Sponsored By

RBI chief lays out his vision for Burger King, Tim Hortons, PopeyesRBI chief lays out his vision for Burger King, Tim Hortons, Popeyes

José Eduardo Cil highlights 5 corporate ‘pillars’

Gloria Dawson

May 16, 2019

2 Min Read
Nation's Restaurant News logo in a gray background | Nation's Restaurant News

"Let me introduce you to RBI."

José Eduardo Cil, CEO of Restaurant Brands International, Inc., started the company's first investor day presentation like a conversation, a rarity for the usually tight-lipped company.

Perhaps this change in the company’s behavior started with Cil. He's about 100 days into his position as chief of the parent company of Burger King, Tim Hortons, and Popeyes Louisiana Kitchen.

"I'm very excited about my new role and what we can accomplish as a company,” he said.

So, what is RBI all about?

Cil broke it down to five pillars.

Being a brand-led company

"We run a restaurant business at RBI. We're not a holding company. We're not a private equity firm. We're not an M&A firm. We're a restaurant company. … A brand-led company allows each of its brands to establish their own brand identities and then invest heavily to carve out a brand positioning that stands us apart from our competitors.”

Focusing on exceptional guest experience

"We've set a framework for restaurant operations for all three of our restaurant brands so that we strive to always deliver a consistent guest experience focused around standards, training and measurement. Of course, an exceptional guest experience also includes great execution of the basics: Friendliness, cleanliness, accuracy and speed of service at our restaurants."

Related:Restaurant Brands International names new CEO, COO

Driving digital innovation and leadership

"Perhaps the largest disrupter to our business, in the entire QSR industry today, is the evolution of digital options in our restaurants and in our guests' lives. We've made a lot of progress in the last 18 months to put in place our mobile apps, digital kiosks, digital menu boards, integrating loyalty programs and learning with delivery. We're increasingly seeing our guests consume food off-premise via drive-through and delivery, which has prompted us to accelerate our efforts to take advantage of this new incremental market opportunity for our brands."

Modeling industry excellence as a franchisor

"Our business model is anchored in having motivated, profitable, happy franchisees, executing our business and our brands and our restaurants every day. Excellence as a franchisor is all about profitability — their profitability. Ultimately, we want to be the place where any potential franchisee or investor would want to invest their money knowing they'll earn an attractive return in an attractive payback period with trust and support from their franchisor."

Living a culture that attracts and retains the best talent in the world

"We believe our people and culture are big differentiators for us and we attract top talent that is humble, hungry and hardworking. We do this principally through what we believe is a best-in-class leadership development program. ... Our leadership team spends more time in any given month recruiting talent than I believe any of our competitors do. I personally spend time recruiting every month, looking for the best people to join our team on our journey to achieve our dream."

Contact Gloria Dawson at [email protected]

Follow her on Twitter: @GloriaDawson

Read more about:

Tim Hortons

About the Author

Gloria Dawson

Gloria Dawson is a senior editor at Nation’s Restaurant News, Restaurant Hospitality and Supermarket News. She writes and edits breaking news and feature stories and conceptualizes and manages various sections and special issues of NRN magazine.

She joined the restaurant and food group in 2018 after writing for the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, Eater and various other publications. She earned her master's degree from Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism and her BFA in art history and photography from the Art Institute of Boston at Lesley University.

Subscribe Nation's Restaurant News Newsletters
Get the latest breaking news in the industry, analysis, research, recipes, consumer trends, the latest products and more.