Takeaways: A Conversation with Domino’s Pizza Japan CEO Martin Steenks

On October 9th, I conducted a conversation with Domino’s Pizza Japan CEO Martin Steenks for the American, Australia New Zealand, and Netherlands Chambers of Commerce in Japan. My takeaways are below.

1. Some of the best product development in the world comes out of Japan. Businesses that develop products for the Japanese market often find they have a compelling product for many other markets in the world.
2. “Inspired product development” trumps new product development. New is not good enough. Inspired, innovative, and disruptive products rule the day.
3. Drawing country managers for the ranks of franchise owners as a requirement injects entrepreneurial thinking and zeal across the entire business. It establishes immediate trust and rapport between the franchise owners and corporate headquarters as the corporate leader is one of them.
4. Back office and headquarters managers and executives who work in the business allows understanding of the impact of their work, and what can or ought to be improved. You might be an accountant, IT managers, marketing manager, finance manager, or CEO. Regardless, everybody makes pizza at least a few times a year.
5. Using B2C e-commerce systems for sandboxing and testing is one the best ways to test new products and extract immediate results in real-time.
6. Treating failure as learning is one of the best tools for rapid innovation and improvement of results. Weekly reporting and debriefing on failures, without shame or recrimination, accelerates business growth. When was the last time you said, “Please fail, because I want the data!” to your staff—and meant it!
7. A chat over coffee with a staff member trumps a report during an executive meeting in a conference room—as long as trust and candor are your goals.
8. The success rate of franchisees who start the business during hard time exceeds that of those who start in boom times. Economic condition severity serves as crucible for forging excellence.
9. Leadership capability makes a difference. An excellent leader can produce excellent results regardless of infrastructure and resource limitations or economic environment headwinds. Never let your managers blame underperformance on external factors.