David Novak, co-founder and former CEO of Yum! Brands, joins host Jeff Berman to share lessons from scaling one of the world’s largest restaurant companies.
Hear how his focus on listening, team recognition, and taking big swings helped grow a fast food empire to a $32 billion market cap. He also reveals lessons from the infamous Crystal Pepsi campaign, how he came up with Cool Ranch Doritos, and what fuels his mission to develop the next generation of leaders. His latest book is: “How Leaders Learn.” David also has a podcast: “How Leaders Lead.”
Chapters:
00:00 The disaster of Crystal Pepsi
01:47 David Novak’s framework for how leaders learn
04:49 What David Novak learned from launching Crystal Pepsi
08:51 How to institutionalize learning from failure
13:34 The story of launching Cool Ranch Doritos
16:11 Balancing big swings with incremental growth
19:16 When should business leaders speak out on social issues?
21:44 The metrics that define a leader
23:14 The need to grow profits
25:17 Learning how to grieve
28:34 Lightning Round: Book recommendation?
30:15 Lightning Round: Where would you want to lead?