Latest / The Inspired Stories Podcast / Transforming America's Favorite Seafood Restaurant: Shawn Harrs' Digital Vision | Restaurants & Franchises Series

Transcript

Transforming America's Favorite Seafood Restaurant: Shawn Harrs' Digital Vision | Restaurants & Franchises Series · The Inspired Stories Podcast

0:04
Welcome to another edition of the Inspired Stories podcast,
0:08
where leaders share their experiences so we can learn from
0:11
their successes and be inspired by how they've overcome
0:14
adversity. My name is Anthony Kotaspodi and
0:17
today's guest is Sean Hars, Executive Vice President and
0:21
Chief Information Officer at Red Lobster.
0:24
They are the world's largest and most beloved seafood restaurant
0:28
company committed to sourcing sustainable and traceable
0:32
seafood while serving high quality dishes at great value.
0:36
Sean has played a crucial role at Red Lobster, overseeing IT
0:40
strategy and modernizing the brand's digital experiences.
0:45
He's facilitated the company's M&A and integrated enterprise
0:48
systems while achieving impressive returns on technology
0:52
investments. For example, a 2X ROI from
0:55
online ordering upgrades, a 10X ROI from migrating analytics to
1:01
the cloud, and a 2X year over year sales growth through the My
1:05
Red Lobster Rewards program. Now.
1:08
Before joining Red Lobster, Sean LED transformational initiatives
1:12
at companies like Why Green Energy Fund and Vital
1:16
Pharmaceuticals, shaping his expertise across financial
1:19
services and entertainment sectors.
1:22
His passion for innovation and technology transformation has
1:25
helped Red Lobster enhance the guest experience and drive
1:29
sustainable growth. Now before we get into all that
1:31
good stuff, today's episode is brought to you by my company,
1:34
Add Back Benefits Agency, where we offer very specific and
1:37
unique employee benefits that are both great for your team and
1:41
fiscally optimized for your bottom line.
1:43
One recent client was able to add over $900 per employee per
1:48
year in extra cash flow by implementing one of our
1:51
innovative programs. Results vary for each company
1:54
and some organizations may not be eligible.
1:56
To find out if your company qualifies, contact us today at
1:59
AD Back benefits.com. All right, back to our guest
2:02
today, the CIO and Executive Vice President of Red Lobster,
2:05
Sean Hars. I appreciate you making the time
2:08
to Share your story today. I think it's great to be here.
2:11
Thank you for having me and very excited to be able to share a
2:14
little bit about my story with your audience.
2:16
All right, well, let's jump into it.
2:18
So your role as CIO at Red Lobster today isn't your first
2:23
work experience in the hospitality industry.
2:27
Tell us about your other hospitality work experiences and
2:31
how that prepared you for this role today.
2:34
Yeah, thank you for asking that question.
2:36
My first job out of college was with Walt Disney Parks and
2:41
Resorts. I started there as an engineer
2:44
and I spent about 15 years at Disney.
2:48
During that time, I had several roles in several functional
2:52
areas within the company, and I think that really shaped my view
2:58
of how each function contributes to the guest experience across
3:04
all different kinds of touch points.
3:07
And at Disney, we used to say no one owns the guest experience,
3:11
but everyone functional area owns the guest experience at one
3:15
given moment. And so having that ability to
3:18
see the entire guest experience from the view of every different
3:24
functional area in the company was very formative in terms of
3:28
my career. But even before then, I grew up
3:32
in the island nation of Barbados.
3:35
Barbados is known for its welcoming culture of
3:37
hospitality. And so when I joined Disney and,
3:40
and having had that, you know, experience growing up there,
3:45
that really got me out of the gates ready to fully understand
3:51
what it meant to shape hospitality, you know, everyday.
3:57
And so, yeah, you were in technology roles, I'm assuming
4:00
at at Walt Disney World. Is that right?
4:02
Yeah, various technology roles, engineering IT, but also in
4:06
business departments, marketing, operations, legal, finance.
4:11
So I, I wasn't, I didn't start my career and I didn't spend
4:15
actually very much of those 15 years, two years in total in IT.
4:20
They were all in other sort of non IT departments but IT
4:24
adjacent if you will. Gotcha.
4:26
OK, that makes sense. You know, whether it's right or
4:29
wrong, like we think of it, we think of sort of, you know,
4:32
being back behind, you know, a server wall and, you know, being
4:35
sort of ensconced in in just zeros and ones.
4:39
And so I was going to ask about how you sort of came to embrace
4:44
so much of that customer first mantra that came from Disney,
4:50
but it sounds like you moved around into lots of different
4:53
areas and so you you had sort of a 360 exposure to what was going
4:57
on there. Yeah, absolutely.
5:00
And it also helped me learn about, you know, what in many
5:04
cases these functional areas do. I wasn't, you know, these were
5:09
early sort of formative years, pre executive roles where I had
5:16
an opportunity to also working in a large company, see the span
5:21
and scope of what an excellent functional, you know, capability
5:28
looks like. And if there's anything that
5:30
Disney does is their focus on absolutely being excellent at
5:35
everything. So if you're working in
5:37
operations or legal or finance or supply chain management,
5:42
you're working with the most talented, you know, experienced
5:46
people in, in any given industry, the talent that
5:50
they're able to attract is, is quite remarkable.
5:54
And so that leads us to how was it that the opportunity for Red
5:58
Lobster came about for you? How was it that they were able
6:02
to recruit such amazing talent from the Disney folks?
6:06
Yeah, I, I, you mentioned earlier, I transitioned out of
6:09
financial services. That was my my last role with
6:13
the why Green Energy Fund was my second head of IT role.
6:18
And you know, in the time that I got introduced to Red Lobster as
6:24
they were looking for a new head of ITI had conversations with
6:30
what is now my peer group, with the CEO, with the board of
6:34
directors. And I'd say that all of the
6:38
experiences I had along my career up to this point prepared
6:43
me similarly to what I mentioned earlier on in viewing the guest
6:47
experience, Every stakeholder in that interview journey had a
6:52
different point of view in terms of what they wanted or needed
6:55
from the role. The type of leadership, the type
6:58
of executive thinking, strategic thinking, tactical execution
7:05
that was sort of going to lead to their decision making on on
7:12
me being the right fit for this role.
7:14
So my experience in my career helped me prepare for that
7:18
interview process. And I was very excited when I
7:22
got this role little over two years ago.
7:25
So many of our listeners will know that Red Lobster filed for
7:30
Chapter 11, which is the reorganization form of
7:33
bankruptcy. And as I understand it, you
7:36
started working there just before this restructuring became
7:40
necessary. You kind of walk us through the
7:44
pivotal moments when you realize that change was inevitable and
7:49
maybe how you navigated some of those early challenges to keep
7:52
the company on course. Yeah.
7:54
I mean, if there's been anything that's been a constant in my
7:58
career, it's working with change.
8:01
So one of the key things that you'll read about that we were
8:05
facing as a challenge was attracting guests into the
8:11
restaurant. And so we introduced a product
8:15
that ended up being, you know, not as profitable as we wanted
8:19
it to be. Yes, it did bring guests back to
8:23
get reintroduced to Red Lobster new new guests that you know,
8:30
hadn't hadn't experienced Red Lobster before.
8:34
But it wasn't a profitable product and it and it wasn't
8:38
yielding from a revenue perspective what we were looking
8:41
for. And so that was towards the tail
8:46
end of my first year and then a restructuring became necessary
8:51
and we and we realized that the path forward was going to be,
8:56
you know, financially restructuring, but also
8:59
restructuring our product and and that is, is now what we're
9:05
underway with. So what was that product that
9:08
was sort of successful in bringing people back in, but not
9:10
profitable, so ultimately had it be removed?
9:13
It's the $20 all you can eat shrimp and you know, we had a, a
9:18
great variety. It was a great product in terms
9:21
of guest satisfaction. But then from a profitability
9:25
perspective, it wasn't as successful in in terms of what
9:29
we were looking for. OK.
9:31
So a positive learning experience that you can take
9:34
away from that. So it's something we tried, it
9:36
didn't work now like how do we pivot?
9:39
Like what were some of the new promotional strategies that you
9:42
guys decided to try? Yeah, coming out of that now
9:46
under our new leadership, our new ownership and a new
9:51
executive leadership team in in you know with with our new CEO,
9:58
our focus is on really a more well-rounded versus a single
10:03
product sort of attraction for guests.
10:08
The things that guests are really have continued to come to
10:14
Red Lobster for like Lobster Fest or Crab Fest, those limited
10:18
time offerings, but then for everyday having a menu and other
10:25
offerings that are exciting and enticing to make our guests
10:31
visit, you know, want to visit us more frequently.
10:34
And, and so our approach versus a single product strategy is
10:38
more of a well-rounded strategy now.
10:41
So kind of walk us through what you know, I've got really fond
10:44
memories of Red Lobster as a little kid.
10:48
There was one close to my dad's office and I don't know, once
10:51
every few months we would meet him there after work.
10:53
And this was a nice dinner out for everybody.
10:56
And I got the popcorn shrimp and the hush puppies and yeah, but
11:00
now it's it's been years since I've been back.
11:03
What, what would somebody experience today as they go into
11:07
Red Lobster? What's the customer experience
11:09
like now? Yeah, our, our focus is on two
11:13
things on hospitality. We want to be exemplary at the
11:17
guest experience hospitality first and then from a Prada
11:22
offering and you mentioned hush puppies.
11:24
We're introducing favorites of our guests that, that you know,
11:30
we're, we're bringing them back. So hush puppies are back,
11:33
lobster rolls are back. Our menu has really been
11:37
modernized. We're introducing things like
11:41
everyday happy hours have have been introduced.
11:44
So we're rolling out the red carpet for our guests and giving
11:48
them and inviting them to come and experience the Red Lobster
11:55
that they may know from the past and that they were fond of and
12:00
experience it again in a new way and and also attract new guests
12:05
to become loyal customers of ours.
12:09
So how did you decide? Obviously prior to you there had
12:13
been decisions made to get rid of some items that had been on
12:17
the menu. How did you decide which items
12:20
to bring back? Was there some sort of a polling
12:23
or a survey of customers that said, hey, these are our
12:26
favorites? Yeah, I mean, you want to have a
12:29
menu mix that, you know, when someone comes to the restaurant
12:34
and they sit down, they may not necessarily know exactly what
12:38
they're coming into Red Lobster to have that day.
12:41
You want to have an exciting menu mix that will fulfill
12:46
someone's desire for what they're feeling like having in
12:49
the moment. And that's really what
12:50
hospitality is all about. It's how you make the guest
12:53
feel. So we want to have a menu mix
12:56
that will give our guests, you know, that feel good experience
13:01
about what it is they're able to select and choose.
13:04
And sometimes there are things that were, you know, less of a
13:08
fan favorite that don't add to that feel good mix that's on a
13:13
menu. And in the restaurant industry,
13:16
that's what companies are doing. You know from time to time
13:20
things appear and disappear from menus over over time.
13:26
You know, I've heard you mentioned before about wanting
13:29
Red Lobster to be America's everyday restaurant.
13:34
What specific innovations or enhancements are you most
13:37
excited about that are going to encourage more of those frequent
13:41
casual visits? Yeah, last November we
13:44
introduced happy hour. So there's that.
13:47
You know, every day after work, you know, group of folks from
13:52
the office or this, you know, after their pickleball group and
13:58
they're going to come into Red Lobster and just have that fun
14:01
experience at the bar. We've got a revised lunch menu.
14:05
So you you're having a business lunch or you're going out with
14:09
some work colleagues to celebrate one of your team
14:12
members birthdays or company anniversaries.
14:17
We're introducing offerings that will give our guests
14:22
opportunities to think about Red Lobster beyond the big birthday
14:28
celebrations, the big Mother's Day, the the monthly visit to
14:33
the restaurant to have the opportunity for us to be thought
14:37
of in in a more diverse way and visit us more often.
14:41
So maybe in the past people viewed Red Lobster as the, you
14:45
know, the special occasion once once in a while, once every kind
14:49
of like I talked about as a kid, it was like once every few
14:51
months, maybe we got to do it And, and now sort of positioning
14:56
the, the customer experience and the menu so that it's more of a
15:00
maybe not everyday affair, but certainly more regular.
15:03
Yeah, you can come and celebrate those big events with us,
15:07
birthdays, anniversaries, Mother's Day, Valentine's Day.
15:11
But in between, you can come and celebrate with us on a date
15:14
night. You can come with your, your,
15:17
your group, or even individually to enjoy happy hour.
15:20
You can come during the lunch period.
15:23
And that just creates an invitation to experience more
15:28
often. Yeah, I'm checking out your menu
15:31
online here. Lots, lots of good looking
15:33
stuff. We just happened to be recording
15:35
this on a Thursday and I see the specials for Thursday.
15:39
Shrimp linguine Alfredo and Cajun chicken linguine Alfredo.
15:45
So it's not just seafood. Yeah, that's that's what I was
15:51
referring to earlier on about that feel good menu mix where,
15:56
you know, Thursdays is from a lunch special perspective.
16:00
It's it's Italian day at Red Lobster.
16:02
Yes, obviously there's seafood on there.
16:04
We're leading the shrimp. That's what we're known for.
16:07
But it's a it's an Italian sort of forward lunch offering.
16:13
So maybe your group at the office is, you know, let's do
16:17
Italian Thursdays at Red Lobster.
16:20
I like that, you know, and maybe one of the reasons is I'm
16:22
thinking about this that I haven't been back is half of my
16:25
family doesn't care for seafood. Myself and my oldest son, we
16:29
love it, but my wife and my youngest son, not so much.
16:34
But knowing that there are non seafood options, you know opens
16:38
this up to be something that we put on to our To Do List.
16:43
Absolutely. We've got great steaks, we've
16:45
got great burgers, we've got great non red meat options.
16:51
There's, like I said, a very a great mix of menu offerings to
16:58
offer anyone what they're really looking for in that moment.
17:03
You know, and I also see, you know, linked up the menu page
17:05
here, you've got an allergen list, so people can look at
17:10
every single item on the menu and it tells you does it have
17:14
soy or egg or dairy or wheat or And so that can be really
17:18
helpful for, you know, folks who have, you know, particular
17:21
dietary restrictions too. Yeah, that's that's one of the
17:24
ways that we're very hospitality guests forward.
17:28
We want our guests to know what they're going to experience and
17:33
and be very open about it. That's really part of our
17:38
promise in terms of hospitality. So Sean, we mentioned a little
17:43
bit in the intro, one of your major achievements has been
17:46
modernizing Red Lobster's online ordering and digital experiences
17:51
with rather impressive ROI. What do you think made these
17:57
particular digital initiatives so successful in driving
18:02
customer engagement and growth? We took a lot of, and I joined
18:08
sort of after that, but as a company, we took a lot of what
18:11
we learned in really shifting heavily to online ordering
18:15
during the pandemic. And we took those learnings in
18:19
terms of what the guest was looking for in an online
18:22
experience. As we continued, we were
18:26
welcoming guests back into the restaurant.
18:29
But a lot of the population, especially a younger generation,
18:34
has gotten accustomed to thinking about ordering from a
18:38
restaurant during the week. We're going to, you know, I'm
18:43
hungry, I'm going to order something online.
18:46
And so we have a multi pronged approach to our digital
18:51
presence, our online ordering site, the ability to call and
18:57
speak to a human and, and, and put in an online order or
19:02
working through one of our third party partners where you can go
19:06
on their mobile app and, and order from us.
19:11
We we really took a lot of what we learned during the pandemic
19:15
and use that to modernize our our online ordering experience.
19:20
And so it's just more customer friendly, user friendly, just
19:22
more streamlined, easier to kind of find what you need.
19:25
Yeah. And, and, and also the
19:28
partnerships that we have then on delivery, how we package it,
19:33
how we think about making sure that what arrives at your home
19:36
is as close to as fresh as it would be if it had just come out
19:40
of the kitchen to the table. I've heard from some others in
19:46
the space that the process of updating the technology, these
19:51
ordering apps and whatnot, it's sort of like an ongoing like
19:56
process. It's not like here it is, we're
19:59
done, we've arrived. Like they're talking about like,
20:02
you know, once every 18 months to three years, they're having
20:05
to completely redo the whole platform.
20:08
Are you finding this as well? Yeah, I mean the, the pace of, I
20:13
mean, I'm, I'm, I'm not even going to talk about what's
20:16
happened in the last two years around AI, but the way the web
20:21
and mobile apps have have evolved over the last 20 years
20:26
since, you know, the early days of e-commerce and online
20:29
ordering, the expectations of customers for ease of use.
20:35
You know, you think of the big brands out there that make it
20:38
very, very easy to order online, make it very easy to to know
20:43
what you're going to get and when and have that consistency.
20:48
You need to be constantly looking at the marketplace.
20:51
So it's really not just a technology driven redoing of
20:56
those experiences. It's that every 12 months to 18
21:01
months, customer expectations evolve because the entire
21:06
economy is introducing new experiences and, and customers
21:11
then sort of gravitate to that and that then becomes sort of a
21:16
de facto expectation for anything else in, in their
21:20
world. So voice ordering or, or voice
21:24
commands that is very prevalent today.
21:29
You know, I referenced AI right now.
21:31
It's sort of with AI anticipating what it is that I
21:37
will want in a moment is is sort of where AI is now leading.
21:42
So we're going to see a lot of that in the next 18 months in
21:47
terms of AI anticipating what you will want, whether it's to
21:52
know something or to get something and it will transition
21:56
beyond, you know, just the time dimension.
22:01
It'll be 4 dimensional. It'll also be spatial.
22:04
So it's going to be where you are and when you are, that AI
22:07
will know what it will what you will be looking for in a given
22:13
moment. Can you give a specific example
22:15
of that? Like you know how is AI going to
22:18
know? Like what?
22:18
What it is I want before I know. Yeah.
22:21
I mean, absolutely it it, you know, we all obviously offer
22:25
through our use of technology a lot of data.
22:29
So we we are volunteering a lot of our behavioral needs and
22:33
traits to these digital platforms.
22:37
So suggestive marketing has very often been sort of a time
22:44
dimension wise in the moment. Here's an offer for a discount
22:48
on a particular product that you generally might enjoy at this
22:53
moment in time. Or, you know, maybe we're we're
22:57
incentivizing you to come in when you otherwise wouldn't
23:00
have. So that's an additional visit.
23:03
But what it very often does not know is you know what, I'm 1/2
23:08
hour away from your closest location.
23:11
And so maybe that's not the best offer for me right now.
23:15
Or you know, maybe it's a cruise.
23:17
Well, you know what, I've used up all my vacation this year
23:19
already. So there, there's a spatial
23:22
dimension to it where, hey, I'm driving by that coffee shop and
23:29
combining that proximity to this moment in time when the AI knows
23:36
that you would be very willing to come in if you had the right
23:41
offer. The combination of those two
23:44
will really make for a very powerful guest experience in the
23:47
digital space. So if I'm connecting the dots on
23:50
what you're saying, it's probably not only analyzing sort
23:54
of my past behavior to see what my tendencies have been, but
23:58
maybe also kind of creating avatar buckets.
24:03
So it's like, oh, you sort of match the the purchasing
24:07
behaviors of this group of people and they tend to really
24:11
like happy hour on Tuesday. And so we're going to, even
24:15
though maybe I've never come to Tuesday happy hour, it's going
24:18
to say, hey, you know, here's the happy hour special on
24:20
Tuesday. Come see us.
24:22
The capabilities of AI are going to be so unique to your persona.
24:27
It's going to transcend what traditionally, historically and
24:32
up till very recently have been look alikes.
24:35
So your behavior matches a pattern of a particular group or
24:40
data set that we're looking at. So we're going to tailor our
24:44
offer to that. AI is going to look at you very
24:48
discreetly and very individually.
24:51
So in the areas of healthcare, for example, you know,
24:56
healthcare practice in the past, when you think of a, for
25:00
example, an insulin pump, it is reading in real time what it
25:06
needs to do in terms of your current insulin level.
25:09
But if you're combining that with some other wearable
25:13
technology or some other way of gathering data about your
25:16
current behaviors, even while your insulin levels are good, it
25:21
can predict for you that, hey, you need to do something.
25:25
Otherwise, in the next hour, you're going to have, you know,
25:29
the need for some insulin and so it can look ahead and say, hey,
25:34
you need to eat a banana right now or you need to get up and go
25:37
for a walk. And, and so AI is going to be
25:41
used to really tailor an experience that's uniquely your
25:47
own. And, you know, I think some
25:50
people hear that and they get a little bit weirded out about it.
25:53
Here's my my take on it and be curious to hear your
25:56
perspective. It's like, well, that's just
25:59
made life better for me. Like what's the point in me
26:02
getting an advertisement for all you can eat broccoli when I hate
26:07
broccoli, right? Like, wouldn't I rather see
26:10
something that's like a a shrimp and hush puppy special or, you
26:14
know, a happy hour that my wife and I can go to?
26:16
Something that would be relevant to me?
26:19
Yeah. I think that the biggest issue I
26:22
would say to consumers who have concern about their data is
26:26
really around the privacy of it. How is your data, the data that
26:31
that is your own and uniquely your own, being protected?
26:35
We have been providing data about ourselves to groups,
26:41
business groups, whether it's our physicians or in schools and
26:45
teachers to our employers for the longest time.
26:49
And we've now over the last 25 years been voluntarily giving
26:54
data to tech companies, you know, behind a login with the
26:59
assumption that it's going to be protected.
27:02
And so if the security of our data is one that we can't call
27:08
into question. And I think that's an area that
27:10
really needs to get stronger because if you look at the news
27:13
everyday, there are very big and reputable companies.
27:17
And I'll say that that is a huge focus of mine.
27:20
I, I do not compromise on the security of our company
27:24
companies digital and security capabilities.
27:28
That's my, my first charge. Secondly, then bring about a
27:33
great best guest experience, but I can't do that without ensuring
27:37
that it's secure. And that's sort of in the vein
27:39
of the same promise that we make when we show on the menu what
27:43
the allergens are in our food. I want to promise our guests
27:47
that when they turn over their data to us, for example in our
27:51
loyalty program, that they can rest assured that that data is
27:56
secure. So when you see some of these
27:58
tech breaches at other large companies, you know, knowing
28:02
what you know and all the effort that you guys have put in behind
28:05
the scenes at Red Lobster to secure customer data, do you see
28:08
those other examples and think they just got a little sloppy?
28:13
Sometimes this is a, a, a case and to, to borrow the term, you
28:20
know, the bad guys only have to be right once.
28:23
And, and technology is so complex and we're introducing so
28:27
many technologies into the ecosystem and particularly have
28:30
a large enterprise, is that the, the ability to, to breach and
28:37
compromise just every day there's something there.
28:43
And so you have to be defensive. You have to be offensive.
28:47
You can't hold your breath. You know, I can't fault many,
28:52
many of the companies who encounter this.
28:57
But in some cases, yeah. And that's why regulations are
29:00
being introduced that are going to hold companies accountable
29:03
for data breaches when it it was avoidable.
29:07
In many cases, it isn't. There's a there's a there's a
29:11
quote from a former FBI director.
29:13
It's not a matter of whether you will be compromised, but when
29:18
that's. Reassuring, huh?
29:19
Yeah, so it is. But do everything that you can
29:22
to make it as hard for them as possible.
29:24
Absolutely every every day I start out my day thinking and
29:30
not in a negative way because I want to turn that into
29:33
actionable things that will continue to build that trust
29:39
with, with our guests and, and and also our team members who
29:43
come to work for us is what, what could happen.
29:47
And then I think about that and then we work to build guardrails
29:52
around it because we want our guest experience and our digital
29:55
capabilities to go fast. And to do that, I have to have
29:59
those guardrails in place. So tell me if we got this right
30:03
in the intro. A 10X ROI from migrating
30:08
analytics to the cloud is that. Is that number accurate?
30:12
That is, that is not a, a made-up number.
30:14
You can actually, you know, go online.
30:16
There are a lot of publications out there about getting 10X
30:20
value from your data. I, I can't take credit for that
30:25
number, but that was the challenge that I put to my team
30:28
when I joined the company. I said, you know, that's the
30:30
benchmark. And I, I could have said, you
30:34
know, let's let's exceed that. But you know, I think in, in a,
30:40
in an organization like ours, particularly in the restaurant
30:43
industry, that is a very margin driven business, enabling
30:48
data-driven decision making is so critical.
30:51
We have a lot of data. We're, we're, we're a company
30:54
with a lot of history. We serve a lot of guests
30:56
everyday. We have a lot of employees.
30:58
So we have a lot of data, a lot of it might not provide value.
31:04
And that's, that's the key thing is to separate out what is, what
31:11
are really, you know, valuable actions for the business to take
31:15
versus, you know, whack A mole, looking at all kinds of data and
31:20
not knowing what to do. And, and so I, I, you know,
31:25
reshaped the data analytics team, restructured it and made
31:31
that our focus. We want to get 10X value out of
31:34
our data. It's a treasure trove of
31:35
information that can help every function in our organization be
31:40
more effective. Operations, supply chain, human
31:44
resources, all, all of the departments to be more effective
31:48
in how we serve our guests and be profitable.
31:52
Let's pick one of those departments that you just
31:55
mentioned as an example. How has this treasure trove of
31:59
data helped human resources, for example?
32:03
In the human resources space, it's more effective scheduling,
32:08
making sure that we have the right employees in the right
32:11
positions and and it's not about having too few.
32:16
You don't want to understaffe either because there's lost
32:19
revenue opportunity. There's a potentially a poor
32:22
guest experience if you're understaffed.
32:24
So but then also in a margin driven business, you don't want
32:28
to be overstaffed. So you've got to use the data to
32:31
get to the Goldilocks solution so that you're balancing cost
32:36
and and guest experience and revenue.
32:39
And when you can take those margins of, of accuracy and move
32:44
them from, let's say 95% accuracy, are you moving from 1
32:50
Sigma to two to three to four Sigma accuracy?
32:54
And you're introducing AI in your forecast and you're getting
32:58
that much better at making sure you're going to have the right
33:03
people in their positions to provide that great guest
33:06
experience and not erode your margins.
33:10
Sean, tell us about the My Red Lobster Rewards program.
33:14
What is this? Yeah, we have a loyalty program.
33:18
I think your audience is very familiar with it from other food
33:24
and beverage companies, but everything from airlines,
33:29
another big area companies have loyalty programs and the My Red
33:34
Lobster rewards program, as we lovingly like to call it
33:38
internally Merler, which is what it, you know, abbreviates to.
33:43
I'm glad that's not on the commercials though.
33:46
Yeah, no, doesn't really roll. Out that's.
33:48
That's sort of an internal, but yeah, our, our rewards program
33:53
offers additional incentive to again become that everyday
34:00
restaurant that our guests visit.
34:02
They're getting loyalty points for ordering online, they're
34:05
getting loyalty points for visiting us in the restaurant.
34:09
And those then translate in subsequent visits into discounts
34:15
or, you know, up to and including a free meal.
34:20
And then on top of that, we add additional incentives like
34:25
discount coupons and, and things like that.
34:28
So we we leverage that as a way to show our guests that we
34:33
appreciate their loyalty and that really sort of then create
34:39
sort of almost a perpetual motion engine for for our guests
34:43
through that loyalty. Yeah, you saw a a 2X year over
34:47
year sales growth just just through the the.
34:49
Programming of our loyal customers, yeah.
34:54
That's. Impressive.
34:54
You see a very high repeat visitation and loyalty from the
35:00
groups that are, are very, you know, that use the program
35:04
along. And so when you if you're if, if
35:08
you're loyal to an airline, you see that a lot of benefits come
35:12
from moving up in the tiers within that loyalty program.
35:16
And that drives a reciprocal behavior because you want to get
35:19
every year to that highest level in the program.
35:23
So you're going to become loyal to that airline, even if
35:25
sometimes you have to have a layover when a competing airline
35:29
has a direct flight. Tell me if I'm right or wrong on
35:33
this, Sean. It seems to me a little bit
35:36
unusual that ACEO would also carry the title of Executive
35:40
Vice President. But like, as we're talking here,
35:43
it's clear to me like you're involved in a lot more than the
35:47
technology and the information because I hear you talking about
35:51
lots of big picture and operational strategies.
35:56
Yeah, I, I, I mentioned earlier on my formative years and my
36:00
career having worked in all of the functional areas.
36:05
So I, I know what it's like to sit in the shoe, you know, in
36:08
the, in the seat of the CMO because I've worked in the
36:11
marketing department, in the HR department, in supply chain, in
36:15
operations. So I, I know in finance, I know
36:18
what those areas have to do to be successful and they are my
36:24
internal customers. So I wear that as a CIO hat and
36:27
that's how I see my role. But to your point, I also wear
36:31
the hat and I think this is the the hat that I wear.
36:34
First is I'm a member of the senior leadership team and I
36:38
have an opportunity to contribute to the organization's
36:41
success as part of the thought partnership that as a group
36:47
together with our CEO that we look to use in developing our
36:52
strategies and how we execute and how we create a great
36:56
hospitality and guest experience.
36:59
So everything I have an opportunity to to shape that as
37:02
well with my experience and, and, and not just be the tech
37:07
guy. Yeah.
37:08
And in your experience, this is an unusual sort of combo.
37:12
I mean, at least so for me, most of the tech guys I've met have
37:16
been tech guys. They started as tech guys, they
37:19
continued as tech guys. They're really experts in tech,
37:23
but that tends to be their silo. It seems to me like you've sort
37:26
of camped out in all the different silos.
37:29
And so you, you kind of have this 360 view that maybe is a
37:33
little bit unusual. I, I, I, I would like to think
37:39
that if I came up in my career through IT proper and sort of
37:44
came up in that functional vertical, I would still have
37:47
this mindset because IT has a, a supporting role in an
37:53
organization as well as AP and L role in terms of the digital
37:58
experience for customers to, to help Dr. organizational growth.
38:05
So having that lens is, is something that anyone that I'm
38:09
mentoring in an IT function and I'm saying, you know, you want
38:14
to, to get better in your career, you have to understand
38:18
what it's like to work in those functional departments and, and
38:23
look at what it is that they're they're needing to do.
38:26
That's the best way for you to be able to support them.
38:29
Well, it's great advice for people listening, wondering kind
38:32
of how to why level up? How can I get to be a Shawn at
38:35
some point in my career? How about growth strategy?
38:40
Maybe we've touched on it already, but what growth
38:42
strategy has been most successful for you?
38:46
Yeah, I, I, I talked a little bit about moving around within
38:49
functions. Another one has been to get
38:55
myself out. I, I, I spent 15 years at Disney
38:59
and then I moved to Universal Parks and Resorts.
39:02
And so after quite a bit of time and, and having had a couple of
39:06
executive positions also then in the hospitality space, I said,
39:11
how can my experience translate into doing something in another
39:19
industry? So getting out of the
39:22
hospitality space, you know, there are industries where it
39:26
makes sense if you're if you're going to spend your whole career
39:29
in that industry. But I found in the opportunity
39:34
to join Lennar Home Building a great opportunity to learn about
39:39
a different industry, Supply chain management, project
39:43
management, construction management, financing, all the
39:46
things that Lennar does that are great, but bringing that guest
39:53
experience to the home purchasing, decision making
39:58
buying process. And then also shaping the
40:02
product that people were buying to add a digital experience to
40:07
it. The way we have done it in the
40:09
theme parks. You know, you took a theme park
40:11
that was built 50 years ago and now it's entirely connected with
40:16
mobile queues. You're not standing in line
40:19
anymore. You're using wearables to, you
40:23
know, purchase your meals or charge it back to your room and
40:27
you don't get access to your door.
40:29
What what Disney and Universal did in the time that I was there
40:34
by introducing digital into a very legacy physical space and,
40:40
and, and still maintaining that great experience.
40:43
Being able to take that experience and bring it about in
40:48
a completely different industry. Getting yourself out of that
40:53
comfort of I know everything there is to know after 18 years
40:58
in hospitality and I know what the next steps are.
41:01
I know what the career trajectory in hospitality looks
41:04
like. Moving laterally into another
41:07
industry and having to learn everything anew.
41:11
I, I look back on that and the difficulty of doing that, but
41:16
having, you know, having the courage to take that risk and
41:21
say, I could fail at this, but I'm going to give it a shot and
41:28
then come out on the other side learning so much and also being
41:33
successful. That's something I would
41:36
definitely recommend to folks who have a great set of skills,
41:43
a great set of experiences and can find an adjacent business
41:48
industry, even start up to to you know, help themselves grow
41:56
in in that way. Yeah, not only they're helping
41:58
themselves grow, but they're helping their the companies that
42:01
they're with sort of cross pollinating ideas from
42:04
different. Industries, yeah, I mean the,
42:06
the, the greatest products and, and, and companies bring great
42:11
talent in from, from other ways of thinking and that diversity
42:16
of thought and how to approach and tackle problems.
42:21
I mean, I, I, I think about that first engineering job I had at
42:24
Disney, I worked with nuclear engineers, I worked with former
42:28
NASA scientists and, and you know what?
42:33
What better group of people to think about creating amazing
42:38
theme park experiences, right? So when you get on to the
42:44
mission to Mars ride at Disney World, you really feel like
42:49
you're lifting off in a rocket. So one thing I'm curious about
42:55
is, as I'm thinking about this Red Lobster is, is huge,
43:00
hundreds of locations, right? 545 now.
43:04
OK. And.
43:04
Thousands in Canada. Thousands of employees, right
43:09
30,000 it it I mean, the the numbers are incredible.
43:13
How, you know, I talked to a lot of people and the sense that I
43:18
get some places, some industries, the labor market
43:20
softening a little bit, but a lot of folks are still having a
43:23
hard time recruiting and retaining staff.
43:27
And given, you know, how huge you guys are, I'm kind of
43:31
curious. And I know HR isn't sort of the,
43:34
you know, the, the position that you're, you're largely focused
43:37
on, but what's, what's sort of the approach, what's the
43:39
strategy there to, to find folks and, and, and hold on to them?
43:44
I, I, I, I have to say we are and have been investing very
43:48
heavily in the employee experience and then also in my
43:53
role in the digital capabilities that support HR.
43:58
And so the work that my peer and that organization does with
44:08
talent acquisition experience with onboarding and training of
44:14
individual contributors of our management training program is
44:19
top in the industry. And then what we've been doing
44:23
to layer on top of that to make that experience even better,
44:27
particularly when you're thinking about someone who's
44:30
looking for an hourly role when, when college starts back, you
44:34
know, college kids are going back in the, in the fall,
44:39
They're all going to, you know, many of them are going to be
44:42
looking for a server job. That's a big group that we're
44:45
looking for. And they're not just applying at
44:47
Red BLOB. So they're applying elsewhere.
44:49
And you know, the best of them are the ones that we, we want to
44:54
create an organizational sort of culture that makes them want to
45:00
come work for us, but we can't take a week to get back to them.
45:06
We, we want to be able to respond to our applicants and
45:11
say, you know what, we value that you have considered us,
45:16
that you think of us as the place where you want to come and
45:18
work. We want to welcome you.
45:19
We don't want them to have to feel like they have to wait for
45:24
the door to open. The door should be open to them
45:26
just like it would be in the for a guest in the restaurant.
45:30
And so from our apply to hire process, just making that so
45:36
much simpler, leveraging technology to make it easy for
45:40
them to be notified that we'd like to meet with them to screen
45:44
and just replying with a text message.
45:48
Here's my availability using, you know, machine learning or AI
45:54
to review resumes and, and, and get a good understanding of what
46:00
an applicant's experience is like so that our talent
46:04
acquisition team can look at our resume and have intelligence
46:09
sitting side by side so they're more easily and readily prepared
46:14
to meet with a an applicant. It kind of got a resume there
46:19
and and sort of the tool on the side that say why don't you ask
46:21
them some of these questions? And just getting them through
46:24
that whole process, if they're coming to work for us for the
46:27
first time, you know, getting all of their work authorization
46:33
information and you know, it can be very cumbersome getting a job
46:38
as and, and, and getting all this paperwork together.
46:41
And the manager in the restaurant has a bunch of other
46:44
things to do. So making that experience using
46:48
technology easy, seamless and, and cutting that timeline
46:53
between when someone says, you know what, I want to go work for
46:57
Red Lobster, I'm going to apply there and make it fast,
47:01
seamless, easy for them to get from an application through the
47:07
screening, through the interview and getting placed into their
47:11
position and to start giving them shifts.
47:15
We have significantly reduced our our open headcount in our
47:20
turnover numbers. That's impressive.
47:22
So not only are you using tech to sort of help with that
47:26
screening and interviewing process, but once the decision's
47:29
been made to hire the employee, they're able to do a lot of that
47:32
sort of paperwork and that onboarding in a, in a digitally,
47:36
OK. Yeah.
47:38
That's great. Where do we want to go next?
47:43
What's a tool, piece of software, or maybe even just
47:46
like a framework that's attributed to your own success?
47:50
Maybe other people listening are like, oh that's something I'd be
47:53
interested in checking out. Yeah, You know, one of my and
47:59
gosh, this was like straight out of college, very early computer
48:05
engineering problems that I was given at Disney was to take data
48:11
off of the theme park rides and make it available to the
48:15
mechanics and engineers who had to do troubleshooting.
48:20
This is before Wi-Fi, before Bluetooth, you know, how do you
48:25
capture that data and make it available?
48:27
So I was building software tools that would enable them to, to
48:31
get that data and very easily run it through a program to do a
48:36
root cause analysis on some kind of a failure because they did
48:41
have sensors on on these rides. But how do you get the data and
48:44
how do you make sense of it? We take a lot of that for
48:47
granted. Obviously today with IoT and,
48:52
you know, near field communication, Bluetooth and,
48:55
and all of that, that data streams into computers today
48:58
that didn't exist when I, when I first graduated.
49:02
And so starting out as a computer engineer, but, and, and
49:08
working on these embedded systems, the key thing that
49:13
added value to the business here was analyzing data.
49:17
And so after a couple of years, my first job in ITI got asked to
49:25
join the IT organization was to help them with their data
49:29
platforms and help get them stable.
49:33
I was working on what I was told at the time by our partners of
49:38
the company that it was the largest data warehouse of its
49:42
kind in their company. Big, big before the term big
49:46
data actually existed. But it's a big data platform
49:51
company. And I brought that engineering
49:54
mindset and that's what they wanted.
49:55
They couldn't figure it out internally.
49:57
Engineers are, you know, very, very focused on quality, on
50:03
reliability, on time, on, you know, just making sure things
50:08
work. And I brought that mindset.
50:11
But again, the outcome and the value for the business was the
50:15
availability of data. So my career got then in, in
50:21
many of the rules, actually, I'd say most of the roles, my
50:25
success was about getting value out of out of data and in, in as
50:32
my roles proceed, you know, subsequently I took on broader
50:36
spans of control. Certainly once I got into my
50:39
first, second, and now third CIO roles, I have responsibility for
50:44
everything from IT security through IT operations and
50:49
everything in between. But the area that I gravitate
50:54
towards the most is getting value out of data and how we use
50:57
it. Data resiliency, disaster
51:00
recovery, you know, making sure transactional systems are up and
51:06
reliable and working so that the data is available, people can
51:09
clock in, our customers can make payments securely.
51:14
All of my success, I would say or or at least the areas that I
51:18
found the most interest in interest in have been around
51:21
data and data platforms. How often do you find that data
51:26
doesn't lead to actionable insights?
51:31
Oh, very often. I mean, you know, I, I, I like
51:35
to use the metaphor of a pilot in, in a cockpit.
51:40
If you go into a commercial airline and they're all these
51:44
buttons and, and, you know, commercial pilots go through
51:46
years and years of training to understand what they all mean.
51:49
But generally the metaphor I use and, and right or wrong because
51:53
there might be a pilot here in your audience, but you know,
51:56
generally they're looking at just a handful of things, the
51:59
critical things that they need to look at in that moment,
52:03
right? Their altitude, their speed, you
52:06
know, just a couple of things. And if any of those things are
52:10
off, the pilot knows that they need to take action.
52:14
All those 2300 other little lights that are in the cockpit,
52:19
they're not saying anything. But when the pilot needs to take
52:25
action around one of them, it lights up and it calls attention
52:28
to it. Well, here's a thing that I need
52:30
you to go look at. And so when an organization has
52:34
massive amounts of data, right, and we're, we're talking
52:40
companies have grown out of gigabytes and terabytes, they're
52:43
in the petabyte ranges, just massive amounts of data.
52:48
Being able to focus on the ones in the moment that tell you what
52:54
it is you need to do. If all the other things are
52:57
looking good, if in my business the labor schedules look good,
53:02
if the guest forecast is accurate, if the orders and the
53:07
inventory I have to serve guests between now and my next order
53:12
are all accurate, why should a manager have to go and look at
53:16
that to validate that they're all like that?
53:18
They should be like those little light bulbs in the cockpit.
53:21
They should be off. They shouldn't be calling
53:23
attention to go look at those things.
53:28
And that should free people's time up to focus on those two or
53:31
three things that matter in the moment.
53:34
So with huge data sets like that, you've probably got the
53:37
alert system set up. Hey, as long as the values are
53:41
within this range, we're good. They slip one way or the other,
53:45
you know, fire off an alarm and let somebody know.
53:49
Four things that matter when they do, when they fall outside
53:51
of control limits. And then the other thing is it,
53:55
it, it, it doesn't matter if, if that particular a metric or KPI
54:01
or it wouldn't be a KPI, but that particular indicator of
54:05
your business or measure of your business is out of whack because
54:11
could be many things. But the two key ones that I sort
54:14
of say is can you do anything about it right now?
54:17
No, OK, well, don't worry about it.
54:20
Focus on the ones you can do something about.
54:23
And and then secondly, the other one is, does it matter?
54:28
Yes, it's out of whack, it's out of control limits or it it it,
54:32
it's going on a particular direction, but does it have any
54:35
impact on the ones that matter? You know, is, is it going to
54:39
affect the guest experience today is, you know, food not
54:43
going to come out and, and be absolutely picture perfect and
54:47
taste absolutely amazing, You know, all those things.
54:52
Is the employee experience going to be affected?
54:55
None of those things, right? Our payment, our payments going
54:59
to be in any way compromised. Those are the things that
55:02
matter. So there's so much data that
55:06
companies are looking at and, and one of the things that a
55:10
good data analytics organization, whether it's in
55:14
the business, because I've run several, actually most of the
55:18
ones I've run lived in the business, was sort of finding
55:22
the things that mattered to the business and then structuring
55:27
actionable insights around what are the things that you can do
55:32
or should be doing ahead of time or in the moment and then ignore
55:38
the rest because you can't look at 90 petabytes of data that.
55:44
Doesn't matter. Does it matter and can we do
55:47
anything about it? Those are the 2 questions.
55:50
Maybe, maybe next week you can change your order size, but this
55:53
week you can't, Yeah. All right, let's shift gears for
55:56
a moment. Sean would be curious to hear
55:59
about a serious challenge that you've overcome, personal,
56:02
professional, maybe a combination of the two.
56:04
What did you learn going through that and and how did you get
56:08
through it? Yeah, I, I'd say, you know,
56:11
personal challenge, I, you know, sort of mid career, sort of at
56:17
the manager level. I applied for a position I was
56:20
really keen on, on, on getting and I, I, I, I have to say this
56:27
is, you know, one of the things that I really took in my career
56:32
from that, which is what do great leaders do?
56:37
And I didn't get the position and I was really bummed out.
56:41
It was a point in my career where I had either been sort of
56:45
like brought into new positions because there was a challenge
56:49
that somebody saw, Hey, I don't know what this looks like, but I
56:54
know Sean, can, you know, figure it out or I applied for a
56:57
position and I got it. And so this was like a career
57:02
rejection where I had to, you know, not take it personally.
57:06
And the and the growth there was, I have to say from from the
57:10
hiring leader, very constructive.
57:12
This like Sean, I have no doubt that you have the aptitude, but
57:16
you have an opportunity to learn a few things.
57:20
And I, I took that down and they were, they were, you know,
57:24
spanned between hard skills and, and soft skills as well.
57:30
And I, I really took those to heart in a way that I said, you
57:37
know what, I'm going to take those as a challenge.
57:41
And I tell this story not because it was obvious to, not
57:46
because it's obvious to me now, but because that hiring leader
57:49
told this story in a meeting once afterwards, because three
57:55
years later, I was working for him.
57:57
The person who got the position left.
58:00
And in that time, I took it upon myself, I'm going to go learn
58:03
these things. So I, I volunteered, I went to
58:07
other leaders in the organization that were managing,
58:11
you know, things that I, I, I got in that feedback.
58:16
So I could say, hey, look, I want to volunteer to be on a
58:18
project here. I'll take that on as a stretch
58:20
goal or I got with HR and I say, where can I go and learn how to
58:24
do X or Y? And that person left after three
58:28
years and, and I applied for the position and again, and I got
58:31
it. And I got it within a couple of
58:33
days because the, the, the hiring leader knew that, that I,
58:39
I'd acquired those skills and, and it was like a, you know, I
58:42
guess a slam dunk. It wasn't easy.
58:44
It was, it was hard to go about finding out how to learn these
58:49
particular things, these kinds of things, you know, sometimes
58:53
when it comes to work experience are not easy to come by.
58:55
How are you going to go and find work experience in a particular
58:58
area if you don't have that job? You know, I know entry level
59:01
people deal with that very often.
59:03
You know, this is an entry level job, but you need 2 years
59:05
experience. That doesn't make sense, but I,
59:09
I figured out a way how to navigate it.
59:11
And then in a meeting a couple of weeks into the job, he told
59:15
that story. I said, you know, hey guys, you
59:18
know, and I think it was, you know, to doing around
59:22
performance review time. Here's an example.
59:26
And he used me as an example of how to grow and develop
59:28
yourself. And I was, you know, I'm, I'm
59:31
pretty humble and I, I said, you know, I didn't even see myself
59:34
in that regard. You know that.
59:36
But but that makes sense. And so, yeah, my advice here is,
59:41
you know, that that kind of rejection is hard sometimes, but
59:46
a hiring leader has a responsibility to the person who
59:50
is the most talented to bring them on and a responsibility to
59:55
the organization to bring the most talented or the right
59:58
talent for or fit for the role. I very often tell my leaders,
1:00:02
hire for aptitude, hire someone more junior and help them grow
1:00:06
and develop because of that experience.
1:00:09
And very often I get leaders who come back after a while and say,
1:00:14
you know, Sean, that was a great decision, hiring someone more
1:00:18
junior but with a high aptitude. They bring in fresh perspective
1:00:23
and and and so on. So that was hard but but really
1:00:27
served me well. So the hiring manager told you
1:00:30
some these things that you needed to learn.
1:00:33
Hats off to you for being receptive to that because it's a
1:00:36
crushing moment, right? You've been on this trajectory
1:00:39
like you had success in your career and now it kind of feels
1:00:42
like a, you know, a punch to the stomach that somebody says, I'm
1:00:46
not ready for this thing. I really wanted.
1:00:48
You could have just been angry. You could have left you, you
1:00:51
know, could have sort of turtled up in your shell.
1:00:55
So he, he gives you he or she gives you these, these things
1:00:59
that you need to work on. Did they also kind of coach you
1:01:02
as to how to learn those skills or was this sort of like on you
1:01:07
and you you kind of got your hands dirty trying to figure out
1:01:11
how do I do that? I, I, I know that there, there
1:01:13
wasn't any guidance there. You know it, feedback is a gift,
1:01:18
I like to say. So I got the feedback.
1:01:21
That was the gift. The, how that I, I would say to,
1:01:27
to anyone listening, that gift has already been given to you.
1:01:31
Your gaps in terms of that position that you aspire to has
1:01:36
been shared with you explicitly. And This is why I would say to
1:01:40
anyone, and This is why I, I, I take the time to, to mentor
1:01:44
people or find mentors for my team members, because mentors
1:01:50
also help give perspectives that are different to mine, to help
1:01:56
people look at things from a different way, look at things
1:01:59
differently than how I might look at it.
1:02:02
And and so you're getting all these angles.
1:02:05
And so when I mentor someone and I say, if if you have a
1:02:08
performance review and it, it seems less than you know, your
1:02:15
rating, for example, seems less than what you think you should
1:02:19
have gotten, but the feedback isn't strong.
1:02:23
Open yourself up to that feedback to being uncomfortable
1:02:28
with hearing where your gaps are, not that you don't have
1:02:33
gaps in terms of the competency to do your current role.
1:02:37
If you're a meets expectation, that means you're, you're,
1:02:40
you're not just showing up to work.
1:02:42
And you know, thank you for coming to work today.
1:02:45
I mean, you're working hard. I mean, people work hard and
1:02:47
that's, that's OK Meets expectations.
1:02:50
If you're working hard everyday and you're working smart and
1:02:53
you're bringing value, a meets expectation is OK, but because
1:02:58
there are higher ratings there, there's more that you can be
1:03:02
doing. And that hiring leader is
1:03:04
telling you that. And I would say to, to not
1:03:07
hiring leaders, I would say to leaders in performance reviews,
1:03:10
you've got to give people actionable feedback.
1:03:15
Even if there are meets expectations, here are all the
1:03:17
things that you did great. You've set these objectives, you
1:03:21
met them. In some cases you exceeded them,
1:03:24
but where's the what else? So if you're not getting it from
1:03:27
your leader, feel comfortable asking and be OK with the
1:03:31
feedback that they're going to give you on the things that you
1:03:35
can learn and do better because that's a gift.
1:03:38
They're telling you what you need to do to a year from now,
1:03:44
be in a position to get a higher rating, be in a position to get
1:03:48
a new role. And if they don't, it's OK if
1:03:52
they don't tell you how to go about it, but then be OK asking
1:03:55
about that too. You know, this hiring leader,
1:03:59
I'm sure if I asked them to mentor me, they could have.
1:04:02
But I got that feedback and I took it as an opportunity, as a
1:04:07
gift. And then I went and navigated
1:04:10
the how I closed that gap. And you know, sometimes people
1:04:15
aren't self starters like that. And that's OK.
1:04:18
It's OK to ask. Ask for the feedback, ask how to
1:04:21
go about closing it. Ask if you can have resources.
1:04:25
Ask if your leader will connect you with a mentor.
1:04:29
What's the worst that could happen?
1:04:31
Be open to feedback, ask for it, seek it out.
1:04:34
Use that as ways to improve yourself.
1:04:36
You're. Demonstrating your curiosity,
1:04:38
you're demonstrating your commitment to growth.
1:04:41
Good leaders will recognize that and and see it for for the value
1:04:47
that it has to them and their organization.
1:04:50
Sean, I've just got one more question for you.
1:04:51
But before I ask it, I want to do 2 things.
1:04:54
First of all, everyone listening today, I will invite you to hit
1:04:57
the like, follow, share or subscribe button on your
1:05:00
favorite podcast app so that you can continue to get more great
1:05:03
interviews like we've had today with Sean Hars.
1:05:06
Sean, I also want to let people know the best way to either
1:05:09
continue following your story or to get in touch with you
1:05:11
directly. What would that be?
1:05:13
Yeah, I'm very active on LinkedIn.
1:05:16
You know, my my name is right here in the window.
1:05:19
There's only one of my spelling on LinkedIn, you know, connect
1:05:24
with me, follow me if there's an opportunity for us to to do
1:05:30
something together, You know, obviously as AIT leader, I get a
1:05:34
lot of a lot of sales reach outs.
1:05:38
But if, if someone's here in your audience really looking for
1:05:42
insight into their career into how they develop themselves, or
1:05:48
they're, they're facing a situation where they can't make
1:05:51
a decision about a career path or the decision on a technology
1:05:54
that I might have some insights on.
1:05:57
I have a big peer network of CIOs I can get an answer to.
1:06:01
I'm happy to have, you know, people connect and and reach
1:06:05
out. That's very generous of you.
1:06:07
So last question for you today, Sean, and we may have already
1:06:10
touched on this, but as you look to the future, what are the
1:06:14
changes in this industry that you're most excited about diving
1:06:19
into? Well, I, I think about the
1:06:25
hospitality industry, the industry I'm in and the
1:06:30
excitement that I have around the evolving landscape of, of,
1:06:35
of restaurants. I mean, even, you know,
1:06:38
restaurants that have been around for as long as as us,
1:06:42
they continue to evolve too. I mean, you think of some of the
1:06:45
big names that have always been around, they still have their
1:06:49
marquee product in the marketplace.
1:06:52
I don't think some of those will ever go away.
1:06:56
That coffee shop that that you love, that has grown into a
1:06:59
worldwide chain is still going to have a great cup of black
1:07:02
coffee available to you. But around it, the, the
1:07:08
expectations and, and needs and wants of, of customers is going
1:07:13
to evolve. So the tastes of customers is
1:07:16
going to evolve. And that's something I'm very
1:07:18
excited about. I'm sure there are a lot of
1:07:20
foodies in your audience here in the, in the technology space,
1:07:25
the advent of the capabilities of AI.
1:07:28
And every day you're turning the news on and the big leaders in
1:07:33
AI are introducing models that they just trained that are twice
1:07:39
as good as the ones that they introduced yesterday.
1:07:43
So, you know, we used to hear about Moore's law and time
1:07:47
frames of multiplication being measured in years, coming down
1:07:53
into double digit months and and so on.
1:07:56
The evolution of the capability of AI is growing in, in hours
1:08:03
and minutes now. And, and, and so, yes, it's a
1:08:08
buzzword, but it's real. I mean, some of the capabilities
1:08:12
I'm seeing of what intelligent agents can do to help with
1:08:17
marketing and customer experience.
1:08:18
I was at a hotel last week and I called customer service in the
1:08:24
evening and normally you get someone at the front desk, you
1:08:29
know, in the evening customer service desk is closed.
1:08:32
This was an AI agent and I could kind of tell the, the, the, the
1:08:37
audio and the, the speech and so on was pretty good.
1:08:40
But it was 98% there. The thing that stood out for me,
1:08:45
I said, OK, let's see how this goes.
1:08:48
And so I stutter a little bit on purpose.
1:08:52
I change my question in the middle.
1:08:55
I said, you know, actually. And then I switched it to a
1:08:57
different question. I'm trying to stump it.
1:09:01
And you know, you, you, there's a there's a concept in the
1:09:06
computing world around when a human can't determine the
1:09:11
difference between interacting with technology versus another.
1:09:14
Turing Test. Yeah, and the Turing test,
1:09:17
right. And I, I tried to Turing test
1:09:21
this thing and boy did I'll, I'll, I'll say it was a she,
1:09:25
boy, did the AI nail it. Wow.
1:09:29
Yeah. You know, I, I kind of whispered
1:09:31
at one point, hit the nail on the head, answered every
1:09:35
question, followed up. Is there anything else I can
1:09:38
help with? I mean, those experiences, you
1:09:42
know, the, you know, 5-10 years ago we were introducing these
1:09:46
chat bots on websites and they were just like a very basic
1:09:49
decision tree. I mean to have any random
1:09:55
question that I could think of be posed that was relevant to
1:09:59
the hotel and and switch it up like that and get all those
1:10:03
questions right. In my industry, ordering at a
1:10:08
Dr. thru is AI calling a contact center to put in a phone order
1:10:14
includes AII mean these are very sophisticated capabilities that
1:10:21
were really change experiences for customers.
1:10:25
You want to get information on your health care or, or
1:10:30
anything, you know, I mean, you think of your industry, there
1:10:36
are use cases that are going to, you know, you have a meeting
1:10:40
with, with lawyers from two different companies.
1:10:42
And as soon as the meeting is done, there's a draft contract
1:10:46
immediately available that is based on all of the discussion,
1:10:51
bringing together all the different kinds of terms and
1:10:54
conditions that these companies usually use for.
1:10:56
And when you think of the days and weeks that that would
1:10:59
normally take an attorney to draft in the back and forth,
1:11:03
it's it's it's pretty remarkable.
1:11:05
I'm very excited about it. Yeah.
1:11:06
Likewise, we've come a long way in a short time and the next
1:11:11
several months to couple of years it's it's going to be fun
1:11:14
to see how things evolve. Well, Sean, I want to be the
1:11:17
first one to thank you for sharing both your time and your
1:11:20
story with us today. I really appreciate it.
1:11:23
Yeah, Anthony, it's been a pleasure and I greatly
1:11:26
appreciate the opportunity to share it.
1:11:28
Folks, that's a wrap on another episode of the Inspired Stories
1:11:31
podcast. Thanks for learning with us
1:11:32
today.