エピソード

  • Innovation Is Not A Luxury: Rewriting the QSR Playbook

    Innovation Is Not A Luxury: Rewriting the QSR Playbook
    2025/09/09
    Fast-food legend Robert Rosenberg — architect of Dunkin’s global expansion — joins Sonic’s Cliff Hudson and tech leader Craig Miller to dissect the unbreakable link between innovation, convenience, and survival in quick-service restaurants.

    Rosenberg reveals how Dunkin’ turned doughnut scraps into the billion-dollar Munchkin phenomenon during the 1970s oil crisis, while Domino’s boardroom bets on digital ordering catapulted it from stagnation to 80% online sales dominance.

    Hudson reflects on Sonic’s early "pay-at-your-stall" tech gamble inspired by gas pumps, proving that incremental customer-centric shifts — not just flashy tech — build lasting brands.

    The trio argues why convenience now trumps even product quality, and why franchises that ignore the "techno-oval" risk obsolescence.
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    31 分
  • Fortune Favors the Prepared: Sonic’s Billion-Dollar Timing

    Fortune Favors the Prepared: Sonic’s Billion-Dollar Timing
    2025/08/26
    Former CEO Cliff Hudson and franchisee Buddy McClain unpack Sonic’s 20-year tech evolution—from skeptics to industry leaders. They reveal how early credit card readers boosted tickets by 40%, why legacy POS systems nearly crippled growth, and how integrating a proprietary mobile app unlocked a competitive advantage for the brand. The payoff? When COVID hit, Sonic’s pre-pandemic mobile investment turned Sonic’s drive-ins into profit engines, with app sales hitting 40% in some markets. Miller and McClain detail the operational drama, billion-dollar timing, and why "fortune favors the prepared." A masterclass in brick-and-mortar digital transformation.
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    35 分
  • Sonic Accelerates Growth in the Digital Age: $1B (1997) to $5.8B (2021)

    Sonic Accelerates Growth in the Digital Age: $1B (1997) to $5.8B (2021)
    2025/08/12
    Former Sonic CEO Cliff Hudson and tech architect Craig Miller reveal how a digital transformation—sparked by Hudson’s 2004 'techno-oval' customer-engagement vision propelled the drive-in chain to $5.8B. They detail overcoming legacy 'tech debt,' leveraging Sonic’s unique 25-stall drive-in model to dominate app-based convenience and scaling integrated POS/mobile systems across 3,600 stores. Despite post-acquisition sales dips, their tech stack delivered over a 20% pandemic surge, proving brick-and-mortar resilience through operational reinvention—a universal playbook for legacy brands battling digital disruption and ever-changing market conditions.
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    25 分