Every quarter, three Elite Operators and one Emerging Leader stand out among the crowd. Once again, we recognize and share the achievements of these leaders, who go above and beyond for their teams and businesses.
For Elite Operators and the Emerging Leader of the 2nd quarter, we recognize excellent Leadership and outstanding Performance from our organization. These are individuals who embody our values of Love, Urgency, Persistence, and Honor; leaders who perform consistently and go above and beyond to run great restaurants and teams.
An Elite Operator is another class of excellence. Someone who lives the Emerge values and leads through any storm while achieving outstanding results. The Elite Operators are consistent and always the best.
An Emerging Leader is someone newer to the role but is improving by leaps and bounds with exceptional leadership and turnaround results. These leaders are on their way to being the best of the best and Elite Operators.
Now, without further delay, these are our stars for this quarter:
Q2 2021 Elite Operator: Shawn Miles.
Shawn has been with Emerge for over 6 years. He was one of the first General Managers of our organization before it was even named Emerge. One thing about Shawn is that he has always been extremely loyal to his restaurants and team. Shawn is our #1 base KFC operator. He has grown sales consistently, passed audits, achieved excellent OSC, and ran great speed. Also, Shawn has a great group of junior management that work together to ensure that his unit C521004 is the best KFC in all Louisiana!
Shawn and his team have always persevered through any storm like Covid-19. They always push through and continue to take care of the guests in the Westbank of the Big Easy. Shawn, we’re proud of you. Thank you for your excellent leadership to your team, your restaurant, and Emerge! Congratulations, you are an Elite Operator!
These are some of Shawn’s achievements:
YTD C521004 is up in sales 13.17% with a 5.08% transaction growth.
This year, he is running a 136 on speed, which is amazingly fast for a unit of this size.
Excellent food cost of 29.25% for the year! With a great UNS of 9.3 for the year. Fantastic projections execution!
100% pass rate on ROCC.
For this year, Shawn holds a 4.46 on OSC.
Q2 2021 Elite Operator: Carlos Espinoza.
Carlos is about to make it to 2 years in Emerge in a few months. When we hired him, he had to wait 6 months after completing training. He visited every unit we had to bring recognition and encouragement during a challenging and uncertain time. He supported a new unit opening, and when the time finally came, he took on the challenge of a new acquisition.
Carlos has consistently improved the Pizza Hut business over the year and 2 months that we’ve had it. Right from the start, Carlos showed great potential, and we have seen him grow immensely in his role. He leads with great intentionality, ownership, and pride for his team and Pizza Hut. He pushed Pizza Hut so much that he made us all love Pizza Hut!
As a leader, what really stands out about Carlos is that he has a relationship with the majority of his team. Only one other leader in Emerge, Freddy, had that type of connection with their team. Carlos knows by name almost all his cooks, cashiers, all his shift supervisors, and managers. He truly loves his team, and they are fantastic! Like all businesses, they have opportunities, but from Area Coaches to General Managers, there is a sense of significant ownership, dedication to succeed, and pride. Carlos truly is a culture champion and has executed above store leaders' success routines better than any leader we have had. Carlos has an incredible journey ahead of him, and we know he will continue to grow. But for now, we’re proud to recognize him as an Elite Operator for Emerge! Thank you, Carlos!
These are some of Carlos’ achievements while working as a Market Coach of Pizza Hut, Arizona:
Developed 3 new Area Coaches.
Implemented a culture of recognition and reward.
Implemented successful routines in above store leadership.
Improved HFR 68% YTD.
Improved Food Cost vs. previous year consistently. This year's food cost was 26.02% versus last year of 27.13% (which was also an improvement from 2019).
RCP improvement running 39.24% versus last year of 36.98%.
Over 90% Pass rate in Food Safety.
Improved standing in FZ ranking.
Q2 2021 Elite Operator: Dolores Gonzales.
Acquiring Taco Bells will always be a memorable milestone for Emerge! When we purchased the 6 Taco Bells in the San Antonio area, we had challenges in all the units except one: Floresville. There, we were fortunate enough to have gained a great Taco Bell General Manager, Dolores!
Dolores, from the beginning, helped out so much in training managers, opening a new unit in Bulverde, finding a great General Manager: Sam Hernandez, and being a strong leader during challenging times like Covid-19 last year. Dolores has always been a consistent top performer in our Taco Bell team. Her unit is clean, disciplined, and fast. Dolores has been with Taco Bell for decades and takes tremendous pride in what she does, her team, her unit, and the Taco Bell brand. Dolores has always shown what a great team player she is by helping out every time we need her. Her results speak volumes of her ability to be a consistent top performer and leader. Dolores will always be highly regarded by Emerge’s leadership. Thank you, for all you have done for unit 76 and the TB team through the years! You are an Elite Operator!
Here are some of Dolores’ achievements:
Improved profit (CP) YTD as of P7 2021 to 41.77% compared to 32.26%.
Improved F&P YTD as of P7 24.73 vs. 25.99%. Excellent execution!
5% Dissatisfied for the year. WOW - excellent execution on guest experience!
Passed multiple Core Audits and doesn’t have to do Core Round 3!
All year, she has kept Manager standard for Taco Bell.
100% on TB Playbook all year!
Q2 2021 Emerging Leader: Brittney Stout
We have heard great accolades about an upcoming leader, Brittney. This is a leader who is a top-performing Pizza Hut General Manager and an incredible team player! As we have made changes in management in some units, Brittney has stepped up to every challenge to support and lead. Below is a note from her Market Coach Carlos Espinoza:
“Brittney has stepped up to every challenge we have given her since Quarter 1 of 2021. She has supported her AC with internal development and has contributed to our Tucson market as well. She executed consistent financial results, along with KPI results at unit 36980 (Speedway & Kolb). She supported training and developing her AM manager of this unit, which we recently promoted to RGM. This freed up Brittney to help us in taking the challenge of opening up our new University location. We recently had a gap in the RGM role at one of our highest opportunity units in Tucson, and Brittney has stepped up once again to help turn this unit around as the RGM. She has been with PH for over 5 years and is seen as a peer leader in our market.”
Brittney has a bright future here at Emerge, and we know she will grow in her career. She shows so much persistence, love for the team and exemplary leadership that builds others. Thank you, Brittney, for all you have done for your peers, ACs, and Emerge! You are an Emerging Leader, and we look forward to your success and growth!
Celebrating these great leaders fills us with joy, especially during a time of challenge in our industry. We can share many more great stories about the General Managers, Area Coaches, and Market Coaches who are out there working their hearts out to help their teams and take care of their business. We want you to always know that we appreciate all of you, not because you do your job, but because you work hard to do better.
These leaders work hard to rebuild their bench, train new management, act swiftly on complaints, get faster, turn around a failed audit, take care of demanding guests, and work to improve financials.
Some have struggled and felt defeated by their results or staffing, but it's not about how you start or where you are at now, it's about how you choose to get up and keep fighting and leading through that storm until you win! We have seen significant improvement in many of you.
To all the leaders from Q2: keep leading, be persistent, and take time to thank and recognize your teams! We will always Emerge with great leaders no matter what comes our way! To all our team members, please also take time to cheer on these great operators we read about; they deserve to shine and be put on the stage for all their hard work! Thank you Shawn, Carlos, Dolores, and Brittney. We will always Emerge with great leaders no matter what comes our way. Thank you all!