Domino’s Change Management Case Study 

Domino’s Pizza is the world’s leading retail pizza chain American multinational company. Dominick DeVarti, Tom Monaghan, and James Monaghan founded the pizza chain brand in 1960. The pizza chain brand was going through a series of crises and challenges in maintaining its brand position. Change leadership and management of Patrick Doyle transformed the company towards growth and success. Today, we’ll discuss Domino’s change management case study; historical background; challenges to the pizza chain brand; and the leadership of Patrick Doyle in transforming Domino’s Pizza.

Historical Background of Domino’s Pizza

• 1960 – Tom Monaghan and his brother acquired the pizza restaurant from Dominic DeVarti
• 1965 – acquired two more pizzerias
• 1967 – launched its first franchise location based on a franchising model
• 1978 – expanded its network to 200 franchise location points
• 1983 – Domino’s opened up its first international store
• 1998 – Tom announced its retirement
• 2008 – Domino’s was facing financial crisis of stuck stock pricing
• 2010 – Patrick became the CEO after launching a series of successful changes as an executive manager
• 2022 – established a network of 18848 franchise location points worldwide

Challenges to Domino’s Pizza in 2008

Some of the main challenges to Domino’s Pizza during the period of 2008 in the Domino’s change management case study are as follows;

• Series of financial crisis
• Limited growth rate in terms of revenue and profitability
• Stuck stock price at 8.76 USD per share and tending downward
• Stopped expansion of franchise location points

The leadership of Patrick Doyle in Transforming Domino’s Pizza

Let’s discuss Domino’s change management case study and the leadership of Patrick Doyle in transforming Domino’s Pizza’s retail chain brand. Some of the main steps he took in transforming the retail pizza chain brand are as follows;

Adopted Technology to Offer Delivery Service

Patrick Doyle launched a series of changes in Domino’s. First of all, Doyle reminded his businesses that we are not only a pizza cooking company; but we are also a pizza serving and delivering company. In order to achieve his objective of becoming a pizza delivery service company; he invested a significant amount of capital resources on technology.

For instance, he hired a team of 400 software engineers and data analytical experts along with 800 administrative staff in the company’s headquarters. The role of the tech staff was to manage the worldwide customer orders; smooth functioning of Domino’s Pizza; track deliveries, and analyze the status of customer deliveries.

Accepted Criticism

Domino’s is a pizza chain brand and pizza is the main product of the company. There were many complaints and rumors about the bad pizza of Domino’s. Patrick Doyle launched a bold advertisement campaign by sharing the negative feedback, comments, and reviews of people; comprising of the following comments;

• “Crust tastes like cardboard”
• “Sauce tastes like ketchup”
• “Worst pizza I ever hand”

After running the negative comments of customers; Doyle showed up in the ad and accepted the criticism of people. He assured his customers that he would work day and night to provide them with the best pizza ever.

Single Point-of-Sale System

Patrick Doyle took another controversial step of launching a single point-of-sale system and made it necessary for all franchisees to follow it. Some of the franchisee owners went against and filed a lawsuit against the company; they lost the lawsuit. However, it allowed the company to quickly process orders and easily perform transactions.

Expansion in Italy

After improving the taste and quality of pizza; Patrick Doyle took another daring step of launching its pizza chain franchise location point in Italy. It is because coffee and Pizza originated from Italy and they have a great expertise on pizza variety and taste. In fact, Starbucks launched its first coffee chain location store in Italy in 2017.

Pizza Delivery Car

Patrick Doyle consulted and collaborated with various automotive designers and experts to develop a cool, colorful, and innovative Domino’s Pizza delivery car. It had only one driver seat and the capacity to contain 80 pizzas in the warm oven.

Transportation Mode

Patrick Doyle was aware of the fact that the best mode of transportation is the key to the pizza delivery business of Domino’s; he chose the best option at the time. Currently, the company is working on drone and robotic technology for the delivery of pizza to customers timely and efficient. Doyle laid the foundation for making modern and daring decisions for the company. The objective is to present a modern and progressive image of the pizza chain brand.

Omission Bias & Loss Aversion

The two lessons we can learn from the leadership role and daring decisions of Patrick Doyle. First is omission bias; Doyle was focused on doing something extraordinary, rather than not doing something and just playing their part. It is because everyone observes failure if things go wrong; very few people can see the cost of not taking the steps.

However, Second is the Loss aversion; it is his capability not to lose; rather than playing to win. It is because the suffering of the loss is much more than the pleasure of winning the game. Therefore, you have to be very cautious while making difficult decisions; with the focus on not losing.

Conclusion: Domino’s Change Management Case Study | Domino’s Pizza Change Management Case Study 

After an in-depth study of Domino’s change management case study; we have realized that Domino’s Pizza is the world’s leading pizza chain brand. If you are learning about the Domino’s Pizza change management case study; then you should keep in mind the abovementioned leadership steps of Patrick Doyle in transforming Domino’s towards growth and productivity.