NRA's Naylor speaks out on food industry issues

Nation's Restaurant News, Sept 16, 1996 by Richard Martin

As if presiding over one of the country's most vocal trade groups during an election year is not challenging enough, W.W. "Biff" Naylor, the restaurateur who this spring assumed the chairmanship of the National Restaurant Association for a one-year term, also is overseeing an association in transition.

In July William P. Fisher, who has served as the NRA's senior staff executive for a total of 17 years, unexpectedly resigned as president, tentatively effective Sept. 30, to become chief executive of the American Hotel & Motel Association.

Naylor's tenure also coincides with such other recent resignations as that of NRA senior vice president of communications Jeffrey R. Prince and media-relations manager Wendy Webster, who for years were in the public eye as perhaps the most frequently quoted personifications of the NRA and the foodservice industry.

Against that backdrop, members of Nation's Restaurant News' editorial board sat down with Naylor during the recent Western Restaurant Show in San Francisco to discuss those issues as well as initiatives and achievements he is emphasizing during his term as NRA chairman.

A native Californian, Naylor is the oldest of five Los Angeles-based brothers who own and operate restaurants. The career of their famous father, Tiny Naylor. began in 1926 with Tiny's Waffle Shops in Northern California and continued in Southern California with Biff's Restaurants and the landmark Tiny Naylor's coffee-shop and drive-in chain.

Biff Naylor, a Penn State graduate who resides in the Bel-Air section of Los Angeles, is co-owner of Tiny Naylor's and chairman of The Naylor Establishment, which develops and operates theme restaurants in California and Idaho and has interests in the insurance and golf industries.

Naylor is an 18-year veteran of the educational and lobbying group and since 1983 has been a member of its board of directors. He also is a former chairman of the NRA's committees on finance, government relations, political education, political action and membership, and he was vice chairman of its executive committee, on which he has served since 1980.

Do you see the NRA as likely to change after its pending transition from the Bill Fisher regime to new executive leadership?

I don't know that it's going to be so substantially different. I think that the game plan for most of the different disciplines that we're engaged in, whether it be education or government affairs, is basically the same. We have emerged a leader on the national scene. I think we're now positioned to do some extraordinary things. Yes, it will be difficult without Bill Fisher because he has been so much a part of it. I guess the new person who comes on board will be faced with all of the same challenges. It takes a tremendous leader to be able to sublimate himself to the [NRA board membership of] 70 or so top restaurateurs -- some of them small independents some of them from large chains -- all who come wit; leadership abilities, all of whom come with a voice that is used to being answered in the affirmative as to their wishes. And then you have to manage the spouses as well. And Bill is a master at that.

What are the criteria for the person you're seeking to replace Fisher? Are you looking more for an association administrator or a lobbying strategist?

The bottom line is it's all of the above. In fact, I don't know if there's a person on this planet who can fulfill that profile that we've developed. It's a phenomenal profile. And so we will weigh that against the candidates to see who measures up best in all of the different disciplines. Obviously, the educational background, the industry experience, government affairs -- all of those things are part of that profile. But leadership sometimes transcends all of those things. We've taken the lid off the search firm and told it there is no place on this earth that they can't look; there's no resume that they can't accept.

Can you put to rest any suspicion that might still exist that there is more than meets the eye in the nearly simultaneous resignations of Bill Fisher, Jeffrey Prince and others from the NRA?

The association, including the Educational Foundation, has about 230 or 240 employees, and we have had five leave recently. One was a maternity leave; Wendy [Webster, media relations director] moved away; Jeff Prince had given notice some time ago, I think back last January, that he was going to leave on his anniversary, the 23rd of August. Bill, of course, is, I think, the only real surprise. He got an absolutely wonderful opportunity with the hotel association. and they will benefit greatly from having him come on board. We will also benefit. If you take hotels and restaurants, that is, the heart of the hospitality industry, and as they do better, that helps us. They've got restaurants in their hotels, you know. He's only going to be a few blocks away.

How would you characterize the particular emphasis that you bring as leader this year, in contrast to prior leaders?

For me the greatest thing of all is to have been here 18 years. I've served under 18 different chairmen or presidents of the National Restaurant Association. I hope I'm going to be able to represent a good amalgamation of the best of all of that, because they were a phenomenal bunch of people.