Celebrating Bacardi - 25 years on

In 2025 Ses Ardabili looked back to early in his career when he played a major role in the Rapid Mass Engagement at Bacardi.

“Frank and I first crossed paths when he was hired as a consultant for Bacardi at the Southampton bottling facility. He facilitated an employee-led engagement and transformation program that touched every aspect of the site’s culture — and the results were extraordinary.

Looking back, I still can’t quite believe the amazing things we achieved, and how fortunate I was to be part of it. There were dozens of standout accomplishments in just a few short months, but one that always stays with me is the ‘Job Evaluation’ project. A group of employee representatives (myself included) came together to completely rewrite and regrade all non-managerial roles on site.

Our goal was to make a real difference for the lowest-paid employees — and one of the toughest, yet proudest, decisions we made was to freeze the pay of the highest earners, including some of us in that very room.

It was an inspiring example of what genuine employee ownership and shared purpose can achieve. Even more meaningful is the long-term impact — many of us from that time remain close and still catch up whenever we can. It truly was a life-changing experience.”