In 2008 the stock price for the Domino's Pizza Company hit a record low: $2.83 per share. Today, their stock worth more than $100 per share. How did they accomplish such a drastic turnaround? Short answer: technology.
What can technology do to help a food company? What can’t technology do to help a food company?
Domino’s Chief Marketing Officer has joked about how Domino’s is now perceived as "a tech company that just happens to sell pizzas." Rightly so, to an extent; the largest department at Domino’s Headquarters is IT.
In fact, every aspect of the Domino’s business has been integrated with technology: ordering, cooking, delivery, and data, providing unprecedented levels of accountability and transparency across the entire business. Customers no longer have to look up a phone number, be put on hold, or even speak to another person to place an order for delivery. Now, instead of wondering when the doorbell would ring, hungry pizza recipients can watch a progress bar track the journey of their meal from the oven to the driveway. Just three months after launching their Pizza Tracking system and accompanying applications, they saw sales increase by 14%. In 2013, Domino’s did $2 billion in global digital sales. Over 35% of those sales were through mobile devices. The message is clear -- if you're lacking engagement, take a look at your end-user technology -- or rather, the lack thereof.
So, what does this have to do with The CoreTech Foundation and their CORE Toolkit? Well, in December, we described 7 ways that IT could enhance a nonprofit. Today, this Domino’s example demonstrates how tech advantages have been leveraged successfully by a for-profit company --- one that had the funding to pay for these IT tools. These are the same tools that CoreTech would like to make available to nonprofits, many of whom do not have the ability to finance them.
The Chief Digital Officer who works for Domino’s said it himself: their digital success is rooted in not limiting its goals to the pizza industry: “consumers don’t change their expectations from category to category…”
Tech advantages aren’t limited to pizza. Likewise, neither are they limited to for-profit companies. These advantages will undoubtedly benefit nonprofits, which is why the private sector insights are so valuable to nonprofit sector and the objectives of the CoreTech Foundation.
To learn all about how Domino’s executed this turnaround, read this great article by Jeff Beer. Also, full disclosure: If you have questions about what it was like to experience this turnaround as an employee -- write me! I was delivering for Domino’s, paying my way through college, as Domino’s made this turnaround.
