CEOCFO Magazine Talks To Roland Dickey Jr., CEO Dickey's Capital Group

CEOCFO: You are the third generation to run your family’s business. Can you give us a brief history of it?

Roland Dickey Jr.: My grandfather opened the original Dickey’s Barbecue Pit in 1941, and he and my grandmother single-handedly ran the restaurant for 26 years until he passed. He would be working the pit while she would assemble sandwiches and run the cash register, and they both loved nothing more than to spend all day chatting with the customers they served. When he died my dad and uncle had been away attending college at the time, but they returned home to help my grandmother and worked to make the business their own. My dad started developing his own recipes, and as they grew in popularity they opened additional locations across the Dallas-Fort Worth area.  When they had reached their capacity for managing the restaurants themselves they began franchising. By the time I took over as CEO in 2006 we were already operating over 20 locations including a few out of state.

CEOCFO: How have you sought to make your own mark on the company?

Roland Dickey Jr.: I grew up in the thick of the business – I probably always smelled like barbecue growing up from learning the family smoking processes, and my first car was even the catering van – and I always knew that what my grandfather had originally created was special. My idea for the company was to push for national expansion into the fast-casual sector. My dad and uncle had done a great job taking the business to the next level by starting to franchise it, and I saw that there was a hole in the fast-casual dining market for a barbecue restaurant. Barbecue at the time was more regional in nature, varying from state to state (and in Texas even from county to county), but this was during the recession and I knew that if there was one thing a lot of people probably needed more of at the time it was comfort food. Within five years, we were able to grow from 20 locations to over 500, and today we’re the largest barbecue franchise in the country.

CEOCFO: What would you say has been the “secret sauce” to successfully scaling your business?

Roland Dickey Jr.: First and foremost, I would say it has been our commitment to quality that has enabled our business to scale as it has. We have continued to source the best quality meat possible which can never contain preservatives, and each location smokes its meat on-site every night. Our sides are top quality as well, with fresh vegetables and homemade rolls instead of the frozen and sliced variety you might find elsewhere. Secondly, I made sure we invested heavily in our infrastructure to ensure that we were ready to grow quickly and efficiently. Field operations support, accounting, logistics, real estate management, construction, advertising, marketing and information technology were all areas that I put significant capital into so that we would be prepared to scale, and I would say of them all information technology has had the biggest impact.

CEOCFO: Why has that made such a big impact?

Roland Dickey Jr.: We like to say our business philosophy is that ‘what gets measured gets managed’, meaning that we like to keep as close an eye as possible on our company metrics and make decisions accordingly. We recognized early on that information technologies such as artificial intelligence and big data had massive capabilities for us when it came to quickly and efficiently compiling and analyzing data, so we’ve sought to be a trailblazer of sorts within the fast-casual industry when it comes to utilizing them. My wife Laura Rea, who was the company’s chief information officer at the time, worked to pioneer our proprietary data platform we call Smoke Stack. It synthesizes data from our inventory systems, marketing promotions, customer surveys, loyalty programs, and point-of-sale systems, and through it we can obtain real-time feedback on sales and other performance metrics that fuel our decision-making. We know what activities drive sales and keep costs in line. Are we driving catering sales? Keeping labor costs in line? Is occupancy the right percent of sales? We’ve established what works.

CEOCFO: What are some strategies you employ personally to bring your ideas to life?

Roland Dickey Jr.: Besides tons of caffeine in the morning and wine and melatonin in the evening? I would say standing morning meetings are a key to me staying on track and productive. For me a consistent schedule means there is less of a likelihood of wasted time, and my team also has more chances to be productive when we keep meetings scheduled but concise. On the subject of time, I try to give myself extended periods of time to simply sit and think free of distraction. I always reserve the last hour of my work day for this, as well as a daily walk which helps tremendously, and I also always find time in my day to read – I love finding articles or books to share with our executive teams. Finally, our company culture is to ACT, which stands for acknowledge, communicate, and take things to completion. We encourage people to take risks even if they might end in error as long as you are candid, sincere, and always pushing to improve. This means directly identifying needs or challenges within the business quickly, effectively communicating solutions, and implementing them well.

CEOCFO: Can you tell us about any setback you have had as a CEO and what you have learned from it?

Roland Dickey Jr.: I try not to dwell on problems or mistakes; I would rather observe them, learn what I can and move on. For example, we had issues with our sausage supply during the coronavirus pandemic which resulted in a shortage. At the time it was a stressful situation, but we quickly looked at the facts and realized that the only way to not ever be put in that position again was to make our own sausage. The next day we had begun the process of doing so and haven’t looked back since. That being said, early on in my career I promoted our best waiter to a different management role, which ended up being a terrible fit for him. He ended up leaving the company, which was a shame because it was a big loss for everybody involved, but it taught me what a huge part the right role plays in a person’s success in a position. He really wanted more, but I now know that it is extremely important to ensure a new role is the right fit before moving a successful person from their old one.