Aramark [NYSE: ARMK]

Peter Czimback is the Vice President of Digital Innovation at Aramark, a world leader in food, facility, and uniform services. As a digital experience leader, Czimback creates digital change across all of Aramark's business lines. He created Emerge, which is an incubator and generator for new experiences at Aramark. Today Emerge is bringing together our consumers and co-workers with unique partnerships from the largest tech companies to new start-ups, private equity partners and research groups to accelerate change.

What are some of the challenges in the digital transformation space?

One of the biggest challenges faced by businesses today is the fast pace of the consumers. Consumers today want to be connected in as many ways as possible, and businesses must engage them digitally at every opportunity. Essentially, business must be in as many conversations with the consumer as possible.

Additionally, for businesses to be genuinely transformational, they must plan and construct ahead of the consumer. This helps generate unique and differentiated experiences, which is a key component of the digital revolution, but not limited to technology. Businesses must concentrate on the experiences they want to deliver to customers and the feelings or relationships they wish to engender. Delivering a customer journey that engages emotion is a transformation every consumer-facing organization needs. Consumer journeys are best designed outside of linear thinking and rational thought because consumers, and people in general, are often more emotional than rational.

Aramark concentrates on differentiated hospitality experiences. We place a strong emphasis on providing excellent customer service and building enduring relationships. We think that a company's digital transformation should focus on digital’s ability to enable our amazing associates around the world to have one more moment to say, “good morning.” At the end, our obsession is creating that extra moment of joy, one more smile or giving a few more minutes to be with yourself.

What are some of the trends impacting the marketplace today?

It's important to know what people want value in a way that meets their needs. This is not a new trend, but inflationary pressures and other macroeconomic forces affecting the business makes it more important than ever. Businesses need to understand that delivering great value means different things to different people at different times. Again, the consumer journey is not linear but more hub and spoke.

 It is most important to be of service to people, whether they are your consumers, co-workers, clients, or partners 

Labor challenges are here to stay, and you could say are a generational challenge as large segments of people exit the workforce as consumer expectations continue to increase. To deal with this problem, companies are turning more and more to automation and robotics to help fill the gap. But it's important to know that automation and robotics aren't meant to replace people. Instead, they give people more time to focus on things that really count, like customer service, making sure people have a good time, and creating one more moment to say, “good morning.” The goal is not to stop people from talking to each other but to make it better with technology.

As a leader, what are some of your strategies for doing successful digital innovation within an organization?

At our company, we believe “everyone is an innovator,” and we are focused on disciplined innovation that can be created at the edge. We don't rely on a centralized team of experts to come up with ideas, we believe that those closest to our customers and operations often have the best insights. For example, one of our managers suggested using computer vision and AI technology in 2016 to enhance our self-checkout process, which reduced checkout time from 62 to 13 seconds. Our employees also identified areas where digitizing tools could improve accuracy and efficiency, resulting in significant increases in training utilization and forecasting precision. By listening to our employees and empowering them to contribute their ideas, we stay ahead of the curve and provide exceptional customer experiences, including some that are industry firsts. We prioritize our employees and consumers to create a more sustainable future for everyone involved.

What would be your advice for budding professionals in the field?

You must believe something different can happen and you must be the absolute number one cheerleader and champion of that. This mindset is required to stay open to learning and change in the realm of digital transformation. “Be curious not judgmental,” is a great quote from Walt Whitman (although I love when Ted Lasso said it). We should always ask, “What if we could…,” rather than stating, “What if we can’t...” Nurture your organization every day and create speed and flexibility. You will not be able to fight the consumer and companies that embrace this belief; they will beat you faster, before you realize it.

Our top priority is serving the people connected to our business, whether they're our colleagues, clients, or customers. By being accountable to those we serve and working closely with them and for them, we can gain valuable insights, inspiration and speed to help us win. Technology is ever evolving as are the ways we choose to apply it. There are always new solutions and ideas to help us address problems and create opportunities.