Gold Award Spotlight: Matthew Yaz, Chef’s Deal

As CEO, you led a cross-functional effort to expand the company’s operational capabilities while maintaining service quality and organizational alignment. Can you describe this cross-functional effort, and why this approach was necessary for Chef’s Deal to grow?

Growth at the scale we were pursuing could not be managed through silos. As Chef’s Deal expanded, decisions in procurement, sales, operations, logistics, customer service, and technology increasingly affected one another. We had to align these functions around a shared roadmap rather than allowing each department to grow independently.

One of the biggest initiatives has been the implementation of a new enterprise resource planning (EPR) system. The implementation took approximately a year of planning, development, testing, and cross-department coordination, and we launched the system about two months ago. It is still an ongoing process as we continue refining and expanding how we use it.

At the same time, we were expanding our physical footprint, strengthening our supplier network, and improving our customer-facing capabilities. My role was to bring these different teams and initiatives together, establish common priorities, clarify ownership, and make sure everyone understood how their decisions affected the broader organization.

The cross-functional approach was essential because growth in one area can quickly create constraints somewhere else. We needed our people, processes, technology, and infrastructure to develop together. That alignment has allowed us to continue growing while protecting the responsiveness and service quality our customers depend on.

What skills did you need to build or develop to make this growth phase a success?

I had to develop a much deeper appreciation for systems thinking; understanding how a decision in procurement can affect fulfillment, how technology can improve or complicate a process, and how an operational issue ultimately affects customer trust.

The new ERP implementation was a particularly valuable learning experience. It required me to understand our processes at a much deeper level and work with different departments to determine how those processes should function within a more integrated system. Because the implementation is still evolving, it has also reinforced the importance of continuous improvement rather than treating a technology project as something that simply has a start and finish date.

I also became much more focused on understanding supplier capabilities beyond pricing, including lead times, capacity, reliability, and how suppliers perform when the market is under pressure. On the customer side, I pushed our team to better understand purchasing behavior and the factors behind an operator’s decisions, including opening timelines, budgets, project schedules, and customer expectations.

Finally, I had to grow as a leader and facilitator. Earlier in my career, I was much more directly involved in solving individual problems. As the company grew, I had to learn to create structured decision-making processes, delegate effectively, develop other leaders, and create alignment without slowing the organization down.

The biggest change for me was learning to move from being a problem solver to being an organization builder.

The company’s recent growth included the planning and execution of a second warehouse location. How did you coordinate all the different teams involved in that project and how did you measure its success?

The second warehouse in Murfreesboro, Tennessee, was one of the more complex operational projects we had undertaken. Real estate, logistics, inventory, staffing, procurement, sales, and customer communication all had to be coordinated as the project moved forward.

I organized the effort by establishing clear ownership for the different workstreams and making sure each area had accountability while maintaining communication across the teams. We regularly brought the different functions together to identify issues early and make sure decisions in one area did not create problems somewhere else.

We measured success in stages. First was operational readiness; could we receive, store, and distribute inventory effectively from the new location? Then we looked at whether the additional facility improved our operational flexibility and distribution capabilities. Ultimately, the measure of success was whether the expansion strengthened our ability to serve customers and provided the infrastructure needed for continued growth.

The warehouse was not simply an additional physical location. It was an investment in our ability to support customers throughout Middle Tennessee and beyond.

What were some ways you demonstrated leadership on this project?

The most important thing I did was stay involved without micromanaging.

I made sure each team leader understood the objective, had clear ownership of their responsibilities, and knew I was available when decisions needed to be escalated. At the same time, I trusted the people closest to each function to make decisions and execute.

When disagreements or unexpected challenges came up, I tried to act as a facilitator rather than simply making a top-down decision. I wanted the team to understand the reasoning behind decisions and learn how to solve similar problems independently.

I was also intentional about communicating the “why” behind the project. We were not expanding simply to add another warehouse. We were building the infrastructure necessary to serve our customers better and support the company’s long-term growth.

You’ve also led efforts to strengthen employee development and engagement by implementing more structured career growth initiatives. Can you tell us about some of those initiatives and why you see them as important to Chef’s Deal’s growth?

I believe that how you develop your people is a direct statement about what kind of company you intend to build.

As Chef’s Deal grew, we began putting more structure around career development and creating clearer paths for employees to understand what growth can look like within the company. One example has been developing more defined progression within our sales organization, with clearer expectations and responsibilities at different levels.

We have also focused on employee training, cross-department collaboration, mentoring, and giving high-performing employees opportunities to take ownership and responsibility earlier in their careers. I believe development conversations should be about more than current tasks; they should also focus on where an employee wants to go and what skills they need to get there.

This is particularly important in our industry because sustainable growth depends on having people who can grow with the organization. You cannot build a larger company around a small number of individuals. You have to develop people who can eventually lead teams, make decisions, and take the company forward themselves.

One of the most rewarding parts of my role is seeing someone who joined us in one position develop into a confident professional and take on responsibilities they may not have originally imagined for themselves.

As you look ahead in your career, what excites you about the future of the foodservice equipment and supplies industry?

What excites me most is that the foodservice equipment industry is becoming increasingly strategic for the operators we serve.

Restaurant and hospitality businesses are under pressure from labor costs, margins, energy costs, project timelines, and changing customer expectations. Equipment decisions are therefore about much more than simply buying a product. Operators need partners who can help them make the right decisions, coordinate the process, and ultimately help them build and operate successful kitchens.

That creates a tremendous opportunity for companies like Chef’s Deal to become true partners rather than simply product vendors.

I’m also excited about how technology, data, and AI will change the way we understand customers and operate our businesses; from improving customer experiences and product selection to supply chain intelligence and operational efficiency.

I came into this industry from a completely different professional background, and what started as a career change in 2020 has become something I am genuinely passionate about. I’m excited about continuing to learn, building better organizations, and helping Chef’s Deal and our industry move forward.