Taco Bell COO encourages students to embrace unexpected

Published: 2012-10-22

Rob Savage was working in the automotive industry as a manager when Taco Bell offered him a job.

“I laughed,” he said, wondering where his background in systems engineering and plant management would ever fit in at a restaurant chain.

That was two decades ago. Today, Savage is chief operations officer of the chain, overseeing the operations of a nearly $7 billion company that serves 35 million customers a week. Yum Brands, the corporate parent of KFC and Pizza Hut, is the largest restaurant company on the planet.

“You have to be willing to change, learn and grow,” Savage told a crowd of students Oct. 19. “You never know what’s going to happen.”

This was the second time Savage was on Fisher’s campus. Last month, he led a seminar for the Center for Operational Excellence, where he shared Taco Bell’s recent successes in the fast food industry.

Working through the ranks first as a market manager and later as a director of margin improvement, the Ohio native and Buckeye graduate has been at the forefront of major advances in Taco Bell’s status as a player in the fast-food industry. Once known as a great value with slower service, the company has taken its speed and accuracy to award-winning heights.

Savage credits those gains to Taco Bell’s relentless focus on creating a positive, efficient environment for its 150,000 employees. A crucial lesson he’s learned through decades of leadership is that the “truth is at the front line.”

“You have to start with the work,” he said. “The more you understand the work, the more you can make it better.”

“Better” defines Taco Bell these days. The company recently rolled out its Cantina Bowl concept, created by chef Lorena Garcia, and landed its biggest success ever with the spring launch of the Doritos Locos Taco. Customers have purchased about 230 million of the crunchy, flavor dust-coated tacos so far this year.

That success is something Savage wouldn’t have seen had he stuck to the career he envisioned for himself 30 years ago. One of Savage’s favorite pieces of advice for students and professionals is to never feel stitched into one line of work.

 “Just because you’re trained in business doesn’t mean you can’t do a quality job or a supply chain job,” he said. “There are a variety of different options if you open yourself up.”