Multi-Unit Franchisee Magazine Issue II, 2011 | Page 41

P O W E R

P L A Y E R S

In 1993, the Panos family settled in Atlanta.
“Atlanta has been an incredible town for us.
It’s a vibrant city, great for business.”
before our final selection.”
In 1993, the Panos family settled
in Atlanta. Panos says the decision
turned out to be exactly the right one.
“Atlanta has been an incredible town
for us. It’s a vibrant city, great for business. Hartsfield International Airport is
the largest in the world, so we can get
anywhere quickly, which makes it great
for expanding our business,” he says.
Panos set out to build a thriving
business in the same way he’d approached finding his new home. Having sold the fine dining restaurant
he owned with his brother in South
Africa, he interviewed five different

Name: Pierre Panos
TiTle: Founder, CeO
CompaNy: Qs America
No. of uNiTs: 41 Papa John’s

Pizza; 6 Fresh To Order, 1
Brookwood Grill
age: 46
family: Wife Alexandra, son

Alexander, 15, daughters, Helena,
11, and Nastassja, 5
years iN fraNChisiNg: 10
years iN CurreNT posiTioN: 15

business brokers because he “didn’t
want to work for anyone.” Through
the South African broker he selected,
he met David Rowe, a U.S. real estate
developer who had opened a restaurant, the Brookwood Grill, to fill a
vacancy in one of his shopping centers.
The restaurant, which he says was
similar to the Houston’s chain, was
struggling. The broker thought Panos,
with his restaurant and accounting
background, would be perfect to fix
things. “Rowe wanted me to use my
numbers background to make it more
profitable. That’s what I did,” he says,
and eventually became a partner in

MANAGEMENT
Business philosophy: Always strive to see a deal from the other person’s
perspective—go for the win/win. Always have your moral compass on hand
when making key decisions, or you may just go for the money instead of doing the right thing.
Are you in the franchising, real estate, or customer service
business? Why? Customer service. Everything is about people in this
world where almost every business is commoditizing very quickly, so your
only true differentiator is your people and culture. The rest can be copied.
What gets you out of bed in the morning? I love what I do and I
really like our office environment. My office building is a one-minute drive
from my house, which makes it really easy to get out of bed and to work.
What’s your passion in business? I love creating and growing things
to a certain size. When the creativity stops because it is becoming a larger
machine, I always hand it over to one of my top guys to execute from that
point onward. I know when it’s time to get out of the way and I have a
super-talented top management team who are all very vested partners in the
different businesses and who have all been with me for a long time (10 to
16 years).
Management method or style: Find, train, and retain the best people,
offer the rig