In the last week, I’ve traveled in Ireland, visiting coffee shops and talking with coffee roasters.  The emphasis throughout the country has been on Fair Trade. There are banners in each city proclaiming that Limerick, for example, is a Fair Trade City.

On the surface, it makes sense to promote Fair Trade products as a way of trying to get more money back to subsistence farmers to help improve their lives and living conditions. And although there has been some success in getting people to consume Fair Trade products, particularly with strong marketing campaigns, the trick is getting people to continue consuming those products on an ongoing basis. However, that can be done only if the quality of the Fair Trade products is equal to or surpasses that of similar products that don’t have a Fair Trade insignia. Unfortunately, that is often not the case.

I discussed this situation with one of my customers, a boutique coffee roaster in Belfast who focuses on cupping and roasting the best coffees he can find. He travels to origins to source beans, is an SCAA Cup of Excellence judge and is well respected by his peers.

As we talked about Fair Trade, he became animated. Many of his customers demand Fair Trade-certified coffees, and he is happy to comply. However, he is frustrated by the fact that he can find and source better-tasting coffees that are not certified Fair Trade due to the way Fair Trade works. If a coffee isn’t from a co-op, it can’t be certified Fair Trade, even if the producing farm meets all of the other criteria necessary for approval. These better coffees command a higher price than their Fair Trade counterparts, so more money actually goes back to the farms, and more money can go directly to the growers.

The paradox remains that Fair Trade is only an economic stamp of approval, with a minimum-price guarantee. It says nothing about the quality of the coffee, which can be inconsistent due to the nature of a co-op. And, according to this roaster, although Fair Trade sets a minimum price for coffee, it is very difficult to get a higher price than the minimum because of the inherent quality issues. So although he is willing to buy the Fair Trade coffee for those accounts that demand it, he is happy buying non-Fair Trade-certified coffee for a higher price that makes a better cup. He feels that he is making an even bigger difference in the lives of coffee growers who strive to produce the best beans and who receive an even higher price for their work without the third-party endorsement of Fair Trade.

I’m always struck by the scope of international business when I am at large, international trade shows, where we find customers for most of our export sales. The Anuga fair is the largest food show in the world, held biannually in Koln, Germany. Every type of food imaginable is on display in the 11 halls. Meats, cheeses, wines, coffee, tea, chocolate, beverages, nuts, fruits … anything that can be eaten is showcased for sale.

These expositions are generally arranged with exhibitors from a specific country sharing booth space in a pavilion with other companies from the same region. Walking into the hall is a culinary tour of the globe. We always exhibit in the U.S. pavilion, but other pavilions include England, France, Greece, Egypt, South Korea, Spain, Italy, Morocco, Thailand, Brazil, etc. Most countries have a presence in some way to encourage export and trade. Often, one finds certain products associated with a particular country in each pavilion, so there is a preponderance of those items among all of the exhibiting companies. In the Italy pavilion, one walks past dozens of samples of red wine, pasta and coffee. In Greece, there is an abundance of olive oil, although it is always surprising to see the number of countries for which olive oil is such a significant export. The majority of the exhibitors from Sri Lanka feature tea. So far, I’ve seen kimchee offered only in the South Korean pavilion.

This year, the attendance seems down, with fewer people on the show floor and less energy than in years past. The catchphrase among exhibitors in the U.S. pavilion about sales is: “Flat is the new up.” However, although there seem to be fewer attendees, the conversations that we’ve been having are promising. In the last few days, we spoke with people from Lebanon, Israel, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Malaysia and Portugal, among others, all of whom expressed interest in private-label products. The show continues for several more days. I hope that these conversations result in new business. If so, then flat won’t be the new up.

Starbucks has just launched its new instant coffee, Via, to great fanfare. I tried it when it was in test markets a few months ago. The idea is certainly a good one, as millions of people drink instant coffee every day. Additionally, Starbucks claims that by making a better cup of instant coffee available, it will enable people to enjoy coffee more frequently because all that is required to make a cup is hot water.

Howard Schultz proclaimed that the Via process of making Starbucks instant coffee took years to perfect. Amid all of the hoopla, people taste Via now. It is expensive for instant coffee. Packed in individual serving sachets, each one costs approximately $1. The Via I tried tasted better than traditional instant coffee, but as a coffee drinker, I wouldn’t trade it for a cup of freshly brewed. Even if that is Starbuck’s Pike Place Roast.

What remains to be seen is whether Starbucks consumers will trade taste for convenience and buy Via or whether they will simply forgo their coffee fix when it isn’t convenient. I’m frankly skeptical, but it is still too early to tell. For Starbucks’ sake, and for the future of instant coffee, I hope I’m wrong.

I am proud of the unique company culture that we have created. My team of a dozen people genuinely seems to enjoy what they do and get along well with each other. We have a level of camaraderie in our office that I find refreshing both because it makes it pleasant to work closely with people who like to be there and also because I believe it creates an efficient company where everyone pitches in to help.

Tony Hsieh, CEO of Zappos, delivered the keynote address at this year’s Inc 500/5000 conference. Zappos is an online retailer that sells shoes and clothing, and was just purchased by Amazon for $928 million dollars. However, Zappos is famed for its customer service and willingness to deliver an exceptional experience to its customers. Much like Nordstrom’s was revered as having employees do literally anything to ensure that a customer was satisfied within its stores, Zappos has expanded that concept to millions of online customers that it never meets.  The basis of their service promise is the telephone. Hsieh spoke of the longest call they had ever received, occurring just recently when a woman was on the phone with the customer service rep for almost six hours. Certainly a long time to talk to someone to order shoes!

Underscoring that commitment to customer service, however, are some tenets and ideas that the Zappos team use when hiring. First, every employee must pass two reviews, the first for competence and the second to ensure that they are a good culture fit for the company. As Hsieh noted, the smartest, most capable people will not be offered a job if the recruiting team doesn’t believe they will mesh with the company and its values. Those values include:

• people dedicated to customer service
• both passionate and determined
• willing to learn and grow
• open-minded and creative
• both fun and a little weird

Famously, after initial training of employees, new hires are offered $2000 to quit. To date, not a single person has accepted the offer.

We are in the middle of recruiting for a key position within our company, and have received a number of résumés. Some of the candidates have very strong technical backgrounds and we will interview some of them as a team. However, I am always concerned about maintaining our company culture. I have hired people in the past that had technical ability, but didn’t fit our company culture and I always had to let those people go. As these next interviews begin, I will use some of Zappos’ questions — two favorites are “How weird are you?” and “How lucky are you?” to try and make sure my next hire has not only the technical skills to do the job, but also fits within our unique, offbeat, company culture.

We have three guiding principles at Mont Blanc Gourmet: Innovation, Quality and Fun. By far the hardest to pursue is innovation, and I am continually grappling with how to better innovate and make sure that our innovations pay off. Over the years, I have had some terrific ideas and some spectacular failures. So I was looking forward to the panel discussion on “Innovation” at the Inc. 500 conference. It was moderated by a writer, David H. Freedman, and consisted of Tan Le, Nolan Bushnell and Rodney Brooks, all of whom are scientists and extremely successful entrepreneurs.

Some of their comments resonated, including:

• Things are always impossible until proven possible.

• Innovation is risky.

• Companies must have a willingness to fail and to take risks. And they must have systems in place to allow them to fail and keep moving forward. We have learned that each time we launch a new product, we must do so on a small test scale before it goes into full production. I still remember the revolutionary product we created several years ago and went into full-scale production with before it had been adequately tested. We ultimately had to pull it from the market, a decision that cost us a lot of money, but that didn’t stop us from trying to come up with other new products.

• Business models can be a place to innovate. Wal-Mart tracks everything it does, which is the basis for its success. GE Jet Engines no longer sells engines. Instead, it sells time.

• Partner with contract manufacturers. Our business model is based on this concept, as we have successful partnerships with nine co-packers across the United States.

• You can’t engage with customers until you reach a certain point in the process, and you can’t ask customers what innovative product they want because they simply don’t know.  I am always frustrated by the lack of innovation in the specialty-coffee industry. Can someone please come up with a new beverage for the holidays besides a mint mocha?!

• Create a culture of innovation within the company, and get everyone involved.

• Keep teams small to innovate and create an internal competition for new products. When we work on new products, we have people from other parts of the company taste and evaluate them to get feedback from different perspectives.

• Without a champion, ideas are worthless. And ideas aren’t necessarily valuable, so keeping them secret isn’t worth it. Ideas need to be discussed and analyzed for value.

• Keep innovating, and listen to your gut. You will always get things wrong, but often you can find success in failure. Some of our best products are the results of ignoring feedback and tweaking products that originally didn’t work but succeeded after they were changed.

It was refreshing hearing these experts put into words some of what I was already doing and to hear about more things I should do. Innovation is an integral part of our company and culture, and listening to this panel was the impetus I needed to continue developing new products and ideas.