Article

Leading your pizza brand through the pandemic: Expert's top tips

Now is the time for pizza brand leaders to summon all the courage and call on all the brainpower they possess to ensure their businesses make it to the "other side" of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The steps leaders take now will determine the position their pizza brands take on the road to recovery after the pandemic is behind us (photo: iStock).

April 1, 2020 by S.A. Whitehead — Food Editor, Net World Media Group

At universities around the globe, top experts and researchers in economics, business and business psychology, are providing their insights into ways brands can survive the COVID-19 pandemic's impact and thrive beyond it. One of those — University of South Australia Chair in Business Growth and entrepreneurial leadership expert, Jana Matthews — cautioned that as much as now seems like the moment to rush in and do something, it's important at this moment in the crisis for CEOs and other top business leaders to first assess their company's overall financial situations, before making sweeping changes.

Matthews stressed that restaurant and other business leaders remain keenly aware that the actions taken now will determine the success or even survival of their brand in the future. In information the university distributed on some of Matthews' top suggestions, she advised that before acting, brand leaders:

• Get the 'long view: Matthews said pizza brand and other business leaders must review accounts and project cash flow for several months out. Questions she suggested that leaders ask themselves in this type of review include those around receivable collections and expenditure delays, as well as the cumulative projected benefit of any stimulus or aid programs in effect. Only then should leadership make decisions about negotiating with lenders. 
• Identify and double down on winners: For many brands, these "winners" are either existing or planned menu items which speak to the current situation for customers directly. Consumers are not only extremely skittish and in need of "comfort foods," but many want some cook- and drink-at-home options, like "party-at-home kits." Also in this category is consideration around the tech, packaging and other tools needed to enhance the delivery and carryout game. 
• Think laterally: Matthews suggested that brands look for the things customers and even potential customers want now. Then figure out ways to gain a piece of that action. Brands that carry certain grocery staples for ordering are an example, but so are the many pizza brands currently building goodwill and future customers by sending free pies and other items to essential workers who cannot leave their posts, or even making allotments for those like ambulance and truck drivers to get carryout service. 
• Take the investor mindset: Matthews advocates leaders taking on their investors or potential investors mindset when looking at their brand, along with its leadership and products. Then, she suggests leaders ask themselves where the weak links and gaps are. She said it's equally important to ask frontline worker for feedback around these same areas of weakness and suggestions they might have to improve current service or products. She stressed that leadership stay open and ready to act on this input. 
• Dig down for courage: Finally, Matthews emphasized that leaders are being called on now more than ever to rally all their courage, along with their "brains and heart," she said to help the company and its people survive these difficult times. 

"It takes brains to analyze and develop strategies to keep the company alive," she said in her list of pointers provided to this website. "It takes courage to stop doing what used to work and move into unchartered territory. And without question, it takes heart. 

"Empathize with your employees who are worried about their jobs and their futures, and remember to provide them with frequent updates — the good, the bad, and the ugly."

More COVID-19-related coverage. 

About S.A. Whitehead

---

Pizza Marketplace and QSRweb editor Shelly Whitehead is a former newspaper and TV reporter with an affinity for telling stories about the people and innovative thinking behind great brands.