DODO´s success insights from first-hand accounts
Success stories inspire ambitious goals and actions. When entrepreneurs, businessmen and top managers share their stories, you live their journey with them. Academic Director Natalia Khazieva invited Yuri Kostin, Partner-Franchisee of DODO BRANDS, to give a master class for students of the International Bachelor in Business and Economics program on April 12 and talk about his space development in the company, approaches to team building and employee motivation, as well as what importance psychology and thinking have in a career.
Yuri was educated in Russia, Sweden and Finland, and has worked in Austria, Sweden. Currently he is a FRANCHASE PARTNER of DODO BRANDS and manages a chain of 25 restaurants (!) in 18 cities in Russia and Bulgaria (!) with revenue of 2 billion rubles in 2024. What contributed to such a successful development of the company? Yuri emphasized 4 key points: idea, mindset, values and people. The idea is to open not just a pizzeria, but to use digital technologies to promote and sell the company's products. That said, the mindset opens up limitless horizons for this combination and utilization. Despite the fact that the company aims to develop and increase revenue, it clearly follows the values: openness and trust, responsibility and freedom. And none of this is possible without a team of people who share values and are attracted to each other.
Yuri is confident that sustainable success is closely linked to personal and professional development. Education in the best business schools, reading, and networking create a strong leader who, through the Partnership School within the company, helps their employees embark on a new professional trajectory. This is especially important since the fastest-growing and most efficient pizzerias with the highest profitability in the DODO network - Partner.
But building a pizzeria and making it successful is only possible with the presence of customers. It is believed that if a customer tries the company's product three times, the likelihood of them becoming loyal is 85%. For the company, it is important to bring back and retain customers, which is why they use vibrant BTL (interacting with participants of advertising actions personally, directly at points of sale), effective outdoor advertising, and powerful digital marketing. Yuri Kostin emphasizes that the organizational structure of the network is aimed at identifying and solving customer problems. Each team member is carefully selected not only in terms of professional experience or competencies (which is not even the most important aspect), but also based on their hobbies and interests, because an enthusiastic person is a very energetic person, capable of achieving any goals. Here is another important point of motivation: through development, not through money. As a leader, Yuri also understands that he is a role model for everyone and continues to develop himself: sports, travel, nutrition, meditation, and more.
In the end of the master class, Yuri Kostin shared some brain hacks that particularly stood out:
• allocate one day every 7-10 days when I do what I want or do nothing
• never separate work and life
Let´s try?