When asked to identify the most impactful moment of his career at Brinker International, Wyman Roberts prefaced his answer by noting that no mark he made during his 17-year tenure was his alone.
After giving due credit to his colleagues at the parent of Chili’s and Maggiano’s, Roberts, 63, turned back the clock more than a decade, to 2011.
He was president of Chili’s at the time, and had just helped steer the chain through the Great Recession that had brought an end to years of growth at the brand.
Sales were on the rise once again, and, more importantly to Wall Street, costs were down thanks to a systemwide kitchen revamp that promised to add 4 percentage points to Chili’s margins.
What might have been less obvious to investors, however, was a change in the company’s culture that would leave just as big of an imprint on Brinker as new kitchen equipment.
Chili’s had long been known for its strong culture, evident in its legions of loyal staffers known as ChiliHeads. What was missing, Roberts said, was a way of quantifying it—of determining whether the company’s actions matched its words.
“The culture embraced these kinds of thoughts, but it’s hard to know where you’re at when you’re not measuring it,” he said. “Metrics keep you honest.”
So the company began surveying every employee twice a year, and their satisfaction became one of its top priorities.
At the same time, it was also focusing more on how guests were feeling. Chili’s was the first big chain to put ordering devices on its tables—not as revenue generators, as the systems were first envisioned, but as touchpoints for customer feedback that could then be used to improve their experience.
The efforts around workers and guests seemed fitting moments for Roberts to highlight as he prepares to close the book on a restaurant career that, in his words, has been all about the people.
“When I think about Brinker, it’s the people I think of,” he told Restaurant Business.
“Sixty-three felt like a pretty good age to get out and do some things that we haven’t been able to do.”
Roberts will retire June 5, a decision he said has been planned for years and that will allow him to spend more time with family and friends.
“Sixty-three felt like a pretty good age to get out and do some things that we haven’t been able to do due to the day-to-day demands of a job like this,” he said. That will include traveling and possibly a return to the triathlon circuit, a favorite pastime of Roberts’ that was largely put on hold during the pandemic.
Roberts joined Dallas-based Brinker in 2007 and did stints as president of Chili’s and Maggiano’s, as well as CMO, before becoming CEO and president of the whole operation in 2013. Between then and now, he has helped re-establish Chili’s as one of the top brands in casual dining while also overseeing the steady expansion of Maggiano’s footprint. This year, he was named a finalist for Restaurant Business’ Restaurant Leader of the Year Award for his leadership during the pandemic.
Not all of Roberts’ efforts at Brinker were a success. He recalled a disastrous Chili’s menu he rolled out shortly after taking charge of that brand, for instance. Dubbed “menu evolution,” it featured a lot of new items and fresh ingredients that added complexity to the kitchen. “It was just more than the system could absorb, and it didn’t go well,” he said.
And then around 2017, Chili’s experienced what Roberts referred to as a “wobble.” The casual-dining segment as a whole was struggling to adapt to changes in consumers’ shopping and dining behavior. Sales and traffic were down at Chili’s, and the brand was suffering from short-sightedness.
“We ended up doing things that you do when you aren’t thinking far enough down the road, like pricing,” he said.
To steady the ship, Chili’s focused on getting guests back to its restaurants. It doubled down on value and operations as well as takeout and delivery, which had become its fastest-growing sales channel, and leaned into its scale and technology investments.
The moves worked, bringing a return to sales and traffic growth within a year. And in 2019, Chili’s took the major step of partnering with DoorDash to further expand its to-go business.
Though no one could have predicted it at the time, all of those investments would pay off in a big way when the pandemic hit.
“We were on a two-year roll” entering 2020, Roberts said. “Because of these things, the first year of the pandemic, we kind of crushed the market.”
“What we’ve learned over and over again with this business is it’s always about leadership.”
Chili’s has fresh challenges now, specifically rising costs for food and labor that are battering its margins. But those things have not changed Roberts’ feelings about retiring.
“The last really going into three years now have been difficult, and I would have never have left in the middle of the COVID stuff,” he said. “What we’re dealing with now, those [challenges] are going to come and go.”
And Roberts is confident that he’s leaving Brinker in good hands. The longtime CEO was part of the group charged with finding his replacement, and after months of searching, he believes it landed a good one in Kevin Hochman.
Roberts noted Hochman’s success as president of KFC U.S., where he has helped prepare the chain for domestic unit growth after years of store closures. But the determining factor, Roberts said, was Hochman’s cultural fit as a “servant leader” who understands the importance of operations and team-building.
“He just crossed all of those squares,” Roberts said.
When he takes over on June 6, Hochman will become one of the few restaurant executives to make the jump from fast food to full service. But Roberts said his strong leadership should trump any potential friction between segments.
“He’s so engaged at the restaurant level, his learning curve is going to be very short,” he said.
Over the next year, Roberts will remain in the background as an advisor to help ensure a smooth transition.
“What we’ve learned over and over again with this business is it’s always about leadership,” he said. “The leadership that’s here now with Kevin coming on board to lead this team is second to none.”