745: WORKSHOP Knowing When It's Time to Scale with Chris Schultz

Chris Schultz spent 15 years with the Starbucks management and leadership team before joining MOD Pizza, aka the MOD Squad in 2009.  Schultz helped MOD Pizza go from 1 location to 100 locations in 2016 as Senior Vice President of Operations. Today, Chris serves Voodoo Doughnut as their CEO. You can see, Chris Schultz has developed a track recording of helping great brands scale. That's what we're here to talk about today: When You Know You're Ready To Scale. 

Show notes…

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Favorite success quote or mantra:

Be authentic.

When You Know You're Ready To Scale: 

• Business
  • Can you show a conservative growth period over the period: Month over Month: quarter over quarter
  • Don't be fooled by being on Main and Main
    • Location is a factor.
    • Your brand must be great to help manage cannibalization
• People
  • Do they understand the Mission? 
  • Who are your culture carriers that can help lead and build the stores
  • Pick front line people with whom you'd share a foxhole.
    • have Confidence in leadership
    • Embrace growth and opportunity without fear
• Culture
  • Must have a solid culture to grow and employees want to grow-- "Growth mentality"
  • Failure is not an option -- not just words on a wall, but a feeling you have
  • "Growing big while staying small" 
• Infrastructure
  • A realistic view of the brand - Is it actually scalable AND scalable *where* you want to scale?
  • When to hire in for growth VS "stretch" for growth to make it work
    • Failure can occur because of too much overhead or by burning out good employees. 
  • Get utility players; they are vital to infrastructure-- find people who can wear different hats. Then empower them. 
  • CEO's must be able to sacrifice their own opinions and play the role of the visionary.
    • Having leadership you trust to make decisions based on your vision. 
• Why Growth? 
  • Making money - nothing wrong with wanting to make more money; but, important to recognize the complexities that come with it. 
  • Bringing the brand and experience to a larger consumer base. 
  • Growth is not necessarily an indicator of success
  • Incremental growth
    • One to two is hard
    • Two to five is harder and the hardest
    • Five to 10 is impossible
    • After 10 it gets easier 
• "Selling" Your Brand
  • It's okay to strategically utilize for growth
  • Why franchising works
  • Brand based companies are different 
    • licensing and Licensees
    • Company Operated. 
• Are you Ready as a Leader? 

Contact info:

[email protected] 

425-372-6556

Thanks for listening!

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Huge thanks to Chris Schultz for joining me for another awesome episode. Until next time!

 

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