QSR Executive Interviews

Under the Wing

QSR magazine — Tue, 07 May 2013 04:06:00 +0000

Mentoring provides quick-serve leaders a way to protect and shape the company’s future.

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Tasti D-Lite chairman Jim Amos says mentoring others can help build a brand’s future success.

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Tasti D-Lite

Early on in his career, Jim Amos, chairman and former CEO of Tasti D-Lite, would make it his mission to track down his mentor, a business leader who hated flying so much that he would drive his personal coach around the country to various meetings and engagements.

“I would call his secretary and find out where he was, and I would fly into the city just to sit in his coach and talk to him as he was driving, and learn from him,” Amos says. “I learned a great deal from this gentleman, not just about business, but certainly about life and relationships.”

WFF Announces Keynote Speakers for Executive Summit

QSR magazine — Sat, 04 May 2013 18:00:00 +0000

Women’s Foodservice Forum will host its annual Executive Summit, a gathering of restaurant and foodservice industry executives, July 29–31, 2013, at the JW Marriott in Chicago.

Exclusively for industry executives, WFF Executive Summit will feature interactive, business-relevant sessions on future trends, the challenges of leadership, and industry benchmarking.

“Summit programming is specifically tailored to expand executive leadership intelligence,” says WFF president and CEO Fritzi Woods.

Offering Value Isn't Enough; Taco Bell Wants to Redefine It

QSR magazine — Fri, 03 May 2013 16:02:25 +0000

It may seem like a lofty goal, but Taco Bell is dead set on not only redefining value at the quick-service level, but also delivering it to consumers in a variety of ways.

Specifically, the brand is focusing on four key areas: the low- and high-price end of the menu, new menus and promotions, and limited-time offers, said Chris Brandt, vice president of brand marketing, in a press call on Thursday.

The Advocate

QSR magazine — Fri, 03 May 2013 10:00:00 +0000

Dawn Sweeney is tasked with helping nearly 1 million restaurants be more profitable. No pressure or anything.

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NRA CEO Dawn Sweeney has helped the restaurant industry weather the economic storm of the last five years.

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joe shymanski

The most powerful woman in the restaurant industry isn’t intimidating, nor is she larger than life. She isn’t cold, tight-lipped, terse, or abrasive. She doesn’t talk down to you. She doesn’t double-book you and cancel at the last second.

Certainly one might expect such a person to be and do any number of those things; overseeing nearly 1 million members that collectively earn more than $650 billion in sales and represent 4 percent of the entire U.S. GDP isn’t a walk in the park.

8 Lessons from WFF's Annual Leadership Conference

QSR magazine — Fri, 19 Apr 2013 20:38:16 +0000

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Jamba Juice's James White (left) joins WFF president and CEO Fritzi Woods, Daymon Worldwide CEO Carla Cooper, and Darden Restaurants CEO Clarence Otis at the 2013 conference.

For the first time, QSR had the honor of attending the Women’s Foodservice Forum’s Annual Leadership Development Conference, held this year on April 14–17 in Orlando, Florida.

If At First You Don’t Succeed

QSR magazine — Mon, 01 Apr 2013 09:00:00 +0000

After swallowing their mistakes, CEOs who have failed lay the groundwork for learning.

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Ben & Jerry’s CEO Jostein Solheim says the brand doesn’t hide its failures from the public.

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Ben & Jerry’s

Outside the Ben & Jerry’s ice cream factory in Waterbury, Vermont, past a white picket fence, sits a group of colorful tombstones shaded by large overhanging tree branches.

“It swirled in our heads, it danced in our dreams, it proved not to be though, the best of ice creams,” the epitaph reads for Sugar Plum, a Ben & Jerry’s flavor that was short-lived from 1989 to 1990.

NRA's Supply Chain Conference Set for May

QSR magazine — Mon, 18 Mar 2013 16:45:00 +0000

The National Restaurant Association announces that its spring Supply Chain Management Executive Study Group will be held May 16-17, 2013, in Chicago.

Kick the Stress Out

QSR magazine — Sun, 03 Mar 2013 05:00:00 +0000

Dealing with stress is one way to ensure success and longevity in the fast-paced quick-service industry.

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Pancheros president Rodney Anderson says exercise is an effective way to fight the stress that comes with quick-service leadership.

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Pancheros

Quick-service leaders have a lot on their plate, from running complex organizations and overseeing financials to being the voice and face of their concepts.

But as they juggle these responsibilities and wade through the myriad daily decisions they need to make, something threatens to derail everything: stress.

Popeyes Stays on a Roll in 2012

QSR magazine — Fri, 01 Mar 2013 21:51:13 +0000

For Popeyes Louisiana Chicken, 2012 seemed to be a year of fours: four straight years of same-stores sales increases; four years of traffic increases; and four years of outperforming both quick-serve chicken concepts and the quick-service industry as a whole in terms of domestic same-store sales.

But last year meant more to the brand than just a four-year positive streak; it also proved to be a year of growth by almost every other measure.

MFHA Releases Tribute to Black Leadership in Hospitality

QSR magazine — Mon, 25 Feb 2013 14:55:40 +0000

The Multicultural Foodservice & Hospitality Alliance (MFHA) recognizes black/African American, Asian Pacific American, and Hispanic/Latino leaders every year through its popular Multicultural Advertising Tribute Series. Receiving a growing volume of participation from the industry’s senior leaders each year, the full-page advertising features are a great way to showcase these outstanding individuals, to communicate the industry’s commitment to supporting and advancing multicultural talent, while motivating young talented individuals to follow in their footsteps.