Multi-Unit Franchisee Magazine Issue IV, 2011 | Page 40

DOMINA
TORS
M A N AG E M E N T
Business philosophy: My philosophy, dictated
by my father-in-law, a DD franchisee pioneer and
leader in our community: Every person in the
enterprise must know the smallest detail of operations duties in the restaurant, regardless of position. There really is no better way to know how
you are performing.
Are you in the franchising, real estate,
or customer service business? Why? All
of the above. To succeed, you need strong competencies in each. Getting even one of these wrong
will endanger your whole enterprise.
What gets you out of bed in the morning? New challenges and, of course, seeing my
kids’ faces.
What’s your passion in business? Creating
new opportunities with people that you genuinely

like to be around and learn from, and learning new
things or discovering that knowledge gained elsewhere provides a perspective or solution to a new
problem.
Management method or style: This is difficult
to answer. I’m adaptive depending on the people
involved in the project or the challenges faced by the
effort.
Greatest challenge: Maintaining the current
constructive relationship with the franchisor.
How close are you to operations? Very! I
was behind a counter today after a closing.
Have you changed your marketing strategy in response to the economy? How?
We do even more local marketing than ever before.
We are very involved with local aid and veterans’

assistance groups. Our area was recently struck by
severe tornadoes, which was very unusual for here.
We were compelled to act to raise relief funds and
to use our media resources to highlight the need for
additional help from the community.
Personality: Intense, Italian, and everything that
implies.
How do others describe you? I just hope that
it isn’t as a “typical lawyer.”
How do you hire and fire? Existing employee
referrals are some of the best hiring sources. Firing
is generally direct and after careful review of the circumstances and gathering of facts and opinions.
How do you train and retain? We involve
every crew member in the training of new team
members in existing units. And we do a lot of role-

BOTTOM LINE
Annual revenue: Prefer not to answer.
2011 goals: To develop and build our new
concept, using (what else!) franchising to expand
it. To open more new DD units in our Midwest
expansion markets and to introduce nontraditional
DD units in these markets.
Growth meter: How do you measure
your growth? EBITDA, of course; customer
counts, guest satisfaction surveys, and the personal satisfaction of our family members who run
the enterprise. It never is just about the increased
unit numbers.
Vision meter: Where do you want to
be in 5 years? 10 years? Fully developed
in our expansion markets and entering new markets. Developing new units of our own proprietary
restaurant concept nationwide.
How has the most recent economic
cycle affected you, your employees,
your customers? We have invested in newly
available syst