Damola Adamolekun became the first black CEO of P.F. Chang’s in 2020. In just two years after his appointment, the restaurant chain experienced a 31.7% surge in sales, raking in $922 million in revenue in 2021. He has since become a talking point in the black community.
Damola Adamolekun is a Nigerian-born business executive elected as the CEO of P.F. Chang’s—a popular U.S.-based Asian restaurant chain—in 2020. He was 31 years old then, making him one of the few black chiefs of a major U.S. company and one of the youngest. And since his ascension to the top job, he’s skyrocketed the restaurant chain’s growth.
P.F. Chang’s China Bistro saw a 31.7% increase in sales, raking in $922 million in 2021, according to a Yahoo! Finance article. Even more impressive is that the wunderkind took the helm during the COVID-19 lockdown and led the company through that period of uncertainty.
At the time, the restaurant industry was devastated by the closure of businesses deemed “non-essential.” Still, P.F. Chang’s evolved and experienced a sales surge, whereas, many competitors were gasping for breath.
Let’s take a walk down the road that led him here.
Who is Damola Adamolekun?
Damola was born to Nigerian parents—a neurologist father and a pharmacist mother. His academic credentials include a bachelor’s degree in economics from Brown University, where he was the president of the Brown Investment Group. He also bagged an MBA from the Harvard Business School, where he served as portfolio manager for the HBS Investment Club.
He started his career as an investor at Goldman Sachs, before moving to TPG Capital as a Private Equity Associate. Currently, he’s a major partner at Paulson & Co., a company that co-acquired P.F. Chang’s—with TriArtisan Capital Advisors—in 2019 for $700 million. In fact, the acquisition was his idea.
How He Changed The Game At P.F Chang’s
P.F Chang’s was founded in 1993 by Paul Fleming and Philip Chiang, and had about 200 full-service restaurants across the U.S. before the acquisition. One was located near Damola’s boyhood home in Columbia, Maryland. So, growing up, he knew a bit about the company from a consumer perspective.
The CEO’s interview at RestaurantSpaces ’21 also revealed that, while at Harvard in 2018, he’d written a paper about challenges P.F Chang’s was facing. It might be safe to say he’s had his eyes on this prize for a while.
Pre-acquisition, P.F Chang’s sales and financial performance were weak, but Damola’s investor’s eye, caught untapped opportunities for growth in the restaurant chain. When P.F Chang’s eventually went up for sale in 2018, he led the acquisition team. In his interview with Nation’s Restaurant News, Damola revealed the premise for the purchase:
“[We observed] that the way that people were interacting with restaurants was changing and expanding… So it’s not just coming to the restaurant for a meal. Some people wanted to order delivery. Some people wanted to use their favorite restaurant as a way to eat at home.
“And so we bought this with the thought that we could be great at all of the different channels. We didn’t have to choose one,” said the chief executive.
Put another way: restaurateurs tended to focus on in-dining or off-premises sales. Very few wanted to grow both channels. Damola hypothesized that for a brand like P.F Chang’s, whose food was delectable and whose brand was well-known, such an approach meant leaving a lot of money on the table. Recent growth proves he was right.
Upon acquisition, Damola served as a director and then chief strategy officer. He was eventually named the CEO in July 2020, in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Harvard graduate’s first goal was to modify the restaurant’s operations to enhance customer experience, maintaining that “The brand was still as strong as I remembered,” and “the quality of the food was still good.
“What was missing was the experience around the meal,” Damola voiced in an interview. “The lighting was too bright. The music was non-existent. The décor? Beige central.”
He refurbished the dining rooms by adding dimmer lighting, paintings, colors, and ambient music and refined the menu.
His second goal was to include digital apps and off-premises concepts, such as delivery services formerly perceived as inconveniences, to cope with the pandemic lockdown.
He also eliminated off-brand meals such as mac and cheese from the menu.“There were a lot of things on the menu that didn’t belong,” he said. “It wasn’t core to what we did.”
Recent developments include the introduction of the “P.F. Chang’s To Go” concept, which are small, fast-service P.F. Chang’s; a subscription program to cultivate brand loyalty; and the opening of New York’s first full-size P.F. Chang’s.
Also, their various sales channels afford them flexible expansion options. Therefore, we share his optimism about P.F. Chang’s growth in the years to come.
Damola sees an opportunity for massive international expansion, too. So far, P.F Chang’s has expanded from 95 international locations to 300 in 2021. But he believes there’s room for thousands of units.
He sits on the Board of Directors of P.F. Chang’s China Bistro, Inday, Nuleaf and previously International Tower Hill Mines LLC.
Some might wonder about his success, given his limited experience in the restaurant industry. But as the man himself said, “My job isn’t making food. What matters more to me is managing operations at scale.” And if we’re to go by the recent growth numbers at P.F Chang’s, he’s doing a darn good job.
References
- YahooFinance: This 33-Year Old is Making History as the First Black CEO of P.F. Chang’s
- YouTube, Black Excellence Excellist: Who is PF Chang’s Black CEO: Damola Adamolekun
- YouTube, Nation’s Restaurant News: Damola Adamolekun moves P.F. Chang’s to be where the customers want it.
- Harvard Business School: P.F Chang’s
- Damola Adamolekun – Restaurant Leadership Conference
