Business
Female Leadership and Resilience in Food Service
Flávia Roma details the challenges of leading marketing in a male-dominated sector and the importance of mastering operations.
In a conversation on Marketing - The Podcast, Flávia Roma explains how she applies endurance sports discipline to leadership in the bar and entertainment industry. She highlights the need to thoroughly understand day-to-day operations to ground strategic decisions.
Flávia Roma, marketing manager at Grupo Bario Bar, spoke in an interview with Bruno Gimenes on Marketing - The Podcast about the challenges of leading in a predominantly male market and applying athletic resilience to managing food and entertainment businesses.
The excerpt is part of a broader conversation on brand and hospitality strategies, available in the video above. In the interview, Roma explains how her experience in endurance sports shaped her leadership approach and decision-making within the food service industry.
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Female leadership in a male-dominated environment
When analyzing workplace dynamics in the bar and gaming entertainment segment, Roma points out that female representation in executive roles remains a minority. This reality demands consistently building solid arguments and demonstrating technical clarity before greenlighting any marketing initiative.
"I work in an environment that I'd say is 98% male: food service. Food service is very male-dominated, and in my specific niche of bars and entertainment, it is even more so. So there is immense pressure because of the position I hold. There is huge pressure simply because I am a woman speaking," Roma says.
To overcome resistance and align her team, she takes an educational, collaborative approach when presenting plans: "Because I'm in a hyper-masculine environment, I have to explain, 'Look, this is the concept, this is the strategy, this is why.' So I have to build something together with everyone, just like in running—running is a step-by-step build."
Resilience and learning from uncontrollable variables
Athletics also taught Roma how to handle setbacks and recalculate plans on the fly. Recounting a race in Porto Alegre where she missed her target time, she draws a direct parallel to unexpected disruptions in corporate routine.
"Life is a marathon where you plan, organize, work, train, and study, but when you get there, things won't go exactly as you want because there are millions of variables. There are millions of variables, both at work and in your personal life, that change the course of things, and you have to be resilient enough to say: 'Alright, I fell, I got back up,'" she notes.
Curiosity and mastering hands-on operations
For Roma, leading marketing teams requires understanding how the business functions on the ground, from technical maintenance to the restaurant floor. She makes a point of shadowing arcade machine repairs and learning the division of labor between servers, runners, and kitchen staff.
"Because I operate on the principle that if I lead a team, how can I order or ask them to do something I don't know how to do? How can I hold them accountable if I don't know how to do it myself? So, I want to learn," Roma explains, emphasizing that this mindset prevents unrealistic deadlines and demands.
Market pioneering and social impact
Regarding competition and idea replication across the sector, Roma takes a pragmatic view: she values creative trailblazing and considers imitation a sign of strategic success, provided it is adapted to each brand's context.
"It's great that they copied me—it means my idea was brilliant. Go ahead and copy it, because I believe there is room for everyone in the market. The sun shines on everyone," says Roma, who also highlighted social initiatives by citing the vocational training conducted by the NGO Orienta Vida.
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