Yesterday, I posed a question that generated thoughtful discussion throughout the franchising community: Who should lead a franchise brand? Should ownership or the board look within the organization and elevate someone who helped build the system, or recruit an accomplished executive who has demonstrated success leading another franchise brand or comparable business?
The responses reflected exactly what I anticipated. There were compelling arguments on both sides because, quite frankly, both perspectives have produced exceptional leaders. There is no universal formula for selecting the right CEO, and history has repeatedly shown that outstanding organizations have emerged under leaders who came from within as well as those who arrived with fresh perspectives from outside.
As I reflected on that discussion, however, another question came to mind—one that may be even more relevant for an industry that has experienced extraordinary change over the past several years.
Should restaurant brands—and particularly restaurant franchise brands—approach leadership differently?
Having spent much of my career in both restaurants and franchising, I believe there is a legitimate case that they should. Not because restaurants require better leaders than other industries, but because they require leaders who understand something that is often difficult to quantify: the relationship between operational excellence, hospitality, culture, and the guest experience.
In many ways, that thought brings me back to my recent Restaurant Revival series. While those articles explored the enduring appeal of many iconic restaurant brands, the overwhelming response wasn’t simply about nostalgia. Readers weren’t longing for old logos, vintage décor, or menu items they remembered from childhood. They were remembering how those restaurants made them feel. They remembered genuine hospitality, familiar faces, consistent experiences, and places that became part of family traditions and community life. It reinforced something I have believed throughout my career: successful restaurant brands have never been built solely on food. They have been built on experiences that guests want to relive.
That distinction matters because restaurants are unlike almost any other consumer business.
A retailer can overcome an average customer experience with a superior product. A manufacturer can improve performance through operational efficiencies that customers may never notice. A technology company can differentiate itself through innovation. Restaurants certainly benefit from all of those disciplines, but they also live and die by thousands of daily interactions between employees and guests. Every shift, every meal, every greeting, every complaint resolved—or left unresolved—either strengthens or weakens the brand.
Leadership, therefore, has an unusually direct impact on the guest experience.
It is one reason why many people naturally believe restaurant brands should be led by restaurant people.
The executive who began washing dishes, working the grill, waiting tables, or managing a dining room often develops an appreciation for the business that cannot be replicated through financial reports or occasional restaurant visits. They understand the pressure of a Friday night dinner rush, the frustration of equipment failures, the challenge of balancing labor costs without sacrificing service, and the importance of creating an environment where employees genuinely enjoy coming to work. They also understand that what may appear to be a minor operational change in a corporate conference room can dramatically affect execution inside hundreds of restaurants.
Perhaps even more importantly, they understand hospitality because they have delivered it.
Hospitality is one of those concepts that everyone believes they understand until they attempt to define it. It is far more than customer service. It is the culture that shapes how guests are welcomed, how problems are handled, and how people leave feeling after every visit. It cannot be reduced to a training manual or measured solely through guest satisfaction scores. It is experienced, modeled, and reinforced every day, and leaders who have spent years inside restaurants often develop an instinct for protecting it.
That operational credibility becomes even more important within restaurant franchising.
Unlike company-owned restaurant systems, franchise organizations rely upon thousands of independent business owners to deliver the brand promise every single day. Every new menu item, marketing initiative, technology platform, remodel requirement, pricing strategy, or operational standard ultimately becomes someone else’s responsibility to implement. The franchisor develops the strategy, but franchisees are responsible for making it work in real-world operating environments.
Franchisees understand that reality better than anyone. They evaluate every corporate initiative through the lens of staffing challenges, food costs, labor availability, local competition, profitability, and execution. They naturally place greater confidence in leaders who appreciate those realities because they have lived them firsthand.
Operational credibility, however, should not be confused with executive readiness.
Operating outstanding restaurants—even dozens or hundreds of them—is fundamentally different from leading an enterprise organization. The responsibilities expand well beyond restaurant operations. Today’s restaurant CEOs must allocate capital, develop long-term strategy, attract executive talent, oversee technology investments, maintain lender and investor confidence, navigate regulatory challenges, evaluate acquisitions, strengthen franchise development, manage organizational culture, and position the brand for sustained growth in an increasingly competitive marketplace.
Those responsibilities require a different set of skills.
That is precisely why accomplished executives from outside the restaurant industry should never be dismissed simply because their experience was earned elsewhere. Leadership, strategic thinking, organizational development, financial discipline, and the ability to build high-performing teams are often highly transferable. Fresh perspectives also have a way of challenging assumptions that long-standing insiders may no longer question. Some of the most successful transformations in business have occurred because leaders introduced ideas borrowed from other industries rather than relying exclusively on conventional thinking.
The question, then, is not whether outside executives are capable of leading restaurant organizations.
Many have done so exceptionally well.
The more meaningful question is whether they fully appreciate what makes restaurants different.
Restaurants are not simply operating systems.
They are cultures.
They are places where employees create experiences that guests remember long after the meal has ended. They become gathering places for families, celebrations for milestones, and familiar routines that become woven into people’s lives. Those qualities create emotional connections that extend well beyond the food itself, and protecting those connections requires more than operational efficiency or financial discipline.
It requires leadership that understands the human side of the business.
Perhaps that is why framing this discussion as an either-or decision misses the larger opportunity.
Instead of asking whether restaurant brands should be led by restaurant veterans or accomplished executives from outside the industry, perhaps boards should ask whether they are intentionally building leadership teams that leverage the strengths of both perspectives. Imagine an organization led by a CEO with exceptional experience in strategy, finance, organizational development, and enterprise leadership working alongside senior restaurant operators whose careers were forged in kitchens, dining rooms, field operations, and franchise support. One naturally views the organization through the lens of enterprise value and long-term growth. The other instinctively evaluates decisions through the lens of execution, hospitality, and the guest experience.
Those perspectives are not in conflict.
They are complementary.
Throughout my career, I have been fortunate to experience both sides of that relationship. Early in my career, corporate leadership provided a broad view of strategy, organizational growth, and franchise development. Later, becoming a multi-unit franchisee fundamentally changed that perspective. Suddenly, every corporate initiative had to work inside my own restaurants. Decisions that once appeared relatively straightforward became considerably more nuanced when they affected staffing, profitability, execution, and the day-to-day realities of operating restaurants.
That experience reinforced something I continue to believe today.
The strongest restaurant organizations are those where strategy and operations continually inform one another. Corporate leadership should challenge operators to think differently, while operators should challenge corporate leadership to remain grounded in operational reality. When those perspectives respect one another rather than compete with one another, the entire organization benefits.
My Final Thoughts
Yesterday’s discussion focused on franchise leadership. Today’s discussion focuses on restaurant leadership. While the questions are similar, I believe the answers deserve different consideration because restaurants occupy a unique place in the lives of their guests.
The Restaurant Revival series reminded us that people rarely remember great restaurant brands simply because of the menu. They remember how those brands made them feel. They remember the hospitality, the consistency, the culture, and the people who created experiences worth returning for. Preserving those qualities while simultaneously positioning brands for long-term growth may be one of the greatest leadership challenges in the restaurant industry today.
I am not convinced every restaurant CEO must have spent decades operating restaurants. Nor am I convinced exceptional executives from other industries cannot successfully lead restaurant organizations. I do believe, however, that the strongest restaurant brands intentionally surround themselves with leaders who bring both strategic vision and authentic restaurant experience to the table.
Because while strategy determines where a restaurant brand is going, hospitality ultimately determines whether guests choose to come back.
What do you think? Should restaurant brands be held to a different standard when selecting their leaders? Does authentic restaurant experience matter more in this industry than in others, or has executive leadership become sufficiently transferable that the best leaders can succeed regardless of where they developed their expertise?
You must be logged in to post a comment.