Leadership Talk Series by Mr. Ajay Kaul, IIM Kozhikode, 21st July 2012

Leadership Talk Series by Mr. Ajay Kaul, IIM Kozhikode, 21st July 2012

The Indian Institute of Management Kozhikode (IIMK) played host to Mr. Ajay Kaul who addressed the students as a part of the ‘Leadership Talk Series’ and especially addressed the topic of "Building a High Performance Organization - Decoding the DNA ". This session was organised by the Industry Interaction Cell of IIM Kozhikode, which spearheads the student’s relations with the industry.

Mr. Kaul, CEO, Jubilant Food Works Ltd. (Master Franchisee for Dominos' Pizza and Dunkin' Donuts), had a highly interactive session with the students of IIM Kozhikode. As a leader in a highly competitive industry, Mr. Kaul had very interesting insights to share on the food retailing industry where Dominos’ currently tops the Organized Pizza Delivery segment with a gaint market share of 70%. He discussed the unique brand positioning of Dominos’ as a delivery based brand as opposed to the dine-in path choosen by competitors. He pointed out the specific issues that plague a time bound segment such as pizza delivery and shared the Dominos’ methods that were used to successfully overcome the same.

While throwing light on the journey of Dominos’ from “Hungry Kya” to “khushiyon ki Home Delivery” he laid emphasis on often overlooked factors such as the delivery boy who is the real face of the brand to the customer. Elaborating on the role played by the delivery boys he impressed the importance of human resource management at Dominos’ which sees even its ex-employees returning during peak days to help in delivery, thus is their bonding with the brand he said. He also shared some of the earlier ad campaigns of Dominos’ to drive home the importance of occupying consumer mind space and the communication of brand image.

Keeping with the theme Mr. Kaul expressed his views on the factors that are required in building a high performance organization. Answering students’ questions, Mr.Kaul, insisted that Indian mentality towards delivered food has come a long way, but is yet to grow in leaps and bounds. The event which was an enriching experience for the students closed with some words of graditude and appreciation from, Professor Joffy Thomas, Faculty, Marketing Management, IIM Kozhikode.