South African Chefs Association: Maintaining a Non-Profit Organization

Introduction 

The South African Chefs Association (SA Chefs) is a non-profit organization, established in 1974, that represents those in the culinary industry. The aim of this case study is to renew the relevance of the association to all of its members and to the South African community. The president of the association was tasked with turning the whole operation around to better fit the mission. Included with the aim of the report, SA Chefs were looking to increase the income stream and member numbers, and help the association to become more sustainable, accountable, and relevant (Mamabolo, 2021, p. 8). This paper will begin with an overview of the case and information sections before moving into ethics, public service values, and potential solutions. 

Overview 

As a non-profit that has been active for over 40 years, the South African Chefs Association works to gain national and international recognition for their work in advancing the culinary career. The association provides education, representation, and a platform for chefs, cooks, and caterers to start their journey. In 2018, Chef James Khoza was appointed as president and began this search for innovative ways to offer members more in order to receive more from them. Since this strategic renewal, the association has introduced a bi-monthly magazine, food and wine evenings with top chefs, competed in culinary competitions, and culinary olympics. 

Data/Information 

In order to appropriately manage the association's long-term sustainability and relevance, the mission, strategic focus, activities the association is involved in, and the income is taken into account. The main challenge that the South African Chef’s Association is faced with is staying relevant to current and incoming members. According to the mission statement released from association executives, the association is “dedicated to the promotion of excellence, education, food standards, and professionalism throughout South Africa” (Mamabolo, 2021, p. 8). The statement continues to state that discrimination of any kind is prohibited and will be punished by suspension or expulsion. The strategic focus lays out the methods for achieving this mission and the activities provide a list of supporting factors to achieve the mission goal. The income of the association is used to predict the next annual budget and yield the results of comparing sustainability to membership fees. 

Ethics

This case brings up a few ethical concerns in the foundations in reference to leadership styles and expected relevance to the community. Many of the SA Chef’s members have noted discontent with the leadership since the appointment of Khoza as president. Khoza was the first appointed native South African president of the association and was chosen for this position as a related concern to the racial equality of the association as a whole. Thomas Overbeck was appointed as the general manager of operational leadership in 2011 and was an influence to the decision to appoint Khoza as the next president. Members viewed SA Chef’s as a “white organization”, believing the association’s executives favored white chefs as there had been a recognized inequity of member ethnicity. The executive board of SA Chefs acknowledged they needed to take part in more representation since their original vision was to be ‘big brothers’ to growing chefs. 

Public Service Values

New Public Service literature emphasizes the importance of human dignity, confidence, acceptance, concern for others, service, and citizenship based on shared values and public interests. In this case study, President Khoza expresses his belief in the importance of those values in saying “it's about who your customers are and whether you understand who you are talking to…in representation, we connect people; we need to get people” (Mamabolo, 2021, p. 7). The public interest of the association is to cultivate a space for their members to express their culinary art in supporting environments. Ideals of the New Public Service such as fairness and equity relate to some of the challenges the SA Chefs face in terms of issues such as celebrity chefs. As a means to promote themselves and increase revenue, the association brought in celebrity chefs as members. Demanding special treatment from instructors, young celebrity chefs came to learn from professionals but requested special treatment and titles without having contributed. This opposes the ideals of the New Public Service because if executives were to allow this unequal treatment the integrity of the association would be compromised. This perspective continues to be relevant throughout the case study and the challenges that are faced are often directly related to failed attempts at keeping up with values and ideals. 

Human Resources 

Human resources is responsible for a wide range of responsibilities within a company or organization. Within the case study of the South African Chef’s Association, there are many related queries to the human resource branch of the organization. As the first native South African, Khoza succeeded the former president of the association, Stephen Billingham, in 2018 when he was tasked with leading the association in a new direction. With this new direction, Khoza’s goal was to make the organization more relevant in a “highly competitive and dynamic business environment” (Mamabolo, 2021, p. 1). In relation to human resources, current members of the SA Chefs raised questions about the association’s relevance to the culinary industry. 

Prior to Khoza and Billignham’s leadership, Gallagher shaped the beginning years for the association and laid a foundation for the success and value of their mission. As Khoza came into the position, he was admired for being warm and sincere, and calm above all. Various employees and managers of the association state that Khoza often reflected and asked opinions of others before making any decision, this drove members to request different leadership styles. The association’s Facebook page reflected the work of networking members and their dissatisfactions (Mamabolo, 2021, p. 5). This issue reverts to human resources for security and privacy matters. 

Budget

The South African Chefs Association has been an operating non-profit for over 40 years with a goal to represent the interest of chefs in by creating a platform for their work to be advanced and recognized in a community of local and international connections. As an association that is involved in developmental activities, the South African Chefs Association is most likely considered to have a performance budget. Keeping in mind the desired end result of the association, to become a capable and successful chef, a budget that is cost effective and efficiently implemented is created. Membership income was the association’s key revenue stream for a long time before launching other income earning potential. As a non-profit, SA Chefs were able to maintain sponsorships from over twelve companies including corporate, food equipment, and patron sponsors. In cooperation with these sponsors, SA Chefs were able to develop a 3-year apprenticeship program to help young chefs achieve their goals who lacked funding. This training program became the next long-term key stream of revenue for the association. 

Leading members regarded SA Chefs as an introverted association, saying the organization is not showing off their qualities where they should be shown off (Mamabolo, 2021, p. 4). Overbeck noted that without the association and its funding, “chefs in South Africa would have far more difficult lives and would have lacked the essential resources of training and support” (Mamabolo, 2021, p. 4). There would be a noticeable skill gap in chefs ability without the instruction from the SA Chefs Association. The broad-based black empowerment program is a government policy with its goal being to advance economic transformation and encourage the participation of Black people in their South African economy (Norton). Partnering with innovative programs such as this is at the center of presidential beliefs for strategic growth. Looking at the case from this perspective, a zero based budget could be followed for future planning. Zero based budgeting starts at zero and the cost of function for the association is taken into account to build based on needs and accumulates expenses by year to plan ahead. Innovative cooperation and digitalization of the association will better the future budget by transforming membership enrollment and marketing attempts. 

Potential Solutions/Recommendations  

One of the most mentioned complaints from association members is in reference to their inability to keep up a ‘small business’ environment. Members have expressed they feel the value of the association has gone down because of its increasing numbers. Activities the association participates in have increased the feeling of inclusivity. By continuing and offering more activities to support the connectedness of the association, the value of being a member will increase and so will the want to become one. 

In regards to the human resource issue of privacy, the SA Chefs can add an employee or public communications page to the association’s website in place of the Facebook page as a means for members to express their discontent. Through this, SA Chefs will be able to directly see the wants, needs, and concerns of their audience base and find solutions on a case by case basis. By adding this feature for the community, their Facebook page is able to remain a place to network and communicate news. Utilizing the responses and platforms on social media, SA Chefs will be able to remain relevant to their community and their members. 

Conclusion 

In this paper, the South African Chefs Association was analyzed through ethics and public service values to determine the best possible solutions to their challenges of relevance and membership size. It was determined that the association does have issues concerning ethics in some instances that can be resolved through acknowledgment of the solutions/recommendations section of the paper. There are also listed solutions to issues of privacy with members using Facebook as a complaint column. These solutions being implemented are important to the success and sustainability of the association. 

References 

About Us. The South African Chefs Association. (n.d.). Retrieved November 26, 2022, from https://sachefs.co.za/about-us/ 

Broad-based Black Economic Empowerment – Basic Principles. Global law firm | Norton Rose Fulbright. (2018, July). Retrieved November 26, 2022, from https://www.nortonrosefulbright.com/en/knowledge/publications/fe87cd48/broad-based-black-economic-empowerment---basic-principles 

Mamabolo, A., & Lew, C. (2021). South African Chefs Association: Maintaining a Non-Profit Organization. Ivey ID: W19787 https://store.hbr.org/product/south-african-chefs-association-maintaining-a-non-profit-organization/W19787 

McConnell, B. (2021, January 11). 7 common HR problems in companies (and how to solve them). Modern ATS & collaborative recruitment software. Retrieved November 26, 2022, from https://recruitee.com/articles/common-hr-problems 

Types of Budgets in Public Administration. Types of budgets in Public Administration. (n.d.). Retrieved November 26, 2022, from https://www.managementstudyguide.com/types-of-budgets-in-public-administration.htm