“The franchising model, at its core, is about empowerment. It’s taking folks who aspire to do their own thing and be their own boss but not be on an island. Obviously, at Freddy’s, with only 50 operating groups and 400 restaurants, our franchisees see value in what we do and how we support them along the way. But for me, I think that’s the foundation before you start thinking about all the dollars and cents. It’s the concept of empowering people to be in business for themselves, but not by themselves.” - Chris Dull, President and CEO at Freddy’s

“The basic premise behind ‘They Is We’ is in our everyday lives, we always want to point the finger. ‘Hey, this is my situation because they put me in that situation.’ In the restaurant business, that can often be, ‘Hey, here's what corporate is doing or here's what the brand is doing.’

Very early on at Del Taco, we really wanted to establish a much more bottoms-up approach to how we lead and manage the business. The simple phrase is ‘They Is We’. If there is a challenge, obstacle or problem, it’s not something that somebody is doing. It's all of our problem. How do we work together as a leadership and support team with the general managers, with our team members to solve those problems?"
- Chad Gretzema, Chief Operating Officer at Del Taco

“A people-before-profit mindset brings in the profit,” shares COO of Mitchell Management, Georgia Hatzidakis. She expounds that when leaders have a give-and-take relationship with their employees, they are more motivated at work.

Listen to our latest podcast as Georgia pays tribute to her parents for helping her develop the people skills she has and to the people she works with for fostering a people-first culture in their company.

“Part of the reason I was attracted to the brand was I lived my life by three cardinal rules, and they just happen to align with the same stuff that Joe Whitty believed in.

The first one is to have a servant's heart, serve others first. Make others the priority, not yourself.

The second one would be to have a warrior's spirit. We need to be nimble. We need to spin on a dime. We need to take advantage of market conditions. We need to take advantage of opportunities that present themselves.

The third and the last one is love what you do."

- Tom Sacco, Chief Happiness Officer and CEO at Happy Joe’s Pizza

“It's tough enough to run a restaurant. We all know most restaurants fail in the first year, and a lot of those are probably independents that are trying to create their niche. Be passionate, have fun, understand there's going to be setbacks.

With inflation, cost of commodities, and tight labor, it's hard to look and say, "I'm having a lot of fun,"  but then we bring that food truck out and we see the smiles we get. You can't imagine the little kids who want to come up and just look inside the cab and hear the diesel horn go off. You know what? It's good to have fun. When you're having fun, your crew's having fun, your guests are going to have fun. Guests who have fun and have great food, they come back.” - Pete Pascuzzi, CEO at Mexican Restaurants, Inc.

“Immigration plays such a big part in North American Palates and exposes us to so many different cultures and cuisines. Regardless of which region you're from, there is a unique way to present your cultural offerings in a way that appeals to the masses. Sometimes you're just driving by, you see a new sign and you wonder what that restaurant is, what they're offering. And sometimes, it can be very intimidating to figure out what to order. That being said, I think the beautiful thing about Osmow’s and why we were able to become the largest shawarma franchise in Canada is because we found a really unique way to modernize our cultural offerings, and this is all credit to my Dad.” - Ben Osmow, CEO & Head of Franchising at Osmow’

“Too many things got layered on and the company had really hit the skids in 2008, with the recession, probably moved too far off the brand by that time and went through a bankruptcy process in 2010. The company also owns a frozen pizza manufacturing company, and that had been basically in decline since 2013. The company was getting smaller and smaller and smaller. You literally had to say, "Folks, this line leads to oblivion unless we do something very, very different about it because hope isn't a strategy."

The idea of growing our casual dining restaurant base was probably out of the question. Meanwhile, we had this terrific product and the pandemic was fantastic for frozen pizza manufacturing because people, one way or another, are going to find their way to pizza. We had figured out before the pandemic hit, how to get profitable again. We really got our cost and our margin under control. We really got to think through if we're going to create value here. Let's make the incremental improvements on them now that we've got the right people and the right restaurants. Let's really focus our growth not on being a restaurant company or operated restaurants, but new franchise concept and revitalized manufacturing.” - Erik Frederick, CEO at UNO Restaurants

Cultivating a service-oriented culture not just for your customers, but as importantly, for your employees, is a competitive edge a restaurant can have over others shares The Hickory Tavern President & CEO, Paul Baldasaro. With this business culture, they make sure their customers experience the kind of service they ought to give.

Discover more insights on cultivating a company culture in our latest episode!

The restaurant industry has been behind the automation trend. And for Jim Balis, CEO of Sizzling Platter, it’s their industry’s time. We will see innovations and technologies applied to our restaurant experiences soon. 

Learn specific automation application tips from this seasoned restaurateur and hear insights on restaurant technology on our latest episode. Check our latest episode here.

The restaurant industry is in the business of serving people and they come in different forms: from your staff, to the communities up to the customers you serve. Pickleman’s understands that with their tagline, “Whole Lotta Love, One Big Pickle,” — there’s gotta be a touch of love in everything they do. Ken Rice, Chief Operating Officer of Pickleman’s Gourmet Cafe, highlights how important it is to translate that love first, from their internal team and the way they treat their staff up to the food banks they partner with. When it comes to their customers, love comes in the form of providing great food and experience.

Don't miss out on this insight and more. Listen to our podcast now!