June 21, 2024 • 38 mins
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In a dynamic podcast hosted by Paul Barron, leadership experts David Jobe and Hattie Hill from the Prosper Forum delve into the critical tactics needed to navigate the future of the food service and hospitality industries. Their discussion centers on adaptive leadership, hybrid work optimization, and data-informed decision-making, all within the framework of fostering diversity and purposeful outcomes.
#foodserviceindustry #restaurantbusiness #leadership
📈 Learn More ~ Restaurant Power Index featuring the top 50 brands' performance in consumer sentiment based on 12 performance markers in food, service, and overall brand consumer sentiment. The RPI features historical and current sentiment analysis for key brands based on the overall market sentiment data. Subscribe for weekly reports on the top brands in the restaurant industry. https://www.savor.fm/restaurant-power-index
In a dynamic podcast hosted by Paul Barron, leadership experts David Jobe and Hattie Hill from the Prosper Forum delve into the critical tactics needed to navigate the future of the food service and hospitality industries. Their discussion centers on adaptive leadership, hybrid work optimization, and data-informed decision-making, all within the framework of fostering diversity and purposeful outcomes.
#foodserviceindustry #restaurantbusiness #leadership
📈 Learn More ~ Restaurant Power Index featuring the top 50 brands' performance in consumer sentiment based on 12 performance markers in food, service, and overall brand consumer sentiment. The RPI features historical and current sentiment analysis for key brands based on the overall market sentiment data. Subscribe for weekly reports on the top brands in the restaurant industry. https://www.savor.fm/restaurant-power-index
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:08):
Welcome back to another episode of theRestaurant Report. Today we're going to be
talking about leadership tactics for twenty twentyfive and one of the things that I
wanted to break into is some ofthe events that are out there. And
we are partnered with the Prosper Forumand joining me today of course is Hattie
Hill. Is Hattie Hill and misterDavid Job. Great to have you guys
on the podcast. Thank you,Thank you, Paul. You guys did
(00:33):
this with us last year, soit was really fun. And you know,
ironically, we had a really goodperformance on the podcast, you know,
on the like on YouTube, itgot a ton of views, so
I think a lot of people arereally leaning into leadership strategies. Obviously the
forum is all about that. Maybeyou guys could give us in our audience
(00:54):
a little bit of an outline ofwhat Prosper Forum is all about. Well,
first, Paul, I just wantto say thank you. We couldn't
be more proud to be a partnerwith you, rever Networks, saverer FM
and your team. You guys epitomizeleadership, so it's a real honor and
(01:15):
it's a real benefit for the ProsperForum. When you think about leadership,
to be able to partner with leaderslike you, you're a transformative leader,
you're influence leader. People look toyou, and so I just wanted to
say thank you very much for thatopportunity. And we're excited about what we
(01:36):
have here and you are a partof that. But you know, we,
Pattie and I had really thought,you know, even ten years ago,
that there was a different way totake this great industry of ours and
bring people together. And it reallyyou know, we have our vision,
which is a real, you know, mouthful and more prosperous and just world.
(02:00):
But if you think about the industrythat we're in, we employ everybody
and everybody has to eat. Soif you think about trying to make a
difference in the world, I don'tthink there's any better industry than this great
industry that we're all in, afood service, hospitality, and I think,
you know, this more prosperous andjust world. So how do you
(02:22):
make that happen, right, Paul? How do you bring people like you?
Right? That's what we're trying todo, unite leaders, but fundamentally,
foundationally, deliberately, intentionally, wehave said you must have this next
generation of diverse leadership. So howdo you make all of that happen?
Right, Well, we had enoughrelational capital for you know, particularly with
(02:46):
Hattie Hill on board, who doesn'tknow Hattie, and then to be able
to partner people like you. Right, we had the relational capital and the
history that we could bring leaders together. But we had to figure out how
to deliberately intentionally bring this next generationof diverse leadership right. And really,
as you know, Paul, wereally just basically demanded nicely as much as
(03:10):
you could at these CEOs, youmust bring a next generation diverse leader with
you. And really it's about likeminded individuals with like minded companies coming together
that are thinking differently, to learndifferently, to act differently, to win
differently. So we've been real fortunate, right that the real you know,
(03:35):
Hattie always says this, Right whenyou think about all of the things around
diversity today, right, the dword was not even talked about then it
was a great word. Then it'slike, is it is it? You
know? Are there issues? Reallyit is about this industry, our continued
need for talent, right, thechange in the world. We're more diverse
(03:57):
tomorrow than we are today, andevery consumer, every customer, every employee,
every stakeholder in your business is morediverse tomorrow than they are today.
So the idea about bringing deliberately anext generation of diverse talent that in fact
(04:17):
is thinking and acting and winning differently, which you know, we're very proud,
quite frankly that you know the prosperForm although now in its full second
year, the response to it hasexceeded the objectives and certainly the expectations that
we've had. So this idea ofbringing the current leaders with the next gen.
(04:43):
And of course it is individuals,right, the leaders of the industry
recognize, right, like minded companies, like minded individuals coming together in a
differentiated environment. And I think youknow, Paul, and you're you're a
big part of that, right,We set an environment that really is different.
It's open, it's safe, it'sbarriers just get broken down. And
(05:09):
look, part of that is wehave a different group that comes. If
you look at you look at thediversity of our group. It is a
diversity, except probably not that seniorexecutive CEO level, which still looks a
lot like you and I, Right, Paul, you looked at that attendance
of the prosper form, it wasexceptionally diverse, right, which a lot
(05:34):
of people. The feedback had been, you know, the biggest thing that
we've got, right, Paul,and I think this goes to your leadership
twenty twenty five, right is whatleadership to me has always been defined really
by two words, right, followme. And if we were on this
podcast, as you know a yearago, it was much more well Hattie
(05:57):
and I, you know, andsome a lot of industry leaders and influencers
right as you know, you know, from David Gibbs to Paul Brown,
to Kelly Vala to up and comingMaria Rivera with small sliders right yea.
But that that group right coming togetherright, was really about thinking and acting
(06:20):
you know differently, right. Sothat environment right where you had the CEOs
there, you know, on ourProsper Accelerator program, you know, it
was a big part of that.And look, Inspire Brands brought seven Prosper
Accelerators because Paul Brown wanted to spendthree days with that group where those seven
(06:42):
accelerators have the opportunity to see andbe exposed to people like you, like
Caddie Hill, like Great Creed,like Maria Rivera, like Kelly valad to
Denny's, like GJ. Hart,right, Alex Eagle of Free World Burritos,
Right, So we were very deliberateand very intention right, so it
really goes into the bottom line,at least for us, right a year
(07:05):
or two ago. This is whatwe think we're going to do. Paul,
thanks for coming on board and helpingus. Right, this is the
vision. This is the outcomes thatwe think, where today we would be
much more saying we're not talking aboutit, we're not thinking that this is
this is the results that we're having. These are the outcomes. These are
(07:26):
what people are saying, which reallyis Listen, this was different. This
was one of, if not thesingle best use of my time for not
the thought leading content, the bestpractices, the takeaways, and look,
the real content of any event isthe people. Is the people in attendance.
That's the true content of any event. And we've been very fortunate to
(07:50):
have you know, people like PapaJohn, you know Subway last year came
for the first time and they're likea great roster, that's for sure.
Yeah, this is different. Soanyway, that was probably a lot more
in the opening, you know,Slavo here of you know, Leadership twenty
twenty five. Well, it kindof sets up the framework of today's podcast,
(08:13):
and Hattie, I know as aboard member of Prosper Forum, I
was looking at the diversity of lastyear's event. That was great, and
you know, we've seen a lotof events that have started to do some
things like this, but with theProsper event, it seemed as though there
was quite a bit of unique designaround the leaders that were there. And
(08:37):
I'll get to that in a second. But when you look at leaders today,
I guess my first question to youis around adaptive leadership. Have you
started to see a real shift inhow leadership is taking this kind of this
next generation workforce, especially in foodservice today with kind of a different framework
(08:58):
in terms of how they're working withthose people now. But first, thank
you, Paul. It's excited tobe here. As you can tell,
David is passionate, so I justsit and smile and let him tell you
all the good stuff. But no, it is absolutely I'm just honored to
be a part of this and thankfulto David and the team to be on
the board of Prosper because it reallygets to all the things that I've believed
(09:22):
and advocated for in my entire career, and that is that as leaders,
we're continuous learners. We have tolook at who are the people that walk
through my door every day, andbecause of the pandemic and other things,
we have to be adaptive leaders inthis day and time. It is absolutely
the new currency of business because youwant to understand each one of your employees,
(09:48):
you want to understand your organization,and then how do I need to
adapt to make sure that this personnot only comes to me, but stays
with me. The whole idea ofrecruitment and retention is real. It's impacted
all of our restaurants. You goin your favorite restaurant there, half of
it may not be opened or closedat a different time because we don't have
(10:09):
the staff. So for us andthe Prosper Forum, it's about bringing these
amazing leaders together. But let's beclear, it is about business and making
our business better because we are adaptedleaders. Well, I think that's the
cool thing that I found. Youknow, we did a bunch of podcasts
there at the event. We'll bedoing a bunch this year, and one
(10:31):
of the things that was things thatI felt were so unique was the frame
of mind of these operators. Youknow, you see a few events that
you just feel like the operators thatcome to these events have opened up,
and then you go to events whereyou feel like operators are just there to
collect information. You know, thisone felt very opened up. You know,
(10:56):
everybody was very receptive. When youlook at adaptive leadership and you think
about culture, especially today, andI'll keep this on you, Hattie,
the idea around continuously learning, creatingand fostering that kind of culture that has
not been an area that the restaurantindustry has been known for in the past.
(11:18):
Do you feel like that's changing nowthough? Oh? Absolutely. We
had to do, Paul, aserious shift when COVID happened, right,
And what we learned was we canbe adaptive, no matter how old the
business, no matter how we've gotto do it this way. Everyone was
forced to learn something different. Thegood news about that, and they always
(11:41):
say, you never waste a goodcrisis, So the good news of the
crisis of the pandemic was we've hadto be very adaptive in the way we
work with our employees, the waywe look at our business, and the
way we think about culture. Becausethe culture is now a hybrid culture.
Always in the office, right,exactly, you're not always at the restaurant.
(12:05):
So absolutely, the adaptability, thelearning, the innovation, all of
that was a gift of COVID.And also the adaptability. Now it's got
to be fast, it's not exactlyspeed, I think is a big one.
Hey David, you've had a chancelast year and I saw you work
in your magic there with all theleaders, and I don't know how you
(12:26):
guys run an event like that becauseit feels like you got, you know,
an eight string band going on ina concert that's happening in four rooms.
So to me, it was prettyit was pretty cool to watch you
work. But my question is whenyou walked away from the event last year,
was there a story that you couldtell me that says, hey,
Paul, this was the transformation ofa leader. I saw this with X,
(12:52):
Y or Z, anybody that youcould kind of share a little bit
about. Yeah, I think there'sYou know, obviously, we're fortunate that
you know lots of feedback, andwe're deliberate about the feedback, intentional about
asking for it and not only askingat times, begging for it, right,
because it's it's really the collective groupthat's going to come up with you
(13:16):
know that thinking and acting differently,to win differently and to win better.
But one of the one of thethings that had happened at one of the
events, you know, we hadput intentionally we had put four completely diverse
individuals on stage at the same time, all at one time. And we
(13:39):
did this with James Fripp. Wedid this with Alisha McMath right, running
chief people officer for Compass right thelargest right the fourth largest employer in the
world young brands, you know,the number one restaurant chain in the world.
It was moderated by Idristover of Shakeshaftand then we obviously had Adrian Tremble
(14:03):
on their chief people officer of Cisco. So you think about the influence that
was on that stage. And wedidn't come up with the topic. It
was Idris Stover of Shapshack that cameup with the topic, which was you
know, inclusion in action and thefeedback that we got off of that really
most of it came from digital andonline and social, but it was this
(14:26):
is what fifty years you know ofinclusion looks like, right, and you
know, look, I'll be realclear, right Paul that you know,
I get pushed in different ways,right, like, hey, what are
you doing here, David? Right? Is it okay if you know a
heterosexual white guy with a beard,Is it okay if they're part of this
(14:48):
event? To hey, you know, David, are you and Hattie just
trying to take advantage of you know, a situation here with you know,
d E and I. And theanswer to that is for every one of
those, it's one hundred comments thatcome back that says, finally, right,
this this this environment, this event, that we're a part of,
(15:11):
this community that you're growing. Weactually are doing something. It's not just
talk about it. It's not justhey be on stage and then leave.
Hey let me be on this committeethat never survives and goes away. So
you know, the big outcome ofthat is our Prosper Accelerator program. But
I think in answer again full circlepall to your question, that was a
(15:33):
really good example, right, andthat was by design, Like we're very
very clear about, Look, weare going to reach out. This is
thinking and acting differently right to amore diverse audience, right, because that
reflects it and I think you knowI've told the story many times, right,
(15:54):
of one of the larger, mostsignificant restaurant chains, one of the
fastesting you know of, asking thatyou know CEO and founder, right,
we need to you must bring adiverse leader. And he's like, look,
we get it. We know theconsumer, we know our customers,
we know every stakeholder, we knowour employees. Right. But we're tie
(16:17):
in white guys from the Jersey shore, right, not in the C suite.
Yet we have you know, thisyoung diverse he runs some of the
best business for us highschool like him? Yeah, like him? We bring
we put on right. And sothe point is the Maria Rivera is the
(16:38):
only Latino female CEO in a trilliondollar industry. Now wait a minute,
right, Paul pulled up. Womenare half the population and Hispanic Latino Arizona
where I live, California, NewMexico Tech. Right, it's almost,
if not the majority of the population. It's twenty five percent of the population
(17:00):
growing at twenty twenty five percent.Yeah, you're telling me, right,
or what I am saying? Whatthe prosper form is saying that opportunity for
talent is so available to us thatif we shift and think differently, right,
And that's essentially what we're doing inyou know, anyway, there's an
(17:22):
example or two. Yeah, Well, I think you know, one thing
that a lot of people forget isthis is that often in this industry,
it's unfortunate, but most of themedia headlines are geared toward, you know,
the CEOs that have been around fora very long time. It's not
that they're a bad thing. They'veled this industry for quite some time.
(17:44):
But we haven't seen kind of thisnext generation, you know. And what
one thing that has happened, Iknow, even with our own podcast network,
you know, we've started opening upour podcast mics to a lot more
not really, we just opened itup to more emerging leaders. But when
we did that, it automatically becamemuch more diverse, you know, because
(18:08):
it was an emerging crop. AndI think that's the question I have.
And maybe there is a transformative shiftthat is occurring right now. And you
think about twenty twenty five, Hattie, and what brands are going to look
like in five years, you know, just the makeup of that c suite
or even the top level management.Do you think that this next year or
(18:32):
two could set the stage for thatgoing forward? Oh? Absolutely, Paul.
Here's and David mentions this all thetime, and James Fripp with Young
said this very clearly at Prosper lastyear. Our next generation is changing daily
and we have to change and makesure our products are prepared for that.
Example, McKenzie, some research mackenziedid on the gen Z the next level
(18:56):
group, right, forty seven percentof that group have said they are racially
different, ethnically different. Eighty sevenpercent said their friends and people and their
immediate groups are diverse people. Sowhen you hear the noise around diversity going
away, that's our audience. Sothere's no way it's going to go away.
(19:18):
We may call it something different,and that's okay if we need to
sure. Our job at Prosper andwhat this team is committed to is to
make sure that we connect the moretenured leaders with this next group so that
we'll have the talent transfer. Youstill want to keep your business growing,
you still want to make sure thestock is making money, right, and
(19:41):
so that's automatically going to change justbecause of the demographics. What Prosper has
done is really to be deliberate aboutbringing those two groups together, build these
trusted, long term relationships so thatthey can do business and be effective and
build the right pla cultures. Well, I think the key there as we've
(20:03):
seen so many emerging brands. Youknow, I just think about a lot
of CEOs today that I talked to, especially that they're coming out in the
emerging brand sector, meaning you know, they're under twenty units, they're starting
to it's mostly in the fast casualspace. Because we host our podcast Fast
Casual Nation, I've been surprised whenwe did the original documentary about a decade
(20:26):
ago, you know, it wasa different crop of people. It was
the icons that kind of cracked theseal on Fast Casual and you know,
you have the ron Shakes of theWorld, the Rondy Grudy's of Shakescheck,
you know, Danny Meers, etcetera. That have really kind of accelerated.
But now it appears that that batonis now passing and I think we're
(20:48):
right there at that precipice today.When you think about that and what we've
started to see with this hybrid model, because there's a lot of people working
now away from corporate facility, doyou think that helps helps or hinders potential
careers of being maybe away from corporatelife or is it a different just a
(21:12):
completely different world today. What areyour thoughts? Well, because I spent
a lot of time in this baseballreally talking about culture and people and what
happened when we had to go tothis hybrid model. And we of course
did it because we had to.But you realize that your culture has to
be built outside of the office.And that's tough for some of us who've
(21:33):
been around for a long time becausewe like to, you know, come
into the office, we all getto know each other, right, So
we have to learn to build thattrust from outside, which means we have
to make clear goals, we haveto do what we're doing right now.
With technology, we have to beton zoom teams, whatever it takes for
you to you know, a lotof people use the Google Meets for collaboration
(21:56):
other base projects. You know,there's all kinds of project's software that you
can use or technology. At theend of the day, I have to
understand the nuances of the people thatI'm working with and build trust. And
I'll give you an example. Iwas talking to someone last week, so
woman, she has a couple ofkids. She works for one of the
(22:18):
major companies in the food industry,and she was saying she didn't feel like
her boss trusted her. They wereworking from home. They work from home
three days a week, and shesaid, I have to go and get
pick up my child from kindergarten.So it's you know, three o'clock,
two thirty in the afternoon. Butshe said, I'll come back, I'll
feed the kid, log back on, and I might be on, get
(22:40):
on at nine and stay on untileleven at night. Right, So you're
still getting the work that you need. But what we have to do as
leaders sometimes is not hold that traditionalmodel to say, you know, you
got to be logged in at eightny. Yeah, time shifting is occurring,
right right. Yeah, that's alot. That is a big one.
I hear a lot. Did yousee that graphic I was just showing
(23:02):
it says fully on site only fiftyeight percent. Yeah, I was surprised
that it was. Is that lowhybrid about thirty percent and then work from
home around twelve percent, So there'sstill a lot of that. Do you
think that that is conducive to careersgoing forward? So I'm thinking about myself
as as maybe a young GM that'strying to make it in the in the
(23:26):
world today, and you know,I'm already remote kind of maybe I'm covering
you know, four or five units. I work primarily here. I don't
go much into the corporate office.That's been kind of a thing in the
past. But do you feel likethat is going to have any effect on
people's ability to advance in the future. You want to take that one,
(23:47):
David, do you want me to? Yeah? No, go ahead,
Yeah, I know that is rightdown your ally right now. I think
it's going to require extra work whenyou let's go back to where you started
calling. Yeah, we have tobe adaptives. We have to look for
other ways because I may not catchyou in the office, but could you
meet me for coffee and I introduceyou to a Chipwaight and say, okay,
(24:10):
here's a person, a person ofcolor who's very successful. When you
want role models in the industry,here's a great example of a role model
for you. What there may bea woman that you want to get to
know. I want to have youknow, I need to meet Maria Rivera
because I'm one looking for women ofcolor in the industry. What if the
hybrid model still works and we haveto be willing to change because Some of
(24:33):
these young people will never go backto us back in the day, going
in at eight, staying till five, slay till six or seven, just
to FaceTime because your boss was stillthere. That may never happen. But
what I know, if my bossis authentic and says to me, listen,
I want to introduce you to someonewho cares not only about this organization,
(24:55):
but about the career and about theindustry. That tells me a whole
lot about it the person I'm workingwith. It requires us to think differently.
The nuances be different as David startedwith, but we can still build
trust and build relationships. Yeah.I think that's a good quality because flexibility
in the food service has been Ithink everybody's learned to adapt to some different
(25:18):
things. We've already seen time shiftingoccurring in day parts. A lot of
day parts have been pretty much dismantledtoday. I think a lot of restaurants
are starting to figure that out,so it's kind of cool. I want
to go back to inclusive leadership becausethis is an area that we touched on
a little bit, but we didn'tgo all the way in there. I
want to talk about when you lookat how you measure success on inclusive leadership
(25:44):
today, and I know you guysare doing some things with these accelerators.
That's one way of being able tosay, all right, well, this
is the kind of program that we'reputting out there. But are you seeing
companies put together success metrics around thisright now? Yeah, I can tell
you, Paul, one hundred percent. I will tell you too. Part
(26:07):
of the you know, the prosperForm about bringing people together to on your
highbred work, you know, optimizationand and just the change. It just
puts another spotlight on the value andthe importance of face to face meetings too,
right, And that's part of thevalue of prosper Form is the change
(26:29):
in the consumer, the change inour employees right about working from home.
It just puts a bright spotlight ona time that you can come together meet.
Face to face relationships are the keyto everything. Foundation of a relationship
is trust. Trust takes time tobuild. To your question, you know,
(26:51):
on the inclusive leadership and the measurement, right, the prosper Accelerator program
we thought was a good idea.It ended up being probably way underestimated on
our behalf of what we thought itcould be or could do. It just
has exceeded every expectation I think.You know, our goal is to have
(27:11):
one thousand in ten years. Lastyear we thought with the initial class maybe
thirty five, we had to stopat one hundred and one. This year
it's one hundred and twenty five andwe're currently on one hundred and thirty.
We're not sure how we're going tofit in the other five, but we
will figure that out. But tothe measurement of it, that is one
of the things one hundred percent thatwe are doing with the Prosper Accelerators.
(27:36):
It's a different curriculum, it's adifferent program, but we are specifically measuring
things like advancements, right additional responsibilities, where these people are going, what
they're learning. We're right in theprocess right now too, of having a
brand new assessment tool for specifically theexgen of diverse leaders as a measurement tool
(28:03):
for what skill deficiencies, what skillthing you know, what deficiencies would we
want to improve on. What arethe skills that you want to bear down
on and promote and continue to develop. And then finally to your point of
measuring where are these people going intheir careers? What are they finding is
the new way that they want tobe led right, What is a better
(28:27):
thought process on how to be developed? What is a better thought process or
ways to be more efficient, moreproductive and ultimately right move into those senior
leadership positions. And the great thingof the measurement right about the Prosper Accelerator
program too, is okay, yourChipolte, your subway, your small sliders,
(28:51):
your Union Square, hospitality right partof our appropriate When can they come
in? It's been three days withPaul Barren to see you, to interact
with you, to see how youlead. What are the pearls or wisdom?
Well, now you know we haveseven hundred people at the Prosper Accelerator
(29:12):
eighty percent or CEOs right. Yourability to be exposed to learn, that's
another thing that we measure right,and then we try to put metrics again
for that exposure, for that involvement, for that learning, for that development,
but anyway to bring that back onehundred percent on our Prosper Accelerator program.
(29:34):
We're tracking these individuals because Neil Sede'sAir Direct TV has been really clear
and helping you know, to leadus that we must. The program's only
working if the outcomes are producing thepositive incomes that you expect. So we're
definitely tracking measuring, and yeah,to your point, we've already had you
(29:57):
know, dozens of you know,hey, we're very proud to announce now
that ABC has some additional responsibilities orthat are moving into this role. You
know, they utilize these relationships andthis differentiated learning, you know, to
help advance not only their career,but you know, and raising all the
boats, so to speak. Yeah, I was looking at this article,
(30:21):
you know, for the show todayand I'll share it for everybody. If
you're watching the podcast today, you'llget a chance to see the video version
of this how purpose driven leadership ischanging the world and a couple of points
they kind of touch on. I'llscan down a little bit in the article
purpose bringing positive change. You know, this this a whole idea around you
know, different backgrounds and skill sets, ages, et cetera. But really
(30:45):
getting that purpose behind it. Backto your point of trying to measure.
And then also the other idea isit promotes fulfillment. So leaders who understand
kind of this purpose, on theother hand, experience the idea around tangible
benefit, and many people don't necessarilykind of qualify or look at that as
a benefit. But I think that'sone of the things that starts to do
(31:07):
something that really does exactly what you'retalking about, which shows progress, and
that's measurement, you know when youget out there in a lot of these
organizations. So I can definitely seethat and it's starting to show up more
and more. Are you finding anypatty when you're working with companies? I
know you work with a lot ofpeople in the industry. What is one
(31:30):
of the more creative ways that youhave seen leaders kind of take this next
step to growing diverse, becoming moreaccelerated in whether it's tech or hybrid workforce
or you know, purpose leadership outthere, is there one model that you're
looking at today that says, oh, these guys are really doing it right.
(31:53):
You know, the right is whatevery leader should do every day when
they get up, and that's listento their people. Paul's one people will
tell you there's a phrase that Iused a lot a couple of weeks ago,
a nuanced leader, which means youhave to look at every individual employee
that you have, understand what theirnuances are and that if the CEO is
(32:16):
doing that with his direct team,and that direct team is doing it with
the next team. It's all aboutengagement. The Gallop just came out with
a Gallup organization came out with asurvey that said we had dropped eleven percent
in employee engagement. And a lotof that is just built on us not
spending time trying to get on toknow our people, understand what is fulfillment
(32:38):
for them, Understand what it's engagementright, because when they feel good,
it's not always what you're paying them. A lot of our young people,
especially when you start with that genz down, they want to love what
they do, but they want tolove what you stand for them. Sure,
and that's where the past comes from. So you want it. As
(33:01):
a leader, you want to beconscious, you want to be a force
for good, and that's what thefood industry and hospitality industry we've been known
for that forever. But we haveto make sure that our people feel it,
they know it, and they canparticipate in it. Yeah, I'm
getting a lot of good points,I think for you know, I'm thinking
(33:22):
about how we're going to promote thispodcast, and I see the component of
how leaders need because this is alldesigned for twenty twenty five tactics, you
know, getting into diverse workforces,dealing with these flexible scenarios and being able
to maximize them. You know,when you think about hybrid workforces, the
use of obviously technology that's really startingto shift forward. How important do you
(33:45):
think that is, David, whenyou think tech food service? Because I
hear this all the time, myfriend Jeff Alexander. He and I always
have this little kind of running jokeon it is that I'm you know,
I'm a restaurant operator. I'm nota you know, a computer programmer.
But how important is technology you thinkforward going in the food service space?
(34:07):
Yeah, I mean, you know, clearly a no brainer that the more
technologically you're advanced, the more you'reup on the latest technologies, the better
business that you're going to run.And I think it's probably fair to say,
you know, the restaurant industry wasa little bit slow to adapt technologies,
but I would say today as anindustry, particularly with what happened with
(34:30):
COVID, it really put a brightspotlight on the value of technology on you
know, delivery, online pick up. You know, it's just one example.
So there's just look, there's justno question that technology and your ability
to understand it, to benefit fromit, to utilize it, to implement
(34:53):
it is going to give you anadvantage overall and running your business well.
And I think the key here,the takeaway I get with this is there
seems to be a shift occurring witha lot more diverse leadership. We're seeing
a lot younger CEOs starting to maketheir way into the market who are very
(35:15):
adapt in terms of use of tech, and in many cases people coming from
areas outside of the restaurant industry cominginto the restaurant industry to work and start
companies and businesses. So that isthe thing that really excites me because I'm
seeing almost like a new breed ofrestaurant operator being created right in front of
(35:37):
us. So it's gonna be it'sgonna be cool. And of course most
of them will be over at theprosper event for sure. And yeah,
look, Paul, you're leader inthat right. I mean, just look
at what you've done with technology interms of your the growth of your podcast
and growth of your organization overall.You know, people, I think it
just goes again to this you knowthing, thinking differently, learning differently,
(36:01):
acting differently, you're going to windifferently, and winning differently, you know,
is winning overall. And listen,nobody is a bigger proponent and a
bigger cheerleader for technology than me becausetechnology puts another bright spotlight on the absolute
(36:22):
importance cannot be replaced face to face. Yeah, we can create an environment
you know again that's bringing right peopletogether and the right kind of environment right
to develop relationships, relationships or trust. Trust is a function of time,
right, So the value of thatface to face, the ability to try
(36:43):
and we like to say this rightthree days, the prosper form can be
you know, three months, threeyears, thirty years, three years.
Right, when when can you bein front of and see and learn?
And I know you're doing a keynotespeech for us from people like bar So
there's nobody that's a bigger proponent oftechnology because that does, you know,
(37:07):
just put again a real bright spotlighton the value of bringing people together with
technology. Yeah, I think that'sthe big takeaway. Events are definitely going
to be a big part of thisin the future, for especially for I
think just not only industry growth,but also the collaboration that happens between brand
(37:28):
brand which I'm finding more and more. It's always refreshing to see that at
events like prosper So we're going toleave links down in the description. If
you're catching this on YouTube, we'llleave a link to the prosper Form so
you can get registered. Come outto the event this year in August.
What's the dates again, David,Yeah, August twenty fourth through the twenty
(37:49):
seventh, actually goes through the twentyeighth, Beautiful Amelia Island at the Ritz
Carlton. Yeah, we'd love tosee facility. Yeah, great facility.
And David, it has been greathaving you on the show today. Thank
you so much for stopping in.Thank you, Paul, thanks for your
leadership. Thanks you bet all right, guys, if you guys are listening
(38:10):
in over on the podcast side ofthings, make sure and subscribe. The
other thing you can do, ofcourse, is drop in over here on
YouTube or on our substack, whichis just Saber dot Fm. All of
that is available. You'll find usout there wherever you listen to your podcast.
We'll catch you next time right hereon the Restaurant Report
Welcome back to another episode of theRestaurant Report. Today we're going to be
talking about leadership tactics for twenty twentyfive and one of the things that I
wanted to break into is some ofthe events that are out there. And
we are partnered with the Prosper Forumand joining me today of course is Hattie
Hill. Is Hattie Hill and misterDavid Job. Great to have you guys
on the podcast. Thank you,Thank you, Paul. You guys did
(00:33):
this with us last year, soit was really fun. And you know,
ironically, we had a really goodperformance on the podcast, you know,
on the like on YouTube, itgot a ton of views, so
I think a lot of people arereally leaning into leadership strategies. Obviously the
forum is all about that. Maybeyou guys could give us in our audience
(00:54):
a little bit of an outline ofwhat Prosper Forum is all about. Well,
first, Paul, I just wantto say thank you. We couldn't
be more proud to be a partnerwith you, rever Networks, saverer FM
and your team. You guys epitomizeleadership, so it's a real honor and
(01:15):
it's a real benefit for the ProsperForum. When you think about leadership,
to be able to partner with leaderslike you, you're a transformative leader,
you're influence leader. People look toyou, and so I just wanted to
say thank you very much for thatopportunity. And we're excited about what we
(01:36):
have here and you are a partof that. But you know, we,
Pattie and I had really thought,you know, even ten years ago,
that there was a different way totake this great industry of ours and
bring people together. And it reallyyou know, we have our vision,
which is a real, you know, mouthful and more prosperous and just world.
(02:00):
But if you think about the industrythat we're in, we employ everybody
and everybody has to eat. Soif you think about trying to make a
difference in the world, I don'tthink there's any better industry than this great
industry that we're all in, afood service, hospitality, and I think,
you know, this more prosperous andjust world. So how do you
(02:22):
make that happen, right, Paul? How do you bring people like you?
Right? That's what we're trying todo, unite leaders, but fundamentally,
foundationally, deliberately, intentionally, wehave said you must have this next
generation of diverse leadership. So howdo you make all of that happen?
Right, Well, we had enoughrelational capital for you know, particularly with
(02:46):
Hattie Hill on board, who doesn'tknow Hattie, and then to be able
to partner people like you. Right, we had the relational capital and the
history that we could bring leaders together. But we had to figure out how
to deliberately intentionally bring this next generationof diverse leadership right. And really,
as you know, Paul, wereally just basically demanded nicely as much as
(03:10):
you could at these CEOs, youmust bring a next generation diverse leader with
you. And really it's about likeminded individuals with like minded companies coming together
that are thinking differently, to learndifferently, to act differently, to win
differently. So we've been real fortunate, right that the real you know,
(03:35):
Hattie always says this, Right whenyou think about all of the things around
diversity today, right, the dword was not even talked about then it
was a great word. Then it'slike, is it is it? You
know? Are there issues? Reallyit is about this industry, our continued
need for talent, right, thechange in the world. We're more diverse
(03:57):
tomorrow than we are today, andevery consumer, every customer, every employee,
every stakeholder in your business is morediverse tomorrow than they are today.
So the idea about bringing deliberately anext generation of diverse talent that in fact
(04:17):
is thinking and acting and winning differently, which you know, we're very proud,
quite frankly that you know the prosperForm although now in its full second
year, the response to it hasexceeded the objectives and certainly the expectations that
we've had. So this idea ofbringing the current leaders with the next gen.
(04:43):
And of course it is individuals,right, the leaders of the industry
recognize, right, like minded companies, like minded individuals coming together in a
differentiated environment. And I think youknow, Paul, and you're you're a
big part of that, right,We set an environment that really is different.
It's open, it's safe, it'sbarriers just get broken down. And
(05:09):
look, part of that is wehave a different group that comes. If
you look at you look at thediversity of our group. It is a
diversity, except probably not that seniorexecutive CEO level, which still looks a
lot like you and I, Right, Paul, you looked at that attendance
of the prosper form, it wasexceptionally diverse, right, which a lot
(05:34):
of people. The feedback had been, you know, the biggest thing that
we've got, right, Paul,and I think this goes to your leadership
twenty twenty five, right is whatleadership to me has always been defined really
by two words, right, followme. And if we were on this
podcast, as you know a yearago, it was much more well Hattie
(05:57):
and I, you know, andsome a lot of industry leaders and influencers
right as you know, you know, from David Gibbs to Paul Brown,
to Kelly Vala to up and comingMaria Rivera with small sliders right yea.
But that that group right coming togetherright, was really about thinking and acting
(06:20):
you know differently, right. Sothat environment right where you had the CEOs
there, you know, on ourProsper Accelerator program, you know, it
was a big part of that.And look, Inspire Brands brought seven Prosper
Accelerators because Paul Brown wanted to spendthree days with that group where those seven
(06:42):
accelerators have the opportunity to see andbe exposed to people like you, like
Caddie Hill, like Great Creed,like Maria Rivera, like Kelly valad to
Denny's, like GJ. Hart,right, Alex Eagle of Free World Burritos,
Right, So we were very deliberateand very intention right, so it
really goes into the bottom line,at least for us, right a year
(07:05):
or two ago. This is whatwe think we're going to do. Paul,
thanks for coming on board and helpingus. Right, this is the
vision. This is the outcomes thatwe think, where today we would be
much more saying we're not talking aboutit, we're not thinking that this is
this is the results that we're having. These are the outcomes. These are
(07:26):
what people are saying, which reallyis Listen, this was different. This
was one of, if not thesingle best use of my time for not
the thought leading content, the bestpractices, the takeaways, and look,
the real content of any event isthe people. Is the people in attendance.
That's the true content of any event. And we've been very fortunate to
(07:50):
have you know, people like PapaJohn, you know Subway last year came
for the first time and they're likea great roster, that's for sure.
Yeah, this is different. Soanyway, that was probably a lot more
in the opening, you know,Slavo here of you know, Leadership twenty
twenty five. Well, it kindof sets up the framework of today's podcast,
(08:13):
and Hattie, I know as aboard member of Prosper Forum, I
was looking at the diversity of lastyear's event. That was great, and
you know, we've seen a lotof events that have started to do some
things like this, but with theProsper event, it seemed as though there
was quite a bit of unique designaround the leaders that were there. And
(08:37):
I'll get to that in a second. But when you look at leaders today,
I guess my first question to youis around adaptive leadership. Have you
started to see a real shift inhow leadership is taking this kind of this
next generation workforce, especially in foodservice today with kind of a different framework
(08:58):
in terms of how they're working withthose people now. But first, thank
you, Paul. It's excited tobe here. As you can tell,
David is passionate, so I justsit and smile and let him tell you
all the good stuff. But no, it is absolutely I'm just honored to
be a part of this and thankfulto David and the team to be on
the board of Prosper because it reallygets to all the things that I've believed
(09:22):
and advocated for in my entire career, and that is that as leaders,
we're continuous learners. We have tolook at who are the people that walk
through my door every day, andbecause of the pandemic and other things,
we have to be adaptive leaders inthis day and time. It is absolutely
the new currency of business because youwant to understand each one of your employees,
(09:48):
you want to understand your organization,and then how do I need to
adapt to make sure that this personnot only comes to me, but stays
with me. The whole idea ofrecruitment and retention is real. It's impacted
all of our restaurants. You goin your favorite restaurant there, half of
it may not be opened or closedat a different time because we don't have
(10:09):
the staff. So for us andthe Prosper Forum, it's about bringing these
amazing leaders together. But let's beclear, it is about business and making
our business better because we are adaptedleaders. Well, I think that's the
cool thing that I found. Youknow, we did a bunch of podcasts
there at the event. We'll bedoing a bunch this year, and one
(10:31):
of the things that was things thatI felt were so unique was the frame
of mind of these operators. Youknow, you see a few events that
you just feel like the operators thatcome to these events have opened up,
and then you go to events whereyou feel like operators are just there to
collect information. You know, thisone felt very opened up. You know,
(10:56):
everybody was very receptive. When youlook at adaptive leadership and you think
about culture, especially today, andI'll keep this on you, Hattie,
the idea around continuously learning, creatingand fostering that kind of culture that has
not been an area that the restaurantindustry has been known for in the past.
(11:18):
Do you feel like that's changing nowthough? Oh? Absolutely. We
had to do, Paul, aserious shift when COVID happened, right,
And what we learned was we canbe adaptive, no matter how old the
business, no matter how we've gotto do it this way. Everyone was
forced to learn something different. Thegood news about that, and they always
(11:41):
say, you never waste a goodcrisis, So the good news of the
crisis of the pandemic was we've hadto be very adaptive in the way we
work with our employees, the waywe look at our business, and the
way we think about culture. Becausethe culture is now a hybrid culture.
Always in the office, right,exactly, you're not always at the restaurant.
(12:05):
So absolutely, the adaptability, thelearning, the innovation, all of
that was a gift of COVID.And also the adaptability. Now it's got
to be fast, it's not exactlyspeed, I think is a big one.
Hey David, you've had a chancelast year and I saw you work
in your magic there with all theleaders, and I don't know how you
(12:26):
guys run an event like that becauseit feels like you got, you know,
an eight string band going on ina concert that's happening in four rooms.
So to me, it was prettyit was pretty cool to watch you
work. But my question is whenyou walked away from the event last year,
was there a story that you couldtell me that says, hey,
Paul, this was the transformation ofa leader. I saw this with X,
(12:52):
Y or Z, anybody that youcould kind of share a little bit
about. Yeah, I think there'sYou know, obviously, we're fortunate that
you know lots of feedback, andwe're deliberate about the feedback, intentional about
asking for it and not only askingat times, begging for it, right,
because it's it's really the collective groupthat's going to come up with you
(13:16):
know that thinking and acting differently,to win differently and to win better.
But one of the one of thethings that had happened at one of the
events, you know, we hadput intentionally we had put four completely diverse
individuals on stage at the same time, all at one time. And we
(13:39):
did this with James Fripp. Wedid this with Alisha McMath right, running
chief people officer for Compass right thelargest right the fourth largest employer in the
world young brands, you know,the number one restaurant chain in the world.
It was moderated by Idristover of Shakeshaftand then we obviously had Adrian Tremble
(14:03):
on their chief people officer of Cisco. So you think about the influence that
was on that stage. And wedidn't come up with the topic. It
was Idris Stover of Shapshack that cameup with the topic, which was you
know, inclusion in action and thefeedback that we got off of that really
most of it came from digital andonline and social, but it was this
(14:26):
is what fifty years you know ofinclusion looks like, right, and you
know, look, I'll be realclear, right Paul that you know,
I get pushed in different ways,right, like, hey, what are
you doing here, David? Right? Is it okay if you know a
heterosexual white guy with a beard,Is it okay if they're part of this
(14:48):
event? To hey, you know, David, are you and Hattie just
trying to take advantage of you know, a situation here with you know,
d E and I. And theanswer to that is for every one of
those, it's one hundred comments thatcome back that says, finally, right,
this this this environment, this event, that we're a part of,
(15:11):
this community that you're growing. Weactually are doing something. It's not just
talk about it. It's not justhey be on stage and then leave.
Hey let me be on this committeethat never survives and goes away. So
you know, the big outcome ofthat is our Prosper Accelerator program. But
I think in answer again full circlepall to your question, that was a
(15:33):
really good example, right, andthat was by design, Like we're very
very clear about, Look, weare going to reach out. This is
thinking and acting differently right to amore diverse audience, right, because that
reflects it and I think you knowI've told the story many times, right,
(15:54):
of one of the larger, mostsignificant restaurant chains, one of the
fastesting you know of, asking thatyou know CEO and founder, right,
we need to you must bring adiverse leader. And he's like, look,
we get it. We know theconsumer, we know our customers,
we know every stakeholder, we knowour employees. Right. But we're tie
(16:17):
in white guys from the Jersey shore, right, not in the C suite.
Yet we have you know, thisyoung diverse he runs some of the
best business for us highschool like him? Yeah, like him? We bring
we put on right. And sothe point is the Maria Rivera is the
(16:38):
only Latino female CEO in a trilliondollar industry. Now wait a minute,
right, Paul pulled up. Womenare half the population and Hispanic Latino Arizona
where I live, California, NewMexico Tech. Right, it's almost,
if not the majority of the population. It's twenty five percent of the population
(17:00):
growing at twenty twenty five percent.Yeah, you're telling me, right,
or what I am saying? Whatthe prosper form is saying that opportunity for
talent is so available to us thatif we shift and think differently, right,
And that's essentially what we're doing inyou know, anyway, there's an
(17:22):
example or two. Yeah, Well, I think you know, one thing
that a lot of people forget isthis is that often in this industry,
it's unfortunate, but most of themedia headlines are geared toward, you know,
the CEOs that have been around fora very long time. It's not
that they're a bad thing. They'veled this industry for quite some time.
(17:44):
But we haven't seen kind of thisnext generation, you know. And what
one thing that has happened, Iknow, even with our own podcast network,
you know, we've started opening upour podcast mics to a lot more
not really, we just opened itup to more emerging leaders. But when
we did that, it automatically becamemuch more diverse, you know, because
(18:08):
it was an emerging crop. AndI think that's the question I have.
And maybe there is a transformative shiftthat is occurring right now. And you
think about twenty twenty five, Hattie, and what brands are going to look
like in five years, you know, just the makeup of that c suite
or even the top level management.Do you think that this next year or
(18:32):
two could set the stage for thatgoing forward? Oh? Absolutely, Paul.
Here's and David mentions this all thetime, and James Fripp with Young
said this very clearly at Prosper lastyear. Our next generation is changing daily
and we have to change and makesure our products are prepared for that.
Example, McKenzie, some research mackenziedid on the gen Z the next level
(18:56):
group, right, forty seven percentof that group have said they are racially
different, ethnically different. Eighty sevenpercent said their friends and people and their
immediate groups are diverse people. Sowhen you hear the noise around diversity going
away, that's our audience. Sothere's no way it's going to go away.
(19:18):
We may call it something different,and that's okay if we need to
sure. Our job at Prosper andwhat this team is committed to is to
make sure that we connect the moretenured leaders with this next group so that
we'll have the talent transfer. Youstill want to keep your business growing,
you still want to make sure thestock is making money, right, and
(19:41):
so that's automatically going to change justbecause of the demographics. What Prosper has
done is really to be deliberate aboutbringing those two groups together, build these
trusted, long term relationships so thatthey can do business and be effective and
build the right pla cultures. Well, I think the key there as we've
(20:03):
seen so many emerging brands. Youknow, I just think about a lot
of CEOs today that I talked to, especially that they're coming out in the
emerging brand sector, meaning you know, they're under twenty units, they're starting
to it's mostly in the fast casualspace. Because we host our podcast Fast
Casual Nation, I've been surprised whenwe did the original documentary about a decade
(20:26):
ago, you know, it wasa different crop of people. It was
the icons that kind of cracked theseal on Fast Casual and you know,
you have the ron Shakes of theWorld, the Rondy Grudy's of Shakescheck,
you know, Danny Meers, etcetera. That have really kind of accelerated.
But now it appears that that batonis now passing and I think we're
(20:48):
right there at that precipice today.When you think about that and what we've
started to see with this hybrid model, because there's a lot of people working
now away from corporate facility, doyou think that helps helps or hinders potential
careers of being maybe away from corporatelife or is it a different just a
(21:12):
completely different world today. What areyour thoughts? Well, because I spent
a lot of time in this baseballreally talking about culture and people and what
happened when we had to go tothis hybrid model. And we of course
did it because we had to.But you realize that your culture has to
be built outside of the office.And that's tough for some of us who've
(21:33):
been around for a long time becausewe like to, you know, come
into the office, we all getto know each other, right, So
we have to learn to build thattrust from outside, which means we have
to make clear goals, we haveto do what we're doing right now.
With technology, we have to beton zoom teams, whatever it takes for
you to you know, a lotof people use the Google Meets for collaboration
(21:56):
other base projects. You know,there's all kinds of project's software that you
can use or technology. At theend of the day, I have to
understand the nuances of the people thatI'm working with and build trust. And
I'll give you an example. Iwas talking to someone last week, so
woman, she has a couple ofkids. She works for one of the
(22:18):
major companies in the food industry,and she was saying she didn't feel like
her boss trusted her. They wereworking from home. They work from home
three days a week, and shesaid, I have to go and get
pick up my child from kindergarten.So it's you know, three o'clock,
two thirty in the afternoon. Butshe said, I'll come back, I'll
feed the kid, log back on, and I might be on, get
(22:40):
on at nine and stay on untileleven at night. Right, So you're
still getting the work that you need. But what we have to do as
leaders sometimes is not hold that traditionalmodel to say, you know, you
got to be logged in at eightny. Yeah, time shifting is occurring,
right right. Yeah, that's alot. That is a big one.
I hear a lot. Did yousee that graphic I was just showing
(23:02):
it says fully on site only fiftyeight percent. Yeah, I was surprised
that it was. Is that lowhybrid about thirty percent and then work from
home around twelve percent, So there'sstill a lot of that. Do you
think that that is conducive to careersgoing forward? So I'm thinking about myself
as as maybe a young GM that'strying to make it in the in the
(23:26):
world today, and you know,I'm already remote kind of maybe I'm covering
you know, four or five units. I work primarily here. I don't
go much into the corporate office.That's been kind of a thing in the
past. But do you feel likethat is going to have any effect on
people's ability to advance in the future. You want to take that one,
(23:47):
David, do you want me to? Yeah? No, go ahead,
Yeah, I know that is rightdown your ally right now. I think
it's going to require extra work whenyou let's go back to where you started
calling. Yeah, we have tobe adaptives. We have to look for
other ways because I may not catchyou in the office, but could you
meet me for coffee and I introduceyou to a Chipwaight and say, okay,
(24:10):
here's a person, a person ofcolor who's very successful. When you
want role models in the industry,here's a great example of a role model
for you. What there may bea woman that you want to get to
know. I want to have youknow, I need to meet Maria Rivera
because I'm one looking for women ofcolor in the industry. What if the
hybrid model still works and we haveto be willing to change because Some of
(24:33):
these young people will never go backto us back in the day, going
in at eight, staying till five, slay till six or seven, just
to FaceTime because your boss was stillthere. That may never happen. But
what I know, if my bossis authentic and says to me, listen,
I want to introduce you to someonewho cares not only about this organization,
(24:55):
but about the career and about theindustry. That tells me a whole
lot about it the person I'm workingwith. It requires us to think differently.
The nuances be different as David startedwith, but we can still build
trust and build relationships. Yeah.I think that's a good quality because flexibility
in the food service has been Ithink everybody's learned to adapt to some different
(25:18):
things. We've already seen time shiftingoccurring in day parts. A lot of
day parts have been pretty much dismantledtoday. I think a lot of restaurants
are starting to figure that out,so it's kind of cool. I want
to go back to inclusive leadership becausethis is an area that we touched on
a little bit, but we didn'tgo all the way in there. I
want to talk about when you lookat how you measure success on inclusive leadership
(25:44):
today, and I know you guysare doing some things with these accelerators.
That's one way of being able tosay, all right, well, this
is the kind of program that we'reputting out there. But are you seeing
companies put together success metrics around thisright now? Yeah, I can tell
you, Paul, one hundred percent. I will tell you too. Part
(26:07):
of the you know, the prosperForm about bringing people together to on your
highbred work, you know, optimizationand and just the change. It just
puts another spotlight on the value andthe importance of face to face meetings too,
right, And that's part of thevalue of prosper Form is the change
(26:29):
in the consumer, the change inour employees right about working from home.
It just puts a bright spotlight ona time that you can come together meet.
Face to face relationships are the keyto everything. Foundation of a relationship
is trust. Trust takes time tobuild. To your question, you know,
(26:51):
on the inclusive leadership and the measurement, right, the prosper Accelerator program
we thought was a good idea.It ended up being probably way underestimated on
our behalf of what we thought itcould be or could do. It just
has exceeded every expectation I think.You know, our goal is to have
(27:11):
one thousand in ten years. Lastyear we thought with the initial class maybe
thirty five, we had to stopat one hundred and one. This year
it's one hundred and twenty five andwe're currently on one hundred and thirty.
We're not sure how we're going tofit in the other five, but we
will figure that out. But tothe measurement of it, that is one
of the things one hundred percent thatwe are doing with the Prosper Accelerators.
(27:36):
It's a different curriculum, it's adifferent program, but we are specifically measuring
things like advancements, right additional responsibilities, where these people are going, what
they're learning. We're right in theprocess right now too, of having a
brand new assessment tool for specifically theexgen of diverse leaders as a measurement tool
(28:03):
for what skill deficiencies, what skillthing you know, what deficiencies would we
want to improve on. What arethe skills that you want to bear down
on and promote and continue to develop. And then finally to your point of
measuring where are these people going intheir careers? What are they finding is
the new way that they want tobe led right, What is a better
(28:27):
thought process on how to be developed? What is a better thought process or
ways to be more efficient, moreproductive and ultimately right move into those senior
leadership positions. And the great thingof the measurement right about the Prosper Accelerator
program too, is okay, yourChipolte, your subway, your small sliders,
(28:51):
your Union Square, hospitality right partof our appropriate When can they come
in? It's been three days withPaul Barren to see you, to interact
with you, to see how youlead. What are the pearls or wisdom?
Well, now you know we haveseven hundred people at the Prosper Accelerator
(29:12):
eighty percent or CEOs right. Yourability to be exposed to learn, that's
another thing that we measure right,and then we try to put metrics again
for that exposure, for that involvement, for that learning, for that development,
but anyway to bring that back onehundred percent on our Prosper Accelerator program.
(29:34):
We're tracking these individuals because Neil Sede'sAir Direct TV has been really clear
and helping you know, to leadus that we must. The program's only
working if the outcomes are producing thepositive incomes that you expect. So we're
definitely tracking measuring, and yeah,to your point, we've already had you
(29:57):
know, dozens of you know,hey, we're very proud to announce now
that ABC has some additional responsibilities orthat are moving into this role. You
know, they utilize these relationships andthis differentiated learning, you know, to
help advance not only their career,but you know, and raising all the
boats, so to speak. Yeah, I was looking at this article,
(30:21):
you know, for the show todayand I'll share it for everybody. If
you're watching the podcast today, you'llget a chance to see the video version
of this how purpose driven leadership ischanging the world and a couple of points
they kind of touch on. I'llscan down a little bit in the article
purpose bringing positive change. You know, this this a whole idea around you
know, different backgrounds and skill sets, ages, et cetera. But really
(30:45):
getting that purpose behind it. Backto your point of trying to measure.
And then also the other idea isit promotes fulfillment. So leaders who understand
kind of this purpose, on theother hand, experience the idea around tangible
benefit, and many people don't necessarilykind of qualify or look at that as
a benefit. But I think that'sone of the things that starts to do
(31:07):
something that really does exactly what you'retalking about, which shows progress, and
that's measurement, you know when youget out there in a lot of these
organizations. So I can definitely seethat and it's starting to show up more
and more. Are you finding anypatty when you're working with companies? I
know you work with a lot ofpeople in the industry. What is one
(31:30):
of the more creative ways that youhave seen leaders kind of take this next
step to growing diverse, becoming moreaccelerated in whether it's tech or hybrid workforce
or you know, purpose leadership outthere, is there one model that you're
looking at today that says, oh, these guys are really doing it right.
(31:53):
You know, the right is whatevery leader should do every day when
they get up, and that's listento their people. Paul's one people will
tell you there's a phrase that Iused a lot a couple of weeks ago,
a nuanced leader, which means youhave to look at every individual employee
that you have, understand what theirnuances are and that if the CEO is
(32:16):
doing that with his direct team,and that direct team is doing it with
the next team. It's all aboutengagement. The Gallop just came out with
a Gallup organization came out with asurvey that said we had dropped eleven percent
in employee engagement. And a lotof that is just built on us not
spending time trying to get on toknow our people, understand what is fulfillment
(32:38):
for them, Understand what it's engagementright, because when they feel good,
it's not always what you're paying them. A lot of our young people,
especially when you start with that genz down, they want to love what
they do, but they want tolove what you stand for them. Sure,
and that's where the past comes from. So you want it. As
(33:01):
a leader, you want to beconscious, you want to be a force
for good, and that's what thefood industry and hospitality industry we've been known
for that forever. But we haveto make sure that our people feel it,
they know it, and they canparticipate in it. Yeah, I'm
getting a lot of good points,I think for you know, I'm thinking
(33:22):
about how we're going to promote thispodcast, and I see the component of
how leaders need because this is alldesigned for twenty twenty five tactics, you
know, getting into diverse workforces,dealing with these flexible scenarios and being able
to maximize them. You know,when you think about hybrid workforces, the
use of obviously technology that's really startingto shift forward. How important do you
(33:45):
think that is, David, whenyou think tech food service? Because I
hear this all the time, myfriend Jeff Alexander. He and I always
have this little kind of running jokeon it is that I'm you know,
I'm a restaurant operator. I'm nota you know, a computer programmer.
But how important is technology you thinkforward going in the food service space?
(34:07):
Yeah, I mean, you know, clearly a no brainer that the more
technologically you're advanced, the more you'reup on the latest technologies, the better
business that you're going to run.And I think it's probably fair to say,
you know, the restaurant industry wasa little bit slow to adapt technologies,
but I would say today as anindustry, particularly with what happened with
(34:30):
COVID, it really put a brightspotlight on the value of technology on you
know, delivery, online pick up. You know, it's just one example.
So there's just look, there's justno question that technology and your ability
to understand it, to benefit fromit, to utilize it, to implement
(34:53):
it is going to give you anadvantage overall and running your business well.
And I think the key here,the takeaway I get with this is there
seems to be a shift occurring witha lot more diverse leadership. We're seeing
a lot younger CEOs starting to maketheir way into the market who are very
(35:15):
adapt in terms of use of tech, and in many cases people coming from
areas outside of the restaurant industry cominginto the restaurant industry to work and start
companies and businesses. So that isthe thing that really excites me because I'm
seeing almost like a new breed ofrestaurant operator being created right in front of
(35:37):
us. So it's gonna be it'sgonna be cool. And of course most
of them will be over at theprosper event for sure. And yeah,
look, Paul, you're leader inthat right. I mean, just look
at what you've done with technology interms of your the growth of your podcast
and growth of your organization overall.You know, people, I think it
just goes again to this you knowthing, thinking differently, learning differently,
(36:01):
acting differently, you're going to windifferently, and winning differently, you know,
is winning overall. And listen,nobody is a bigger proponent and a
bigger cheerleader for technology than me becausetechnology puts another bright spotlight on the absolute
(36:22):
importance cannot be replaced face to face. Yeah, we can create an environment
you know again that's bringing right peopletogether and the right kind of environment right
to develop relationships, relationships or trust. Trust is a function of time,
right, So the value of thatface to face, the ability to try
(36:43):
and we like to say this rightthree days, the prosper form can be
you know, three months, threeyears, thirty years, three years.
Right, when when can you bein front of and see and learn?
And I know you're doing a keynotespeech for us from people like bar So
there's nobody that's a bigger proponent oftechnology because that does, you know,
(37:07):
just put again a real bright spotlighton the value of bringing people together with
technology. Yeah, I think that'sthe big takeaway. Events are definitely going
to be a big part of thisin the future, for especially for I
think just not only industry growth,but also the collaboration that happens between brand
(37:28):
brand which I'm finding more and more. It's always refreshing to see that at
events like prosper So we're going toleave links down in the description. If
you're catching this on YouTube, we'llleave a link to the prosper Form so
you can get registered. Come outto the event this year in August.
What's the dates again, David,Yeah, August twenty fourth through the twenty
(37:49):
seventh, actually goes through the twentyeighth, Beautiful Amelia Island at the Ritz
Carlton. Yeah, we'd love tosee facility. Yeah, great facility.
And David, it has been greathaving you on the show today. Thank
you so much for stopping in.Thank you, Paul, thanks for your
leadership. Thanks you bet all right, guys, if you guys are listening
(38:10):
in over on the podcast side ofthings, make sure and subscribe. The
other thing you can do, ofcourse, is drop in over here on
YouTube or on our substack, whichis just Saber dot Fm. All of
that is available. You'll find usout there wherever you listen to your podcast.
We'll catch you next time right hereon the Restaurant Report
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