MOOYAH CEO: "We work for the franchisees"

 Rich Hicks co-founded MOOYAH Burgers, Fries & Shakes* in 2007 with a focus on high-quality ingredients and a customizable experience to beat all others. He stepped aside from day-to-day leadership of the brand for about 10 months in October 2013, which had been a long enough break to know that he was the right person to move MOOYAH forward and return the brand to the principles he founded it on: a better product and a better experience facilitated by the passion to constantly look for ways to improve. In the year he has spent since in the CEO’s chair, Hicks initiated several key changes to lay the foundation for accelerated growth in 2015 and beyond, not the least of which was to reopen dialogue with his base of franchisees and rebuild trust between them and the corporate team. “The most effective leaders are the ones who open their ears and listen before they open their mouths,” Hicks said. “When I got back, the first thing I said to our franchisees was how I would listen to them and ensure they all felt respected and a part of the process. We wanted to collaborate with our local owners and reshape our brand based on their insight, as well as motivate from the top down so there would be buy-in not only from the corporate team but from the franchisees and every cook and team member that works in our restaurants.” Hicks also expanded the corporate support team in MOOYAH’s Dallas office, recently forming Reach Restaurant Group to combine MOOYAH and two other concepts he has developed, Ojos Locos Sports Cantina and Pie Tap Pizza Workshop + Bar, under one parent company. The bigger team likely will free Hicks up to concentrate on supporting and inspiring the corporate team. He spoke with 1851 Magazine about the biggest lessons he learned about leadership during his first year back as MOOYAH CEO. In your 12 months back as the CEO of MOOYAH, where has the brand made the most progress? We regained the trust and respect of our franchise community, working truly as a team to accomplish our goal to provide the best experience possible. That’s the most important element needed to truly improve and thrive. We can’t inspire or motivate the operators to greatness if they don’t trust us. All good relationships have to be built on trust, so our No. 1 accomplishment in the first year back is re-establishing that. We just conducted a franchisee survey in the past 60 days, and when the results came back they indicated that the franchisees trust and respect us on the corporate team more than they did a year ago. In order to do that, we had to create a culture of accountability on both sides, and I believe we’ve laid a good foundation to build on. What was the first facet of the brand you had to improve once you were back in the saddle? The first improvement we had to make was regaining the trust I just spoke of. Second to that, directionally, we were off target. I felt like we had to improve operations, which is my background. I saw that some of the procedural strengths the brand was founded on had been shifted or abandoned. More than anything, it was a matter of focusing on the fundamentals to get us back to our roots. What specifically in operations needed to be addressed? I wanted to improve the overall presentation of the food. People eat with their eyes first. So instead of delivering the product in bags, we put it on trays. Not only did the guest appreciate that, but the franchisees really like it as well. We got away from using preformed burger patties to searing them on the grill, which gives a much better look and taste of a homemade burger. We also upgraded the milk shake presentation, and we added a salad to the menu. We’ve done so much on the marketing side, but I’ve been focusing on a loyalty program that we hope to launch in Q1. Fundraisers have been a really big marketing initiative, which came from talking to franchisees and asking for their recommendations on how to be better at local store marketing. We’re getting much better at using their experience and local contacts as well. With the recent creation of Reach Restaurant Group you’ve announced, what kind of a leadership role did you hope to carve out for yourself? We’re still in the beginning stages of Reach, as the company has only been formed in the past 30 days. But it has allowed us to bring in more resources to support the franchisees in a bigger way. I can bring on more people as department heads and build more infrastructure to support the restaurants. That’s incredibly important. It also improves our purchasing power. For instance, we just hired a corporate executive chef, John Hrinkevich. He’s spent 25 years in the business, and he recently was in charge of 65 P.F. Chang’s locations. My time will be best spent inspiring our people and support team to improve and fully understand the franchise direction. I want to continuously remind them that we work for the franchisees—that’s our responsibility. Culturally, everyone understands that our customer is the franchisee. How we treat the franchisees is how they’ll treat their employees, which then informs how the staff treats the guests in the restaurants. What could entrepreneurs learn from your time away from leading MOOYAH day to day and from your first year back? Any time you hand over the leadership role to somebody else, you always risk that they wouldn’t run things at the same level you did or that their priorities are just mismatched. My counsel to any founder of a concept is that handing the leadership position over takes a lot of time and consideration. It’s a huge decision. Who do you consider to be your mentors in business? What’s the most important thing you’ve learned from these mentors? I have three. The first is Rick Federico, the CEO of P.F. Chang’s. I met him when I cut my teeth in restaurant management at Romano’s Macaroni Grill. Doug Brooks, the former CEO at Brinker International, is another mentor and continues to be. The third and most important mentor is my father; I wouldn’t be the leader or person I am today without him. The consistent theme that’s come from those three men is to always do the right thing. There’s a tremendous amount of different qualities they’ve taught me over the years, whether it’s values or morals from my father, to the inspiration of employees and guests from Rick and Doug. But at the end of the day, what I always remind my people is that we have to do the right thing, and that goes a long way.