Hello and welcome to another edition of State of Readiness. I am your host Joseph Paris.

My guest today is Innocent Hadebe, Director of Business Excellence for Chick-fil-A Corporate.  I met Innocent like a meet a great many people and that would be through LinkedIn.  Of course my initial attraction to Innocent was that we were like minded professionals pursuing Operational Excellence.

But it was not until we met face to face in Orlando at an Operational Excellence conference where I was able to really understand Innocent and his story; which was fascinating. 

Innocent was born and raised in Zimbabwe from a family with limited means; extremely limited by Western standards.  I won't share Innocent’s journey in this text but rather I would have you listen to it first person in this inspiring interview.

However, I will say that Innocent debunks the idea that the American dream is dead.  He proves that anybody who has a dream of their future self, remains laser focused on realizing that dream, works hard plays by the rules, can persevere and achieve anything they set out to achieve.

In addition to Innocent’s responsibilities at Chick-fil-A, he also started founded the Lot Water Project which is a 501.c3 Not For Profit organization dedicated to bringing clean potable water to remote villages in Zimbabwe.  The details for the Lot Water Project can be found here; https://thelotwaterproject.org/

Be sure to listen to the bonus track just after the outro.

LinkedIn Profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/innocent-hadebe-mba-pmp-six-sigma-black-belt-25349388/
Company: Chick-fil-A
Title: Director of Business Excellence
Year Founded: 1946
Company Type: Privately held American fast food restaurant chain.  With almost 3,000 restaurants, it is and the largest chain specializing in chicken sandwiches.

Company: Lot Water Project
Title: Founder
Year Founded: 2020
Company Type: A recognized not-for-profit (501.c3) organization that is passionate and committed to bringing safe drinking water to communities across the continent of Africa.