Mark This! is a podcast in which we peel back the corporate curtain to reveal the cool and innovative people, programs, and projects that are happening all over Aramark’s varied lines of business. These remarkable initiatives happen because we have remarkable people behind them--building opportunity, building innovation, and building community.
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Mark This: Episode 40, Destination: Leadership
Host: Heather Dotchel, Corporate Communications:
It's time to Mark This, a podcast in which we peel back the corporate curtain to reveal the cool and innovative people, programs, and projects that are happening all over Aramark's varied lines of business. I'm Heather Dotchel. As a member of Aramark's communications team, I see and hear amazing things that are happening across our company every day. These remarkable initiatives happen because we have remarkable people behind them, building opportunity, building innovation, and building community. The SEAR Project is an innovative six-month leadership development initiative designed to accelerate growth for high potential talent while delivering real business impact.
Piloted by the Destinations team, SEAR brings together diverse, cross-functional teams to tackle complex operational challenges, collaborate across disciplines, and gain exposure to senior leadership. We have three members of the Destinations team to talk about the inaugural SEAR class that just wrapped up earlier in 2025 and to talk about the current second cohort. Welcome to our Destinations crew. David DiSalvo, Vice President of Operational Excellence, Nirav Shah, Vice President of Finance, and Jordan Glazier, Vice President of Human Resources. It is so lovely to welcome you all to Mark This. Let's start with the big picture. Nirav, what inspired the creation of SEAR?
Thanks, Heather. The creation of SEAR was a brainchild of mine that developed with David and Jordan's help, as well as my own team. We were actually in my leadership assimilation when I started with Destinations about five months in. And during one of my team meetings and during that assimilation, we talked about, what are some things that we could do to develop our team. We had some new roles actually open and not a lot of people raised their hand and were like, "How do we get people ready to move further and to stand up the challenges and get practice at another level?" Earlier in my career, and I've been with Aramark 20 years, we had done a similar project. The idea behind that project was, how do we take folks who are hypo and give them opportunities to stretch to the next level? And how do we do it with real business problems?
Instead of creating a fake problem or instead of just sending them to a training class or just having them read a book, how do we actually have them tackle something where they get the feeling, the emotion, the stress of working on a project? And at that time, and even now, projects are a great way for folks in the field to get exposure. So during this meeting, we said, "Look, let's test this out in the finance team. Let's pick our top leaders, let's pick our top talent, and let's test this program across all of Destinations." And fortunately, Jordan led my assimilation and he was there to really help us along.
So Jordan, let's turn to you. SEAR uses the 70-20-10 development model. So first of all, I'm going to need you to tell me what that is. And how did that model shape the experience for participants?
So we used the 70-20-10 model at Aramark to develop our team, and 70% of the development experience comes from just working in the job, 20% of that comes through coaching, and 10% comes from formal training. And so many times when we talk about development, we focus strictly on sending somebody to a training course or having them get a certification, and they may be working with their boss to get guidance on where they should be focusing and getting those trainings and certifications, but that really only focuses on 30% of the whole experience. So much of what we do and what we learn happens in the job that we do every day. And what I like about SEAR is it's a six-month experience where they have to do their day job and tackle something completely outside of their day-to-day.
So one thing that I love about developing talent is people get pushed in directions that they don't typically get a chance to stretch in. And people sometimes get so comfortable doing just their day job that when they're asked to do something like a project or work on a mobilization, they really struggle balancing those priorities. And I've noticed that people who haven't been stretched earlier in their career tend to struggle with that later in their career. It's hard for them to focus outside of their account. And that's what SEAR enables is, I have to do my day job and manage my day-to-day priorities for my client, but I also have to work with this team tackling a business challenge. So it develops that, I call it talent elasticity, the ability to just stretch and do more.
And it enables people to, okay, well, I was able to impact the business in through the SEAR project, maybe I can do a regional job or maybe I do have aspiration beyond just working in one account. Maybe I do want to have a broader leadership scope. So that's what I love about SEAR and the 70-20-10 model. The SEAR program stretches them outside of their account. It gives them formal coaching and training from executive coaches. It gets them exposure to executive judges. So we had all of the participants go through a assessment where they learned about their own approach and style, and they also were able to leverage that to better work with other people understanding their profile, and we did that early in the SEAR exercise.
And then later, to help them put their best foot forward when they presented in front of executive judges, we had three Toastmarker sessions that all of our participants had a chance to go through. So they learned in the first session presentation skills. In the second session, they had a chance to actually practice their SEAR presentation with a Toastmarkers representative, and get feedback on their use of those presentation skills that they were taught in the first session. And then in the third session of Toastmarkers, they learned about impromptu speaking so that they could have some tips and tricks in their back pocket if they received or if they got a tough question in the room when they were presenting their SEAR project from an executive judge. So we did everything that we felt like we could to prep them so that when it was go time in their SEAR project presentation, they could shine.
Jordan, if you don't mind me maybe just adding a couple of points there, because to amp up the pressure, one of the things we did is, can you guess where they did their presentation?
An Aramark boardroom, yeah. So that created a little bit more pressure for folks, which I think was part of the experience for sure. We did the same thing and we were fortunate enough that Sasha Day, our President, Tim O'Shaughnessy, the SVP of Finance for the sector, and Kiva Baron, the SVP of HR, who were all able to be judges with us during both. We had an early session where folks did a charter presentation, which was purposefully done virtually. So they practiced doing a virtual presentation. And then again, the final presentation was in the boardroom in the hot seat that all the LOBs are in during ops review, and we created that same environment.
Awesome. So a competition, but also with collaboration at its core, I believe. How did that dynamic play out, the whole, you have to work together, but you're also trying to win, let's face it? How did that work among the teams, David?
Well, Heather, it's a great question. And you're right, it was a competition with collaboration at its core. And we saw a lot of different, interesting dynamics unfold because of that. So it was such a blast to work with Jordan and Nirav as coaches. And as a coach, well, we're not competitive at all in Aramark. We're competitive in the marketplace and we're competitive with each other. And when we sorted the group into teams, as a coach, I suspect Jordan, Nirav, and I were all approached independently about, "Oh, what's this other team up to and what are they doing?" And we would share what we could about the projects. And you also layer in the fact that these people that were nominated, these are high potential folks.
They're incredibly tenacious and competitive, and they would go to, within the bounds of appropriate, incredible lengths to make sure that they were the winning team. And interestingly, the winning team ended up being the one that collaborated the most. So the team that won thought through this training program, so there's so much that we have to do in our day jobs, the 70% of what Jordan was talking about, that we've got to continue to train on skills and tactics to do that 70%. And this group, instead of doing it in a vacuum, they went to all the other groups and found out what they were doing so they can incorporate their discipline into their training plan. And that ended up being the winning formula. This is an inaugural program. It's our first time doing it.
And I think all of us would agree it's been exceeded all of our expectations, not only in the outcomes from the competition, but some of the business challenges that were solved were real business challenges and we're getting real impact from it. We were intentionally vague about the rules of engagement. And in doing so, some of the groups, they went out and collaborated, as I mentioned, the winning team, but several others as well. What started with a very inward focus of my group, my group project, turned into a very collaborative group and everybody that participated was part of that inaugural team. So we have a cohort that I think is forever going to be closer for it. So some great intended outcomes, but also some really positive unintended outcomes as well.
It's interesting, the cohort thing that you mentioned, because as I think our listeners have found out, if they are keeping with us episode after episode, people aren't at Aramark for small amounts of time. They're here for a good number of years. And I can't tell you the number of leaders who are like, "Oh, well, they were with my initial leadership cohort 15 years ago, and we have been inseparable ever since." It's a real bonding experience.
So let's shift our view a little bit here. Exposure to senior leaders was a big part of SEAR. So we've just mentioned the presentation was in the boardroom. What impact did this exposure have on the participant's confidence and what potential career trajectory difference might that make?
Yeah, good question. Well, I think any opportunity, I mean, you think about the people who have participated. I had a team member who's an HR director, probably has been in the same room with Sasha, our President. I could probably count it on one hand. Been in the same room with Tim O'Shaughnessy or Kiva Baron. I don't think that was ever an experience that this team member had, but SEAR afforded them to have really a direct interaction. So when I talk about this team member being great and ready for a next step in their career, and I talk to Kiva about that, who I work with almost every day, now instead of it being a, well, this is Jordan's assessment of this team member, but I haven't had any direct interaction. Now she has had direct interaction and tangible work product that she's been able to assess and see.
So when I go to Kiva and I say, "Hey, I think this person's ready for the next job," she can confidently nod and say, "Yeah, you're right." And so what I love about this is it really makes the organization flat and it gives key leaders insight into talent that they just don't get a chance to see every day because of where they sit in the organization. So I love that. So you asked about confidence. I mean, the fact that these team members had a chance to sit in the boardroom across from these executives and talk about great work that they had done, getting the chance to spend time with these individuals after their presentations, you could just see it in their faces. They were flying high. They knew that they did good work and that they got a great exposure experience. And we talked about these teams competing and that there was a selected winner, but they all won because they all got that experience, which was truly the reward.
The other thing that I think is interesting about the SEAR experience that is an added benefit, we do talent planning and we do this nine box exercise where we talk about our great talent. And historically, we've talked about people that are in these green boxes. These are our high potential talent, but we've never had a way to really pressure test that and prove it. SEAR allows us or enables us to be able to prove it. So we go through these talent reviews, we identify our hypos and then we go, okay, these are the people that we want to put through a SEAR project. And now there's more people that get line of sight into those individuals and can say, "You're right, Nirav is a high potential person because I saw his impact and how he created solutions in solving this business challenge." So it accelerates our talent development and our talent planning efforts because it gets more leadership eyes on this key talent.
And if I can add, while Jordan mentions everyone was a winner, there was one winning group and they were memorialized by a Stanley Cup style trophy that's hosted in one of our regional offices, with their names inscribed in this trophy. So there was one that stood out above the rest as well.
And who doesn't love a shiny memento?
I mean, come on. So Jordan, one more question for you though. So innovation comes with fresh perspectives. What is one idea from SEAR that made you think, "Wow, we need more of this?"
Well, I think the fact that we were able to put together teams that were cross-functional, of individuals that don't typically work together, we saw some really fantastic solutions getting put together. And I think the team who won was actually the team that was the most diverse from a functional perspective. They had HR people on it, they had OpEx people and finance people. And I think it really highlighted the fact that when you get great people that come from different backgrounds and perspectives together on a team to tackle a problem, that they can really put together a really creative and impactful solution.
The team that won was the team that put together a training solution, and it was really awesome to see them show the result of the first training that they did, a schedule of the next five training that they were going to do, and they had already integrated it into the day-to-day of the finance team. And so they had thought through the change management aspects of implementing their solution, and everyone who participated on that team, every individual wouldn't have come up with that solid of a solution, but because they had peers that were challenging them and helping them to think differently, everyone on that team was better for it.
No, that's excellent. Let's get into the concrete though. I always like the tangible, the touchable. So we've talked about the theory behind it, what this means to high potential people. We always love talking about our people, but this wasn't just about theory. SEAR wasn't just a theory driven. It was about business results. So Nirav, can you walk us through some of what these groups did? How did they balance learning with driving measurable impact? Because again, these were real business challenges.
Yeah. No, Heather, that's a great question. And if I start with the fact, we're talking to a VP of Finance, so I'm breaking everything down to the numbers and the return and all that kind of stuff. And typically, Jordan comes to me and says, "We got to spend all this money," and my brow gets sweaty. But look, in this case, I think we all aligned on, "Hey, if some of these projects come to fruition, we're going to get something tangible. We're going to get something that we could put on a piece of paper and calculate." And honestly, I probably haven't went back and done that on all these projects together, but if you think of... So let's just think of it from a finance perspective. If you think of the cost of this program, overall, our cost was probably, it was one trip to Philadelphia, a lot of it was done virtually and it was our awards, and it was really a lot of sweat equity.
That was probably the bigger cost of time and those sorts of things, and organizing some complicated logistics here. If you look at the tangible outcomes, we had our training team that was the team that won. They updated our entire website to include all the finance content that really wasn't existing in the past. Our finance website used to just link back to Aramark's finance website and meant there was no meaningful content for Destinations. They also created training programs where they trained several hundred hours of training. And then we had four other teams, and I'm just going to highlight a few of what some of the accomplishments were. Our Proforma team created a new proforma and before this project, we had one person who knew how to do a proforma in Destinations. That person wins the lottery, we are now starting from scratch. Now we have five, six, seven people who know how to do it, and we improve the model to include operator feedback. Our inventory team, and we have about $25 million of inventory, created a new dashboard that'll help us manage inventory.
They think we can find anywhere from a million to $2 million of cashflow savings as a result of their project. Our capital team looked at our $40 million of capital spend. Our labor team gave us some new metrics to look at. So I think if you look at the measurable impact, it's got to be in the hundreds of thousands of dollars, so that's a pretty good return on investment. And again, let's take the financial dollars out of it. If I look at it from a people perspective, we now took 25 people on our team, gave them six months of training, gave them six months of developing a new network of people that they never had before, and six months of exposure to new leaders that they haven't met, and six months of challenging of looking at a new business problem. So I think if you look at the ROI on this, it's going to be pretty high and that's why we want to do it again in the future. I think the three of us had fun being the coaches and the stewards, for sure.
SEAR, round two is already in the works. David, what's next for the program?
I think you heard a bit about it today, why wouldn't we extend and expand this program? It touches on so much benefit. Some are calculated and discussed today, but I think the real benefit is going to be in the months and years to come for the folks in this business. We are launching another six-month cohort that's starting this month, and we're going to get that kicked off and do similar presentations in May. And as Jordan talked about earlier, it was very specific on the learnings we have from this inaugural class, both in the topics that we're looking to cover and the composition of the teams, the diversity, the skill, and being very intentional about both of those elements. So we're super excited about the next round. Again, all of us will have a role in it in the next cohort, and we'll also be introducing some new coaches to the team and maybe even some new executive judges to be a part of the process at the end. So we're off and running, developing more hypo talent for our organization.
Well, it's been my pleasure. If you'd like to know more about Aramark destinations or perhaps are looking for a company that will foster your high potential, visit our newsroom on Aramark.com to access more information. David, Nirav, Jordan, thank you for kicking off the new year with us and thanks to our listeners and Mark This for joining us again.
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