Elevate Series: Catalina Ganis from The Elliot Group

Q: Thanks so much for being here Cat! It’s great to have you. Could you tell us a bit more about the The Elliot Group, the role you play in the organization, and your professional journey?

A: I’m very happy to be here, it’s a pleasure. The Elliot Group’s been around since 1983. We started in the restaurant space and now we’re working with more “consumer-facing industries”. Examples of this would be retail, supermarkets, manufacturing, restaurants, lodging, etc. I actually have the longest tenure at the company (32 years)! We’ve grown a lot. We’re a retain executive search firm and have divisions that work on the VP level and below, so we can work with almost every level of a company.

Q: Fantastic. Due to COVID-19 and all of the events from 2020, the human capital landscape has completely changed. For hospitality businesses in particular, the response of HR leadership has never been more important.  From your unique perspective, what has that evolution looked like and where are leaders turning their attention to next?

A: Great question. So when this happened in March, I think a lot of organizations just didn’t know what they were going to do. There was no money coming in and no matter how great your business is or how much money you have saved in these companies, they can’t afford to keep employees if their locations are shut down. What we’ve found is that HR people have become the most important individuals on the executive team, but even they didn’t know what they were getting themselves into. At Elliot, because we partner with so many different sized organizations, we were getting a lot of calls about strategies and plans.

Q: You and your team have been holding recurring roundtable discussions with some of the most influential brands in the industry, a forum where HR leaders could share their process, strategies, and challenges at the brink and throughout the pandemic.  Can you share some of the most compelling takeaways from those sessions.

A: We put together an HR collaboration summit that we did every week where people were able to talk about some of the challenges they were facing in the business; not just in the field, but online challenges, delivery challenges, working remotely, etc. These people were putting playbooks together and I’ve never seen so much sharing before. We had these great HR sessions where legal professionals came in, health professionals came in, and we talked about what was going on in all of these states. I think the biggest problem for people in this business is that there isn’t one way of doing everything. The CDC can have guidelines, but every state, city, municipality can have their own, and we have to know them all. There’s just no way to keep it all together. 

The other thing going on right now is what’s going to happen post-covid-19. So, what we’ve seen on the HR side is a lot of the executives that you thought were good for your business may not be good for your business now. Your CFO’s are usually the first wave of making changes. The next is CMOs. Why? Consumers are different. Your business is different. IT is big right now. Companies who decided they weren’t going to invest in IT have to now. It’s also probably the worst time because they don’t have the money. There’s a reason why the companies with drive-thrus and great mobile apps are continuing to do so well right now. If they were ahead of it, you’re doing great. We’re going to be seeing a lot of changes on the corporate side. 

Q: How has diversity been woven into your search process?

A: So diversity as a strategy has been around for many years and particularly came into focus in the mid 90’s. It’s been around for a long time and at certain points since then, it seemed to have faded out of importance without a real cause or reason which is of course perplexing.  Whilst we do not purport to be a diversity firm, it’s always been an important aspect of how we operate given that we’re founding members of the Multicultural FoodService Hospitality Alliance and early board members of the Women’s Foodservice Forum. We always make an effort to provide our clients with a diversified slate of candidates whether that be in race, gender, or experience. In today’s climate promoting diversity has become all the more important and is something we are absolutely committed to.

Q: What is top tier talent looking for at this time when considering a leadership role at a new organization? How is the impact of the virtual interview process and challenges?

A: They’re looking for leaders. We say that they’re looking for athletes, so not necessarily industry-specific as much. They’re looking for people who are innovative and have worked in some sort of transition or transformation. Why? Because we’re going to be coming out of one. Covid is something we’ve never dealt with before, and every company is going to come out differently. Even if you’re a company who was doing really well, you’re different than you were as an organization than you were months ago. So, transformative leaders who have been through a turnaround, worked in an organization who may have changed their direction, or maybe they went totally online– just a big change in their company.

Q: Thank you so much. One last question for you Cat, with the aftermath of Covid, what are you seeing as important hires in the restaurant and consumer space?

A: So I think that you should hire people who’ve done many different functions. You don’t want to just hire an operator. If you can hire an operator who’s done a stint in finance or done a stint in marketing, that’s a plus. If you hire someone in franchising, if they came up through finance, that’s helpful. So I think that if they can wear many hats, that’s the one thing. The people who are still working in a lot of these businesses is because they were willing to get their hands dirty and do functions they never did before. The ability to show that you can do more than one function, I think, is what folks are looking for. No one is looking for someone to be in an ivory tower. Be field orientated. I think the retail/restaurant space got to a point where they forgot where they get their money. They forgot that it’s in those units. It’s those people who are touching the consumer, they’re the ones that you really need to keep.

For more information on the Elliot Group, click here.

For more information on the Harri COVID-19 solutions, click here.