onnected with the COO to learn more about his journey with the quick service restaurant chain and his advice to budding young entrepreneurs.  Inside Retail: How did you get your start with KFC? Rob Swain: I joined in 2009 after the height of the crash and right after I’d gotten an MBA.  I decided to do something different with my life, so I ended up going through five interviews to join the KFC team.  [At the time] there were three things on my mind.  I wanted to work for an organization that had opportunities for global scaling. I also wanted to work in a customer-facing organization with a company that had a really good culture. So when the opportunity came up, and I was lucky enough to get the role, I grabbed it and ended up working in a variety of business units, both in the UK and other various parts of Europe.  IR: How do you think your previous experience within the company aids you in your current role? RS: One is that I have spent a fair bit of time thinking about where we’re going from an operations and a global point of view. Like, what is the value we’re trying to create? Where are we headed in the next three to five years at the same time? What effort is going to be required to get there?  I think that [insight] really helps, especially when you’re talking to franchisees. While we’ve got incredible franchisees around the world, it genuinely helps when you want to talk to a franchisee and say, “I get it. I’ve also run a KFC restaurant before.” The key bit is that it helps to have walked in somebody else’s shoes, to have that empathy and ability to relate. My first actual job in hospitality was cleaning toilets. IR: What are the biggest challenges you’re facing right now as a COO, and how are you planning to try to tackle them?  RS: The way to think about brands at this scale and complexity is that once you’ve really decided what you’re doing and you have gotten some momentum, the brands are incredible.  One of the challenges is just maintaining the pure scale and complexity and really just getting people focused on the right challenges overall. While there is a huge amount of change and disruption occurring globally, be it social, political or so on, it’s determining from a focused point of view what not to do.  Whether it’s in a particular zip code, area, or even globally, it’s exactly the same.  It’s important to determine the most important things that are really going to make the biggest difference in helping the brand to grow and having the courage to prioritize relentlessly.   IR: These days, it’s very rare for somebody to stay with the same company for 16 years. What is it about KFC that’s driven this long-term passion for the brand? RS: One element, as I mentioned earlier, is opportunity. There are so many roles within KFC and it is completely normal for someone to move across different functions.  While I started my career purely in operations, I’ve been able to broaden out and have run functional roles in areas such as supply chain and quality assurance, which has led to a lot of role-based development. The other thing is that people really care about you as a person. There are a lot of people who want you to be successful, so I have had countless mentors coach me through personal and professional development.  I also love the culture at KFC. It’s an honest, authentic, heart-led and high-performing company and I am just able to show up as myself completely and I really appreciate that.  IR: With such a high-powered role, how do you maintain a work-life balance? RS: An important question: how do you fit it all in? My wife, who has her own brilliant career to balance, and I have three children and three dogs, so there are a couple of ways I try to maintain balance. One is by always appreciating that this is a marathon, not a sprint, and that you’re in this for the long term.  Second is making sure that you’re filling your proverbial cup with things that give you joy in life, which can be anything. For example, I like to go to the gym, but I also love walking the dogs.  I always look at my calendar and try to work out if I have a good balance and if I am filling my proverbial cup.  I also do a lot of mentoring as well and talk to leaders who are coming through to remind them to maintain that balance.  IR: Speaking of mentorship, what ​​piece of advice would you give to entrepreneurs who are hoping climb up the corporate ladder to be in your shoes one day?  RS: One way to look at it is from the KFC point of view, which is that everybody owns their own career.  To put it this way, you’re driving your own bus, while, proverbially speaking, the organization is sitting in the passenger seat.  So while we’re with you all the way through, I advise people all the time to own their own path if they want to do something different. I talk to a lot of people about imposter syndrome, which comes up a lot because many people feel like they aren’t good enough.  A large part of the conversations with people comes from me asking them where that struggle to see themselves in the same light that other people see them come from. Then I help them figure out effective coping mechanisms and strategies to help overcome that and give them the confidence to push ahead.  IR: This might be the most difficult question of them all, but what is your current favorite item on the KFC menu? RS: That’s not difficult at all! My personal favorite product is a spicy filet called the Zinger with cheese and a Pepsi Max.