Enterprenuer
Laura Rea Dickey, Chief Executive Officer at Dickey’s Barbecue Restaurants, Inc.
Dickey won many awards for her efforts in the company as both CEO and Chief Information Officer.
D Magazine named her one of their “Top 500 CEOs”, and Nation’s Restaurant News called her one of the fifty most influential women foodservice professionals in 2020.
Dickey was previously a marketing manager for Dickey’s Barbecue Restaurants.
She worked with national brands like Blue Mesa and Chick-Fil-A and W Hotels, W Hotels, La Madeleine, and the American Heart Association.
Dickey, Chief Information Officer at Dickey’s Barbecue Restaurants, transformed the company’s view of technology by developing proprietary systems and integrating big data into the business strategy.
She was mainly instrumental in creating a platform that combines data from all departments to provide real-time feedback about sales and other performance indicators.
She also worked with Amazon voice technology to provide restaurant operators access to vital sales data without leaving the kitchen or spending time managing the metrics.
Dickey, working with Dickey’s Barbecue Pit for over a decade now, has reconstructed how the company uses data.
Dickey has a gift for interpreting data into solutions and using them to solve problems.
Her work has been featured by Forbes Magazine and The Wall Street Journal.
It has enabled the company’s explosive growth.
The business has added approximately 100 locations per year and turned the small Texas barbecue restaurant into an international success with over 550 restaurants.
What is the story of Dickey’s Barbecue Restaurants, Inc. get its idea?
My family owns the largest barbecue franchise in the world.
My husband is the third generation of Dickey’s Barbecue Pit owners.
However, there wasn’t any plan to have my work for the company initially.
My career was in marketing and technology. I worked with companies to create their brand identities and marketing campaigns.
But when Roland decided to make Dickey’s Barbecue Restaurants a national company, he asked me if I would be interested in joining him as a consultant.
I realized how much I could make an impact on maintaining a solid brand and taking marketing to a national scale, so I accepted the position of Chief Information Officer.
Since I had worked in almost every department of the company to implement information technology into our business model, I was the perfect person to assume the role of Chief Executive Officer.
As the company leader, my vision is to use information technology to keep us competitive in our industry.
How do you stay productive?
Coffee, meetings, and coffee. Then coffee, tea, pugs, and then sleep.
Repeat.
To ensure I am connected with everyone, I hold weekly meetings.
I also keep track of progress through daily dashboard calls.
My experience has shown that “quick meetings” can become all-day affairs, a significant drain on company time.
While it’s normal to have things to talk about in meetings to discuss work, you start to lose valuable time that could be used to implement those ideas.
I feel more up-to-date by keeping everything on a schedule.
Meetings can be shorter because everyone knows when the next meeting is.
My mornings are fluid, and my afternoons are more organized.
I can solve problems with the freedom I need and have a schedule that doesn’t get too chaotic.
How do you bring ideas to life?
My passion is turning data insights into actionable brand and business solutions.
Start by using a dry-erase marker and a notebook to outline my thoughts.
Then, I write out a high-level plan or process from beginning to end. I always start at the end.
This means that you must first identify where you want to go, then work backward to determine how you will get there.
An idea should be concisely explained, like a press release.
Then I create a storyboard. I want my message to be clear and easily understood by all.
Finally, I invite people to come in and walk through it.
What’s your favorite trend?
Instagram. A single image is a powerful tool to communicate a brand’s values and story.
We shifted a lot of our marketing budget to digital channels after the coronavirus pandemic.
It has been incredible to discover new ways to connect with customers beyond the restaurant.
By today’s standards, it’s an older app, but it is continually evolving to attract new users.
I think it reached over 1 billion users last year. That’s huge.
Instagram users are among the most committed regarding how often they log in.
90% of people follow businesses on Instagram. Video content has been gaining popularity in recent years.
I am excited to see how Instagram addresses that and the growing competition from TikTok.
What habits make you productive?
I read at least one book per week and spend an hour reading each day.
You can see that the world’s most successful people are avid readers, regardless of their industry.
You commit to reading every day and finding inspiration, tips, and business strategies that will help you be a better leader.
So that I can learn from their experiences and opportunities, I seek out articles and books by people I admire.
While mistakes are inevitable, learning from someone who has made them can help you avoid making the same mistakes.
Although it may seem that reading takes up valuable time, the knowledge I gain from it is infinitely more productive than any other activity.
What’s your advice for the Noob?
It’s worthwhile to work early in your career to achieve your goals later on in life.
Do it because you love your job, not because you feel obligated to impress anyone.
It will pay off if you work smarter and not harder.
Fake it until you succeed – Every expert has done the same thing once.
Do not let fear of failure stop you from taking on a new and challenging job.
Believe in yourself and your abilities to learn new skills.
What is one thing we can all agree on?
Ketchup is one of the worst things that could happen to food.
What do you recommend as an entrepreneur?
Don’t forget to proofread, read, and listen to podcasts.
And don’t email anything that should be called. This last one is a particular favorite of mine.
Emails can be misinterpreted in tone and context, leading to reactive responses instead of progress and taking action.
This is not to suggest that an email is an imperfect tool.
It is a handy tool that should be used. It is essential to recognize when email should not be used in place of a live conversation.
What’s your rich strategy?
Evolve, or fail. Accept and promote change. Every day, I remind myself that business is dying if it doesn’t grow.
We use growth as the foundation for all our operational tasks, projects, initiatives, and other activities.
We set ambitious goals and have a growth mindset.
This creates an environment that encourages continuous improvement.
Although growth can be scary as it requires taking risks and stepping into unknown territory, it is essential to remember that other competitors will take the same risk as you.
How do you overcome Failure?
We launched menu sizing at one time. However, we didn’t use enough data to make informed decisions.
The update was successful for our operators, but it didn’t increase sales, so we halted the rollout.
We have since built our data platform to bring together all aspects of the business, from customer satisfaction surveys to marketing promotion to inventory systems.
The guests drive every guest-facing change we make.
After listening to our customers, we relaunched the menu size 18 months later.
Our sales jumped 4 percent in less than 45 days.
Can you share a business idea?
I’d be honored if you knew the meaning of 30A. It is a group of small Florida beaches that runs between Panama City, Destin, and County Road 30A.
Each community has its unique charm, with its shops, restaurants, and even shrimp and grits.
A private street trolley line should connect all the towns, from Green Mountain to Rosemary Beach.
It could run every 30 mins, guaranteeing 8 AM-12A, and sell day-, week- and annual passes. I have thought about it.
What’s your recent best buy?
My Apple Watch. It has been a great tool. The health apps are my favorite, but I’ve also found that I’m less anxious about checking my email and texts.
It is nice to have the ability to monitor your heart rate and not need to pull out your phone every five seconds to check the notifications.
What are your favorite Softwares or Apps?
We are AWS and Microsoft. AWS is a beautiful platform, and its security system is terrific.
Redshift and Precisely, formerly Syncsort, are used in our development.
However, everything else is exclusive. Don’t allow strategic areas of your business to be dependent on vendors outside.
While it may be more costly to invest in capital in the short term, the long-term benefits of being in control of as many aspects as possible of your business are well worth it.
Which book would you recommend?
Radical Candor Kim Scott. This book is becoming more relevant.
It is essential to be both conscientious and direct in business, especially when digital communication makes it easy for things to get misunderstood.
While it may seem easier to minimize challenges and avoid conflict, this is not the case. This book demonstrates why and offers many ways to be kind yet candid.
What’s your favorite quote?
I have been fortunate to work with some great people, but the books, podcasts, and publications listed below are my favorites.
These have all influenced my thinking, approach to challenges, and even how I write.
TL;DR by Laura Rea Dickey
You can take risks but ensure that complex data drive them.
Always read.
Fake it till you make it.
