Title What We Heard The Opportunity Why August Track Record Collaboration Model The Roadmap What You Get Close
June 16, 2026
August + Sodexo
From mammoth to gazelle.
And making it stick.

Prepared for Leena Verma by Karina Mangu-Ward & Michael Burkin.

What We Heard
A bold rebuild.
A familiar risk.

From our conversations on May 20 and June 8.

1 Sodexo North America is navigating a lot at once: a new structure, new technology, an AI soft launch, and a dual mandate to reduce SG&A while enabling growth.
2 Leadership is where it starts: 15+ leadership changes since November, 11 from outside, and a leadership team still finding its common tone.
3 The engagement survey backs that up: leadership NPS has declined more than any other group's.
4 Six leadership behaviors are well defined globally. The ask is a prescriptive interpretation: what each one looks like in day-to-day execution in North America.
5 Change fatigue is real. Years of mandates have come and gone, and people are watching to see whether this one sticks.
6 Your people are operators. They want a sequenced roadmap: how will this benefit me, and what do I need to do?
The Opportunity
Efficiency that
enables growth.

The restructuring is a major investment, and it changes who sits where. What turns that investment into growth is how work gets done inside the new structure: faster decisions, clearer accountability, and leaders who energize their teams.

After years of start-and-stop change, sticking is the whole game. New ways of working are the insurance policy on everything Sodexo is spending to become a gazelle.

Why August
10+ years making new
ways of working stick.

Our approach: embed with teams, coach in the flow of real work, build internal capability, hand off ownership. Validated in global, service-oriented, frontline workforces, and published in Harvard Business Review.

Results with one of our recent client partners:

$20M+
In capital and operational savings identified by teams, a model now applied across multiple sites
300+
Internal coaches, facilitators, and champions trained to lead the work independently after we step back
+28–35 pts
Improvement across team effectiveness measures: autonomy, alignment, collaboration, and voice equity

A selection of partners

PepsiCo
Chanel
Estee Lauder
Colgate-Palmolive
Bayer
Pernod Ricard
Genentech
McCain
Our Track Record
From four principles
to a movement.

The full story of how August turns leadership principles into everyday practice: the PepsiCo turnaround published by Harvard Business Review, a deep dive on how Colgate-Palmolive made F.E.E.D. the way 34,000 people work, and the McCain engagement now at 556+ practitioners.

New Ways of Working: An Impact Study
Proposed Collaboration Model
What this could look like
at Sodexo.

A proven, repeatable model for mobilizing high-performance, cross-functional teams against any priority, anywhere, in weeks.

The Roadmap · What We Do
From six behaviors to everyday execution.

A high-level collaboration model. We would scope the specifics together.

The six Sodexo leadership behaviors, the raw material for everything below

Client focused
Make faster decisions
Energizing people
Building teams
Delivering what matters
Better ways of working
Phase 1 · Foundational · Leaders & Culture
Phase 2 · Accelerating Growth Priorities
01
Build the shared playbook

With the NA leadership team, translate the six behaviors into prescriptive, day-to-day practices: what each one looks like in a meeting, a decision, a handoff.

02
Enroll leaders

Make the case for change with the NA leadership team and their minus-ones. Coach leaders in their own meetings and decisions to set a common tone.

03
Train the network

Certify internal ambassadors, facilitators, and coaches who carry the practices into every segment, building capability that compounds.

04
Activate growth priorities

As growth mandates gain clarity by segment and region, charter cross-functional teams against them. Leaders create the conditions; coaches keep the pace.

05
Embed in systems

Wire the behaviors into performance, incentives, and leadership development, so the way of working holds through leadership changes.

Expected Outcomes · What You Get
The results, stage by stage.

Written for operators: how this benefits you, and what you will see change.

Phase 1 · Foundational

A leadership team set up to lead the change

  • One integrated leadership team with a common tone, including the 11 leaders who joined since November
  • A prescriptive Sodexo playbook for the six behaviors: what to do, in which meeting, on which day
  • Faster decisions, with leaders letting go and teams clear on who decides what
  • A measured baseline, so the shift in leadership NPS and team effectiveness is visible to segment CEOs
Phase 2 · Accelerating Growth Priorities

A repeatable engine for delivering priorities

  • Growth priorities delivered in weeks by chartered, cross-functional teams
  • Efficiency gains that compound as the playbook scales across segments and regions
  • An internal network of facilitators and coaches that runs the work, owned by Sodexo
  • Behaviors wired into performance and incentives, so the change sticks through transitions
Next Steps
Looking forward
to building with you.

Next: a working session to shape Phase 1 around your priorities.