Shakey ' s Rodrigo Nanjari :
Working the magic in a pandemic
Chilean native Rodrigo Nanjari ' s involvement with Shakey ' s as its chief technology officer could not have come at a more auspicious time . When he joined the leading full-service pizza chain in June 2020 , the world was amid a devastating pandemic where restaurant businesses were folding up one after the other . Shakey ' s itself suffered losses resulting from pandemic restrictions on social gatherings and restaurant dining .
Digital transformation presented itself as a critical solution to the ongoing restrictions . Nanjari ' s global expertise in banking , financial technology , audio , and video software development , and telecommunications was the perfect fit . Thanks to experienced management and specialist teams , coupled with substantial investments in digital transformation , the dominant full-service pizza chain sees a return to profitability in 2021 .
Transition in a time of crisis The invitation for him to join Shakey ' s came a few months after the pandemic struck . The pizza chain needed to invest in digital technologies that could quickly surmount the difficulties caused by public health restrictions . " More and more guests were using our systems to order deliveries and takeout because of the pandemic . The entire restaurant industry had to shift to off-premises work — takeout and delivery — and we needed to be able to support the guest experience , especially during high demand for online orders , such as Mother ' s Day or Valentine ' s Day , or Christmas time ."
Nanjari assembled the core team that would be the seed from which the entire organization could become savvy in the relevant IT systems that would be put into action .
" My main purpose is to create a great seed , to educate the organization about new technologies that we are introducing and how they will open new possibilities to evolve our company by improving the way we are doing things ,”
“ In the beginning , there were a lot of issues ”, he recounts . " The first month I joined Shakey ' s , we were about to do a Father ' s Day special with an existing solution that wasn ’ t able to cater all the demand during Mother ' s Day before I joined the company ”, he adds . " but with the help and recommendations made by AWS team , we were able to improve the existing platform and prepare the infrastructure for Father ’ s Day giving the time constraint . Everything went well during that day , despite the big pressure all our Guests were able to place their order using our online delivery system , and I was able to navigate things thanks to all the support given by Amazon Web Services ( AWS )."
Nanjari is particularly hands-on and likes to focus on how to help each team member navigate through their difficulties . " I approach these questions in different ways , from different aspects , so yes , that ' s what I pretty much do here ," he said .
This mode of doing things , Nanjari added , connects directly with his journey of growth . " I like to explore different businesses , different ways to do things and , of course , different cultures , different setups ."
For him , " diversity and inclusion are in my DNA . I ' m always trying to combine different points of view , different alternatives . The best ideas and best experiences happen on environments that foster different opinions from team members with different backgrounds . I like to see how technology delivers great business ideas and great experiences that make our Guests happy . I ' m really passionate about this ."
Inspiration and innovation Before Shakey ' s , I used to find this sentence in every book : ' You need to be customer-centric .' and yet I never fully experienced such a strong driver in previous workplaces , but it ' s something that I was able to feel and internalize in Shakey ' s from the day one . That is something very striking for me . We call it our ‘ WOW culture ’".
" Shakey ' s was able to respond very quickly during the pandemic because we already had some digital capabilities ," Nanjari said , adding that the company began to flex its digital capabilities in 2015 with a delivery app . " Shakey ' s was the first in the country to create a mobile app for you to order pizza online ."
That said , " by the time that the pandemic hit us , we had a well-rounded delivery service , with an infrastructure running on the
cloud , with a robust call center capabilities and last mile delivery , basically we were already prepared to support off-premises operations while other companies were like , ' surprise !', I believe that innovating and investing in digital capabilities was a very good strategic decision that the company made several years ago "
" The existing Web channel is very important though ," Nanjari said . " It ' s the predominant channel : in fact 80 % of our online visitors are directly going to the web , but 70 % of them are accessing the web using a mobile device . I believe our Guests prefer the web over the current App because the App is not fun and it doesn ’ t provide a WOW experience . We ' re going to change that very , very soon .”
Working smarter with AWS Collaboration with AWS provided distinct advantages and injected dynamism and flexibility into an organization , says Nanjari . From a local perspective , Nanjari said , “ what struck me is the customer obsession of the AWS team in the Philippines . We have been constantly advised on how to simplify our processes , improve our architecture , and , ultimately , add value to our solutions to delight our guests . This only reflects the level of understanding they have about Shakey ’ s business .”
Working with AWS resources has also changed Shakey ’ s paradigms . Nanjari said that improved guest-facing systems had given their engineering teams renewed enthusiasm for working the new technology . “ Our operations team has new tools to reduce recurrent issues and minimize incidents . Our internal audit team is noticing an