Session Recap: Red Carpet Ambition: Key Takeaways from Fabio Raffone at Field Service Palm Springs 2025
At Field Service Palm Springs 2025, industry leaders gathered to address the fast-evolving challenges in service operations. In his keynote, Fabio Raffone, VP Service Operation Americas at Tetra Pak, shared how the company tackled high engineering turnover, cultivated trust, and built a service culture where technical and soft skills shine. This session resonated powerfully with leaders seeking practical leadership models and sustainable growth across service industries.
Key Takeaways
1. Turnover Reduction Demands Strategic Investment
Reducing engineering turnover remains a central challenge in field service. Tetra Pak faced a 10% rate and responded by investing heavily—up to a quarter of a million dollars per engineer—to develop talent. Over three years, targeted leadership approaches brought turnover down to 3.4% by aligning individual ambitions with company purpose, illustrating how long-term investment is vital for stability.
2. Trust is the Foundation for Team Engagement
Building a culture of trust is essential to team performance. Raffone measures trust by how often team members challenge his decisions, indicating psychological safety and growth. When employees feel empowered to voice disagreements, organizations make better decisions and foster retention, reflecting a broader trend toward open, collaborative leadership within technical environments.
3. Purpose and Ambition Inspire Retention
Articulating a compelling purpose—to make food safe and available everywhere—anchors Tetra Pak’s value proposition and sets expectations for service engineers. By pursuing a “red carpet ambition,” teams are encouraged to exceed technical performance, communicate effectively, and embody company values with every customer engagement. This clarity attracts like-minded talent and strengthens retention as employees see their work’s broader impact.
4. Career Development Drives Satisfaction
Career progression at Tetra Pak includes a multi-tiered advancement system and ongoing investment—up to 15% of every team member’s time into competence development. Transparent career paths and programs such as mentoring, international rotation, and leadership acceleration increase team engagement. These initiatives mirror wider industry moves to offer learning and growth as tools to combat turnover.
5. Recognition and Wellbeing Enhance Performance
Ongoing recognition and wellbeing programs are woven into company culture. The “Bravo” and “Bravissimo” initiatives offer both peer and managerial accolades, while specialized support lines and clubs for women promote inclusivity and emotional wellbeing. Leaders who celebrate milestones and foster open dialogue see rising engagement and attendance rates—a clear signal that consistent recognition drives service excellence.
In Their Words
What our engineers know is that when they're visiting one of the customers, they need to be so good that they can deserve to have a red carpet roll out by the customer next time they're visiting.
— Fabio Raffone, VP Service Operation Americas, Tetra Pak
Why It Matters
Field service leaders face tremendous pressure to retain top talent, adapt to rapid change, and demonstrate clear ROI on development initiatives. Raffone’s approach at Tetra Pak connects individual purpose, strategic investment, and belief in open communication to tangible reductions in turnover and sustainable team growth. By prioritizing trust, transparent career paths, and recognition, this model provides a roadmap for others navigating talent, operational complexity, and culture shifts in engineering-heavy industries.
Actionable Insights
- Invest in leadership development for all levels of service teams.
- Build a culture where trust and open communication thrive.
- Integrate purpose-driven messaging to inspire and retain employees.
- Celebrate achievements and support wellbeing—make recognition routine.
Go Beyond the Blog
Want more insights from Field Service Palm Springs 2025? Explore the full agenda or check out additional articles to stay ahead in the field service industry.
Full Session Transcript
Fabio Raffone, VP Service Operation Americas, Tetra Pak:
Thank you, Thomas. So, once upon a time, we had a problem. It’s quite a generic statement. I need to clarify at least three things. What do we mean by “once upon a time”? Everything is moving so fast. So, three years ago. What do I mean by “we”? Tetra Pak, the company I work for. What do I mean by “we had a problem”? Our problem was turnover, our engineers leaving the company, which, by talking to some of you, is a shared problem.
Before we get into what we have done in our journey, I want to ask you: what’s your turnover rate, and how much does it cost for you to develop a new engineer from technical school? In our case, the cost is a quarter of a million per person. That’s significant. Only in the Americas, the region I’m responsible for, my team is more than 700 people, mostly engineers. Ten percent turnover meant needing to hire almost a hundred people every year—half for growth, half just to fill departures.
Developing engineers takes two years. We’re pleased that now, after three years of focused efforts, we’ve dropped turnover to 3.4%. My team’s average tenure is 11 years, partially due to strong internal promotions. Many start as service engineers and build their careers within our company.
Why do we need to invest so much? Tetra Pak isn’t just about juice boxes; we are a full system supplier. Our machines are highly advanced, with more than 8,000 patents. Some equipment produces 40,000 packages per hour—11 packages per second. We supply cheese and powder equipment, manufacturing lines for major global brands, and even produce half the world’s ice cream. That’s why competence development matters—our customers expect expertise.
To reduce turnover, you need to engage your team and build trust—it’s easy to say, harder to make real. How do you measure trust in an organization? My personal KPI is how many times someone on my team challenges my decisions. The more this happens, the healthier the trust.
Today, I’m sharing three things: what we’ve done on purpose and ambition, on developing people, and our approach to recognition and work-life balance. Our purpose at Tetra Pak is to make food safe and available everywhere. Protecting people, food, and the planet is core to our identity, and this resonates with younger generations and potential hires.
We translated our ambition into something practical—what we call “red carpet ambition.” Service engineers are reminded that every visit should be so good the customer would roll out a red carpet for them the next time. This message changed behaviors; it’s not only technical skills but also communication and attitude at the customer’s site that make the difference.
Recruiting for shared values is critical. People who share our values stay longer, perform better, and contribute more. We publicize this on platforms like LinkedIn so potential hires know what we stand for.
Development is also central. On average, we invest 15% of every team member’s time in competence development each year. That represents real costs—but it’s an investment in quality and retention. Team members have transparent career paths, with up to ten levels for service engineers, opportunities to move into specialist or other corporate roles, and regular mentoring and global rotations.
For high-potential individuals, we offer leadership acceleration, mentoring, international projects, and more. Recognition, too, drives culture. Peer and managerial awards ("Bravo" and "Bravissimo"), personalized milestones, and wellbeing initiatives—such as 24/7 support lines and targeted campaigns—help people feel valued.
Work-life balance is also essential, especially with extensive international travel. We openly encourage vocalizing problems: “It’s okay not to be okay,” and support networks are available. We also emphasize diversity and advancement—our “Elevate Her” club supports women into leadership roles.
In conclusion, every organization and leader has power. When we help our teams develop informal leadership, competence, and networks, we multiply that power. If people challenge decisions, it sharpens our organization. If they increase their expertise, they build power. Most importantly, we look after our people first, as we believe happy, empowered employees take the best care of clients—and that’s how we live up to the red carpet ambition.
Thank you.