teams from an operation’s perspective.

“It doesn’t take months within the Turano organization to make decisions,” he said. “It takes minutes. We’re able to move on a project very quickly. The approval process is very rapid. If you look at fads and trends, they aren’t here for long. If you don’t get onto it quickly, you can lose out by being at the tail end of a movement.”

Giancarlo Turano, principal, suggested customers — and consumers — are stepping up the pace of change.

“The more specific your customers’ needs become, the more innovative you have to be,” he said.

For Turano Baking Co., the Orlando bakery is just another chapter in the book on the family-owned business, a book that spans more than a half century. As time goes on, the learning process from the Orlando bakery expansion will continue to pay dividends for the company.

“I wouldn’t say that gleaning ideas from other facilities ever stops,” Mr. Desrosiers said. “We just have one more facility where we can pull knowledge from. When we came here, many of us were not used to this collaborative effort with vendors and other customer partners. That opens up a whole new world where you can learn from other people in the industry.”

Collaboration, for a quick-response company, certainly ramps up speed-to-market when it comes to rolling out new products.