Panera, Potbelly, Jimmy John’s, and Roti didn’t outgrow their competition because the food was better. They built the foundation before they needed it — and that’s the move most emerging brands miss.

Before I start my story, I just want to preface that building a great people culture at Potbelly was the work of many people on our team that were amazing leaders and contributed greatly to its success. However, that was not what I experienced in the beginning of my journey, it took many years and a clear vision that restaurants are a people business more than a food business.

In 2002, I joined Potbelly Sandwich Works when there was 8 locations. My prior experience growing the Detroit market with Panera, was exactly what they were looking for, an experienced leader that could improve the systematization of growth, not just stores but also people. My job was to help create, along with others, that needed infrastructure for growth as big plans were in the works.

What I found was a solid foundation but an organization focused on discipline vs. ownership.  Good operating systems executed based on fear, a bit of a top down type of organization. The operations were fairly simple and the stores ran well, but there was something big missing.

That big thing missing was the development pipeline that would be needed for a high growth concept. Restaurants run best, most efficiently when the talent you hire is also the talent that grows with you. This only happens when you create systems and infrastructure that focused on the growth of people, and that starts by creating a desire and pathway that your team sees as interactive, and rewarding.  My phrase is “Involvement Equals Commitment”. When your team is involved in the solving of problems, especially ones around their own growth they are also committed to the result.

So, after much trial and error, almost quitting, and finally a new leadership team, we built it. Structured roles and responsibilities for every shift leader and manager in the company. A leadership development program. A 1:1 coaching process. We built it before Potbelly had 50 locations — before anyone would have called it urgent.

Twelve months later, we had increased promotable management candidates by more than 50%. Those leaders supplied the bench for 20 new restaurant openings. The system existed before the need became critical. That’s the whole point.

The Problem No One Names

Here’s the pattern I see constantly in emerging restaurant brands, especially franchise brands: they wait to build systems until the cracks become crises.  Quality and quantity of leadership is usually the last to be built but is the first to show you the deadly and financially devastating impact.

They open locations 4 and 5 using the same informal processes that worked at location 1. The founder is still making the calls. Good managers are running on tribal knowledge. There’s no real operating manual — just group chats and muscle memory.

Then they try to open location 6. And it’s harder. The opening takes longer. The GM they promoted isn’t ready, the other leadership roles are going to be developed as they go. Food costs creep up because nobody owns the number at the store level. The culture that felt natural in three locations starts to feel inconsistent across six.

This is not a people problem. It’s an infrastructure problem. And infrastructure has to be built before you need it — not after the cracks appear.

Three Tiers Where Brands Get This Right — or Don’t

Based on my experience across Panera, Potbelly, Jimmy John’s, and Roti — and now building systems for clients going from 1 unit to franchise-ready — I’ve identified three tiers where multi-unit brands either build the foundation or pay for it later. The three tiers are important because you can’t build it all at once, at least not without lots of funding and giving away equity. 

Tier 1 — The Foundation (Units 3–5)

This is where the founder can no longer be everywhere. The system has to work without you in the building. What that requires: standardized opening and closing checklists at every location, unified POS and reporting, a real employee handbook, position-by-position role descriptions with measurable standards, and a General Manager at every store who is genuinely empowered to hire, train, and own the P&L.

The most common miss at this tier? The GM who got promoted is running on instinct, not structure. When that person leaves — and at 100% annual turnover, they will leave — the system goes with them. At Panera, I inherited a store with exactly that problem. 100% annual turnover, bleeding margin. We rebuilt the structure, and within a year it was the most profitable store in the Chicago region: +22% sales, +8% profit margin, four team members promoted to leadership roles across the market.

Tier 2 — The Multi-Unit Engine (Units 5–10)

This is where founder-led tribal knowledge stops working. Information has to live in systems, not in people’s heads. What that requires: a documented training and certification system on a real LMS, a weekly store-visit scorecard used at every location every time, a monthly business review with each GM using the same agenda and the same metrics, and a full-time Director of Operations who is not the founder.

At Roti — 22 locations across Chicago, D.C., and New York — we built an internal leadership pipeline we called “Keys to the Future.” Over 19 months: hiring costs dropped 20%. Manager training costs dropped 30%. Retention increased 25%. We filled 50% of all GM positions internally. None of that was possible without the Tier 2 infrastructure being in place first.

Tier 3 — The Scalable Brand (Units 11–25)

This is the franchise-ready, PE-ready phase. The brand has to be a system that someone else could run. What that requires: a legal-grade operations manual durable enough for a new GM or franchisee to follow, documented unit economics (AUV, build cost, payback period, ROI), a real-time BI dashboard, a crisis playbook, an annual strategic plan, and a leadership org chart with named owners at every function.

Most brands at this stage are still running on the systems they built at Tier 1. That’s why so many franchise conversations stall — not because the concept isn’t good, but because the infrastructure isn’t there yet. At Mazala Pizza, we built the full operational and franchise infrastructure from scratch: four locations open, four franchisee agreements signed, ten to twenty additional franchise prospects in the pipeline. The infrastructure made the growth possible.

Where Do You Actually Stand?

The first step is knowing where you actually stand — not where you think you stand. Most operators who go through the Multi-Unit Readiness Assessment discover 8 to 12 gaps they assumed were already covered.

The assessment covers 59 checkpoints across all three tiers: Systems, Documentation, and Roles & Structure at each stage. It takes about 15 minutes. The results show you exactly what’s in place, what’s missing, and which gaps are urgent at your current stage — before the next opening reveals them for you.

If you want to break down in more detail, We KNow How has three other self assessment tools; The Restaurant Training Gap Scorecard, The Restaurant Development Self Assessment and the 5 Lenses of Restaruant Strategy.  Each one gives you even deeper insight on your next steps towards growth.

Growth doesn’t create the problems. It just reveals the ones that were already there.