REPORTING FROM NASHVILLE — Charlotte Jensen was named CEO of Sodexo Sports & Leisure March 1. She is charged with strategically but quickly growing the North American live entertainment division, which is currently doing $300 million worth of the $9 billion total of Sodexo North America’s revenue. Backed by the mammoth €20 billion ($23.5 billion) global company and given that it is a priority with shareholders and ownership, she’s gung ho. They have bid on more sports and leisure contracts in the last two months, than they did in two years before she arrived. Venues Today caught up with Jensen during the International Association of Venue Managers conference here to talk strategy.
What is your background in this business?
I have been in the facility management business since 1992, working for ISS, which became OneSource and subsequently sold to ABM. But this is my first foray into food service. I had always been about back of house.
How does that change your view of what to do?
Everybody is in sales. There were a lot of silos and barriers in my segment. We’re learning over again, side by side. If we have someone coming in to talk about labor management or raw material costs, everyone is invited to everything. I’m a very inclusive leader. I learned in my previous job that if it’s a billing clerk or payroll clerk, let them go out a couple of nights to clean buildings so they know what it’s like.
What aspects of Sodexo are in your division?
Sports and leisure includes pro sports, leagues, venues, major events like the Olympics, cultural destinations (zoos, aquariums, museums), and a huge conference center business. We do a ton of casino work also in my group. Airline lounges are coming into our fold Sept. 1.
With such a diverse client base, what will be the focus?
Going forward, we’re focusing on certain geographic markets – 10 major markets we’re either already in or want to grow into. We have 60 clients now. That’s been level for a while.
What are your marching orders?
To figure out what we want to be. Are we a food company, a facility management (FM) company (in North America, 30 percent of our $9 billion in business is facility management)? We need to diversify and grow our FM business. For example, the Dallas Museum of Art, an existing food client, called us to ask if we do FM. I’m looking at some of these quick wins, where we already have great relationships with customers who know we deliver, to add on service. How do I make us stickier with the client?
What prompted this strategic planning?
My boss is Nathalie Bellon-Szabo, our Global COO, sports and leisure, and she’s also the youngest daughter of Pierre Bellon, who founded Sodexo 51 years ago. Today Sodexo is in 80 countries with over 425,000 employees. But we’re not good at talking about ourselves. We want to let people know we are in the sports business.
What does Sodexo have to offer that is unique to the industry?
We bring a true global vision; trends and ideas from other parts of the world. That’s a differentiator for us. We bought significant businesses, brands with dominance and presence, in Europe — including Lenotre and Peyton & Byrne. Bringing those luxury brands to the U.S. and incorporating them with our client base is a huge opportunity for us. We have a full business cooking school in France that is unbelievable. You cannot beat food in Europe and to bring those brands and recipes and leadership to North America is huge. We also have a full hospitality business. We do travel and destination business for things like the Rugby World Cup, where we do the food, hospitality and travel. That’s a unique niche we want to grow over here.
What led you personally to leave ABM for Sodexo?
Sodexo is one of the most gender diverse companies in the world. Our executive leadership team is 50/50 male and female. What attracted me was gender diversity and the fact we get incentivized and bonused on whether we meet our diversity and inclusion goals every year. Second, we have a newly-created global group in Sports and Leisure and due to the high visibility of our leadership it is an exciting time for Sodexo and we see this as the beginning of our growth and investment in our clients here in North America.