![]() ![]() Fellow business-minded Russians followed it religiously, and many flocked to Syktyvkar to work with its author. That blog proved to be a powerful PR and recruiting tool. “And I wrote about everything in my blog.”ĭodo Pizza emphasizes speed and efficiency, with a “60 minutes or it’s free” delivery rule borrowed from Domino’s. “During the first months, I took orders over the phone and prepared and delivered the pizzas personally,” he says. Tucked away in a cramped basement, the store offered delivery only. Petersburg, Ovchinnikov opened his first Dodo Pizza shop in the city of Syktyvkar in early 2011. “I chose pizza because it can be scaled all over the world.”Īfter learning the ins and outs at a Papa John’s in St. (He was even featured in a Russian best seller called Nerds Do Business, Too.) “I quit the book business with no capital and started looking for a business that I could devote most of my life to,” he recalls. All the while, he’d been chronicling his business adventures in a well-read blog that has made him one of his country’s best-known entrepreneurs. And, like Jobs, he’s a shrewd innovator with a knack for pulling talented people into his orbit-and motivating them to rewrite the rules.Ī former bookstore chain magnate, Ovchinnikov found himself out of work in 2010, thanks to an overly aggressive development strategy and the global recession. He’s quick to laugh and crack jokes through his translator, Emiliano Ananyin. He speaks only haltingly in English, but he’s working on learning the language. With his sunny smile, hipster specs and swirly-tipped coif, Ovchinnikov puts the lie to Cold War stereotypes of stolid, scowling Russians in fur hats. Many stores teach pizza making workshops for kids, while some host balloon artists on Sundays.īut the mastermind behind Dodo Pizza also brings fresh thinking and an outsider’s perspective to the pizza franchise business. Dine-in stores peddle American and Russian beers and an assortment of juices, and every shop serves muffins and cookies. Various locations offer varying levels of service, from delivery and carryout only to dine-in, with menus offering up to 18 kinds of pizza as well as the popular Dodster, a baked chicken and mozzarella wrap that accounts for 10% of the company’s sales. (Clockwise from top left) With live-streaming webcams in every Dodo Pizza kitchen, customers can place an order and watch online as their pizzas get made a pizza maker preps a pie at a Dodo Pizza Express shop located in a shopping mall Kids get VIP treatment with pizza making classes and other activities.Īt first glance, Dodo Pizza may look like your standard pizza franchise operation. And with his willingness to foster innovative technologies and push the boundaries of existing corporate paradigms, the company’s canny and visionary founder just may prove to be-as one PMQ staffer called him-“the Steve Jobs of pizza.”Ĭlick here to read Fedor Ovchinnikov’s new blog for Dodo Pizza USA. Growth like that suggests Dodo Pizza, despite its famously doomed namesake and mascot, is in no danger of going extinct. By the end of 2015, he estimates a total of 75 stores will be in operation, while the company’s first American shop could open within the next year in Oxford, Mississippi (PMQ’s hometown). It currently has 43 franchise and five corporate-owned locations in Russia, Romania and Kazakhstan. Ovchinnikov’s company is, indeed, relatively small, but it’s expanding rapidly. It’s difficult for Domino’s and Papa John’s to change because they are hostages to their size.” “We can create a more efficient business model of a pizza store with the help of the Internet and a more efficient chain operation based on key franchising principles. “We want to create an international chain, and we know how to accomplish that,” Ovchinnikov says, with breezy self-assurance. ![]() Using cloud-based computer technology, webcams, guerrilla marketing techniques and a highly influential blog, Ovchinnikov is building an empire worthy of the old czars, attracting ambitious franchisees and, better yet, money men willing to fund his dream of global expansion. As founder of a fast-growing Russian chain called Dodo Pizza ( ), the 33-year-old entrepreneur has reinvented the pizza business in his native land. Fedor Ovchinnikov may have a name that’s hard to pronounce, but it’s one worth remembering.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
Details
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |