Blog
Arby's CEO Paul Brown — a nice guy who likes to stay 'scrappy'
May 30, 2016 by S.A. Whitehead — Food Editor, Net World Media Group
Sometimes, nice guys finish pretty darn near first. For Arby's CEO Paul Brown, that may indeed be the story. If you read through a lot of the recent interviews about Brown you get the feeling that he is just that — a nice guy, who operates the business he leads in the same way.
It's an over-simplification, of course, but some executives just seem to get the notion that when you implement the Golden Rule, the business you're in invariably returns the favor. The brand recently reported its 22nd consecutive quarter of same-store sales growth and 13th consecutive quarter of industry outperformance, for example.
Recently, Brown answered a few questions from QSRWeb regarding his work with the brand, which many have called, "transformative."
Q: You came into this position from a career in the hotel industry. How did that pre-Arby's experience inform your work here?
Brown: Throughout my work in the hotel and hospitality industry, customer experience has been the focus in every position I've held. There are a number of similarities between the hotel and restaurant industries, including multi-unit operations, building design and development and franchisee relations.
The transition to Arby's was relatively seamless and we've since invested heavily in enhancing the guest experience at our restaurants. We started by defining and gaining alignment around Arby's brand purpose as "inspiring smiles through delicious experiences." We continue to work aggressively to ensure we deliver on this promise.
Q: You were recently named the EY Entrepreneur of the Year. The award recognizes executives who lead with a spirit of entrepreneurship. How has that approach helped you lead this brand and how exactly do you incorporate this spirit of entrepreneurship into the work you do leading this company?
Brown:Instead of running Arby's as an established restaurant company, we try to act in a very entrepreneurial manner — as a start-up that happens to be a 52-year-old, multi-billion-dollar business. We strive to be scrappy in our approach to business, clear on our purpose and strategy, authentic with our marketing and brand voice, unafraid to fail fast and learn from our failures, innovative with our food, and invested in our team members.
Q: I read your recent Fortune interview, in which you used a lot of newly coined phrases like QSR-plus, fast-crafted, and the so-called "eating machines" you're targeting in your customer base. Kind of sounds like you're either redefining the category or starting a whole new one. Do you feel that way, and if so, why has it been important to do that?
Brown:Throughout its history, Arby's has always had this maverick spirit, and it's simply in our DNA to do things a little bit differently, and that includes how we've positioned the brand. We call this positioning "Fast Crafted" — in what we believe is the ideal space in-between QSR and Fast Casual.
The industry has coined this space "QSR+." But "Fast Crafted" is more to us than just a position in the marketplace — it's an approach to how we do business. We deliver the quality and innovative food our guests want and can afford, while providing the convenience they demand. A lot of the success we've seen is a direct result of this differentiated approach.
Q: Arby's move to diversify when it comes to its meat offering — in order to include many other options aside from the R(oast) B(eef) that gave birth to the chain — took some courage after all these years. Why was this move important and where do you hope it will take you?
Brown: Although a common misconception, our name didn't actually come from the initials of roast beef, but rather from the initials of the Raffel Brothers who came up with the concept for the brand back in 1964. Arby's has historically been associated with one thing roast beef — even though there were many other options on the menu.
Although we're proud of our roast beef, it only accounts for 3 percent of all QSR dining occasions, so it's limiting in terms of guest reach. In order to grow the brand, we needed to communicate to consumers that we were more than just a roast beef concept and highlight the fact that we have nine different high-quality proteins on the menu.
This focus on the variety of Arby's proteins led to our MeatCraft platform and "We Have the Meats" advertising campaign, both of which have helped the brand make tremendous strides in shifting consumer perceptions.
Q: What kinds of market research went into this new concept of business for the chain?
Brown:One of the very first things I did was go on a cross-country listening tour to gain insight from our team members and franchisees. This experience was instrumental in helping understand the brand's position and areas for improvement. Since then, we've utilized a myriad of market research options that have helped guide our business strategy. I think our team does a great job of balancing insight, data and intuition when making business decisions.
Q: And as part of your move forward, Arby's is remodeling. How is that new look being received at the initial stores it's taken place in? And how will you tweak that as you move ahead to all 3,300 restaurants?
Brown:Extremely well. Over the past two years, we have invested tens of millions of dollars to remodel and build new company-owned restaurants. We made refinements along the way and now our franchisees have aggressively embraced the remodel program as well.
To date, we have remodeled over 220 restaurants in the new "inspire" image and expect to remodel over 200 more this year. Our revitalized restaurants with the Inspire design have experienced post-remodel sales lifts of approximately 15 percent, and in some cases 20 percent or more.
About S.A. Whitehead
Pizza Marketplace and QSRweb editor Shelly Whitehead is a former newspaper and TV reporter with an affinity for telling stories about the people and innovative thinking behind great brands.
