If you ask Bill Williamson, he says he just kind of fell into restaurant management with us. He’d devoted his more than 40-year career to the grocery business and when he was ready to walk away from that, well, it appears he was just in the right place at the right time!
“It’s been a great ride.”
-Bill Williamson, KFC RGM
Bill shares that he met KFC Regional Director Greg Jackson and another Desert de Oro Foods (DDO) associate, and overheard them talking about opening more restaurants and needing managers. At the time, he wasn’t sure what he wanted to do next, but it also wasn’t quite time to retire. Both encouraged him to consider DDO.
“And here I am,” he says. Bill has been a Restaurant General Manager (RGM) for one of our KFCs for three years now.
A Warm Welcome
“Everybody is so nice in this company,” Bill shares with genuine enthusiasm and warmth. “That’s the one thing that really attracted me to [DDO].”
Bill doesn’t just say DDO people are “so nice” once or twice, it’s repeated several times throughout his interview. Why? Because just a few years in, the guy is still in disbelief! To Bill, DDO is an outlier with its culture of kindness that permeates from top to bottom.
To get his point across, he shares a story from his first couple of weeks on the job.
“I was in training to be a general manager, and [I] get invited to come to the Christmas party,” he begins. “And I’m like … this is for managers and I’m not really managing.” But he’s persuaded to attend the party anyway.
When Bill shows up to the event, he says, Greg finds him, takes him through the buffet line and personally invites him to sit at his table. Afterward, he takes Bill around to meet various managers and coaches, and introduces him to company owners.
“I’m brand new — I’m nobody, no one knows me,” Bill says.. “And the thing is, everybody is so nice and inviting, from the very first person he introduced me to.”
That’s because at DDO, we’re serious about managerial success. A big part of that is achieved through having leadership that’s approachable and accessible. “They’ll drop everything they’re doing to give you a hand,” Bill says. “Everybody is ready to take care of everybody else. I’m still in awe of it.”
Bill talks about the overall vibe here. “It just trickles down from everybody being in a good mood … being happy, taking care of business … we work together like a family.”
What Bill has noticed with other companies, he says, is that you get to know who they are through their materials and what they tell you.
“Here … you experience it, you feel it, you know it,” he shares proudly.
Managing Careers
According to Bill, it’s been a pretty awesome experience with DDO so far. So what’s next for him?
He says he’d be interested in moving around, however, his personal situation is limiting right now. He’s a caregiver to his 97-year-old mom and 95-year-old aunt, so he’s unable to transfer or consider other opportunities at the moment.
“But this job is great because I have the opportunity to take care of them,” he says, expressing gratitude. “I have the flexibility … and I have the support.”
As for his team, he says “I always tell everybody, if you want to move up, this is the company to move up in.” Bill takes his role as a purveyor of career development information seriously. “That’s mainly my job as a manager: knowledge, resources.”
But you can’t move up, if you don’t apply! Check out our current job openings.