STORIES

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THE BIG QUESTION

A good purpose statement should unite, inspire, and guide. But even the best can fall flat without the right tools to activate it.

So how do you make sure your precious words end up having a real impact? This quarter, we’ll help you make sure your purpose statement has a life in the world outside your off-site slide deck — and is truly purposeful.

We dug into it with the CEO of Pizza Hut and built you a tool to try it out for yourself. We can’t wait to hear what you think.

Aaron Powell, CEO of Pizza Hut, began his tenure with a goal to define a clear answer to ‘why’ Pizza Hut exists. Danny Brooks and Marta Harding from Penrose talked to him to see exactly how he’s connecting ‘Purpose’ with critical business choices and how he’s developing a shared tool kit that guides consistent decision making across the global chain.

Danny: When Penrose got here, you had already created that first purpose statement ‘connecting people through the joy of pizza.’ What was your experience of doing that?

Aaron: We came up with that early in my time here. But, what's the bigger idea behind that? The bigger idea is not a summation of the parts, it's something bigger than that. As a team, we came up with different ideas as to who we are when we are at our best. We came up with the phrase “Connecting people through the joy pizza.” But a phrase ain’t enough.

23 secs | A Phrase is Not Enough

Danny: What made you think you needed more?

Aaron: It was pretty obvious that we needed more than just a statement. It was how to get to more that was not obvious to me. What’s really important is: How can we run real decisions through it?

We are doing a tavern pizza right now, and it just feels right. It's about Pizza Passion, our teammates love it, there's something modern — it's right.

There are big press releases about another pizza company and drone delivery. That’s not us. So, if you run something like drone delivery through [a purpose statement], does that make sense? Well [no], we're People People. This is not a box from Amazon. This is a food that brings happiness.

Danny: I love the example of who we're not. A lot of companies have a ‘something for everybody’ mentality. What I'm understanding from you is: There's something more specific here as a result of this work.

Aaron: Without question. It helps given the position that I know that we need change. The task is hard, but what makes it in some ways easier is, I know we can't coast. I know we have to reinvent. I know that Pizza Hut — and frankly, the world — deserves more. So that helps us stay sharp.

Marta: It can be challenging to define how an organization can grow and evolve in a way that feels true and genuine to who you are as a brand. What made you believe that Promise* and Pillars* made sense for activating your Purpose?

Aaron: I didn’t know what we needed — I just knew that we needed more. We have 500,000 people working at Pizza Hut. If you look at us on a Thursday night, it's a mess of stuff going on. How do you have some real tangible things that show the difference between us and a corner pizzeria? Us and a Denny’s?

I don't think of it as a machine in rationale. And I don't think of it as a creative exercise. It's somewhere in the middle.

_{*Penrose defines “Promise” as an organization's unwavering commitment to providing specific benefits and experiences for its Stakeholders at every touch point. Penrose defines “Pillars” as an organization’s distinct levers to deliver meaningful and measurable value to its Stakeholders.}

12 sec | Rational and Emotional

Marta: I love that you talked about intuition — knowing when something feels right, and by going through this process, we were able to unpack the elements that make Pizza Hut feel like Pizza Hut.

Aaron: Even though I'm a weird “I-like-to-look-at-spreadsheets” type of guy, I know that emotions and gut are what drives our being, our decisions, what brands we love, know, things that we do. So whenever anything's only rational, it's missing the mark. It just is.

Marta: Throughout our collaboration, did you have any big ‘aha’ moments?

Aaron: I loved the process. Sometimes when you engage externally, there's such a bias towards one type of stakeholder: Some people will go just deep into the consumer or what the really high-paid people think. This felt really diverse — a little bit of franchise voice and different levels within the team. You really came at it in a whole lot of different ways, which I love.

The ‘aha’ moment was the big reveal of the four Pillars (or the four ‘Key Ingredients’). The fact that they resonated means they were not alien, yet we never clearly articulated them: Pizza Passion, People People, and Iconic Innovation. And then the fourth (which also pushed my thinking, but it's right) was (G)local Love*. That was the ‘aha.’

_{*Pizza Hut defines “(G)local Love” as being governed by global standards, acknowledging the diverse needs of its stakeholders, and always ensuring consistency while embracing regional relevance.}

Danny: How did you imagine using this work prior to doing it, and then how have you used this work since doing it?

Aaron: I'm always making these strategy one-pagers that refresh a little bit each year. I thought, this is going to be something that we show in town halls, or I’d get in front of franchise conventions and I’d reference it. And there's some of that.

[The way I’ve used it since is as] a filter to make decisions. I think my most senior leaders are using it in a similar way. I don't think we have weaponized it yet throughout all of our processes, but we'll get there. We're not complete in our journey — we're still working through it all. But the filter angle is something which I did not envision but is quite powerful.

Danny: Can you tell me more about what you mean by ‘filter?’

Aaron: I do not expect my restaurant general manager to think, ‘these are my four ingredients and how do I filter through it?’ But if they start to see it in the language we use and even the type of tools or how we measure, then we're at fully bright — when we have it in the natural ecosystem.

Danny: What could you imagine this work brings to the business?

Aaron: I'm a believer in [putting] a number against every one of our initiatives and projects and products. How do we think about [activating Purpose] mathematically? Where we really use this lens, we're going to get 90% out of value.

So, to me, the value of our efforts will be so much better, because we're going to be more focused on who is Pizza Hut and what is Pizza Hut. Our overall success and our reinvention of the brand will be that much stronger with the limited resources we have, because we will also have the filter as to what is true to us.

If I look at next year’s plan, and there's just not enough about Pizza Passion, as an example. Or about how we are flexing our model to where we are engaged locally. If we don’t have enough of those [Pillars], then that also needs to stimulate our conversation. Let's think more broadly, let's think more holistically.

Danny: When we did this work at Starbucks, one of the things that we ended up doing was looking at store performance in relation to the health of Starbucks Pillars/Key Ingredients. What we found was, surprisingly, Coffee quality was a small part of those ingredients compared to Connection scores.

Aaron: Even an attempt at measuring the health [of the brand] against our four ingredients, I love that way of keeping [the brand] fresh, I really do. How are we going to make a difference to the consumer and Team Member — giving them all the tools, so that our franchise partners can make the whole thing work.

Marta: Our team loves tough challenges — listening to all the stakeholders and understanding how to actually make it make sense for the business.

Aaron: In my world, nine times out of ten, what my franchise owners want versus the Team Members versus my employees are all extremely different. That's why things like Purpose and Promise and Key Ingredients [Pillars] are more important than ever. Because the more complex the thing you're in is, the more that you need roots, and you need anchors.

29 sec | The Importance of Purpose

Marta: What advice would you offer leaders as they think about Purpose and making sure it feels activated, alive, and actually impacts day-to-day decision-making?

Aaron: First: It's so important to have a holistic approach and to be able to sort through what's important versus not.

Second: It's not a big bang. It's a journey and the value comes through consistently bringing it to life. It makes it more nuanced or complex — that there's not a clear start or end date. But because of that, it can add value for so long.

Danny: We're honored to be part of that journey and thank you again.

Aaron: You are welcome. I thought I'd happily have this conversation, because I believe in Penrose — and you gave me value in the conversation. So, thank you.

✏️ What we heard from our interview:

• Purpose must be more than words on a page — it has to tangibly come to life through shared definitions and consistent ways of working.

• Tools like Pillars can support Purpose to act as an effective decision making filter — helping organizations define who they are and, more importantly, who they are not.

• Understanding diverse stakeholder perspectives helps ensure an organization’s decision making systems represent the needs of everyone the organization impacts — not just senior leadership.

• It takes time to integrate decision making frameworks rooted in Purpose — an organization must hear and believe it before living it and achieving its desired results.-
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30 sec | Using Purpose as a Filter

We built a tool so you can try for yourself:

Try using your Purpose as a filter. Download the case study to see how Pizza Hut uses their Purpose as a filter for decision making, then use the template to try it for your organization.

download the tool

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