In the first part of Net Effects Podcast, co-host Mark Bavisotto’s conversation with Johnny Rockets and Friendly’s Restaurant CIO & CITO Pete Gibson covered everything from leading organizations to quality assurance and software architecture. In this follow-up episode, Mark and Pete talk about the restaurant industry and how the process has changed to respond to a changing marketplace.
Episode highlights:
- E-Commerce 101: Make it easy for the customer to find the product. Streamline the customer experience and making it intuitive and straightforward. For example, when it comes to online food ordering, you have to play the game with new business models from GrubHub to local delivery services. User-friendly e-commerce entails a super clean website, organic placement on platforms, and building cross-functional teams.
- Restaurants are a margin business. Ask yourself, how and where can costs be assessed? It’s all in predictive analytics to anticipate demand for a product and watch it across channels. The right product must get to the right person at the right time.
- Understand personalization. Personalization requires an “If you build it, they will come” mentality—fine-tune the product and its delivery with data.
Other episode topics include personal transformation and observations on how Covid has changed how we do business at home. Listen to the full episode now.
About Pete Gibson: Executive technology leader with a solid record of successfully leveraging technology, improving operations, and developing high-performing teams globally. As Chief Information Officer, Pete has extensive experience in improving revenue and technology organizations. He has a reputation for innovative technology solutions and realigning organizations to increase business profitability, IT value, grow revenue, and drive down costs while improving overall business operating efficiency.
• Extensive Range and Depth – Proven ability to create and implement strategic systems and solutions as well as new products and services. Systems included two Fortune 10 e-commerce sites, transactional, clouds, and data analytics solutions, as well as the US Navy’s Tomahawk Cruise Missile.
• Known for Improving Business Revenue – As Chief Operating Officer & Chief Information Officer, focused on developing and executing strategies that improved revenue and promote growth.
• Proven Technology Leader – Record of developing high-performing teams across diverse industries globally to improve industries.
• Strategic Yet Practical – Solves complex business problems by identifying and leveraging technologies, processes, and people.
•Latest Technologies – Current on latest technologies and it’s application.
Pete has successfully improved organizations from multiple C-level posts (COO, CIO, CTO, CDO), directed six large technology organization turnarounds, and improved company revenue by up to 31 percent, and reduced costs by 30 percent.
Specialties: A strong interpersonal leader who enjoys leading complex technology organizations. IT management experience includes; international, multi-business units, shared services, franchisor, outsourced, and IT services organizations. As Chief Information Officer, he has successfully led mergers and acquisitions, organization improvements/turn arounds, start-ups, Chapter 11 reorganization, and for-profit IT services organizations.
