The HR Community Podcast
27 August 2026
What Nobody Tells You About M&A: Kathy Woods, Head of HR, Seven Miles Coffee
Most business leaders think M&A success is decided in spreadsheets. We have seen the opposite: culture, compliance, and trust are usually where the deal either delivers or quietly collapses. We are joined by Kathy Woods, Head of People, Culture, and Impact at Seven Miles Coffee Company, to share what HR learns when hospitality brands scale fast, merge, and operate under private equity expectations.
Most business leaders think M&A success is decided in spreadsheets. We have seen the opposite: culture, compliance, and trust are usually where the deal either delivers or quietly collapses. We are joined by Kathy Woods, Head of People, Culture, and Impact at Seven Miles Coffee Company, to share what HR learns when hospitality brands scale fast, merge, and operate under private equity expectations.
We talk through the people risks that show up before and after the announcement, including culture fit, wage and award compliance in due diligence, and the messy reality of “merger” versus “acquisition”. Kathy explains what CEOs should ask before signing, how HR teams can reduce uncertainty to retain key talent, and why you need to invest time and effort up front if you want integration to stick.
From there, we get practical about employee engagement and retention in hospitality. Engagement is not a benefits campaign or endless surveys; it is leaders removing daily friction, fixing broken processes, and being honest when something cannot change. We also dig into commercial HR: understanding the business model, speaking P&L and EBITDA, and translating culture work into productivity, turnover reduction, and ROI. Finally, we look ahead at automation and AI in hospitality and why human connection may become the true differentiator as machines increase consistency.
If you care about HR leadership, hospitality workforce strategy, employee engagement, retention, and making growth actually work, subscribe, share this with a leader who owns a P&L, and leave a review so more people can find the show. What is the biggest people risk you see in M&A right now?
