Food & Beverage
Not just winging it
How Matt Friedman created and grew Wing Zone
By Matt McClellan
Smart Business Atlanta | November 2007
Matt Friedman and Adam Scott have
made the transition. When they
started cooking chicken wings and mixing sauce flavors out of their fraternity
house kitchen at the University of Florida
in 1991, they were meeting a demand for a
late-night alternative to pizza. They sold
out their first two nights in business and
were so successful that they opened two
storefront locations in Gainesville, Fla.,
and then grew from a regional wing chain
to a franchising monster. Today, more
than 100 Wing Zones have popped up
in 25 states, and the company is set to
top $40 million in revenue this year.
Smart Business spoke with
Friedman, co-founder and CEO of
Wing Zone, about why you can’t be
afraid to make mistakes and why
sometimes even a CEO has to mop
the floor.
Q: How would you describe your
management style?
I’m a direct person. I do it in a professional way, but I’m not one to
hold back feelings or comments.
I’m pretty confident in my ability
but not to the point of being cocky.
I am definitely a fan of leading by
example. Back even when I was
running restaurants, running Wing
Zones — a true owner-operator
behind the counter — which wasn’t that long ago, seven years ago,
we were in our stores every day.
We really led by example. If we
had to mop a floor or wipe a
counter or cook or drive, I said,
‘Whatever, I’ll do anything.’
That was really effective at the restaurant
level and can be effective at a corporate
level, other than you can’t do everybody’s
job for them. But any CEO that is trying to
grow a business, they have to have leadership. If they don’t have leadership, they’re
missing the one quality that will allow them
to be successful and grow.
Q: What has been your greatest challenge?
Definitely transitioning from small to big.
That’s been our challenge. We’ve made
improvements, but when you start from
humble beginnings, it’s difficult to view yourself as a large company or use a hands-off type of approach.
I don’t want to change who we are. It’s
part of our culture. We’re roll-up-your-sleeves type of people. Also, if you want to
be successful, you’ve got to work hard.
There is some luck involved, but hard work
is something you have to put in, as well.
It was a challenging transition, from running a chain of restaurants to becoming an
executive, a CEO of a company.
Q: What advice would you give to someone
making that transition?
It depends on how aggressively they
want to grow. We’ve taken a fairly conservative approach to growth — about 15 to
30 percent each year. That was manageable, even with us having our hands around
it. It was the right move for us; we didn’t
overexpand. We’ve grown smartly.
But, at some point, you’ve got to let go
and delegate and manage your company.
Some of the advice I’d give people is, No. 1,
don’t rush into that plan or decision. Take
the necessary time to grow your company, but when you’re ready to grow, you’ve got
to not only be a leader but be ready to delegate and be the CEO of your company.
Q: How involved should a leader be in the
day-to-day operations?
You need to know what’s going on in your
company. It can be a flaw if you’re too
involved, but too many CEOs just are not
as involved as they should be. They say
they’re busy, but it only takes 10 minutes to
stop in the marketing person’s office
or someone in construction or real
estate and get a 10- or 15-minute
update.
As the leader of the company, you
have to make sure you’re directing it
in the right way. You need to know
what’s going on in all these different
facets. I’m not an expert in every category, but I have a good amount of
knowledge in each category. So you
need to know what’s going on because
if you have a conversation, you need to
know what you’re talking about.
Q: What are some pitfalls CEOs should
avoid?
You should never forget where you
started. It’s a humbling exercise. If you
think, ‘I’m the CEO of a company, and
we did $50 million,’ you can start to
breathe your own ether. If you think
back five years ago, 10 years ago, what
were you doing? I was cleaning fryers
and cooking chicken wings. It kind of
puts you in your place. That is a really
good lesson.
We’ve had plenty of challenges and failures. I do read about other CEOs and books
that they’ve read. The one commonality I
see with so many CEOs — and successful
ones — is that they’ve all had failure,
they’ve all struggled, and they’ve all made
bad decisions. And it’s part of business. It’s
part of growing and learning. I think a lot of
people, when they’re in a leadership role or
a powerful position, feel that they can’t
make a mistake. We have no problem saying, ‘I made a bad decision.’ You just can’t
be afraid to make that decision.
HOW TO REACH: Wing Zone, www.wingzone.com or (404)
875-5045.
