Ep 61: Beto Guajardo is the President of Focus Brands International
It often falls on the CEO to come up with a strategy to increase the growth and profitability of a company, but today’s guest believes that a strategist is vitally important when it comes to identifying new opportunities, channels, and product lines. Beto Guajardo is currently the President of Focus Brands International, which includes brands such as Cinnabon, Auntie Anne’s, and Schlotzsky's. Throughout most of his career, Beto led strategy for iconic brands such as Levi’s and Starbucks after getting his start in the consulting world with McKinsey and Company. In this episode, Beto explains what career strategy is, what this job entails, and what the KPIs and the performance metrics are for this role, before providing an example of the success he generated when he shifted investment into an opportunity he identified in the Starbucks app. He also talks about the strategy he used to turn Schlotzsky’s around, help them survive the pandemic, and ultimately achieve success. To find out about the interplay between strategy and execution, the marketing challenges of operating across so many different markets internationally, and Beto’s advice to anyone who wants to pursue a career in strategy, tune in today!
Key Points From This Episode:
Reflections on a Porsche Experience Center event in Atlanta and experiential marketing.
A fun fact about Beto Guajardo that most may not know.
Some of the background of Beto’s career journey as a corporate strategist.
Beto’s definition of what career strategy is and some of the things his job entails.
The opportunity that Beto identified in the Starbucks app and the success he generated from shifting investment into it.
Insight into the KPIs and the performance metrics for a strategy leader.
Thoughts on the interplay between strategy and execution.
How Beto approached his job at Focus Brands when he first started working there.
The vital importance of how you treat your franchisees as a franchisor.
The importance of digital transformation for strategy and how Beto first came to realize this.
Beto’s experience with Schlotzsky’s and the strategy he used to turn the company around.
How Schlotzsky’s survived the pandemic and ultimately achieved success.
How Beto applied this type of strategy to the international franchisees of Focus Brands.
Focus Brands’ future plans to double the number of units that they have.
Some of the unique marketing challenges of operating across so many different markets internationally.
Insight into the digital aspect of Focus Brands’ international marketing.
How Focus Brands positions themselves differently in various markets and cultures.
Beto’s advice to anyone who wants to pursue a career in strategy.
The importance of curiosity and the ability to teach yourself.
The value of a coach.
Other leaders in multi-unit enterprises who Beto would like to see interviewed on this show.
Tweetables:
“Your role [as a career strategist] is to look across every single function, all the ones that you mentioned, but also support functions. You're basically looking at the whole company and you're looking for opportunities to help that corporation generate value.” — Beto Guajardo [0:08:28]
“Most of the time, my strategy teams had two primary areas of focus; one was increasing growth and the other was increasing profitability. Increasing growth is all around finding new opportunities, new channels, new product lines, to get yourself outsized growth.” — Beto Guajardo [0:11:25]
“We spend a lot of effort focusing in on ensuring that the right dollars are being spent in the right channels to reach the right audience with the right message at the right time, and that's the secret sauce.” — Beto Guajardo [0:39:37]
“The number one skill that you can bring to the table, if you're coming out of undergraduate, is insatiable curiosity. Bring insatiable curiosity to the job. That's what people are looking for.” — Beto Guajardo [0:40:53]