July 12, 2023 0 comment

FoodGrads Podcast Episode 72: Taking Your Food Product Development Career to the Next Level with Sheila Jones PMP – Business Consultant, Coach and Owner of Whicked Results

Last Updated on January 23, 2024

Sheila Jones PMP is a Business Consultant, Coach and owner of Whicked Results. Their focus is on growing business and people using a deep knowledge of innovation, manufacturing, quality systems, and sales. Sheila started her career as a chef and eventually transitioned into becoming a food scientist. She has worked for big names like Nestle’, Campbells Soup, Walmart, and Savencia Fromage and Dairy. At Walmart she developed strategies to grow their business, resolve global supply chain problems, reduce operational challenges, and drove billions in profits.

Table of Contents

Shownotes

Timestamps

[2:32] What Sheila Jones does

[5:57] Key roles Sheila has done in here career including chef and product developer

[11:14] What made Sheila want to move up in leadership roles

[14:24] How to develop and identify the skills you need in leadership roles

[20:57] What new product developers should do to move up the ranks

[27:24] Learning the roles that other people do around a company

[37:56] How to present yourself when you love a product and believe it should move forward

[50:40] If Sheila ever had to reel in her curiosity because it would be to her detriment

[53:03] Advice Sheila would give to students and new graduates looking to be successful in their careers

Links

Whicked Results

Center for Teacher Effectiveness / Time to Teach

Sheila Jones Quotes

Be intentional about your commitment to your job. Learn your products extremely well. Learn the technology that’s behind those products. Spend time in the grocery stores if that’s where your product is going to land. Learn your competition. Watch what’s coming into the market. Watch what’s leaving the market.

–Sheila Jones

So the way that I look at it’s like a three-legged stool. There’s a technical aspect. There’s the people process management piece and then the business part of it.

–Sheila Jones

Your career while you’re in college and what does that look like? It looks like stepping stone. It looks like being part of your industry even while you’re in college. Like start laying the stones in college. Get to know the industry. Do informational interviews with people that are in the industry. Seek information from those people so that your input is broader.

–Sheila Jones

So I always say to people like, we product developers have to be extremely resilient. I don’t think there’s any other department. There probably is, but maybe I’m just looking at it from the product developer side where all of your work is dissected, intentionally dissected.

–Sheila Jones

I am one of those people that just everything is intriguing to me. Everything. It’s like how this works? How that works? You know?

–Sheila Jones

Sponsors

This episode of the podcast is supported by CareersNow! CareersNow! is Food and Beverage Ontario’s multi-year workforce development initiative that is connecting students and job seekers with employers in Ontario’s food and beverage processing industry for exciting career opportunities. Check out CareersNow.ca for more information on exciting jobs, career information, industry mentors and training opportunities for professional development.

This episode of the podcast is brought to you by our Education Partner George Brown College. The George Brown College Centre for Hospitality and Culinary Arts is set in downtown Toronto – the largest, most vibrant hospitality city in Canada, and located just steps away from the city’s top restaurants, bars, hotels and event venues. You’ll be trained by professors who work in the industry; they will teach you the essential skills required to succeed and help you build a network of industry professionals. Gain real-world experience in our fully functioning restaurant, The Chefs’ House, where you will have the chance to interact with customers in real life work situations.