As the chair and CEO of Sodexo, the France-based food services and centers management business, Sophie Bellon leads one of the biggest companies in the world, with front-line employees in almost 50 nations. Managing that laborforce—and the supply chains that makeitpossiblefor them to do their tasks—is a complex endeavor that includes balancing both international method with regional execution.
In this episode, Harvard Business Review executive editor Alison Beard sits down with Bellon to talkabout her approaches to skill management, ecological sustainability, and supply chain durability—all while driving future development.
Key episode subjects consistof: method, development technique, skill management, operations and supply chain management, supply chain management, ecological sustainability, food and drink sector.
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HANNAH BATES: Welcome to HBR On Strategy, case researchstudies and discussions with the world’s top service and management professionals, hand-selected to aid you unlock brand-new methods of doing organization.
As the chair and CEO of Sodexo, the France-based food services and centers management business, Sophie Bellon leads one of the biggest companies in the world – with so-called “front line employees” in almost 50 nations.
Managing that laborforce – and the supply chains that allow them to do their tasks – is a complex endeavor that includes balancing both international technique with regional execution.
In this episode, Harvard Business Review executive editor Alison Beard sits down with Bellon to goover her approaches to skill management, ecological sustainability, and supply chain strength – all while driving future development.
This discussion was initially part of HBR’s “Future of Business” virtual conference in November2023 Here it is.
SOPHIE BELLON: Hi. Hello, Alison. Thank you. No, thank you for having me.
ALISON BEARD: Yeah, and I understand it’s extremely late where you are, so we actually are grateful. We are focusing on improvement in this session, Sophie, and I understand that sustainability and food systems is mostlikely your greatest location of focus. What shifts have you made in terms of sourcing, supply chain, and resource usage, that you believe other companies may be able to imitate, to minimize their own waste or carbon footprint?
SOPHIE BELLON: So, veryfirst, I believe sustainability and food are extremely close connected. We are, I believe, in a worldwide food system that is out of steam. And there are some paradox, like 800 million of individuals suffer from cravings, and at the verysame time, we waste from farm to fork. A 3rd of the food is squandered. And likewise, by 2050, the farming production will have to boost by 50%, more than 50%, to feed 100 billion individuals. And, likewise, the food system is currently accountable for a 3rd of the greenhouse gas emission for human activity. On top of that, food inflation has peaked in current months, and a lot of individuals now rely on food banks since they can’t consume correctly. So, that number of 800 million individuals suffering from cravings, is increasing. But, still, the food is not valued adequate duetothefactthat we continue to toss it away. So, I actually believe that to repair our food system, veryfirst, it needto be a concern. and? Much of the future will be likewise played out on our plates. And I wear’t believe it’s something that we talk about enough. And I believe we absolutely requirement to speedup the change of our food services. And it’s a important. And as we touch 100 million individuals every day, for us, we have a lever. And our aspiration, as a business, is to be a market maker in sustainability. I believe we have constantly, as you stated, the business was produced by my daddy, and he constantly, consideringthat the starting, he offered a objective, a double objective to the business. So, I believe we haveactually been leaders in that location. But we desire to– and we desire however we desire to continue to make an effect and deploy this dedication worldwide and at scale. So, for example, today, we are creating a brand-new dish so that 70% of our meals can be identified low carbon by2030 Or we are likewise establishing regional sourcing and brief circuit chains with SMEs, to invest to be invest with SMEs. And now we’re currently at about 2.2 billion. So, I believe, likewise, to do that, you requirement to neverever forget that you requirement typical sense and humbleness.
ALISON BEARD: Your service is so complex you’re operating in. So numerous various locations, some of which are evenmore along than others in sustainability practices. So, how do you make sure that you’re advancing in each of those various locations of the world, teamingup with regional partners and federalgovernments, and truly making development? How do you balance sort of having international requirements with the regional truths on the ground?
SOPHIE BELLON: Well, I believe, veryfirst, for example, in terms of food waste, duetothefactthat food waste is not appropriate. It’s a scandal, however it’s mainly undetectable. So, for example, we desire to establish that worldwide and to do it, we desire to step it. And so, we are setting targets, setting objectives, and accomplishing them. We are tracking them. And, for example, we have our program is called waste watch, the waste watch program. So, we determine, every day, the waste produced on our websites. And it’s a videogame changer. It raises awareness amongst our groups, our customers, our customers. So, think just by carryingout and by determining, we have an goal to lower by 40%, on typical, the food waste. So, the veryfirst takeaway, particularly when you’re in a big company like ours, is what gets determined, gets done. And that’s extremely crucial. Second example, in lowering our carbon emission, it’s immediate to limitation the extreme intake of specific food. And, for example, we all understand that animal protein is not great, particularly with the red meat. But in some nations, duetothefactthat we see various scenario throughout the world, in some nations, in some nations the red meat is not takenin, like in India, for example. We run in India. And in India, 90% of the meals we serve are currently vegetarian and vegetarian alternative. But the obstacle in India is that the energy utilized to cook those meals is not green. So, we have a difficulty on changing that. If you take another nation, for example, Brazil, much of the energy utilized in Brazil is hydroelectric, so it’s great. But then it’s one of the nation where you have the greatest level of usage of meat. So there, we requirement to push individuals to have more vegetarian dietplan. So, I believe the 2nd takeaway is that we requirement to have an method with the cultural and the financial problems, that is really regional and take into account the culture of the nation, the routines. And so, for a international business, it’s not that apparent, and it’s not apparent to have a distinct service. You requirement to adjust.
ALISON BEARD: And I envision part of that is event intelligence from the individuals that you have on the ground. So, how are you thinking about staffing those operations, in terms of individuals from headoffice versus individuals who are regional?
SOPHIE BELLON: Yeah, I believe it’s really essential. It’s really crucial to empower, as you stated, individuals on the ground. We are a individuals service. We have more than 447 individuals around the world. And we actually saw that throughout the COVID duration, it’s those individuals who took the choice to adjust. What was takingplace in China has absolutelynothing to do with what was takingplace in Europe and what was takingplace in North America, for example. So, post COVID, we chose to make our company easier and more nimble. And we had an company by huge market sector, internationally, and we chose to put the duty back in the nations, to have that dexterity. And we understood that it assisted us to have a muchfaster choice making, more materialization. So, that, I believe, is really essential. At the exactsame time, we are a organization. We are operating in cooperation. We are operating in universities. We are operating in medicalfacilities, senior home. So, we likewise advantage within a nation from the division since the environment of trainees at school or university, or clients in healthcarefacilities, or workers at work, are not the verysame. They may have some various requirements. And this method, we establish a strong competence in this environment. And that is extremely crucial. And we have, for example, a gross officer for health care at the worldwide level. So, we can collect all those competence and diffuse them in other parts of the world. And I believe, likewise, inbetween the worldwide and the regional, of course, in a service organization, the regional measurement is really crucial. But I believe likewise worldwide, we have really strong basics that we can develop on. As I stated, when the business was developed in 1966 by my daddy, there was a objective to enhance the quality of life of our individuals, however likewise of the individuals we serve, and to contribute to the financial, social, and ecological development of the neighborhood where we run. So, that’s a really, extremely strong objective that was provided to the company more than 50 years earlier. With that, we have some worths, group spirit, service spirit, spirit of development. And I can inform you that every time I go throughout the world, goingto the group, whether it’s in Bangalore or where it’s in Milan, or whether it’s in Central, Los Angeles or San Diego, where I was not a