Pizza with Purpose

If you get a chance, pick up the February issue of Inc Magazine and check out the cover story on Nick's Pizza and Pub.

Nick's is a Chicago area restaurant started by Nick Sarillo in 1995. There are two locations, and they're enormous places designed to provide a great meal and a place to gather for family and friends. And while every town in America may have a pizza place, none are like Nick's.

Rather than focus on the taste of the crust or the speed of the service, his enterprise is about "Pizza with Purpose." He has established his business as a true partner in the community, and has created a culture that trusts his employees to work intelligently and respectfully without a "command and control" environment—and they're primarily teenagers!

He regularly hosts fundraisers for all kinds of local non-profits, and then donates 100 percent of the gross profit for the day. Right now, he's also offering "Half Price Mondays" in the dining room, and half price for takeout on Tuesday until the unemployment rate goes down.

From an employee perspective, he describes his approach to leadership as "trust and track," which is a deliberate alternative to "command and control." Essentially, he has a culture and process which trains his employees, trusts them to perform well, and then tracks their progress to the company's goals. He considers it the heart of his business success.

I got the chance to meet Nick last fall, and at first he strikes you as just a regular guy running a fun business. But when he gets going, his passion for his employees becomes clear. As he says in the article, "People really do want to have a meaningful place to work," and as he's clearly proven, the path to achieving that vision can even be by making pizza!

Jennifer