It can be a difficult pill to swallow, but when expanding from one restaurant location to dozens of branches, owners have to internalize that they can no longer be involved in every daily decision.
“When you have a small number of restaurants, you can know every manager, every detail of the operations. But as we grew, I realized that if every decision had to come through me, I would eventually become the limitation of our organization's growth,” Yadav Enterprises CEO Anil Yadav said on Tuesday.
“That was the biggest change for me, learning that I could no longer be the person involved in every decision,” he added.
Yadav, the QSR Magazine 2026 Franchisee of the Year, made his comments during the magazine’s webinar, “Meet QSR’s Franchisee of the Year.”
During the talk, Yadav broke down his takeaways from a decades-long career in quick-service restaurants, which he began in the early 80s as a teenage immigrant working as a fry cook at a California Jack in the Box branch, launching a career that eventually saw him become the owner of more than 400 restaurants across several major brands including Jack in the Box, Denny’s, El Pollo Loco, Sizzler, Taco Cabana, and TGI Fridays.
How to Know Where to Expand
Much of his success comes from his ability to spot and turn around underperforming restaurant units. When asked by QSR Magazine Editor Ben Coley to describe how he decides if a QSR brand is right for his portfolio, he listed several key considerations:
- Portfolio alignment: Does it complement your portfolio or does the brand compete directly with your portfolio?
- Customer loyalty: Does it have a clear identity and customer base that you can build upon?
- Unit economics: Do food costs, labor costs, and four-walls execution give you a good chance of success?
- Operational complexity: Can general managers operate the restaurants efficiently, and will it be difficult to keep costs down?
- The franchisor-franchisee relationship: Is it a healthy collaboration that will help both the overall brand and the franchise grow?
Yadav spoke of the importance of brand identity as a company expands, and making sure it doesn’t stray too much from it.
“You shouldn’t try to make every brand appeal to everything and everyone. Sometimes a brand moves too fast or too far away from what made them successful,” Yadav said, adding that you have to focus on brand positioning and ensure you don’t lose your way - or your business model.
“I don’t believe in growing just to increase the number of restaurants. Every restaurant we operate needs to have a healthy business model. If your existing restaurants are struggling, opening additional restaurants is not going to solve the problem.”
For Owners: Don’t Lose Touch with the Restaurant Floor
While Yadav noted that expanding the brand meant he couldn’t be the one to make every daily operational decision, he also emphasized why it's still critical to see firsthand how his restaurants operate.
“Staying connected to the restaurant [operations] is the most important responsibility of leadership. As an organization grows, it's very easy to become disconnected from what is actually happening in the front line,” Yadav said, adding, “you can spend all your time in meetings, reviewing reports and discussing strategy, but the real business happens inside those four walls.”
He said he has stayed connected through a well-developed field leadership structure, consistent reporting and accountability, and regular visits to company restaurant locations.
“I personally believe in visiting restaurants and talking directly with employees and the managers. I don't want my only understanding of the business to come from reports…I want to see how the food is being prepared, how the team interacts with the guests, how quickly orders are coming out, and whether the restaurant feels clean.”
He added that the best decisions are made when owners "combine good information with firsthand operating experience."
What to Look for in a Site Visit
“Being in the restaurant business so long, you get the sense of what’s functioning and what's not when you walk in.I can walk from the front counter to all the way in the back kitchen without looking left and right, and I know exactly which timer has gone off or which product has been cooked right. It's just the kind of sense you get."
In addition to looking at reports, Yadav said, “I want to understand what guests experience when they walk through the doors. Is the restaurant clean? Are employees engaged? Is someone acknowledging you as a guest when you walk in? Is the food coming out correctly on time? Does the restaurant feel organized, or does it feel like everyone's reacting to problems?”
Don’t Forget About Your People
Perhaps most importantly, Yadav said he hasn’t lost sight of his shifts as a teenage fry cook back in the early 1980s, and what it taught him about the importance of the people making the meals.
“Those early days taught me something I’ve never forgotten: restaurants are about people, consistency, and discipline. You have to take care of your employees.”
Rootwurks: The Training Platform for Growing QSRs
To see how Rootwurks helps QSRs scale safely and tackle common QSR training red flags, reach out to a member of the team, and we’ll schedule a call.
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