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ARJUN:
Winning is fun, but I have found that winning big puts you at a unique place where you can sustain the win over a period of time. Bob Bafundo knows that better than most people in the restaurant industry.
Bob, we will be talking at length about your experience growing multiple restaurant chains, along with your skills when it comes to leading people and growing a team. Those accomplishments have given you a well-earned reputation as a rock star in franchise relationships. Let’s start there. In any industry, not just restaurants, it feels like franchises and franchise owners have an adversarial relationship, not an amazing one. Given that dynamic, how have you succeeded, not just once but continuously, on generating trust and big brand wins?
BOB:
It's a very simple formula. I think the best thing anyone can do to drive results is to improve the store level performance of franchisees. Consider the math involved. Most franchise systems are built this way: 75% franchise stores, 25% company. The math always works in your favor. I try to create open dialogue with the franchise owners, to understand what their pain points are, and work to try to resolve those. Also, to improve their performance, because I've never seen a franchisee back away from building additional restaurants, if the financials are there at the store level. Business becomes a lot of fun.
ARJUN:
That’s brilliant from day one. You take care of their pain points and get them to a high level of success. You were raised in operations. How did this help you connect with team members, and why is that important for success?
BOB:
It simply means that I have walked in the shoes of my most important customers. I understand the challenges facing franchise owners and restaurant managers and the restaurant team. When you’ve filled those roles and understand the ups and downs of that, it’s much easier to understand what you have to do to support those operators. You appreciate that audience and value that input, understanding that as you resolve problems and build credibility with that audience you put yourself in a better position to implement new initiatives with them that they may not have thought about at this point.
ARJUN:
You talked about being a franchisee. When you were on that side of the table, are there one or two things you wished corporate did that you now include in your efforts?
BOB:
That’s a great question. By the way, when I became a restaurant franchisee I had more than 20 years of experience in the business, but I stepped into a concept that was doing some very creative things from a menu standpoint. That created challenges for recruiting, for training, for maintaining a kitchen staff that was capable of executing the menu at the desired level. Simplifying the menu makes it easier to provide a consistent product for the customer. That’s something I’m currently working on at Buffalo Wings and Rings, how do we make it easier for our cooks to succeed? How do we deliver a more consistent product through easier procedures, a simplified menu, better training materials, etc.?
ARJUN:
You’re taking me back to my time in operations at Papa John's. One operator took me into his tiny back office, and every corner was plastered with our posters, which showed me that he was serious about what we did. He asked me for a favor. He said, “Next time you roll out something new, can you tell me what NOT to do? We just can’t take it anymore.” I realized we were at a point where doing one more thing complicated their life, so I started looking at how we could make it easier for every person at every level to succeed. As a leader, you are breaking barriers to help them succeed.
Now let me push you a bit on the other side, as an operator. How do you always put the customer experience first?
BOB:
The first thing we do is support our teams. The people at the restaurant level make or break the customer experience. So providing the support our teams need, eliminating barriers, making it easier for them to meet the needs of the guest, is a critical first step. But beyond that, I also say that as leaders, it's so important for us to be the role model when it comes to that creating that customer experience. I've never seen a bad Customer Service Program. I've never seen a program that doesn't increase the benefits the customers receive when they visit your business or your restaurant.
What I see most typically is a failure to execute. One of the ways we can ensure execution Is by making sure we are always the role model for that great customer experience, whether at the restaurant level or the corporate level. I think that principle is extremely powerful.
ARJUN:
Being a role model is so powerful. It goes back to what my grandma told me, it’s not what you tell, it's what you do that defines you. Let’s talk a bit more about what you do and how you do it. If you could take your experience and skills beyond the restaurant industry, what would be one or two things which are universal in any field?
BOB:
I’ll start out by saying it’s always people first, which is so easily forgotten by brilliant and capable people who take leadership roles. We have to avoid the trap of sometimes getting so deep into the plan and the strategy and the thought process behind it, we forget to bring people with us. Always start with people. I say that all the time with my teams. With the right team, you’ll be successful and have a lot of fun. Without the right team, that won’t happen.
It’s your choice. As a leader, you can choose to invest your time and build the right team, or try to succeed without it. You’ll have to live with the results, either way.
Here’s something that’s important for me. I borrow from Peter Drucker a lot and I always try to maintain that balance between the right thing and doing things right. I think there's a big difference there.
Strategy without execution is worthless, and great execution of a bad strategy doesn't get you anywhere either. You have to create that balance between strategy and execution. Part of the reason I like to keep it simple, is to focus on just a few initiatives and do them as well as you can.
ARJUN:
Let’s go back a bit more on putting people first. There are many leaders who sit in their air conditioned office and don’t think about that. When you jump into the real world, helping your team members cross the finish line is so important. How do you make sure that this is not just a word or phrase you’re using, but you're living that every day?
BOB:
I like your reference to your grandmother, and how this comes from your actions. For example, one of the things we're working on now is helping franchisees in the very difficult environment of recruitment and staffing and retention. At the restaurant level, we're working on helping them with programs and systems that will make it easier to affect their restaurant. There’s no monetary benefit us to do that, but if we make it easier for a franchise owner to staff his business and therefore serve the guests, that improves my chances of winning long term as they build sales versus their competitors who are struggling with those same challenges.
ARJUN:
It’s all about focusing long term. Bob, one of your teammates who has worked with you for a long time describes you as a true example of a servant leader. Someone who not only gives guidance to your teams so they can be the best, but also roll up your sleeps to help get the job done. Franchisees see you as both a business partner and a friend who wants them to succeed.
Talk about your partners in your journey, and give us an example of a person or an incident that has been a true inspiration to you.
BOB:
When Rax was a startup chain of just 35 restaurants, I learned some valuable lessons from people in leadership roles, including Pat Ross, the founder. He had a million things on his plate and was trying to grow a restaurant chain, but he made an incredible commitment to the development of people. Looking back on that today, being a little older and wiser, I'm even more amazed by the commitment he made and the investment in real dollars to developing his team. I think he was simply smart enough to know that he wasn't going to be able to accomplish his goals unless he had the team to take them there. As much as we all think about site selection and construction and design and all those things, Pat really focused on people and making sure he had the horses to get the job done. That’s something I've taken with me.
Then, as an operator, it’s focusing on doing things right. Be the best you can be. I was blessed to work with those guys and see them as role models, learning how strong that combination of execution and people development could be.
ARJUN:
You have been successful, and you have also hired a lot of successful leaders. What are some traits you look for in future leaders, which are non-negotiable and most important to you?
BOB:
I tend to look at commitments first. How focused they are in helping the company achieve its goals, being successful in the role you're going to put them in, and staying focused on results as well. This is a business where people can sometimes confuse activity with results.
It's such a demanding business. It demands so much of key players, just in terms of the hours you work. I look for whether the focus goes beyond the daily work and daily tasks. Do they focus on results? Perhaps most important, do they have a desire to take people with them, to really develop talent, to share the accolades along the way to see people improve. That’s something you can get out of an interview. Everybody can brag about themselves, but real leaders will give you stories about specific people and specific situations. How did that person develop? What were they able to accomplish? When I find somebody who's as proud of what one of their associates has accomplished in life as they are their own accomplishments, I know that’s somebody we can work with from a leadership standpoint.
ARJUN:
You remind me of the best CFO I’ve ever worked with, David Flanery, who’s also in this book. I realized during our 30-minute conversation he had talked about eleven individuals who worked for him. He bragged about each one of their accomplishments and shared their most recent success story. That level of pride and ownership is what you're talking about. It’s the desire to take people forward.
I also love what you said about not getting confused between activities and results. Many in the corporate world are impressed by those who show the hustle, but it really doesn't matter until you get results. The teams you’ve worked with have always shared that you keep things simple and you focus on doing a few things right, and these two have been your drivers of success.
So help me understand a little bit more. How do you identify the main thing, that one thing to focus on the secret to keep things simple?
BOB:
A long time ago, someone taught me that driving change at the restaurant level is like pouring water into funnel. You can pour as fast as you want, but the funnel is only going to allow so much water to go through. If you’re frustrated because you want it to go faster you can pour faster, but you're just going to spill more water, and eventually, it's not going to hit the target you're looking to get it to. Driving change at the restaurant level is exactly the same. There's only so much that can be absorbed. So our focus needs to be not on speed as much as traction. What are people able to take in and then implement? Generally our business is one of repetition, whether it's making sandwiches or cooking chicken wings or whatever the challenge is at the restaurant level. We get great at what we do from a lot of repetition, and having a process and a system.
Driving change at the restaurant level is no different than that. You've got to implement a process and then create repetition. The more repetition you create without distractions, without diluting that effort, the better results you're going to get.
ARJUN:
So create repetition without distraction. That reminds me of John Schnatter at Papa John's. In the early days, he started a management team meeting by juggling just one ball. After 10 minutes, he said he could be the best juggler if he did that. But then he added two or three or four balls, and it was a disaster. He helped us understand the lesson of focus by saying we should just do one thing right before trying something else.
This next question is a philosophical one. If you could take all your wisdom and go back in time, and find young Bob fresh out of college, what would be the one piece of advice you would give your younger self? There’s a second part to that question. If you hadn’t chosen the restaurant industry, what industry might you be in today?
BOB:
The first part of that is easy. I learned to work through people much later in my career than I should have. If I went back and saw that pop-up window right out of school, I’d find somebody who was working endlessly, trying to be Superman, trying to do it all. Whether that was at the restaurant level or in my first few corporate positions, I probably had zero work-life balance in terms of being able to get things done. I would tell myself that I could be much more successful and drive more long term results working through a team, and I should start focusing on doing that.
As for the second part of your question, I became enamored by restaurants early. I worked my way through school in this field and got hooked on it early. I’ve never spent a lot of time thinking about other careers.
But I would say what I enjoy is working with people. Providing that servant leadership that you mentioned earlier is something I really enjoy doing. Then there’s the fact that I'm competitive. I like to keep score. I like to know if I've won or lost. So anything that involves those components for me would be a great opportunity.
ARJUN:
That was great advice for all of us. You don't have to be a super man or a woman to do it all. Work through people from day one.
I find that leaders like you who are very successful have a process. What is yours? What is the first thing you do when you start your day, and the last thing you do when you’re winding down your day? Is there a routine you can share?
BOB:
I am a process person, sometimes to a fault as my wife would tell me. When I start the day, it's understanding my calendar and the commitments I've made. It's thinking about what I need to do to ensure I meet those commitments, especially ones that involve my team. I think that's part of the role we play as leaders. Meeting those commitments is critical to the respect they deserve and the performance we want going forward, long term. They've got to feel good about the job they do and know how critical they are to getting that done. I hate missing commitments, so I usually start the day looking at that calendar and understanding that.
Earlier I touched on the fact that I’m a competitive person. I like to keep score. I do that at the end of the day. Starting when I was a restaurant manager at the end of the shift, and continuing today, I look back on the day and ask, “Do I feel like I won or lost?” I don't want to create the impression that I make changes based on that evaluation, but I believe business is a marathon, not a sprint, and the marathon runner makes adjustments along the way. The opportunity to tweak what we're doing and make changes are critical parts of the race, so I always try to use my evaluation of the day as a way to do that.
ARJUN:
Bob, you shared some incredible nuggets. I think what you said about focusing on results and not getting confused between activities and results will stay with me. Activities that do not get results don't matter.