TCP065: How to Build a Successful Tech Stack for Franchisees

The Tech Chef, Restaurant, Hospitality and Hotel Technology Business Podcast

I hope you had a FANTASTIC Thanksgiving week last week. Hopefully you were able to get some extra time off to spend with your friends and family. I know that in our industries, that may have been your busiest time and that may not have been possible. For those of you lucky ones that DID have time off, now it is “go-time” to prepare for Christmas and the holidays next month.

Since we last spoke I attended the Digital Signage Experience along with the Restaurant Finance and Development Conference. RFDC was probably one of the best showing of operators, at any one event, in a very long time. Lots of takeaways from that event and excellent networking in the beautiful Wynn Hotel in Las Vegas. While I was there, I was able to sit down with a good friend of mind and talk about what it looks like to run a restaurant chain that is heavily franchised. The do’s and don’ts of a successful tech stack and how to properly get the buy-in for procuring and deploying new technology.

Today, I am honored to have Zerrick Pearson, the Chief Information Officer for Five Guys Enterprises, L.L.C., a global company that operates more than 1750 franchise and company-operated restaurants domestically and internationally. Zerrick is responsible for developing and implementing information technology initiatives across the Enterprise. Having been born into the restaurant industry, Zerrick has been involved in restaurant operations for almost 25 years. Prior to his time with Five Guys, Zerrick held the position of Vice President of Information Technology with a publicly traded Washington, DC based Company. While there Zerrick managed all IT initiatives, bridging the gap between IT, Finance and Operations.

Zerrick is a board member of the IFBTA, RTN and various other industry specific IT organizations.

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Next Week’s Show

I am traveling the majority of this week and I have yet to bring you the interview that I promised you, Leigh Gower, CTO at Dutch Bros which is a publicly traded company. They have been in the headlines quite a bit lately so I can’t wait to get her on to talk about all the amazing technology she is currently implementing. Beyond that I also have some very exciting guests that will take us into next year so it will be a very fun time hanging out with me, The Tech Chef.