Multi-Unit Franchisee Magazine Issue I, 2014 | Page 29

MEGA

on the board of a charity and participate
in fundraisers each year. “In Atlanta, we
just raised $150,000 for the children’s
shelter. That’s out of a $1 million budget, so we’re making a big impact by
using our restaurants to sell coupon
books throughout the year,” says Kulp,
who holds bachelor’s degrees from the
University of Colorado in marketing
and Colorado Mesa University in management.
The high-energy family man and selfdescribed “avid, ongoing student” says
he’s had his hands full since KBP has
regularly ranked in the top 10 fastestgrowing restaurant companies in the
U.S.—but he still takes each person in
his office out alone every year. “As fast

MANAGEMENT
Business philosophy: To provide personal, professional, and financial
growth to all key stakeholders.
Management method or style: To hire the best, challenge them, praise
their efforts, recognize their progress, and reward their results.
Greatest challenge: It’s all on the people side, attracting, hiring, and retaining top talent.
How do others describe you? High-energy, fairly intense, tenacious.
One thing I’m looking to do better: I need to take better care of
myself.
How I give my team room to innovate and experiment: Ours is a
pretty unusual structure with each regional VP an equity holder in the business.
They’re the decision-makers in the region and are given absolute autonomy and
responsibility.
How close are you to operations? Pretty close. I joke all the time with
our lead guy that his job is to make sure he keeps the COO title from me.
What are the most important things you rely on from your
franchisor? Strategic and brand leadership, standards that create a consistent
experience for the consumer across the franchisee base, and keeping the guy
down the street from hurting our business.
What I need from vendors: They’re our partners, and we help them
understand that we see them as an extension of our business and expect them
to act that way.
Have you changed your marketing strategy in response to the
economy? How? Absolutely we changed. The economy exposed some of
our value challenges. So we’re doing two things differently: paying closer atten-

tion than ever to the consumer side of our retail offerings, and doing a better
job of looking at different demographics in the same city from the local market
stan