Executive Vice President of Operations, Unifirst
Search every verified David Difillippo interview, podcast appearance, and on-the-record quote — each transcript cross-checked by AI and human review to confirm speaker identity. David DeFilippo, Executive Vice President of Operations at Unifirst, delivered a keynote at HCI's 2016 Learning and Leadership Development Conference. He discussed Suffolk's business strategies of innovation, community, and people, noting that the company uses lean construction processes and digital tools. DeFilippo described the Scholar Athletes Program, a nonprofit run by Suffolk that teaches study skills to students. He stated that the company's people strategy focuses on diversification, scaling, and sustaining operations to ensure consistent experiences across locations. DeFilippo emphasized that talent is the key differentiator in construction, and that Suffolk organizes its workforce using a leadership pipeline model. He highlighted the Career Start program, which recruits liberal arts graduates and places them in three rotations to develop leadership skills, including a rotation with CEO John Fish. DeFilippo also mentioned a safety initiative called Incident Injury-Free, aimed at ensuring all workers, including subcontractors, go home safely. He described learning and talent development at Suffolk as being based on science, with technology serving as an enabler.
“Suffolk runs its business really through three strategies: innovation, community, and people. Innovation means running projects through lean construction processes to be as efficient as possible, using digital tools like iPads and virtual construction design to avoid costly conflicts before building begins.”
“We are very present in the communities in which we work and live all over the country. One example is a nonprofit we run called the Scholar Athletes Program, which teaches study skills to students aspiring to go to college and enter the workforce.”
“Our people strategy focuses on diversification, scaling, and sustaining what we do. We want the experience we deliver in Boston to be the same in San Francisco, the Southeast, and across the country.”
“Building a building is a commodity business, so the single biggest differentiator is our talent. Our talent must be very well-trained and engaged to do things efficiently and effectively.”
“We organize our talent based on the leadership pipeline model, segmenting about 70% of our workforce as operations folks and 30% as non-operations people like myself who support building buildings.”
“Our Career Start program recruits non-technical liberal arts graduates and puts them through three rotations to teach them critical capabilities. It's a 10-year bet on their potential to become future leaders.”
“Our chairman and CEO, John Fish, has a Career Start participant do a rotation with him each year to learn what it's like to be a CEO, accelerating their career development.”
“Everything we do in learning and talent at Suffolk is based on science, not just technology. Technology is an enabler, but the science of instructional design is the answer to structuring talent and learning solutions effectively.”
“We believe that having talent ready to fill positions up and down the talent segment chart is a critical capability for us to grow and diversify, ensuring good cash flow during counter-cyclical events.”
“We are in the middle of a safety transformation called Incident Injury-Free, focusing on caring about people and ensuring everyone goes home safely every night, including subcontractors.”
... caught my body language kind of wonder what was going on and he said he said David every year I have a career start join me ...
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