Why Career Development Matters More Than the Next Title—An Interview with Jason Nichol of Gordon Food Service

Yeah, not a real surprise because I worked with GFS a lot in my past when I was with Tyson Foods.

So I knew a lot about the organization, but really just a confirmation after joining them, the depth of the culture, how deeply the values are embedded in the organization.

Yeah, I've worked for some really great companies and been fortunate to be part of some really great and different cultures.

But GFS has a culture that is rooted in really caring about our people.

caring about our customers, but at the same time, expecting excellence in everything that we do.

And I think that's a great combination.

And the other thing that's different is being a private organization, just the long-term orientation of the business.

You know, being family changes how you think about decisions.

You're not asking the questions about what are we going to do for this quarter? You're asking questions about what's going to make us stronger five, 10 or 20 years from now.

And so we absolutely care about performance, but there's a balance between performance and building something that really lasts.

Yeah, such a key point that we hear often, too, in those that work for privately held versus publicly held versus maybe private equity backed.

Right.

There's these different environments.

And I think there are pros and cons to both.

But the one strength we hear every time about privately held family owned is that they're typically willing to look longer out in the timeline, make an investment for today that will pay off in three years instead of we have to show an ROI in six months for the board.

Right.

That's right.

And what I have found too that comes with that is the empowerment to make decisions.

And I don't know if that's because it's the culture and being a private company or the role I'm in now owning P&Ls, but I do feel a real empowerment to make decisions.

And you don't worry about making a bad decision because as soon as you realize you've made a bad decision, you just make a different decision.

And so that empowerment feels really good.

I think you and I have talked about this before, Jason, but when I was growing up in the industry, my first role, I was taught good decision, bad decision, no decision.

And

they said the worst one you could make is no decision.

And that was so powerful to tell a 22-year-old Jen who was just getting started and afraid to make mistakes, right? It was just like...