Pros
Incredibly fast paced, huge opportunity to develop your career if you're able to keep up with the ever changing goal posts & deliver the numbers. Great variation in locations & international opportunities available. At a local level, Management teams support each other well.
Cons
SSP is a very commercially focussed business with very clear direction from the board. Profit is the priority as expected but there is a ruthless approach to delivery. Decisions are often made at the top without a care for the people working on the front line - as a result, SSP sees a high level of disengaged colleagues, turnover & the quality of service offered to customers suffers as a result. There's very little to enjoy about making decisions which are having a detrimental impact on your direct reports, their teams & the perception of customers and clients. Operational processes at a senior level are very disjointed, overhead spend is incredibly tight and basic operational requirements are ignored unless there is a clear business case which demonstrates a return. In summary, the business is run using a retail model when the majority of what SSP do is catering & hospitality - it requires an element of investment in front line teams to engage them - these people look after the customer...
