October 24, 2024 • 34 mins
Prepare to be inspired by Sherif Mityas, the innovative mind who transformed TGI Fridays with AI before it was even a buzzword. Discover how Sherif's journey from aerospace engineering to becoming the CEO of Brix Holdings, which includes beloved brands like Friendly's and Clean Juice, has shaped his unique leadership approach. From his early days at Sears and his pivotal roles at Movie Gallery and Hollywood Video, Sherif shares career-defining moments and insights into the changing landscape of consumer behavior in the restaurant industry.
Imagine AI as your right-hand assistant, streamlining operations and enhancing customer experiences. In this episode, we explore the revolutionary potential of AI in the hospitality sector, especially in supporting general managers with crucial data for better decision-making. Sherif's expertise highlights the balance between leveraging technology for personalized service and maintaining high standards of operational excellence. Learn how reinvesting cost efficiencies into supply chains and infrastructure can elevate the guest experience and why effective communication is a cornerstone of successful leadership.
Authenticity and adaptability are key themes as Sherif recounts personal experiences that have shaped his leadership style. From taking improv classes to improve quick thinking to overcoming imposter syndrome, his stories underscore the importance of humility and continuous learning. Tune in for an engaging conversation that bridges the gap between top executives and our audience, offering rare and valuable insights.
Biography:
Sherif Mityas is an experienced strategist and executive leader with over 25 years in the retail and hospitality sectors, known for driving innovation and delivering significant stakeholder value. As the CEO of BRIX Holdings, a leading restaurant investment group, Sharif oversees a portfolio of over 350 locations across multiple brands, including Friendly’s, Red Mango, Orange Leaf, Smoothie Factory+Kitchen, SouperSalad, and Pizza Jukebox.
Sherif's career is marked by his tenure as the Chief Experience Officer for TGI FRIDAYS, where he led the brand’s strategy, marketing, innovation, and digital transformation. He also served as the CEO for Hollywood Video/Movie Gallery and Game Crazy, demonstrating his ability to lead organizations through significant changes and challenges. Recognized as one of the top 10 innovators in the restaurant industry by Nation's Restaurant News and the Global CXO of the year in DFW, Sherif is celebrated for his strategic vision and expertise in customer experience management, marketing, and consumer analytics.
A strong advocate for diversity and a robust organizational culture, Sherif has been named one of DFW’s Most Admired CEOs by the Dallas Business Journal. His educational background includes a B.S. in aerospace engineering from Boston University, an M.S. in mechanical engineering from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, and an MBA from Northwestern’s Kellogg School of Management.
Contact/Profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sherif-mityas-94a91116/
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Paula (00:00):
I'm excited to invite Sherif Mityas onto the show.
Been friends with him for overa decade Fantastic guy.
He was the one that implementedAI into TGI Fridays, generated
hundreds of millions of dollarsfor the company using that, and
he did this before AI becamewhat AI currently is.
He did this back in, I think,2018, 2019.
So this guy was ahead of histime.
(00:20):
So I am excited for you guys tolisten to him and hear what he
has to say.
Rich (00:24):
I'm excited to find out how the patty melt is doing.
It's interesting because when Ithink of retail and again a lot
of this is challenging biasI'll be the first one to say
that retail has to go beyondjust thinking about fashion
merchandising or apparel ortraditional department stores.
And when you talked aboutinviting somebody with
experience in food, obviouslyhis experience goes well before
(00:47):
that I had to stop myself andthink is that perspective is on
AI and how it intersects withthe organizational culture?
Gautham (01:10):
What is more, hospitality in general is people
focused, people centric.
So how do they seek thatbalance, especially in a day to
day where AI seems to bedominating all conversations?
Love to hear his perspective onthat.
Rich (01:22):
Paula, when you first met him, what part of the industry
was he in?
He was at Fridays.
Paula (01:26):
So he was the CMO of Fridays and then he got promoted
to CXO Chief Experience Officer.
Rich (01:32):
So he truly has run the gamut in retail.
From where my experience is inretail, to video, to now food
services and Gautam, you'reright to be able to see how he
balances a customer-centricculture with technology is going
to be outstanding, so let'sjump right into it.
Paula (01:51):
Sherif, welcome to Retail Relates.
Thank you so much for being onthe show.
You have done so much in theworld of consumer relations.
You've been part of someincredible brands like TGI
Fridays.
You've helped implement AIbefore AI was what it is today.
I'm just really excited to getinto this with you.
So, instead of asking you whatyour background is, we're going
to have your bio in the shownotes.
(02:13):
Tell me more about pivotalmoments in your career, your
personal life, that brought youto where you are today, as a CEO
of Bricks Holdings that has aportfolio of companies like
Friendly, the Yogurt Clays.
Sherif (02:27):
Yes, absolutely yeah.
So I'd say the three pivotalmoments first was so, out of
school I was actually anaerospace engineer, so I worked
on fighter jet engines forUnited Technologies and then
decided for some reason that thereal money was going into
business.
So I went and got my MBA atKellogg Northwestern University
(02:51):
and then joined a consultingfirm right out of school, and my
first consulting engagement waswith Sears and Rova, and so it
was my introduction to retail,and actually my project was
helping them figure out at thatpoint what they should be doing
with this new product calledcell phones and how they should
be selling them.
And they had Nokia as their onemain product and we were trying
(03:15):
to figure out what otherproducts they should be selling.
So that was my introduction toretail, fell in love with it,
ended up staying in consultingfor a while and working with
some of the largest retailers inthe world, from Walmart, kroger
, smaller groups like Ralph's,rent, the Gap.
So did spans across retail,from grocery to mass to discount
, to apparel and specialty.
(03:35):
So that was pivotal momentnumber one.
I'd say pivotal moment numbertwo was then one of those
clients asked me to come andjoin them as actually a
full-time executive and in thosedays it was the hot thing was
movie rentals.
So I went and joined a moviegallery in Hollywood Video.
They had just merged.
I had helped the board with themerger of those two entities to
create basically the secondbiggest movie rental and game
(03:58):
company on the planet, second toBlockbuster.
And so I was their CEO for acouple of years and got to be
CEO at the young, ripe age of 38, first time in the chair and
learned a lot, but also thenkind of on the other side of the
table actually running aretailer and running one of
these large organizations.
And then I would say the thirdpivotal moment that led to this
is got a call to come and help arestaurant company.
(04:22):
And so it was really my firstforay into the restaurant world,
which is basically taking aretailer and adding a restaurant
company.
And so it was really my firstforay into the restaurant world,
which is basically taking aretailer and adding a
manufacturing facility and thenyou become a restaurant and so
you have all the challenges ofdealing with consumers on the
retail side, but you now have toalso deal with manufacturing
because you're actuallypreparing food for these guests.
And so I got that opportunityto join the TGI Fridays brand,
first as their chief strategyofficer, picked up the CIO role,
(04:45):
became their chief experienceofficer and then from there went
on to now helping lead theRicks Holdings group as their
CEO for the past couple of years.
We have eight brands now underour portfolio, from Friendly's
on the East Coast, orange Leaf,frozen Yogurt, red Mango, super
Salad, smoothie Factory, plusKitchen, humble, don donuts,
(05:05):
pizza, jukebox, and we justacquired our newest brand, the
Clean Juice Group, which is acertified organic juice bar
about 80 some locations aroundthe country.
So that's the fun I get to donow.
Paula (05:19):
And that's crazy that you started, you know, when you
were 18.
Who would have guessed?
It's crazy.
So we're, going to talk alittle bit about the consumer
behavior in the restaurantindustry.
How do you think consumerbehavior, particularly in the
restaurant industry, has changedover the course of your career?
So from Fridays, even, all theway back to when you were
getting your MBA at Kellogg tonow I know that again, ai was
(05:42):
very important in your career atFridays.
So what do you think thebiggest changes are?
Sherif (05:48):
I think there's a couple , I think, rightly or wrongly
the Internet, the digital era,even before that, in terms of,
you know, kind of creating whatI will call immediacy.
When a consumer wants something,they want it now, they want it
on their terms, they want itfrictionless, they want it
without any kind of almostwithout and I say interaction,
(06:09):
but without any blockage to thatprocess.
And what you're seeing is, youknow, the opportunities are
there from a technologyperspective to provide that
right and you can almost getwhatever you want now at the
click of a button.
And you can don't have to be,you know, used to you have to be
actually sitting in your officeor sitting at home.
Now you can just walk aroundwith a supercomputer in your
hands and basically get anythingyou want at any moment, at any
(06:31):
time, and that involves a bigscreen TV to a chicken sandwich.
And so this opportunity thatwe've given consumers has made
them basically want the worldright.
They don't like being told no,they don't like being told you
can't have it now, they don'tlike being told you can't have
it on your terms.
So what that's also led to,really now driven through AI and
(06:53):
some of the machine learningand the data that's out there is
.
Not only do I want it, but Iwant it specific to me, I want
it personalized, right?
I don't want to see anymarketing now, emails or banners
or social posts that are to thepublic.
I want something that'stargeted to me.
In fact, we're going to get toa point where I don't want just
any chicken sandwich.
I want it the way I alwaysorder it and I want you to know
(07:14):
that, and I want it to be in mycart and I want it to come at
the exact moment you know I'mgoing to be hungry, right?
That level of expectation hasgotten so big that, as consumers
, we not only expect it, but wedemand it, and so the bar has
just been raised for everyretailer, every restaurateur,
everyone that has to deal with aconsumer.
You can't just offer what youoffer to the masses anymore.
(07:36):
You can't just do one size fitsall.
You can't be vanilla, and ifyou can be more specific and
targeted and personalized,you're going to lose because
someone else is out there doing.
And so consumers, rightly orwrongly, we've made them
unreasonable.
Almost We've trained a beastthat basically has all of these
expectations on how they need tobe served and what they expect
(07:58):
from brands.
The opportunity for brands is tobe able to provide that, but to
provide a differentiating hook.
Why should someone drive bythree other restaurants to come
to me?
It's got to be more than justthe food, it's got to be more
than just the service.
It's got to be that totality ofthe experience.
And so if you're not thinkingabout that, and you're not
thinking about how you are nowunderstanding that specific
customer, how you're using thedata that you have on that
(08:20):
customer to provide thatpersonalized experience, you're
going to lose.
You're going to lose to thosethree other guys that they have
to drive by to get to you.
To me, it's this expectationthat we've set for consumers
that is now unleashed.
They're always going to expectmore.
There's always going to expectthe next you know cool new thing
where they can interact withyour brand better, faster,
cheaper, more personalized thananywhere else.
Paula (08:43):
I mean, but what's next?
I mean, we're at kind of Iwouldn't even say it's a tipping
point.
It's like the tip of theiceberg as far as
personalization andinstantaneous and predictive
actions, predictive analyticsthat help us understand where
the consumer is going.
But so where do we go fromthere?
Sherif (08:59):
Well, I think it's really getting down to this
personalization piece, which is,how much more can we know an
individual and so how much morecan we personalize that
experience?
I'll give you a simple example.
Imagine a drive-thru at a QSRlocation, a quick service
restaurant, and imagine that youdon't speak very good English
because you come from adifferent country.
(09:19):
You have a different nativelanguage.
That's fine.
The license plate knows who youare.
You're greeted by an AI voiceat the drive-thru in your native
tongue.
You can speak.
The menu board changes to yourlanguage just for you.
You just see products that areprobably ones you're going to
want based on your past orderinghistory, with some
recommendations you can speak inyour native language, be
(09:42):
responded to in your nativelanguage order, or just say yes,
I want my recommended orderthat you've made for me and that
is going to be two minuteslater ready for you to pick up
when you drive up to the nextwindow.
Now imagine that.
Imagine that level ofpersonalization, imagine that
level of connection with a guestjust based on you knew who they
were as they were driving up tothe drive-thru.
That technology is possibletoday.
Paula (10:04):
It's a little crazy, but yeah.
Rich (10:07):
So let me take it in a little bit of an opposite
direction.
You've had the advantage ofhaving been in retail and food
and video rental and reallyseeing consumer behavior from
many different perspectives.
There's no doubt that AI isgenerating faster than sometimes
we can keep up with it.
Personalization is a secretsauce.
(10:29):
Do you see there being acounter trend?
And my part two to that iswhere does humanization fit into
that?
Sherif (10:37):
Great question, rach.
So I think one of the thingsthat we're doing and I was a big
proponent of this is how do youutilize some of these
technologies to make the human,toto-human interaction better?
So one of the things we weretesting at Fridays and now we're
going to be doing at Friendly'sis two things.
So there's things that areguest facing, so things that
I'll say are above the skin,things that a guest can see.
(10:58):
So imagine there is an earpiecein your hostess's ear and
imagine, again, based on thecell phone of a guest walking in
, that that hostess knows yourname, your birthday, your
favorite drink, your favoritetable.
The guest has no idea that thatguest walking in, you're
walking in, you're talking to ahuman, but that host or hostess
is now so much moreknowledgeable about creating a
(11:20):
VIP and personalized experiencefor you because of the
technology.
They're going to greet you byname.
They're going to say Rich, mygosh, how was your birthday last
week?
You know what?
The first drink, and you likeboth fashions, right, your first
drinks on us.
We'll have it waiting for youat your table when we see you in
a moment.
Now, how do you feel?
Like wow, right, I'm almostlike Norm from Cheers, right,
(11:40):
everyone knows my name, theyknow who I am, they know my
favorite drink.
I feel like a VIP.
Right, I have a differentiatedexperience, no idea that that
earpiece just fed all that toour host or hostess and created
the opportunity for thatinteraction, human to human, to
occur.
Now imagine also on the thingsthat are not basically visible
to the guests.
(12:00):
So imagine our general managerruns that four walls right.
Imagine all the decisions thatgeneral manager has to make,
from hiring, firing, training,ordering, waste management,
theft, labor, scheduling all thepieces right.
Imagine if I gave him or her anAI assistant that knew all the
data about running that store inthe most efficient fashion,
knew about the customers thatare at that store, the loyalty
(12:23):
members, the weather patterns,to be able to order differently
from a seasonality perspective,more ice cream versus soup.
Now, I just made that generalmanager a thousand times better.
But that general manager guesswhat?
Still has to interact with theteam, still has to interact with
the guests, still has to order,still has to do things, but the
technology has made him or hera thousand times better.
(12:43):
That's how we think about usingtechnology, especially in this
AI world not to replace humans,but to actually make them better
and to make those interactionswith our guests better, because
I believe strongly thathospitality is still human to
human, believe strongly thathospitality is still human to
human.
There'll be kiosks, there'll beautomated drive-thrus.
End of the day, a lot of us goout and will continue to go out.
We hear this from our guestsall the time.
(13:04):
They want to talk to someone.
But I want that someone to havethe time to talk to my guests.
I don't want them sitting inthe back office trying to run
labor reports Let a machine dothat.
I want them out there talkingto guests, giving them the
information they need to be abetter host or hostess, to be a
better general manager, to be abetter team.
Gautham (13:21):
Sure Can I ask you a follow-up question, just taking
the other side of things right.
Fully agreed, personalizationis critical and there is an
increasing demand from consumerson choice, choice that, as a
CEO of a very large company,that also induces a lot of
operational challenges, right.
(13:46):
Be it infrastructure, be itdata, be it actually the supply
chain, how do you balance thatgrowing need for these with that
operational excellence which tome seem to be and correct me,
there might be some tensions inthere right For sure.
Sherif (13:57):
Yeah, so to us it's we look at.
We obviously look at theeconomics of the totality of
what we're putting in place, toyour point.
Right?
So if I can utilize technology,automation, to create cost
efficiencies, I may not putthose cost efficiencies in my
pocket.
I may reinvest them into otherparts that are required.
Right?
(14:17):
So if I save money here from alabor perspective or whatever,
and I have to put those into thesupply chain, if I have to put
those into other infrastructure,then to me, if I can at least
balance from an economicperspective but provide a better
experience to my guests or tomy team members, that's a win.
I don't need to save that money.
What I want to do is generatemore traffic, more frequency,
(14:39):
more loyalty, more growth.
Right, so to me that's aninvestment, even though I'm
moving dollars from one piece ofthat pie to another.
Paula (14:47):
Yeah.
So let's get into you right.
Let's get into the human aspectand you and other humans right.
This podcast is about makingyou relatable, which you are,
but also how can we make yourexperience relatable to other
people so that when we see thatit's achievable?
So what do you think is themost underrated or undervalued
skill that a person can have?
Sherif (15:07):
I think if there's a couple of things One is, I think
at the end of the day, whateveryou want to do and kind of
moving up in the world, you'vegot to be a great communicator.
I think you've got to have theopportunity to be able to tell
the story and to convince peoplethat your story, your path,
your plan, your strategy,whatever you want to get done,
that those words that come out,that how you talk to people, how
(15:30):
you convince people, how youmotivate people to be with you
on that ship, either makes orbreaks you.
Right, none of us can besuccessful on our own.
If we can't have a group ofpeople that are willing to go on
that journey with us, thatwilling to see the vision that
we want to put out there and getthere, you're not going to
progress very far in your career, right, you can be the best
technician, you can be the bestdata analyst, you can be the
best functionally technical,superior talent in the room.
(15:52):
If you can't communicate it,then it will sit and die with
you.
And the second piece I would sayis and I tell this to every
college class I go to when I'm aguest lecturer, I take an
improv class, because if youcan't think on your feet, if you
can't adapt quickly to justrandom things being shot your
way, you know, here's a scene,here's your character go and you
can't do that.
(16:12):
I think it's one of the mostunderrated skills.
Best CEOs that I've everinteracted with my mentors,
people I've followed are verygood on their feet and are very
good at adapting to change whenit comes from left field, and I
think those make the bestexecutives out there.
Rich (16:33):
So let me ask you a question about balance, because
I agree and I love the improvexample, but if you think about
the growth in social media, itwas supposed to put us in touch
with real news and real facts ata nanosecond.
I won't comment beyond that,but we can argue as to whether
information is improved or isworse.
(16:55):
So now we're facing AI, where Ican use AI to improv.
How do you encourage thosecoming up to find that balance
between using technology butbeing personally able to think
critically, personally able toimprov and think other feet?
Sherif (17:15):
I think, at the end of the day, the thing that will
still kind of always make ushuman, so to speak, is the
authenticity of thoseinteractions and that
communication and that thinking.
And I think if you have a trackrecord of doing it, of speaking
kind of from your mind, fromyour thoughts, from what you
believe and why you believe andbring those things to life
(17:37):
either, whether it's externallycommunicating internally to your
team superiors, direct reports,I think at the end of the day
if you're authentic, that comesthrough.
I've yet to see a chat GBTresponse that would mirror my
tone, my voice, in an authenticfashion.
Now we'll probably get there,rich right, but at the end of
(17:57):
the day I think you've got to beable to personally kind of put
yourself into what you believeand into the path you want
people to follow and how youcommunicate that.
And I think you know I'm goingto stick with that and you know,
let the chat GBT folks go theirown path.
Gautham (18:15):
I appreciate that answer that I appreciate that
answer.
Sure, I'm going to ask you alittle bit more of a personal
question, in the sense that youknow, you've managed movie
theaters, you've owned andmanaged them, you've run
restaurants and taken it to thepinnacle, and now you're
managing a group of franchises.
What accomplishment stands outto you, and why, boy, what?
Sherif (18:37):
accomplishment stands out to you?
And why, boy?
What accomplishment stands outto me?
I'd say I mean, I think there'sa couple.
I mean one.
I was very humbled and honoredto be able to be a CEO at what I
would consider a fairly juniorage and I wasn't 40 years yet
and to be entrusted with 3,000stores, 30,000 employees, $2
(19:00):
billion was weighty.
You know, talk about impostersyndrome.
I didn't believe I belonged inthe chair and I, you know, made
some stupid mistakes lookingback, made some good decisions
looking back, but I learned aton and I wouldn't have traded
it for the world.
You know, to me that was anamazing experience, something I
think I still go back and thinkabout.
(19:23):
You know what I did right andwrong, lessons learned that I
apply today and how I treat myteam and the culture I want to
build here, and what I wouldhave done differently Right and
so I think having thatopportunity was invaluable and I
think has made me a betterleader today in terms of where I
am and the team I have and youknow just.
You know having folks that reachout to me, even today, that
(19:45):
kind of just.
I get random emails and lettersthanking me for helping them in
their career in the past.
And you know I've won tons ofawards CEO of the year, most
admired CEO, all that crap.
Tons of awards, ceo of the yearmost admired CEO, all that crap
.
But at the end of the day it'sthat personal email I get from
an old direct report that makesit all worthwhile.
Rich (20:04):
So you are a card carrying , member of the imposter
syndrome club All day, every day, yeah, so I will interject the
personal moment.
We were having a conversationamong three of us last night
late about the realization thatall three of us are chapter
presidents in our respectivearea.
(20:41):
Which I think actually it's oneof the things.
Obviously it takes a great dealof diversity in order to
especially when you look athospitality, food services,
retail.
It's important Whethersomeone's an introvert or an
extrovert, whether they're analpha or they have imposter
syndrome.
Everybody coming together makesa difference and I think it's
great to meet a fellow impostersyndrome member and see the
success that you've had.
So I have a feeling it's goingto inspire a few people Well,
thank you.
Sherif (20:52):
And I'll hold up the Dallas chapter for you until you
get some new members here.
Appreciate that.
Paula (20:57):
So what's the best advice you've received?
So you've talked about givingadvice.
You gave some great advice sofar.
Honestly, what's the bestadvice that you've received
that's really impacted you inyour career or maybe your
personal life?
Sherif (21:10):
It's, I think, the best advice.
I mean, let's be honest, I mean, coming out of school, I've
been for my competitive lead,you know, in sports, and I'm
type A right, no question, verytype A personality.
I wanted to go as fast and asfar, and you know, no one's
going to step in my waythroughout my life.
And so, unfortunately, I didn'tmean to do this, but I've
(21:32):
taught my girls that and theyare ridiculously type A, and so
I need to temper them a bit.
But I think the best piece ofadvice I ever got was if you
want to go fast, go alone, andif you want to go far, go with
your team.
And so I have to check myselfstill to this day, like, well,
(21:52):
we should do this and I want todo this and let's go here.
And so you know I can bedirective with my team.
Right, I'm the CEO, go do right.
That never works.
You've got to be able to buildthe coalition, build the boat
and make sure everyone's on itand make sure everyone's rowing
in the same direction, becausethen it's not just far but it's
sustainable and it's folks thatare in it with you.
(22:15):
And when the folks are in itwith you, they don't check out
of five.
They're thinking about it allthe time.
They're giving me texts on theweekends going well, you said
this, but what about this?
What if we did this Right?
They're always kind of thinkingabout it.
That means they're investedright.
That means they're on the boatwith you and they want to get to
that finish line with you.
And to me, if you don't havethat, you're not going to go far
(22:35):
and you're not, you're probablygoing to go backwards.
To me, have your team with you,the collective team, the
organization, with you.
Have them understand whythey're going in that direction.
Have them invested in it, andthe culture of making that
happen is ultimately what'sgoing to help make you or break
you.
Paula (22:52):
Is it fair to say that you really see communications as
a key component to being aleader, being a retail, being in
business?
Sherif (22:59):
I think it's the most, actually most critical factor.
If you can't be a goodcommunicator, if you can't
inspire others, you can teachfunctional, you can teach
technical.
You can't teach basically whoyou are.
You can, you mean, you can getbetter at it, but you
fundamentally have to want to bea good communicator.
(23:19):
You fundamentally want to haveto bring people together.
It's tough sometimes becauseagain, the easiest thing is like
I just, just I want to go do itRight, just go do it.
Why do I have to explain it?
Why do I have to spend and beinspired by it and make sure
they're really with you, notjust being paid to be with you?
That's the difference,beautifully said.
Paula (23:49):
Gotham Rich.
Do you guys have any questions?
Before we move on to the funpart, the rapid fire.
Gautham (23:55):
Can I ask a question?
This is going to be my tagline,you can mention.
Paula (23:58):
Can I ask a question?
This is going to be my tagline.
Gautham (24:00):
I mean you can finish it In almost every point you
made you have implied cultureand building culture in your
organizations and you've usedcommunication and a humble
aspect of you to kind of buildthat, increasing as technology
becomes prevalent, culture is acritical glue that holds people
together.
How do you view buildingcorporate culture today in a
(24:21):
technology enabled, technologyprevalent world?
Sherif (24:25):
Yeah, I think I couldn't agree with you more.
I think culture is thefundamental basis by which any
organization needs to have andbe built.
And so my first 30 days as CEO,half my leadership team
meetings and the communicationswith my organization was on our
core values.
And so we spent a lot of time,got everyone involved in the
(24:46):
office out in the field, ourrestaurants, because I wanted
them to be more than words on apage.
I wanted them to be actualthings that we live.
And so, again, no matter whatfunction you're in whether
you're in my technology group,my supply chain group, or a
server or a dishwasher in ourrestaurants every member of this
organization can tell you ourcore values and can tell you
(25:07):
what they stand for and can tellyou how they live them.
And to me that's the basis ofour culture.
And for us it's very simple.
We are, collectively andindividually, the face of BRICS
F-A-C-E.
We are friendly, we areaccountable, we are committed,
we are empowered, and what thatmeans to each level is slightly
different.
Right, those are big words withlots of meanings underneath,
(25:29):
but culturally it's how weoperate, it's our core, and when
we talk to each other, when weengage with each other.
We always kind of go back tothose.
How are we living our valuesevery day?
Our franchisees have adoptedthose values and they'll tell
you.
You go to any one of myrestaurants.
Ask them what the Bricks corevalues are.
They'll say I am the face ofBricks.
And so to me, regardless of howadvanced, how fast technology
(25:54):
moves, we're still organizationsrun by people.
And if you don't have the rightculture and the foundation,
then there is no amount of chat,gbt that will save you.
Rich (26:04):
So a question from a from a personal perspective how do
you personally draw inspirationor what do you do to recharge?
Sherif (26:16):
So I have amazing daughters and so I go watch them
either dance or play beachvolleyball.
That gives me energy andinspiration and I feed off their
competitive spirit as well,when I'm lacking it or when I
get beat down.
And I celebrate the successesof our teams and our franchisees
(26:36):
, right?
So every store opening, grandopening, I go, and the energy
from that new owner and thatteam you just feed off it.
Right so, celebrating thesuccess of others, spending time
with my family, that's.
I couldn't ask for anythingmore.
Paula (26:51):
That's beautiful.
So let's get into the fun part.
Well, the funner part.
First thing that comes to yourhead.
Just like we've done before,we'll each take a question.
Rich Gotham and I.
Are you ready, I guess?
So, alright, first one what'syour walk-on song?
Sherif (27:08):
Don't worry, be happy.
I did not even remember.
I know you didn't.
I was just trying to throw itfor a loop.
I could have said, walk like anEgyptian, but that would have
been too easy.
Paula (27:19):
I was thinking more like you better do this or you're
going to pay more in unshieldingLove.
Don't work in nappies.
Rich (27:25):
Great.
So I have to audible because Ihave one written down.
But I can't help with your foodexperience asking you at the
end of a really tough day and Idon't want to put you in a
situation where you're dissingone franchise over another but
at the end of a really tough daywhat's your go-to comfort food?
Sherif (27:43):
Wow, my go-to comfort food would actually be.
I spent most of my career inChicago, and so there is nothing
that beats Harold's friedchicken as just fantastic,
greasy, awesome comfort food.
It's baked in beef fat, believeit or not, and it is phenomenal
.
And aside with it, my go-todrink is an old-fashioned, so it
(28:07):
would have to be with anold-fashioned as well, I'm
picturing the combination.
Rich (28:10):
I've had the fried chicken , never with jellied lamb, but
I'm going to let it work.
Sherif (28:13):
Go give it a try.
I'm starving now.
Okay, I'm going to go give it atry.
So what's the most unusual itemyou have bought or sold?
(28:35):
So I've been back a couple oftimes.
My most recent trip was acouple of years ago, and we were
in near the pyramids and foundthis little vendor that was
selling, basically, pieces ofthe pyramid that they had
chiseled off inside.
It was, so I have a piece ofthe pyramid in my house that I
(28:57):
keep to remember where I'm from.
So it's a little piece I have.
That's awesome.
Paula (29:02):
I hate to ruin that beautiful moment, but how
authentic do?
Sherif (29:08):
you think that is.
It's all about us.
Exactly, it's from the pyramids, sorry.
Paula (29:13):
All right.
Well, that's it for this,sharique.
You have been a wonderful guest, as always.
Thank you for your time.
Thank you for having me.
Rich (29:22):
That was interesting and I just listening to his
background and go from businessto business that he's been and
what he's learned.
I think it's a good example ofwhere you can take skills and
really transfer them todifferent industries if you're
continuing to look at, in hiscase, the customer or the
associate and the technology,and so no wonder that Briggs has
(29:45):
expanded the way that they haveand where his success has been.
I found that really interesting.
Paula (29:51):
Yeah, what I love about Sharif is I've talked to him
several times, I've interviewedhim for so many different things
.
I know what he's going to say.
He always kind of sayssomething similar, but he just
always says it in a new lightthat just resonates with me.
So I love coming back to myconversations with Sharif and I
love that he talked about hisgirls and his family, because I
know his family his entirefamily is just fantastic and
(30:11):
they really do drive him andgive him that energy.
I can absolutely vouch for that.
Gautham (30:16):
He came across as very humble, the servant leader kind
of thing, right, Focused on hisemployees and making sure that
they excelled in the position.
And I love his answer to myquestion where he talked about
it being the FACE and he came upwith the acronym for FACE right
, so hospitality always has beenand always will be a
(30:40):
people-centric conversation,right, and so it was really nice
for him to bring that you know,with all the focus on
technology, bring it all back tothe people and I hope we'll
always stay focused on thatnotion that it is people and it
is relationships right.
That actually ties us alltogether and creates an
experience.
(31:01):
I enjoy the conversation.
Rich (31:03):
So I have a question for you guys.
As we go further into thesepodcasts, we're talking to
leaders from a variety of fields, from a variety of vantage
points within their fields, andyou start to hear this common
theme that, yes, you have toadvance technology and at the
same time, it is about peopleand being customer centric and
(31:24):
not just paying lip service toit.
To what extent do you thinkthis conversation is happening
in boardrooms all across theworld?
I won't even see the country,and how do you think students
are preparing for that?
Gautham (31:36):
Let me take a first cut at that, right?
So the way I explain it to mystudents, since you said how are
students preparing for it?
I always tell them it's likeEnglish or math, right, you got
to know it.
But that's not going to be atrue differentiator.
In many ways it's a necessarycondition, right?
It's how you deploy to buildthose intangible stuff that
matters and I will live and dieby this word that a lot of these
(32:00):
companies are deployingtechnology for the sake of
technology, for the fear ofmissing out.
And I think until and unless wehave people focused on
technology, understandingtechnology, focused on
technology to enable theseintangibles, those experiences,
those moments of delight, wewill not really get the full
(32:22):
power and scope of technologyand what it can do for you.
At least, that's the way Iteach it to students.
We'll see how that goes.
I'm hopeful that we'll see thatintersection come to life.
I'm sure the companies aretalking about that right now.
Paula (32:36):
Yeah, I'll take a different perspective on that.
I don't know.
I don't think that studentshave had the ability to hear
directly from these leaders inthis capacity, and that's what
excites me about this podcast.
So I know that your questionwas a little different, but the
way I want to answer that isthese people, when they're in
the boardroom, they don't havethese direct conversations or
(32:56):
talk about people.
These are things that theyalready assume of the other
person because they made it to acertain degree and they're
definitely not having theseconversations with students in
this kind of capacity.
So I'm excited that we're ableto kind of bring that to every
person so they can hear directlywhat these executives think and
feel and what's going on quoteunquote behind the scenes.
Rich (33:18):
Well, paula, thank you very much for inviting Sharif to
the program.
He was absolutely bothinformative and inspiring and
really lent a lot of value toour students and our audience, I
think.
And, gautam, it's always greatto see you and you, paula, my
podcast BFFs, and until nexttime with another episode of
Retail Relates we are signingoff.
I'm excited to invite Sherif Mityas onto the show.
Been friends with him for overa decade Fantastic guy.
He was the one that implementedAI into TGI Fridays, generated
hundreds of millions of dollarsfor the company using that, and
he did this before AI becamewhat AI currently is.
He did this back in, I think,2018, 2019.
So this guy was ahead of histime.
(00:20):
So I am excited for you guys tolisten to him and hear what he
has to say.
Rich (00:24):
I'm excited to find out how the patty melt is doing.
It's interesting because when Ithink of retail and again a lot
of this is challenging biasI'll be the first one to say
that retail has to go beyondjust thinking about fashion
merchandising or apparel ortraditional department stores.
And when you talked aboutinviting somebody with
experience in food, obviouslyhis experience goes well before
(00:47):
that I had to stop myself andthink is that perspective is on
AI and how it intersects withthe organizational culture?
Gautham (01:10):
What is more, hospitality in general is people
focused, people centric.
So how do they seek thatbalance, especially in a day to
day where AI seems to bedominating all conversations?
Love to hear his perspective onthat.
Rich (01:22):
Paula, when you first met him, what part of the industry
was he in?
He was at Fridays.
Paula (01:26):
So he was the CMO of Fridays and then he got promoted
to CXO Chief Experience Officer.
Rich (01:32):
So he truly has run the gamut in retail.
From where my experience is inretail, to video, to now food
services and Gautam, you'reright to be able to see how he
balances a customer-centricculture with technology is going
to be outstanding, so let'sjump right into it.
Paula (01:51):
Sherif, welcome to Retail Relates.
Thank you so much for being onthe show.
You have done so much in theworld of consumer relations.
You've been part of someincredible brands like TGI
Fridays.
You've helped implement AIbefore AI was what it is today.
I'm just really excited to getinto this with you.
So, instead of asking you whatyour background is, we're going
to have your bio in the shownotes.
(02:13):
Tell me more about pivotalmoments in your career, your
personal life, that brought youto where you are today, as a CEO
of Bricks Holdings that has aportfolio of companies like
Friendly, the Yogurt Clays.
Sherif (02:27):
Yes, absolutely yeah.
So I'd say the three pivotalmoments first was so, out of
school I was actually anaerospace engineer, so I worked
on fighter jet engines forUnited Technologies and then
decided for some reason that thereal money was going into
business.
So I went and got my MBA atKellogg Northwestern University
(02:51):
and then joined a consultingfirm right out of school, and my
first consulting engagement waswith Sears and Rova, and so it
was my introduction to retail,and actually my project was
helping them figure out at thatpoint what they should be doing
with this new product calledcell phones and how they should
be selling them.
And they had Nokia as their onemain product and we were trying
(03:15):
to figure out what otherproducts they should be selling.
So that was my introduction toretail, fell in love with it,
ended up staying in consultingfor a while and working with
some of the largest retailers inthe world, from Walmart, kroger
, smaller groups like Ralph's,rent, the Gap.
So did spans across retail,from grocery to mass to discount
, to apparel and specialty.
(03:35):
So that was pivotal momentnumber one.
I'd say pivotal moment numbertwo was then one of those
clients asked me to come andjoin them as actually a
full-time executive and in thosedays it was the hot thing was
movie rentals.
So I went and joined a moviegallery in Hollywood Video.
They had just merged.
I had helped the board with themerger of those two entities to
create basically the secondbiggest movie rental and game
(03:58):
company on the planet, second toBlockbuster.
And so I was their CEO for acouple of years and got to be
CEO at the young, ripe age of 38, first time in the chair and
learned a lot, but also thenkind of on the other side of the
table actually running aretailer and running one of
these large organizations.
And then I would say the thirdpivotal moment that led to this
is got a call to come and help arestaurant company.
(04:22):
And so it was really my firstforay into the restaurant world,
which is basically taking aretailer and adding a restaurant
company.
And so it was really my firstforay into the restaurant world,
which is basically taking aretailer and adding a
manufacturing facility and thenyou become a restaurant and so
you have all the challenges ofdealing with consumers on the
retail side, but you now have toalso deal with manufacturing
because you're actuallypreparing food for these guests.
And so I got that opportunityto join the TGI Fridays brand,
first as their chief strategyofficer, picked up the CIO role,
(04:45):
became their chief experienceofficer and then from there went
on to now helping lead theRicks Holdings group as their
CEO for the past couple of years.
We have eight brands now underour portfolio, from Friendly's
on the East Coast, orange Leaf,frozen Yogurt, red Mango, super
Salad, smoothie Factory, plusKitchen, humble, don donuts,
(05:05):
pizza, jukebox, and we justacquired our newest brand, the
Clean Juice Group, which is acertified organic juice bar
about 80 some locations aroundthe country.
So that's the fun I get to donow.
Paula (05:19):
And that's crazy that you started, you know, when you
were 18.
Who would have guessed?
It's crazy.
So we're, going to talk alittle bit about the consumer
behavior in the restaurantindustry.
How do you think consumerbehavior, particularly in the
restaurant industry, has changedover the course of your career?
So from Fridays, even, all theway back to when you were
getting your MBA at Kellogg tonow I know that again, ai was
(05:42):
very important in your career atFridays.
So what do you think thebiggest changes are?
Sherif (05:48):
I think there's a couple , I think, rightly or wrongly
the Internet, the digital era,even before that, in terms of,
you know, kind of creating whatI will call immediacy.
When a consumer wants something,they want it now, they want it
on their terms, they want itfrictionless, they want it
without any kind of almostwithout and I say interaction,
(06:09):
but without any blockage to thatprocess.
And what you're seeing is, youknow, the opportunities are
there from a technologyperspective to provide that
right and you can almost getwhatever you want now at the
click of a button.
And you can don't have to be,you know, used to you have to be
actually sitting in your officeor sitting at home.
Now you can just walk aroundwith a supercomputer in your
hands and basically get anythingyou want at any moment, at any
(06:31):
time, and that involves a bigscreen TV to a chicken sandwich.
And so this opportunity thatwe've given consumers has made
them basically want the worldright.
They don't like being told no,they don't like being told you
can't have it now, they don'tlike being told you can't have
it on your terms.
So what that's also led to,really now driven through AI and
(06:53):
some of the machine learningand the data that's out there is
.
Not only do I want it, but Iwant it specific to me, I want
it personalized, right?
I don't want to see anymarketing now, emails or banners
or social posts that are to thepublic.
I want something that'stargeted to me.
In fact, we're going to get toa point where I don't want just
any chicken sandwich.
I want it the way I alwaysorder it and I want you to know
(07:14):
that, and I want it to be in mycart and I want it to come at
the exact moment you know I'mgoing to be hungry, right?
That level of expectation hasgotten so big that, as consumers
, we not only expect it, but wedemand it, and so the bar has
just been raised for everyretailer, every restaurateur,
everyone that has to deal with aconsumer.
You can't just offer what youoffer to the masses anymore.
(07:36):
You can't just do one size fitsall.
You can't be vanilla, and ifyou can be more specific and
targeted and personalized,you're going to lose because
someone else is out there doing.
And so consumers, rightly orwrongly, we've made them
unreasonable.
Almost We've trained a beastthat basically has all of these
expectations on how they need tobe served and what they expect
(07:58):
from brands.
The opportunity for brands is tobe able to provide that, but to
provide a differentiating hook.
Why should someone drive bythree other restaurants to come
to me?
It's got to be more than justthe food, it's got to be more
than just the service.
It's got to be that totality ofthe experience.
And so if you're not thinkingabout that, and you're not
thinking about how you are nowunderstanding that specific
customer, how you're using thedata that you have on that
(08:20):
customer to provide thatpersonalized experience, you're
going to lose.
You're going to lose to thosethree other guys that they have
to drive by to get to you.
To me, it's this expectationthat we've set for consumers
that is now unleashed.
They're always going to expectmore.
There's always going to expectthe next you know cool new thing
where they can interact withyour brand better, faster,
cheaper, more personalized thananywhere else.
Paula (08:43):
I mean, but what's next?
I mean, we're at kind of Iwouldn't even say it's a tipping
point.
It's like the tip of theiceberg as far as
personalization andinstantaneous and predictive
actions, predictive analyticsthat help us understand where
the consumer is going.
But so where do we go fromthere?
Sherif (08:59):
Well, I think it's really getting down to this
personalization piece, which is,how much more can we know an
individual and so how much morecan we personalize that
experience?
I'll give you a simple example.
Imagine a drive-thru at a QSRlocation, a quick service
restaurant, and imagine that youdon't speak very good English
because you come from adifferent country.
(09:19):
You have a different nativelanguage.
That's fine.
The license plate knows who youare.
You're greeted by an AI voiceat the drive-thru in your native
tongue.
You can speak.
The menu board changes to yourlanguage just for you.
You just see products that areprobably ones you're going to
want based on your past orderinghistory, with some
recommendations you can speak inyour native language, be
(09:42):
responded to in your nativelanguage order, or just say yes,
I want my recommended orderthat you've made for me and that
is going to be two minuteslater ready for you to pick up
when you drive up to the nextwindow.
Now imagine that.
Imagine that level ofpersonalization, imagine that
level of connection with a guestjust based on you knew who they
were as they were driving up tothe drive-thru.
That technology is possibletoday.
Paula (10:04):
It's a little crazy, but yeah.
Rich (10:07):
So let me take it in a little bit of an opposite
direction.
You've had the advantage ofhaving been in retail and food
and video rental and reallyseeing consumer behavior from
many different perspectives.
There's no doubt that AI isgenerating faster than sometimes
we can keep up with it.
Personalization is a secretsauce.
(10:29):
Do you see there being acounter trend?
And my part two to that iswhere does humanization fit into
that?
Sherif (10:37):
Great question, rach.
So I think one of the thingsthat we're doing and I was a big
proponent of this is how do youutilize some of these
technologies to make the human,toto-human interaction better?
So one of the things we weretesting at Fridays and now we're
going to be doing at Friendly'sis two things.
So there's things that areguest facing, so things that
I'll say are above the skin,things that a guest can see.
(10:58):
So imagine there is an earpiecein your hostess's ear and
imagine, again, based on thecell phone of a guest walking in
, that that hostess knows yourname, your birthday, your
favorite drink, your favoritetable.
The guest has no idea that thatguest walking in, you're
walking in, you're talking to ahuman, but that host or hostess
is now so much moreknowledgeable about creating a
(11:20):
VIP and personalized experiencefor you because of the
technology.
They're going to greet you byname.
They're going to say Rich, mygosh, how was your birthday last
week?
You know what?
The first drink, and you likeboth fashions, right, your first
drinks on us.
We'll have it waiting for youat your table when we see you in
a moment.
Now, how do you feel?
Like wow, right, I'm almostlike Norm from Cheers, right,
(11:40):
everyone knows my name, theyknow who I am, they know my
favorite drink.
I feel like a VIP.
Right, I have a differentiatedexperience, no idea that that
earpiece just fed all that toour host or hostess and created
the opportunity for thatinteraction, human to human, to
occur.
Now imagine also on the thingsthat are not basically visible
to the guests.
(12:00):
So imagine our general managerruns that four walls right.
Imagine all the decisions thatgeneral manager has to make,
from hiring, firing, training,ordering, waste management,
theft, labor, scheduling all thepieces right.
Imagine if I gave him or her anAI assistant that knew all the
data about running that store inthe most efficient fashion,
knew about the customers thatare at that store, the loyalty
(12:23):
members, the weather patterns,to be able to order differently
from a seasonality perspective,more ice cream versus soup.
Now, I just made that generalmanager a thousand times better.
But that general manager guesswhat?
Still has to interact with theteam, still has to interact with
the guests, still has to order,still has to do things, but the
technology has made him or hera thousand times better.
(12:43):
That's how we think about usingtechnology, especially in this
AI world not to replace humans,but to actually make them better
and to make those interactionswith our guests better, because
I believe strongly thathospitality is still human to
human, believe strongly thathospitality is still human to
human.
There'll be kiosks, there'll beautomated drive-thrus.
End of the day, a lot of us goout and will continue to go out.
We hear this from our guestsall the time.
(13:04):
They want to talk to someone.
But I want that someone to havethe time to talk to my guests.
I don't want them sitting inthe back office trying to run
labor reports Let a machine dothat.
I want them out there talkingto guests, giving them the
information they need to be abetter host or hostess, to be a
better general manager, to be abetter team.
Gautham (13:21):
Sure Can I ask you a follow-up question, just taking
the other side of things right.
Fully agreed, personalizationis critical and there is an
increasing demand from consumerson choice, choice that, as a
CEO of a very large company,that also induces a lot of
operational challenges, right.
(13:46):
Be it infrastructure, be itdata, be it actually the supply
chain, how do you balance thatgrowing need for these with that
operational excellence which tome seem to be and correct me,
there might be some tensions inthere right For sure.
Sherif (13:57):
Yeah, so to us it's we look at.
We obviously look at theeconomics of the totality of
what we're putting in place, toyour point.
Right?
So if I can utilize technology,automation, to create cost
efficiencies, I may not putthose cost efficiencies in my
pocket.
I may reinvest them into otherparts that are required.
Right?
(14:17):
So if I save money here from alabor perspective or whatever,
and I have to put those into thesupply chain, if I have to put
those into other infrastructure,then to me, if I can at least
balance from an economicperspective but provide a better
experience to my guests or tomy team members, that's a win.
I don't need to save that money.
What I want to do is generatemore traffic, more frequency,
(14:39):
more loyalty, more growth.
Right, so to me that's aninvestment, even though I'm
moving dollars from one piece ofthat pie to another.
Paula (14:47):
Yeah.
So let's get into you right.
Let's get into the human aspectand you and other humans right.
This podcast is about makingyou relatable, which you are,
but also how can we make yourexperience relatable to other
people so that when we see thatit's achievable?
So what do you think is themost underrated or undervalued
skill that a person can have?
Sherif (15:07):
I think if there's a couple of things One is, I think
at the end of the day, whateveryou want to do and kind of
moving up in the world, you'vegot to be a great communicator.
I think you've got to have theopportunity to be able to tell
the story and to convince peoplethat your story, your path,
your plan, your strategy,whatever you want to get done,
that those words that come out,that how you talk to people, how
(15:30):
you convince people, how youmotivate people to be with you
on that ship, either makes orbreaks you.
Right, none of us can besuccessful on our own.
If we can't have a group ofpeople that are willing to go on
that journey with us, thatwilling to see the vision that
we want to put out there and getthere, you're not going to
progress very far in your career, right, you can be the best
technician, you can be the bestdata analyst, you can be the
best functionally technical,superior talent in the room.
(15:52):
If you can't communicate it,then it will sit and die with
you.
And the second piece I would sayis and I tell this to every
college class I go to when I'm aguest lecturer, I take an
improv class, because if youcan't think on your feet, if you
can't adapt quickly to justrandom things being shot your
way, you know, here's a scene,here's your character go and you
can't do that.
(16:12):
I think it's one of the mostunderrated skills.
Best CEOs that I've everinteracted with my mentors,
people I've followed are verygood on their feet and are very
good at adapting to change whenit comes from left field, and I
think those make the bestexecutives out there.
Rich (16:33):
So let me ask you a question about balance, because
I agree and I love the improvexample, but if you think about
the growth in social media, itwas supposed to put us in touch
with real news and real facts ata nanosecond.
I won't comment beyond that,but we can argue as to whether
information is improved or isworse.
(16:55):
So now we're facing AI, where Ican use AI to improv.
How do you encourage thosecoming up to find that balance
between using technology butbeing personally able to think
critically, personally able toimprov and think other feet?
Sherif (17:15):
I think, at the end of the day, the thing that will
still kind of always make ushuman, so to speak, is the
authenticity of thoseinteractions and that
communication and that thinking.
And I think if you have a trackrecord of doing it, of speaking
kind of from your mind, fromyour thoughts, from what you
believe and why you believe andbring those things to life
(17:37):
either, whether it's externallycommunicating internally to your
team superiors, direct reports,I think at the end of the day
if you're authentic, that comesthrough.
I've yet to see a chat GBTresponse that would mirror my
tone, my voice, in an authenticfashion.
Now we'll probably get there,rich right, but at the end of
(17:57):
the day I think you've got to beable to personally kind of put
yourself into what you believeand into the path you want
people to follow and how youcommunicate that.
And I think you know I'm goingto stick with that and you know,
let the chat GBT folks go theirown path.
Gautham (18:15):
I appreciate that answer that I appreciate that
answer.
Sure, I'm going to ask you alittle bit more of a personal
question, in the sense that youknow, you've managed movie
theaters, you've owned andmanaged them, you've run
restaurants and taken it to thepinnacle, and now you're
managing a group of franchises.
What accomplishment stands outto you, and why, boy, what?
Sherif (18:37):
accomplishment stands out to you?
And why, boy?
What accomplishment stands outto me?
I'd say I mean, I think there'sa couple.
I mean one.
I was very humbled and honoredto be able to be a CEO at what I
would consider a fairly juniorage and I wasn't 40 years yet
and to be entrusted with 3,000stores, 30,000 employees, $2
(19:00):
billion was weighty.
You know, talk about impostersyndrome.
I didn't believe I belonged inthe chair and I, you know, made
some stupid mistakes lookingback, made some good decisions
looking back, but I learned aton and I wouldn't have traded
it for the world.
You know, to me that was anamazing experience, something I
think I still go back and thinkabout.
(19:23):
You know what I did right andwrong, lessons learned that I
apply today and how I treat myteam and the culture I want to
build here, and what I wouldhave done differently Right and
so I think having thatopportunity was invaluable and I
think has made me a betterleader today in terms of where I
am and the team I have and youknow just.
You know having folks that reachout to me, even today, that
(19:45):
kind of just.
I get random emails and lettersthanking me for helping them in
their career in the past.
And you know I've won tons ofawards CEO of the year, most
admired CEO, all that crap.
Tons of awards, ceo of the yearmost admired CEO, all that crap
.
But at the end of the day it'sthat personal email I get from
an old direct report that makesit all worthwhile.
Rich (20:04):
So you are a card carrying , member of the imposter
syndrome club All day, every day, yeah, so I will interject the
personal moment.
We were having a conversationamong three of us last night
late about the realization thatall three of us are chapter
presidents in our respectivearea.
(20:41):
Which I think actually it's oneof the things.
Obviously it takes a great dealof diversity in order to
especially when you look athospitality, food services,
retail.
It's important Whethersomeone's an introvert or an
extrovert, whether they're analpha or they have imposter
syndrome.
Everybody coming together makesa difference and I think it's
great to meet a fellow impostersyndrome member and see the
success that you've had.
So I have a feeling it's goingto inspire a few people Well,
thank you.
Sherif (20:52):
And I'll hold up the Dallas chapter for you until you
get some new members here.
Appreciate that.
Paula (20:57):
So what's the best advice you've received?
So you've talked about givingadvice.
You gave some great advice sofar.
Honestly, what's the bestadvice that you've received
that's really impacted you inyour career or maybe your
personal life?
Sherif (21:10):
It's, I think, the best advice.
I mean, let's be honest, I mean, coming out of school, I've
been for my competitive lead,you know, in sports, and I'm
type A right, no question, verytype A personality.
I wanted to go as fast and asfar, and you know, no one's
going to step in my waythroughout my life.
And so, unfortunately, I didn'tmean to do this, but I've
(21:32):
taught my girls that and theyare ridiculously type A, and so
I need to temper them a bit.
But I think the best piece ofadvice I ever got was if you
want to go fast, go alone, andif you want to go far, go with
your team.
And so I have to check myselfstill to this day, like, well,
(21:52):
we should do this and I want todo this and let's go here.
And so you know I can bedirective with my team.
Right, I'm the CEO, go do right.
That never works.
You've got to be able to buildthe coalition, build the boat
and make sure everyone's on itand make sure everyone's rowing
in the same direction, becausethen it's not just far but it's
sustainable and it's folks thatare in it with you.
(22:15):
And when the folks are in itwith you, they don't check out
of five.
They're thinking about it allthe time.
They're giving me texts on theweekends going well, you said
this, but what about this?
What if we did this Right?
They're always kind of thinkingabout it.
That means they're investedright.
That means they're on the boatwith you and they want to get to
that finish line with you.
And to me, if you don't havethat, you're not going to go far
(22:35):
and you're not, you're probablygoing to go backwards.
To me, have your team with you,the collective team, the
organization, with you.
Have them understand whythey're going in that direction.
Have them invested in it, andthe culture of making that
happen is ultimately what'sgoing to help make you or break
you.
Paula (22:52):
Is it fair to say that you really see communications as
a key component to being aleader, being a retail, being in
business?
Sherif (22:59):
I think it's the most, actually most critical factor.
If you can't be a goodcommunicator, if you can't
inspire others, you can teachfunctional, you can teach
technical.
You can't teach basically whoyou are.
You can, you mean, you can getbetter at it, but you
fundamentally have to want to bea good communicator.
(23:19):
You fundamentally want to haveto bring people together.
It's tough sometimes becauseagain, the easiest thing is like
I just, just I want to go do itRight, just go do it.
Why do I have to explain it?
Why do I have to spend and beinspired by it and make sure
they're really with you, notjust being paid to be with you?
That's the difference,beautifully said.
Paula (23:49):
Gotham Rich.
Do you guys have any questions?
Before we move on to the funpart, the rapid fire.
Gautham (23:55):
Can I ask a question?
This is going to be my tagline,you can mention.
Paula (23:58):
Can I ask a question?
This is going to be my tagline.
Gautham (24:00):
I mean you can finish it In almost every point you
made you have implied cultureand building culture in your
organizations and you've usedcommunication and a humble
aspect of you to kind of buildthat, increasing as technology
becomes prevalent, culture is acritical glue that holds people
together.
How do you view buildingcorporate culture today in a
(24:21):
technology enabled, technologyprevalent world?
Sherif (24:25):
Yeah, I think I couldn't agree with you more.
I think culture is thefundamental basis by which any
organization needs to have andbe built.
And so my first 30 days as CEO,half my leadership team
meetings and the communicationswith my organization was on our
core values.
And so we spent a lot of time,got everyone involved in the
(24:46):
office out in the field, ourrestaurants, because I wanted
them to be more than words on apage.
I wanted them to be actualthings that we live.
And so, again, no matter whatfunction you're in whether
you're in my technology group,my supply chain group, or a
server or a dishwasher in ourrestaurants every member of this
organization can tell you ourcore values and can tell you
(25:07):
what they stand for and can tellyou how they live them.
And to me that's the basis ofour culture.
And for us it's very simple.
We are, collectively andindividually, the face of BRICS
F-A-C-E.
We are friendly, we areaccountable, we are committed,
we are empowered, and what thatmeans to each level is slightly
different.
Right, those are big words withlots of meanings underneath,
(25:29):
but culturally it's how weoperate, it's our core, and when
we talk to each other, when weengage with each other.
We always kind of go back tothose.
How are we living our valuesevery day?
Our franchisees have adoptedthose values and they'll tell
you.
You go to any one of myrestaurants.
Ask them what the Bricks corevalues are.
They'll say I am the face ofBricks.
And so to me, regardless of howadvanced, how fast technology
(25:54):
moves, we're still organizationsrun by people.
And if you don't have the rightculture and the foundation,
then there is no amount of chat,gbt that will save you.
Rich (26:04):
So a question from a from a personal perspective how do
you personally draw inspirationor what do you do to recharge?
Sherif (26:16):
So I have amazing daughters and so I go watch them
either dance or play beachvolleyball.
That gives me energy andinspiration and I feed off their
competitive spirit as well,when I'm lacking it or when I
get beat down.
And I celebrate the successesof our teams and our franchisees
(26:36):
, right?
So every store opening, grandopening, I go, and the energy
from that new owner and thatteam you just feed off it.
Right so, celebrating thesuccess of others, spending time
with my family, that's.
I couldn't ask for anythingmore.
Paula (26:51):
That's beautiful.
So let's get into the fun part.
Well, the funner part.
First thing that comes to yourhead.
Just like we've done before,we'll each take a question.
Rich Gotham and I.
Are you ready, I guess?
So, alright, first one what'syour walk-on song?
Sherif (27:08):
Don't worry, be happy.
I did not even remember.
I know you didn't.
I was just trying to throw itfor a loop.
I could have said, walk like anEgyptian, but that would have
been too easy.
Paula (27:19):
I was thinking more like you better do this or you're
going to pay more in unshieldingLove.
Don't work in nappies.
Rich (27:25):
Great.
So I have to audible because Ihave one written down.
But I can't help with your foodexperience asking you at the
end of a really tough day and Idon't want to put you in a
situation where you're dissingone franchise over another but
at the end of a really tough daywhat's your go-to comfort food?
Sherif (27:43):
Wow, my go-to comfort food would actually be.
I spent most of my career inChicago, and so there is nothing
that beats Harold's friedchicken as just fantastic,
greasy, awesome comfort food.
It's baked in beef fat, believeit or not, and it is phenomenal
.
And aside with it, my go-todrink is an old-fashioned, so it
(28:07):
would have to be with anold-fashioned as well, I'm
picturing the combination.
Rich (28:10):
I've had the fried chicken , never with jellied lamb, but
I'm going to let it work.
Sherif (28:13):
Go give it a try.
I'm starving now.
Okay, I'm going to go give it atry.
So what's the most unusual itemyou have bought or sold?
(28:35):
So I've been back a couple oftimes.
My most recent trip was acouple of years ago, and we were
in near the pyramids and foundthis little vendor that was
selling, basically, pieces ofthe pyramid that they had
chiseled off inside.
It was, so I have a piece ofthe pyramid in my house that I
(28:57):
keep to remember where I'm from.
So it's a little piece I have.
That's awesome.
Paula (29:02):
I hate to ruin that beautiful moment, but how
authentic do?
Sherif (29:08):
you think that is.
It's all about us.
Exactly, it's from the pyramids, sorry.
Paula (29:13):
All right.
Well, that's it for this,sharique.
You have been a wonderful guest, as always.
Thank you for your time.
Thank you for having me.
Rich (29:22):
That was interesting and I just listening to his
background and go from businessto business that he's been and
what he's learned.
I think it's a good example ofwhere you can take skills and
really transfer them todifferent industries if you're
continuing to look at, in hiscase, the customer or the
associate and the technology,and so no wonder that Briggs has
(29:45):
expanded the way that they haveand where his success has been.
I found that really interesting.
Paula (29:51):
Yeah, what I love about Sharif is I've talked to him
several times, I've interviewedhim for so many different things
.
I know what he's going to say.
He always kind of sayssomething similar, but he just
always says it in a new lightthat just resonates with me.
So I love coming back to myconversations with Sharif and I
love that he talked about hisgirls and his family, because I
know his family his entirefamily is just fantastic and
(30:11):
they really do drive him andgive him that energy.
I can absolutely vouch for that.
Gautham (30:16):
He came across as very humble, the servant leader kind
of thing, right, Focused on hisemployees and making sure that
they excelled in the position.
And I love his answer to myquestion where he talked about
it being the FACE and he came upwith the acronym for FACE right
, so hospitality always has beenand always will be a
(30:40):
people-centric conversation,right, and so it was really nice
for him to bring that you know,with all the focus on
technology, bring it all back tothe people and I hope we'll
always stay focused on thatnotion that it is people and it
is relationships right.
That actually ties us alltogether and creates an
experience.
(31:01):
I enjoy the conversation.
Rich (31:03):
So I have a question for you guys.
As we go further into thesepodcasts, we're talking to
leaders from a variety of fields, from a variety of vantage
points within their fields, andyou start to hear this common
theme that, yes, you have toadvance technology and at the
same time, it is about peopleand being customer centric and
(31:24):
not just paying lip service toit.
To what extent do you thinkthis conversation is happening
in boardrooms all across theworld?
I won't even see the country,and how do you think students
are preparing for that?
Gautham (31:36):
Let me take a first cut at that, right?
So the way I explain it to mystudents, since you said how are
students preparing for it?
I always tell them it's likeEnglish or math, right, you got
to know it.
But that's not going to be atrue differentiator.
In many ways it's a necessarycondition, right?
It's how you deploy to buildthose intangible stuff that
matters and I will live and dieby this word that a lot of these
(32:00):
companies are deployingtechnology for the sake of
technology, for the fear ofmissing out.
And I think until and unless wehave people focused on
technology, understandingtechnology, focused on
technology to enable theseintangibles, those experiences,
those moments of delight, wewill not really get the full
(32:22):
power and scope of technologyand what it can do for you.
At least, that's the way Iteach it to students.
We'll see how that goes.
I'm hopeful that we'll see thatintersection come to life.
I'm sure the companies aretalking about that right now.
Paula (32:36):
Yeah, I'll take a different perspective on that.
I don't know.
I don't think that studentshave had the ability to hear
directly from these leaders inthis capacity, and that's what
excites me about this podcast.
So I know that your questionwas a little different, but the
way I want to answer that isthese people, when they're in
the boardroom, they don't havethese direct conversations or
(32:56):
talk about people.
These are things that theyalready assume of the other
person because they made it to acertain degree and they're
definitely not having theseconversations with students in
this kind of capacity.
So I'm excited that we're ableto kind of bring that to every
person so they can hear directlywhat these executives think and
feel and what's going on quoteunquote behind the scenes.
Rich (33:18):
Well, paula, thank you very much for inviting Sharif to
the program.
He was absolutely bothinformative and inspiring and
really lent a lot of value toour students and our audience, I
think.
And, gautam, it's always greatto see you and you, paula, my
podcast BFFs, and until nexttime with another episode of
Retail Relates we are signingoff.
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