Heroes in Business - Ron Petty CEO Chairman Eegees BurgerKing Dennys Del Taco

Episode Date: October 25, 2024

Ron Petty CEO Farleys Market Holdings is interviewed by David Cogan of Eliances Heroes radio show amfm, iHeart. They discuss what it takes to effect change in large companies and how he's now working with his co-founders to bring big box goods to those without a warehouse club store nearby. Petty also explains how children need education, discipline, and a competitive drive to succeed in business.

welcome back to alliances heroes where heroes in business align to be part of our super community and find out more about alliances visit www.alliances.com now back to our super host david kogan founder of alliances oh boy i'm still bouncing off the wall from our previous two interviews i mean we just had the hall of fame racing legend founder of owner bond around of alliances. Oh boy, I'm still bouncing off the wall from our previous two interviews. I mean, we just had the Hall of Fame racing legend, founder of owner Bondurant Performing School, Bob Bondurant, and we just had the president of Bondurant Racing School, his incredible wife, Pat Bondurant, and it keeps getting better. So imagine this, to be the owner of a restaurant is quite a feat. To be the chairman, president,

or CEO of America's largest restaurant chains, such as, yeah, you probably heard of them, Burger King, Denny's, Peter Piper Pizza, Del Taco, chairman of EG's as well, which I went to almost every day in college, is absolutely remarkable. Our hero is Ron Petty, and he could be contacted at farleysmarket.com, F-A-R-L-E-Y-S market.com. Ron, tell us, how do you become the president and CEO of so many companies over a lifetime that everyone's heard of. How do you do it? Focus and dedication. And that every company that I went into, I went in to come out and make it better. But I mean, imagine this. These are all such well-known brands, and this isn't even all of them and stuff. The highest level possible, really, within these organizations, what would you say it was attributed to for you to

be able to climb that corporate ladder? Well, fortunately, the timing that I went into most of these companies, they were in high growth modes. For instance, I went into Burger King when they had less than 1,700 restaurants. And 12 years later, we had 6,000. And we went from seven to 17 countries. So that's an environment that creates a lot of opportunity if you take advantage of it. And who was your mentor or guidance? Or who did you who did you bounce ideas off of to say, hey, will this work or not? Well, I've had several. My first mentor was my sixth grade teacher, Well, I've had Costco products to secondary markets through your website or depot pickup. Describe to us, though, in more detail how and what it does.

Well, strategically, what we are focused on is a e-commerce, but there's another level of e-commerce that we're really looking at in that we are 100% Costco products. We have all the Costco products on our website. You can order them and have them shipped to your home. But we're also building brick-and-mortar depots in secondary markets like Yuma, Flagstaff, Sheridan, Wyoming, Greeley, Colorado, so forth, where we're going into these markets, putting in a 5,000 to 7,000-foot depot. You can order online, click on that particular link,

and that product will be delivered to our depot, and you simply pick it up there. We're giving Costco's opportunity in secondary markets for people that live an hour to two hours, three hours away that are making that trip, like in Sheridan, Wyoming. They have to drive two and a half hours one way to go to Costco. But we know because of our relationship, how many members of Costco are in that market. So we're delivering value and convenience in the secondary markets of people that like Costco. Ron, though, this is so different from you having been president of Denny's and Burger King again and Peter Piper Pizza and being chairman now of EG's and stuff how do you come up with something like this?

Well our founder I'm one of the four founders of the company but our primary founder he was a big Costco fan he still lives in Seattle and he moved to Sun Idaho, and he couldn't get Costco. So he started talking to Costco about doing a website. And then it went on to be more in terms of, well, what about pickup depots and secondary markets? So he set up a beta test up in Sun Valley and then in Williston, North Dakota, and just started driving to the Costco and delivering those products into those markets. It was amazing what happened. And so from that, that was the beta test that drove the website further development that drove what we're doing now. Now, we're also, our social media is going crazy right now. We've got a question from one of our listeners and member of alliances,

Kevin Burke of serviceguru.com. And a number of people want to know, how do you measure and what mechanisms do you use to track customer service? Because, again, having run and been part of so many organizations and the CEO, how do you track customer service? Well, the customer service here is pretty easy because it's all about when they place the order and how quickly you get it either shipped to them or how quickly they can pick it up. In our case, we pick up twice weekly from Costco. So you're never going to wait more than 24 hours to pick up your product at a depot. And unless it's an unusual situation, it's two to three day shipping depending on where you are. If you're on the East Coast, it's more than three days. If you're in California, it's a day. And what about like with EGs and the other places that

you've been the CEO, how do you track customer service in those outlets? Today actually, used to we did shoppers where you physically had people doing shopping. Today, everything's done online pretty much. And there are several services out there today that you can subscribe to that will give you tremendous feedback any way you want to cut the metrics of what you're looking for. And you're listening to Alliance's Heroes with David Kogan. We have Ron Petty, who's been the CEO of Denny's and Burger King and Peter Piper Pizza and so many other places. He's with FarleysMarketTube.com. Be a hero.

Go to where entrepreneurs align. Be part of the community. Go to alliances.com. That's E-L-I-A-N-C-E-S.com. You've also seen some companies you've run go through sales to, seen some sales go to other companies. What do you think is the biggest lesson you've learned going through the process? In other words, you know, of the companies that you run and you've managed, you know, some may go somewhere else. What have you seen as far as why the success of yours and maybe not others too? Of the companies themselves? I'll give you a good example.

I started in the restaurant business with McDonald's, so I spent eight years there. If you look at the whole history of McDonald's, McDonald's focused that Ray Kroc established back in the 50s. For the next 40 years, it was pretty much still on track to be focused on owning your own, controlling the real estate, supporting your franchisees, limit the number of countries that they originally went in internationally, and the management succession was very, very planned. Whereas if you look at Burger King, it was right the opposite. They've had succession after succession after succession.

They've had many, many different owners. So as a result, every time you turn a company over and you turn the management, you lose the culture, you lose the strategy. And that's the key to long-term growth in a company. I told my son that I was interviewing you and he'd love to grow up really and be the CEO of Peter Piper Pizza because he loves just playing those games. I mean, all the time. What do you think my son or me as a parent can do now to instill skills that will help them, well, be at the top of the game like you've been? Well, I think basics. Get a good education.

Be disciplined. Participate in sports. Be competitive. Part of what we have going on now, we enable children to the point where they're incompetent. You need to hold people accountable even when they're young. And we don't do a good job of that today. We've got another question, too, that's been showing up on our social media by Justin Reckla of RecklaGroup.com. And he'd like to know what kind of service provider issues do major food chains, such as the ones you've worked with, Burger King, Denny's, McDonald's, all of them, experience?

It's all about people. The second thing that's happened is the complexity of the back-of-house operations in any restaurant now has become almost unwielding. If you look at the McDonald's when I first started there, it was simple. They said, how many burgers down, how many meat, how many cheese? That was it. Today, if you look at the equipment package in a McDonald's, it looks like a 747. I mean, so you're dealing with entry-level employees with very sophisticated equipment. And as a result, even though there are bells and whistles, there's a lot of complexity now at running a kitchen. And speed, too, is the other issue.

feed to is the other issue. At one company, you increased the EBITDA from $125 million to $175 million in a pretty quick time frame. At another, you grew the regional chain from 20 to 102 restaurants in two years. What do you think, though, are some of the aspects? You talk a lot, too, about people and that and consistency, but building growth in a business. And how do you keep the consistency? Well, you have to have a team around you that you all have the same vision and you got to have checks and balances. When I ran international for Burger King, I had 17 countries. So you really have to have discipline in both your organization and your people and stay to a focused strategy.

It's just like in Farley's today. People say to me, well, why don't you do this and that with your buying power? I say, no, Costco is my purchasing group. That's where I'm buying from because that strategically means I don't have a purchasing department. I don't have people. I don't have traffic, all of that. Incredible. And again, you can reach Ron Petty by going to farleysmarket.com. Someone who employs others, takes risks, and brings high standards of customer service to those that their company serves, that's a hero. Ron, you've built big businesses, and that makes you a hero. Ron Perry at farleysmarket.com. This is David Kogan with E-Liances.