11. What We Learned
• Real Estate and Site Selection
• Drive thru
• Process & Systems (Speed & Efficiency)
• People Development (University, Succession)
12. What We Learned (not) To Do
1. Never Inflate Sales to make up for the Investment
3. Never be Site Forced ~ be site selective
4. Never Develop buildings faster than you can develop
your People
6. Never Grow a Brand without Brand Passionate People
14. What I learned
Private vs. Public
Short Term vs. Long Term
Family vs. Corporation
Culture has to have a Process
Values are not the “Soft” Stuff
People with Experience may not be the “Right” People
You can be big and keep your principles.
The shadow of a leader is long - “Fear”
Business Intuition vs. Business Case
Surround Yourself with People Smarter than Yourself
Never stop Learning; You can Learn from Everyone
Take risks that are outside of your comfort zone
26. Franchise Growth
It Works…
Become a World Class Franchisor
Grow Existing Partners
Find Successful New Partners
Use good information to geographically target growth
28. Protecting our Brand
in a competitive
environment
1. Relentless pursuit of pizza perfection
3. Maintain the Core product
5. Reinforce Quality and Premium ingredients
7. Add ‘value’ menu offerings
9. Focus on our Service and People
11. Protect our brand by putting a face behind the name
29. Diversified Revenue
• Take & Bake Pizzas
• Sheeting Line
• Proofing
• Par Baking
• Fully Automated Pizza Line
Born on the south side of Columbus Started working at age 13 – paper route to pizza maker Father was a butcher, owned a grocery store
Age 16 opportunity to purchase pizza parlor Age 18 borrowed 1,300 from his father/father in law – today’s present value $250,000 Black Hat – White Hat Donatos means to give a good thing Black brick story
My fathers’ reason to go into business…..one purpose, one vision
Where I came in Behind first store Living room Under the sign Grew up in the business working since age 11 1990 – Franchising 145 stores, 6 states
People We had the people who believed Had to put a face behind the brand again….spent next 4 years in stores People have to believe in someone – Gallup study in what people are looking for in leadership/CEO’s If you were to willingly follow a leader what are the 4 attributes you would require? Honest, Vision, Competence, Ability to inspire. Which one are the most challenging – ability to inspire others Gallup survey – 28% of respondents are engaged, 55% say just showing up and 17% are dis-engaged. Our people were looking for leadership and wanted to be engaged again
McD’s stock historic low $12.50 Rumor hits the street they were going to sell President retired Put together a ‘buy back team’ called Destiny CFO and I present to brand board Signed the front of the check Sell high multiple of 13 – buy back for pennies on the dollar Based on 3 things People Product Principles
The 4 C’s to Success What I learned personally
Character – words we take for granted Authenticity Honesty Integrity Knowing what is right in the grey areas Doing the right thing because it is the right thing to do Knowing the difference – “they” and US Make sure that your self fulfilling prophecy is from positive self talk Don’t be afraid to talk about the ‘soft’ stuff – unconditional love and kindness – transparency creates trust (book Speed of Trust – Covey) Only hire the best people not the best experience Talk about your principles all the time, when you don’t live up to them be honest and admit them we can’t expect our managers/associates to admit to a mistake on a pizza if we can’t admit our own mistakes Surround yourself with fans – life is too short to have negativity
Courage Having character with out courage is pointless ~ Courage to bring your principles to work with you Have the courage to be YOU ~ To dream, to act on the dream, to confront, to be confronted, to love, to learn, to fail, to face current reality. Take risks that feel uncomfortable ~ The answer is Yes, until you have a reason to say no! Create an environment where people have courage to make mistakes 7 Acts of Courage
. Conviction Passion with a Purpose Love what you Get your Ego out of the way Don’t loose your identity Curiosity Continuous learning – learn from everyone Self Awareness Are you living your OPUS
Compassion Treat others how you would want to be treated We are in a relationship era Kindness Factor “ The kindest thing you can do for someone is be honest”….Jack Welch … .”with compassion ”
Cost of doing business increasing every year with minimum wage, health insurance, commodities Operation Tri-pod – get rid of old paradigms Brand identity Franchising works……wrote my own check Other sources of revenue are important especially in a slow economy
Even though we had a 10.5 MM turnaround….. 2006 best year since buy back Cost of doing business has increased – minimum wage – and commodoties in one year $4MM to the bottom line
Good people do good things Grow or Die Innovation – Grote Company, Take n Bake
Improve model Smaller sites with appropriate sales to investment ratio Changes in GnA to reflect a ‘franchise organization’ Operation Tri-pod – get rid of old paradigms, napkins, straws to suppliers and delivery schedules Franchise Growth It works…..when I signed the check we were 80/20 Company to Franchise, now we are 20/80% Sold Cleveland, Cincy and Indy to a franchise partner Focused on growing responsibly Opened new stores in Carolina’s, Myrtle Beach, KY and in our existing Ohio markets Signed 2 new markets - Northern Virginia and Virginia Beach Diversified Portfolio – In over 1,500 points of distribution. Jane’s Dough Bakery Supply our restaruants In Kroger and Walmart with Take N Bake’s Private Label – Chicago schools, C-stores, QuickTrip, Royal Farms
Right size our asset Sales to investment ratio back to a 1:1 Get the model working right
Signing a check when we bought the company back… Franchising – Opened franchises in North Carolina, Myrtle Beach, Ohio Sold existing markets from company to franchise Cleveland, Cincy and Indanapolis Markets Signed up Virgina Beach and Virgina
Product Bakery Pizza Boneless wings
Cost of doing business increasing every year with minimum wage, health insurance, commodities Operation Tri-pod – get rid of old paradigms Brand identity Franchising works……wrote my own check Other sources of revenue are important especially in a slow economy
Diversify our revenue stream Started with Kroger and Take N Bake Donatos Core Competency is Dough 70 types of branded, private label frozen pizza shells and topped pizza’s Today we are in over 2,000 points of distribution Supermarkets, deli’s, C-stores, restaurants, schools and other non-commercial outlets
