Making Career Transitions Work
(Last week’s Women’s Foodservice Forum Executive Summit featured excellent educational content from industry leaders and Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management faculty. Here’s the last of this week’s series on key learnings from the conference.)
brand-as-business bit:
“keep calm and carry on”
“we’re just selling roast beef”
“transitions feel personal, but they’re not”
These are some of the sound bites from a panel of foodservice top executives, including Jean Birch, President IHOP Restaurants, John Buckles, EVP, Sales & Marketing, Ventura Foods, and Hala Moddelmog, President, Arby’s Restaurant Group, Inc. The panel topic was Career Transitions and the main message was that transitions happen – whether we want, expect, or think they make sense or not — and it’s up to us to make the outcomes positive. The ways to do this are:
- Don’t get too excited (positively or negatively)
- Make sure you build strategic connections – the right relationships can help you transition to your advantage
- Be prepared; as much as possible, anticipate when change may happen
- Keep the bigger picture and your long-term goals in mind
- Remember you are responsible for your own happiness