Building a leadership team that can scale your brand

Take-Away with Sam Oches

Nation's Restaurant News

Business, Entrepreneurship

2.5 • 15 Ratings

🗓️ 25 January 2024

⏱️ 47 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

In this episode of Take-Away with Sam Oches, Sam talks with Chris Dawson, the CEO of Walk-On’s Sports Bistreaux. This 20-year-old, Baton Rouge, La.-based brand has incredible runway ahead of it, and Chris was brought in as CEO 7 months ago to build out a leadership team and infrastructure that would support franchise development and growth. Chris joined the podcast to talk about the process of building a leadership team and what he learned from several years spent as an executive in the automotive industry.

In this conversation, you’ll find out why:

Developing your culinary team is just as important as that of other departments
The “all things to all people” approach isn’t dead yet
If you beat customer expectations, you’ll win their loyalty
Data is instrumental to moving a business forward
A franchisor cannot take lightly the impact they have on franchisees’ livelihoods
The best leadership team is one that has extensive experience in problem solving
Your leaders will give you 100% professionally if you nurture them personally

Have feedback or ideas for Take-Away? Email Sam at [email protected].

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hey there, welcome to Takeaway with Sam Ocas, a podcast from Nation's Restaurant News.
0:04.7	I am Sam Ocas, editor-in-chief here at NRN, and this is the show where I give you an all-access pass
0:10.1	to the restaurant industry's most influential decision-makers.
0:13.8	This week, I'm talking with Chris Dawson, the CEO of Walk-On's Sports Bistro.
0:19.6	This 20-year-old Baton Rouge, Louisiana-based brand has incredible
0:23.7	runway ahead of it, and Chris was brought in as CEO about seven months ago to build out a leadership
0:29.3	team and an infrastructure that would support franchise development and growth. In those seven months,
0:36.2	he's made several C-suite hires, prioritizing experienced
0:39.9	problem solvers who can maximize franchisee success. Chris joined the podcast to talk about the
0:46.6	process of building a leadership team and what he learned from several years spent as an executive
0:52.1	in the automotive industry. In this interview, you will learn more
0:55.8	about why developing your culinary team is just as important as that of other departments,
1:01.4	why a franchisor cannot take lightly the impact that they have on franchisees' livelihoods, and
1:07.8	why the best leadership team is one that has extensive experience in problem solving.
1:13.7	Jumping now into my interview with Walk On's CEO, Chris Dawson. Also, don't forget to stick
1:19.0	around after the interview as I will share my seven takeaways from this discussion, actionable
1:23.9	insights that you can take with you on the go. Okay, Chris Dawson, the CEO of Walk Ons. Chris,
1:29.8	thanks for joining me today. I appreciate it. They appreciate the opportunity. So, Chris, I think most
1:35.5	of our audience is probably familiar with Walk Ons, but give me the sort of one minute elevator
1:42.1	pitch of what this brand is all about.
1:48.6	Yeah, obviously it's an incredible sports bar that started back in Baton Rouge. And 20 years ago was the anniversary this year.
1:52.1	And so been around for quite a while predominantly in the southeast.
	...

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