The Leader Brew Podcast
The Leader Brew podcast features the leadership stories of our former students who share their lifelong experiences from the classroom to the real-world.
Join Dr. Rick Arrowood and Co-Hosts as they reignite the magic of the classroom in these unscripted discussions. Learn from remarkable guests about how they overcame some of life's most challenging obstacles and yet found a way to keep their passion alive.
The Leader Brew Podcast
Matthew Coccoluto's Evolution from Scenic Film Studies to AI Leader
Join Dr. Rick Arrowood for an engaging conversation with Matthew Coccoluto, a talented former student from Northeastern University D'Amore-McKim School of Business, as he shares his extraordinary transition from the stunning landscapes of Pepperdine University to the bustling tech scene in Boston. Matthew's journey is fascinating, as he recounts how the ocean views of Malibu seduced him during his film studies, yet ultimately his roots and the fast-paced rhythm of Boston beckoned him back. Listen as Matthew details how his foundation in project management during his graduate studies laid the groundwork for an unexpected opportunity at Uber, propelling him into the dynamic world of tech and operations management at ezCater.
We then shift gears to tackle the evolving role of AI in the workplace, with a focus on the digital food marketplace. Matthew and I explore how AI is reshaping decision-making and efficiency, enhancing tasks like SQL queries, while also maintaining the delicate balance of personal client relationships. Our discussion highlights the growing acceptance of AI in business schools, transitioning from strict bans to more structured frameworks. As technology advances, we ponder whether businesses are actively crafting AI policies or merely observing its impact. This episode is an insightful look into the intersection of tech, education, and the transformative power of AI.
Hello and welcome to another edition of the Leader Brew podcast. I am Dr Rick Gowerwood and I'm your host for today, and once again, I have such listen. I have such an amazing job because I get to meet students and then continue relationships with students well beyond the classroom, which has been absolutely one of the most exciting parts of teaching in my view. And today I'm joined by Matthew Coccoluto, and I promised I was going to really work on that last name. I think I came pretty close, so I want to welcome Matt to the show today and hope you're doing great, so welcome, Thank you so much.
Speaker 2:I'm so happy to be here. This is good, you know. Tell us a little bit a little bit about yourself.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean so I was one of your students at Northeastern Business School. That was the first session, so kind of the introduction to business school was through your class. But I mean, I grew up in the Boston area. I've lived here pretty much my whole life, but I did go to school, undergrad in California, went to Pepperdine, got a degree in film studies, worked in television for three years in LA after got homesick for Boston, moved back in 2014, spent most of my life most of my professional life now since then in some combination of tech, so either in operations management or customer success. I live in Medford with my wife. We got married earlier this year, so actually going on our honeymoon in a little bit at the end of the year. But yeah, so that's a little bit about me.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, Then there was this thing called graduate school as well.
Speaker 2:Yes, which I started in 2022. Yeah, wow.
Speaker 1:Time flies when you're having fun. Yeah, I guess so, I guess so. So I want to know what was it like going to Pepperdine and, as I recall, looking at the ocean. That's the one thing that I remember about Pepperdine being sort of on the side of a cliff in Malibu, overlooking the ocean.
Speaker 2:So I grew up in Stoneham, massachusetts, and I always had the idea that, like I'm going to go to campus school in an urban environment. I wanted either BU, northeastern I looked at like George Washington, nyu. I was really like I want urban center. And then it was my uncle who had spent some time in California. He's like you should look at Pepperdine. And when I applied I got in. We're like okay, let's go check it out and just that. First drive up to campus and you're looking at the cliffs and the ocean and everything and you're like this is not real, this is not where people should be going to college. It sold me immediately. I was like, yeah, I mean, this is, this is where I'm supposed to be. It's a big distraction having the beach so close and, but I love my time there and I wouldn't. I wouldn't change it for anything.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you know, I've always had this enormous desire to live as close to the edge as possible relative to geography Probably applies in my real life as well, and I would think that had I gone to a school like Pepperdine, in terms of its location, I think I would have been doing probably too much reflection. I think reflection is really great. St Ignatius teaches us that and the Jesuit following it is an important role. I think I probably would have gone a bit overboard. I'm not sure I would have gotten anything done, but I would have done quite a bit of reflecting.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean I won't say I was the most studious person in my undergraduate. I got by just fine, but I wasn't pushing the limits of my GPA, so I spent a lot of time just kind of enjoying the area and being next to the beach.
Speaker 1:That is, that is wonderful. So then, the transition back to Boston did you feel as though that was sort of bringing you back to your roots? That could, that tradition was being involved, sort of convention is there and is that really sort of what? What brought you back?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean that and it was mostly just family too. My brother was having his first kid or just had his first kid, so I wanted to be around. But definitely I think there was always this feeling of being an outsider. In LA I would purposely try to show up to things 20 minutes late and I'd still be the first person there. Or just like waiting for things in the coffee shop line and just how slow things moved would. It was like an itch inside of me that like I couldn't. I couldn't adjust to, like the pacing and yeah. So I think coming back to boston and getting readjusted to the city felt more of like this is my natural habitat and in in terms of your experience in in terms of the classroom.
Speaker 1:So after you left undergraduate, then you came back and started to work and then you went into graduate school.
Speaker 2:So it's actually kind of funny. When I moved back, I said I was going to do some graduate work and I actually started taking classes at Northeastern in the College of Professional Studies, focused on project management, and I had done some project work and a lot of television production is project work, so it's each individual episode is essentially its own project and then it's a deliverable you have to provide each week to get onto air. And I really wanted to make a pivot into a tech. So I was like, let me focus on the project side, because I've done it already in production and I think if I take some classes, I might be able to then adjust into like a tech environment. And so, yeah, I started doing graduate classes.
Speaker 2:I got two sessions through and I had started a temp job at Uber and they asked if I wanted to apply for a full-time role and this was the end of 2014. So I applied, I got it and basically part of that was like I could not do Uber and do grad school at the same time. Uber was still so hyper growth at that time. So, yeah, at the beginning of 2015, I decided to put grad school on hold so that I could focus full-time on career work, and that was a great decision because Uber taught me so much. Fast forward to 2021, starting to get that itch again of, okay, where's my career going, what do I need to do to kind of make the next step? And that's when business school started poking its head. I also had worked for so many people who got MBAs that I just started as like the logical next step and I suspect a lot of students experience what you experienced that needing to put grad school on hold.
Speaker 1:Right, because on the one hand you're there, you're in the field, you're really learning so much and Uber is a great example in terms of how it took off so quickly and it's hard to sort of give that up. But eventually you kind of wrestled with that decision. Was it something that sort of gnawed at you from the moment you made the decision okay, I'm going to put grad school on hold? Did the gnawing sort of begin there, like make sure you get to grad school.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think being so. Like I said, when I was especially at Uber, a lot of the people I worked for or were in some form of management role above me whether it was my manager or a general manager all the way up had business school experience and they talked so fondly about it and we would hire people coming from business school into roles high above me and I would see sort of them as like that's a benchmark of I need to measure myself up to like how do I get to that level? Well, clearly this, this grad school aspect plays into it and I think that was always a little thing in the back of my mind, like there's something there to get if you're getting a, getting a business degree definitely helps and maybe I should explore that, but not right now.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and that's, and it's, it's that timing also right, it's it's. We do have life that goes on around us, that you know we need to interact and engage with and deal with oftentimes, and then just sort of sort of making that decision. So now then, you've maintained working full-time and you did grad school over the past. Well, so has it been like three years now.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I'll be done basically at this time next week. So yeah, three years.
Speaker 1:How exciting, how exciting is that.
Speaker 2:It's crazy. It's the most surreal thing. I can't believe it's actually here. It just feels like it's been such a part of my life. Like I started this program I was at a different job, I was not even engaged yet. Here I am now going to be done. It's just a massive part of my life that has happened.
Speaker 1:That's fantastic. How did you find sort of the classroom experience, right? So this show has predominantly been from the classroom to the real world, right? So clearly in this case we've gone from the classroom to the real world, back to the classroom, but still within the real world. How do you see that Like? What's that experience like?
Speaker 2:within the real world. How do you see that? What's that experience like? Yeah, I mean, it really depends on the subject matter and the professor, but overall, I think that most of the time, especially being a part-time student and still working full-time, there's a lot of really great, just natural transitions you can take from almost immediately, where you're learning something in the classroom and you're you're like that. That actually resonates to me. I mean, I remember one class I was I was taking uh was negotiations, and that was just a phenomenal class overall.
Speaker 2:But there'll be times where we'd be discussing something in class and talking about strategies, about convincing somebody to see your point of view or how to uh adjust to people who may be coming at you with a hostile attitude versus not, and I just remember thinking like, oh, this is good stuff.
Speaker 2:I need to write down this.
Speaker 2:I need to start drafting an email right now, because I have this issue that I'm dealing with, where I am dealing with someone who's hostile and they don't want to listen to me, and this is a great tactic that I could use to de-arm them and make this so that we have a productive conversation. So there were definitely times where I was like I'm going to use this right now, like immediately. And then there are other things where I just look back on some of them and I'm like that was it wasn't the immediate, oh yeah, I can use this right now. But upon practice and upon like review and reflection, like, oh wait, I did pick up something that I'm now applying in my job. So, like overall, I actually really really found a lot. I found a lot of value to it. But I also really encouraged was really encouraged by the way that the part-time program itself directly interacted with my day-to-day, because I had the ability to then apply the learnings without having to wait two years, get a new job and then apply them.
Speaker 1:You know that's. I do think that's exactly one of the beauties of grad school. I don't necessarily think you get it in undergraduate, just perhaps a little bit. But it's really grad school that brings that learning alive and puts it into that real world experiential aspects In your day-to-day work, how much of it is task oriented and how much is it people oriented.
Speaker 2:That's a great question. I think it's close to so. I work in partner success, which is just another way of saying customer success. So the people side of it plays a massive part, because it really is all about relationships. So at least half my job is really just how do I make sure the people I'm interacting with and the people that I've built a relationship with are happy and feeling heard, whether I work for a digital food marketplace and I work with large restaurant brands, so regardless of what the issue is whether it's good or bad I want to make sure that they are feeling like they have a true partner with me. So people overall just makes up such a massive part of my job, and then the other half is really just tasks getting things done?
Speaker 1:And where do you see artificial intelligence, large learning machines, robots coming in in terms of your industry and perhaps in your workplace?
Speaker 2:Yeah, so my company, which is Easy Cater, has done a lot of work around integrating AI early on, especially around just like food. In general, people tend to be a little indecisive and the types of orders we see are all large orders. You're ordering for 10, 15, 20 people even more. Sometimes these are people in office spaces. That adds a lot of pressure of like, am I considering all the things of like dietary restrictions? Is this food going to be popular? If you're ordering for, say like, c-suite level management, is this going to make me look good? Is it going to make me look bad?
Speaker 2:And there's an aspect of, well, what should I be ordering?
Speaker 2:That we've actually really leaned into and using AI to kind of generate those ideas Like well, tell us what you're ordering for, like, who's involved, tell us a little bit more, and then we'll actually spit out ideas of like okay, well, this food plays really well, here's how much of this you should be ordering.
Speaker 2:Beyond that, in my day-to-day, I really like using it as sort of just a tool to enhance my abilities. I have to provide a lot of my restaurant groups with data around how they're performing and analysis around where they could do better, and it really helps to just have a tool that I can say like okay, what are some of the key takeaways that you would see in this? I'm struggling to understand opportunity areas in this Metro and it just really helps to enhance. And beyond that, just like the simple things that I would have to Google search before, so like Excel, formulas, sql, and I'm like before I'd be like, oh, how do I do a case, when Now I'm like I want to do this, what do I need to add? What do I need to put in my select clause, my from clause, my where clause, to get it to spit out and it'll populate a whole formula for me to just copy and paste, which is really, really fast.
Speaker 1:Which is really really incredible, right? How do you find co-workers in terms of their hesitation or resistance, or our general acceptance of AI?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think there's still a lot of trepidation amongst some of us who are really in that relationship first position, because so much of what we do is supposed to be around being like that warm, friendly face and if you're leaving things to AI or any sort of automated system, there's a concern that you're kind of removing that friendliness to it from it. I think I consider myself a more like moderately adjusting person who has seized value in it, but I'm not diving all the way in yet. I'm not necessarily trying to automate every aspect of my day-to-day or trying to lean on AI on every aspect. I'm not having AI write all my emails and things like that. I'm definitely still putting together a lot of my own personal touches into things, but as it gets better too, I probably will see myself leaning more heavily on it to draft my emails and, when it gets better, making it sound like me.
Speaker 1:Overall, I think there's still a little bit of hesitation, especially around that people-to-people interaction and making it as friendly and warm as possible Do you think that business schools ought to incorporate more AI tools within the classroom and therefore give students an opportunity to sort of experiment in the academic laboratory sort of setting?
Speaker 2:Yeah, Absolutely I don't. I don't think we all know that this isn't going away. It's becoming more and more a part of our day to day. So what better way than having it in the classroom where you can, like you said, experiment? I think it's funny. I've already seen a little bit of the shift from maybe a year ago where you know you look at the syllabus of the class and it just says like, please know, like using chat, gpt or any any AI, to now my last class being like there are frameworks in which you can use chat, gpt, and here's how I encourage that and it's like it's obviously. It's not don't write your whole paper, that don't have it. Write your whole paper, but you can lean on it as a source and as long as you say like I used AI or chat, gpt, uh, to work on this, it's okay. And so that was already. We're seeing, I was already. I was interested to see that because I'm like that's the first, because I had not seen that previously and so it was kind of cool.
Speaker 1:So that's interesting. You know, as you were saying that, I was thinking to myself, certainly from the higher education standpoint. You know we kind of went into that no, you cannot use it to sort of the other extreme. Some of us were like, yeah, give it a try, see what happens. And then we've kind of come back to sort of the middle, as you say, the frameworks. If you use it. This is how you use it within this particular area In terms of the workplace. Did your organization go about sort of putting those policies out, or is it just been kind of a wait and see?
Speaker 2:So early on, there was a little bit of a hey, this is all very exciting, but we need to implement policies that make sure we're utilizing it in the right manner, mostly being we need to make sure we're protecting our data and not using tools that may lead to our proprietary data getting out there. So there was some concerns early on, very briefly, as they worked with the various partners that are out there to figure out a system that would work for us. So we do use Glean as our sort of like AI tool and we basically now have free reign to use it as we need. And we use, obviously, ai companion with our Zoom calls and Slack, and they're pretty much everywhere. All of our tools have some AI component where we can lean on it, for, like I said, either it's analysis, it's drafting emails, it's creating workflows. So, yeah, we definitely embrace it. And then, furthermore, we've done the customer side, where there's actually AI tools being used to help draft orders or improve the support experience. We've been doing that a lot with that too.
Speaker 1:Yeah, with this whole notion of really doing good overall for the organization, I want to go back to this notion of grad school and sort of putting grad school on hold. If someone's out there and they're thinking about grad school, what advice would you give them?
Speaker 2:So the best, I think, piece of advice that I got when I was thinking about it first was what is actually going to happen if I get this degree.
Speaker 2:Like am I going to learn? Am I at a place right now where I need this learning to further myself? Or, flip side, is my job fulfilling enough and creating enough of an opportunity for me to learn and grow that all I'd be doing was just wasting, you know, expanding my time, stretching myself too thin so that I'm now doing a worse, doing a poorer job on the day to day, and then also now stretching myself in grad school. And now I'm in my mid 30s and I will say I wish I had gone to grad school a little bit earlier, because I do feel like I'm on the older side for some of the grad classes. But, that being said, there were very few times where I would have wanted to walk away from my job or take time away from it because I was learning so much. So I think once you're not learning on the job or you're stalling or feeling like you're stuck, then that's probably a good idea, that maybe something needs to change and that probably could be, or most likely could be, going to grad school.
Speaker 1:But possibly have some clarity as well. Like why yes, just to go back, just to get the degree, to say I'll have the degree, is only going to get you so far, right.
Speaker 2:Exactly, and it also helps with what environment you're in. So Uber was not one for sharing responsibility with the grad program, so you weren't encouraged to go to grad school. If you're going to go to grad school, that meant you're going to quit your job and go forth. But then I worked at Wayfair and that was a completely different environment where being in grad school was seen as a positive thing. It was seen as something that meant you were taking ownership of your career. It was seen as an opportunity to grow within the organization that it would help you learn things you needed to do to become, you know, a senior manager or director, ad. So that was that was actually what I was at Wayfair when I started having these conversations again, started picking it back up and it was my manager. He said he was going through it and he said why have you thought about it? Because you clearly want to grow and learn and become a bigger, better leader, so why not go to grad school?
Speaker 1:Fantastic, I think that's it. Why not right? Why not just know the why? I think that's key. Well, one of the things that we like to ask on the Leaderproof podcast is what would you tell that eight-year-old self about what's ahead?
Speaker 2:Oh man, I mean, at first I would probably say that you have some really, really awesome times ahead of you, that things are going to get really, really good, that there are going to be a lot of stresses in your life and you'll have to deal with them, but overall there's a lot of things to look forward to, and so just enjoy them and just be ready and live those moments, because once those moments are gone, you don't get them back.
Speaker 1:Take the author up on the school that has the ocean view, if for a little while. Exactly yes, the decisions don't have to be permanent right nope, and that's the other.
Speaker 2:I think that's another aspect, like don't be afraid to fail. Um, you know, it's just, there will be bumps in the road and there'll be, you know. I think especially like looking at career and career trajectory and where I thought I was when I was 21, 22, 22, entering the workforce, thinking, you know, I can do whatever I'm going to be, I'm going to be a big time TV producer, and three years later I wasn't even working in television anymore and then it was I'm going to, you know, make it make be a massive force in tech in Boston. And you know that's still TBD, because here I am 10 years after that and still chugging along and trying to make my own path. So yeah, like there are ups and downs and you just kind of have to roll with them.
Speaker 1:But the idea of like where you're going to be at one point will probably shift and change drastically, and that's okay, I think that's the key, and I think one of the things that strikes me about you is that you want to be the best at whatever you're doing. It's that constant critique and that constant questioning Do I need this? If so, why do I need it? There's got to be a logic there to some extent, but I think that's one of the core values that really has guided you up until this point, and I can only imagine what's ahead.
Speaker 2:Like I said, I'm so excited to be done with the program, not because it's the end of the road and I'm now going to have all this free time, but also it's like what can I do now that I've had this education?
Speaker 2:And now that it's behind me, I get to actually fully implement it? And not that I've had this education and now that it's behind me, like I get to actually fully implement it. And not that I'm encouraging people to always like work really late, but there have been days where I'm like, oh, I really wish I could stay a little later because I have, like, on a roll, I'm getting things done and I'm like, oh, I got to go to class, right, and those will be those. There'll be those days where I'm like I'm going to be able to get some really awesome stuff done now because I don't have to worry about going to class. Also, it's going to mean that I'm going to have more free time, like I said, so I get to do things that I've been putting off and maybe go out on a Tuesday night with my wife because we haven't been able to do that.
Speaker 1:Yeah, maybe there's an answer right the competing priorities will certainly change over the course of time. Competing priorities will certainly change over the course of time, but I suspect you're going to get right back at doing something that's going to be time-consuming once again. Yes, I'm very much planning. That that's fantastic. All right, Matt, thank you so much for being on the show today. We really appreciate it and wish you all the best ahead.
Speaker 2:Thank you, dr Erwin. It was a pleasure, and it's always great talking with you, so I appreciate it.
Speaker 1:Thank you all very much for joining us on yet another exciting episode of the Leader Group podcast. We want to thank Northeastern University, swinburne University, the Solotron Group and, of course, jared Zamarowski, who does all of our audio and makes us look and sound great. Thank you all, have a great day. Thank you.
