Episode Transcript
[00:00:22] Speaker A: Hello, listeners, and thanks for tuning in to this episode of Metrosite. Beth. I'm Beth Schultz, vice president of research and principal analyst at Metrogy. And with me is Gari Bolero. Gary is director of global applications for Yum Brands. Now, for those of you who don't recognize the company name, perhaps KFC, Pizza Hut and Taco Bell are more familiar to you. These are three of the fast food restaurant brands owned by Yum, which is a Fortune 1000 fast food corporation. Welcome, Gary.
[00:00:52] Speaker B: Hi, Beth. It's so good to be here.
[00:00:55] Speaker A: So, Gary, when we first met, and that was several years ago, I believe you had just joined Yum's infrastructure team as a senior manager, and you had responsibility for collaboration, networking, strategy and engineering.
Today you're director for global applications. So I have a few questions related to that move. So what does your new position entail and what most excites you about it?
[00:01:18] Speaker B: So, Beth, as the director for global applications, my team and me are focused on providing solutions for our shared services like sustainability, food safety, then content management, platform to our franchisees, legal, then providing automation and many more.
So these are the core services and very strategic to our business that we provide.
[00:01:50] Speaker A: Okay, so how did your role, your previous role with UC and C, collaboration, networking, etcetera, how did that prepare you for you to take on these new responsibilities?
[00:02:02] Speaker B: I truly believe that each role prepares you for the next role.
When we first met, I was the senior manager for infrastructure strategy, and then two years later, I was promoted to be a director for infrastructure strategy. And it was a much broader role. It was more global.
So what I learned from that role was how to build teams and how to provide global and sustainable solutions that are scalable.
[00:02:34] Speaker A: Okay. And just to be clear, when you say teams, you mean the people people part of it, not the Microsoft Teams piece of it, because I do know you use Microsoft Teams. Right. Okay.
Okay. Now, where does global applications fit into Yum's overall sort of digital and technology team?
[00:02:53] Speaker B: So you mentioned Microsoft Teams, right. So in my previous role, I implemented Microsoft Teams, which helped us with collaboration across the organization. Right. Especially as pandemic hit. So in my new role, the enterprise systems that me and my team support, they provide core and strategic services to our business. So that's what our focus is to help build that collaboration between the brands and our brand partners.
[00:03:28] Speaker A: Okay?
Now, when we talked a while ago as we were preparing for this, this podcast, you mentioned that young culture is changing or that it needs to change. How do you help facilitate cultural change given that digital experience? The brand. I think you told me the portals, intranet, they all sit under your purview, right. So how is that you help facilitate cultural change?
[00:03:51] Speaker B: So when I first joined Yum, one of the key things that struck me that was our people focused culture, which is what I absolutely loved. And Yum is still very people focused. We believe in each and every individual, and now we are adding another dimension to it, collaboration.
Our focus is, and again, this collaboration is about collaboration between our brand partners, all of our brands, globally. Yum is a very complex and a very global organization.
So I think to provide services, it's extremely important for us to collaborate very efficiently between our brands and rest of the teams.
[00:04:39] Speaker A: Okay. I want to kind of change track a little bit. I know last year, Yum acquired three AI related companies. And let me just go through those and you can tell me if I've got a the companies and then what they do correctly. So Dragon Tail systems and Dragon tails for optimizing and managing the food preparation process, beginning with ordering and then ending with delivery, right?
[00:05:05] Speaker B: Yes.
[00:05:05] Speaker A: Okay, then vantum. And that provides customer insights and marketing performance analytics, is that correct?
[00:05:13] Speaker B: That is correct.
[00:05:14] Speaker A: Okay. And then tick Tock technologies, which is for omni channel ordering and marketing. And that brings Yom the ability to handle order taking through text, social media and other conversational channels, correct?
[00:05:30] Speaker B: That's absolutely right.
[00:05:32] Speaker A: Okay, so what can you tell us about how Yum's strategy and vision around customer experience is evolving and where each of these technologies that you've acquired kind of fit into that?
[00:05:45] Speaker B: So for last three years, Yum has been very focused on making life easier for our stakeholders.
And when you use technology with the focus on making life easier for your stakeholders, we deliver faster sales growth, faster results, more profitable restaurants. Right.
There are three key pillars that we are focused on.
One is easy experiences, which is more focused on the customers, easy operations so that we can deliver in timely manner, and then easy insights so that we can use data for driving our business growth.
So if you look at all of our three acquisitions, these three companies will help us with each of the pillar. So when you look at it, quantum with Quantum will be getting the data insights, will be helping us with data insights. With TikTok, it's easy experiences.
And with Dragon tails, it's going to be easy operations.
So they are perfect fit for our organization.
[00:07:06] Speaker A: I love that. It kind of very much fits in with what metrogy is always kind of encouraging companies to think about as they look into CX transformation. How are you going to save money? How are you going to reduce costs?
How are you really going to improve the experience through a metric like customer satisfaction? It kind of very much dovetails. So. Love to hear that.
So what are some of the big challenges that Yum faces as a company? You know, you mentioned the need for cultural change. Beyond that, you know, what are the challenges and how is it using technology to help address them?
[00:07:43] Speaker B: So frankly, Beth, when you look at all the organizations, right, everybody, all the global organizations are facing similar set of challenges with economy and market pressure.
So what yum is focused on and truly believes in is we continue to work with our teams and brand partners to deliver on the results using these three pillars. Right?
Easy experiences, easy insights, and easy operations. If we focus on these three, I think we should be good.
[00:08:25] Speaker A: Okay, you make it sound so simple. Or so easy, I should say. Right.
[00:08:33] Speaker B: It's all about being easy. Right.
What we have realized is Yem is a very complex organization, so it's very important for us to keep things simple. The more we complicate things, the more it's going to be tough for us to deliver for our business.
[00:08:51] Speaker A: Yeah, that makes sense. So, Gary, how far along would you say that Yum is in its digital transformation? And maybe you can give us an example of what might be on the roadmap for 2023.
[00:09:03] Speaker B: So that what I truly believe in is it's a journey. Right?
Any improvement, any digital transformation that organizations that are trying to do, it's a continuous process. You can never say, hey, we are starting today and we are stopping tomorrow. Right? So Yum had an amazing year, 2022.
And as we continue on our journey, we have a lot of things on our roadmap, and all of those are aligned with our three pillars of easy experiences, easy operations, and easy insights. So you will see a lot of things coming out of Yum from e commerce platform that will focus on these three pillars and will make lives easier for our stakeholders and customers.
[00:10:00] Speaker A: So I'll have to start ordering some KFC. I'll have to place some KFC and pizza Hut and Taco Bell orders online.
[00:10:08] Speaker B: Exactly. That will be the best way to know what changes we are making and.
[00:10:13] Speaker A: 2023, all in the name of good research. Right?
Okay, so switching gears for my last question, from a leadership perspective, what advice do you have to share for others? Also helping to guide their companies as they progress on their digital journeys.
[00:10:29] Speaker B: So, Beth, you said it really well, right? It's a journey.
So what I would say is keep on trying different things, and that's what Yum is focused on. We are focused on innovation, trying out new technology and platforms, being agile, failing fast, and learning for your mistakes.
I think that's going to be really important for any organization to be successful in today's economy.
[00:11:00] Speaker A: Yeah. And that, I mean, that you kind of stated it so simply and succinctly, but it really does take real strong kind of corporate executive mindset to get to that point. Right. I mean, kudos for yum, for thinking that way.
[00:11:19] Speaker B: We have such great leadership right now, and their focus is to make things simpler. And the use of the word easy, as you mentioned it. Right. That's our focus. Let's make things simple and easy. Interest will follow.
[00:11:35] Speaker A: Okay. So that's a great thought to leave our listeners on, I think. Ari, thanks again so much for sharing with us. Until next time, everybody. Take care.
[00:11:44] Speaker B: Thank you. Bethe.
