From left:
David Wilde, CEO of Domino’s Pizza Group; Sandra Scannell, Head of Business Services at NI Chamber, and Jim Dollard, Executive Director, Electric Ireland.
More than 150 members of the local business community gathered at Riddel Hall, Belfast, recently to hear from Domino’s Pizza Group CEO, David Wilde. The event was hosted by Northern Ireland Chamber of Commerce and Industry (NI Chamber) and Electric Ireland on Thursday 26th October.
The event was part of NI Chamber’s
‘Growing Something Brilliant’ leadership series, which seeks to inspire business confidence and growth.
The Success of Domino’s
The Domino’s pizza-chain, which has 26 branches in Northern Ireland, recently revealed an online sales boost as its shares rose by 10%.
In his talk, Mr Wilde attributed much of the company’s success to online and digital advancements made over the years. Additionally, he emphasised the importance of three key strands underpinning this work:
convenience for the customer, the customer being
in control, and that Domino’s is
top of mind when it comes to engaging with customers.
Speaking about his presentation at Riddel Hall, Mr Wilde said, “It is a pleasure to address businesses across Northern Ireland today as it is a region where our own experience is extremely positive and where we perform exceptionally well. Indeed, our franchisees here outperform all other regions in the UK with regards to service and spend per address. While Domino’s might be one of the biggest brands in the world, we are very much a small, local business too, almost entirely made up of franchisees and through this system we are continually creating local jobs and investing in local communities.
“We talk to our franchisees every day and so we’re familiar with the challenges and opportunities they, like other SMEs, face. We recognise the increasingly congested market and help our franchisees rise to these challenges through our investment in technology. Only recently we enabled voice-activated Amazon Echo ordering in the UK, meaning customers can now have a pizza delivered without lifting a finger and we have also introduced GPS tracking for our pizzas. This innovation, coupled with the insight that ‘easy is the new loyalty’ is what underpins our customer centric approach and what sets us aside from the competition.
“At Domino’s, we never take success for granted and we’re constantly restless, challenging ourselves, innovating, and of course, carefully monitoring the environment in which we operate. And at a time of low unemployment, we can’t escape the fact that small and big business alike continue to face many other challenges such as skills shortage and falling immigration.
“If I am to leave today’s attendees with one piece of advice it is that great people are critical to enabling growth; this truly is the secret to Domino’s success. In the recession not so long ago, there was competition for employment. Now there’s competition for employees, or colleagues as we prefer to say. So, we – and you – need to make sure your business is a great place to work. Take care of your people and they will take care of your customers.”
Electric Ireland
Speaking of Electric Ireland’s support of the Growing Something Brilliant event, Jim Dollard, Executive Director, Electric Ireland, said: "At Electric Ireland we understand the importance of supporting businesses in Northern Ireland, not only through our tailored energy service but also to help them in developing and growing their companies.
“We have taken the opportunity to engage with local SMEs some of which are our customers, at the Growing Something Brilliant series event today and they have been inspired by a range of leadership insights from our guest speaker David Wild.
“Domino’s has embraced customer experience as a core strategy and it recognises that digital technology is a key driver of many customer experiences today. Similarly, at Electric Ireland we are continuously working to help customers find smarter ways to power their businesses.”
View
more photos from the
Growing Something Brilliant event with David Wilde and find out more about upcoming events on the
NI Chamber website.