Episode Summary
What do Taco Bell & Auntie Anneâs have in commonâŚ? One powerhouse female leader who has a stellar career driving business and performance growth for international multi-unit restaurants.
Meet Heather Leed Neary, the new EVP and General Manager at KBP Investments. KPB is a leading restaurant franchise group that operates many worldwide restaurants, including KFC and Taco Bell. Heather is in charge of the Taco Bell portfolio for KBP Bells.
After serving as the President of Auntie Anneâs for five years, Heather decided it was time for a new challenge. Hear how she moved on gracefully, taking time for herself, before KBP created a new role for her at the company.
In this episode of Restaurants Reinvented, our host Jen talks to Heather about the differences between franchisors and franchisees. We get to hear how she went from being in marketing to holding two positions at once (yes, you read that right!)
If thereâs anything she took from that experience, itâs that marketing and operations departments need to understand each other to be able to work together. She encourages marketing and operations teams to find their Sweet Spot, paying close attention to the in-store experience at all times.
Guests-At-A-Glance

Key Insights
đśď¸ The dynamic between the marketers and the operators is a significant challenge in the restaurant business.
The secret to a successful collaboration between these two departments is to pair them together. They need to understand each otherâs side of the business to be able to work together. âHelping both sides of the fence understand what drives the other is what is the key to our success.â
đśď¸ Loyalty is really about Smart Marketing.
Setting a goal but then also being vocal about it is the key to success. Heather shares a few practical tips for young women in the industry trying to work their way to executive positions. She says goal setting played an essential role in her business journey. âI remember my first month at Auntie Anneâs; I was sitting down with my boss, who was the CMO at the time. And she said to me, âWhere do you see yourself in five years?â And I said, âIn your seat.â
Looking back, I could have been a little bit more polished in how I answered her question. But she understood the sentiment. And when she left the company in 2008, she recommended me as her replacement.â
đśď¸ Find a tribe to help you improve.
âThere are things that I need to work on all the time, but I think being willing to continuously improve and continuously learn are strong reasons to continue to grow in your career. Finding mentors is important. Find multiple mentors because each mentor brings something a little bit different to the table based on their own experiences.â
Episode Highlights
Marketers need to understand the operational side of the business and vice versa
When departments understand each other, they inspire each other. Heather says every employee should go through the operations training during their first few weeks in a company.
âOne of our key performance metrics was to spend time in stores, and it wasnât like you had to go work for three weeks in a store while still doing your full-time job, but it was: spend time there listening to what the customers are saying, listen to what the crew members are saying. Listen, and then apply that to what you do in your role, whether youâre in technology or development or real estate or operations or marketing, and put that filter on.
At the end of the day, if our franchisees arenât happy and if our customers arenât happy, we donât have a business.â
Find the Sweet Spots of Pairing Marketing and Operations
âThe operators have a very pragmatic approach. The marketers have a very pie in the sky approach and somewhere in the middle is the sweet spot.â
âFrom my perspective, I learned that thereâs this sweet spot, thereâs the pie in the sky and thereâs the pragmatic approach. And thereâs this sweet spot somewhere in the middle. I learned that feedback that we got from the operations team was really great.â
âBeing flexible, understanding the reality versus the pie in the sky is a critical piece for those folks coming from the marketing side to the operation side. The operators then want you to translate for them what it means to be a marketer and what weâre trying to accomplish. They begin to offer suggestions they wouldnât have thought of before. They would say, âHey, I know youâre trying to do this because you want to introduce a new product or a new line of products. Maybe thatâs not the right way to do it, but have you thought about trying it this way?â And so we ended up with some strong programs that maybe wouldnât have been there if those relationships hadnât been there.â
The Importance of the In-Store Experience
âOne of the first things Iâve tackled is opening up our lobbies again. Weâd had the Taco Bell lobbyâs closed for the past year. I was training at a store and a consumer came in and it was an elderly gentleman and he said, âOh, Iâm so glad to see your lobby open.â He said, âI come here every day, and it was just a part of my routine to come and sit and talk to people as they came in. That made me feel good because I, you donât realize some people donât have a lot of other personal interactions at home.â
âBringing back those small pieces and small nuggets of joy, I think are really important.â
Dynamics between franchisor and franchisee
âI used to hear from my franchisees that what we imagined to be the reality isnât always the reality in the restaurant business. And we dream up an idea or a new product or a marketing promotion, and it sounds great when weâre sitting in our office, but actual execution at the store level is a different conversation.
I think itâs great for me to have that franchisor experience for 15 years (at Auntie Anneâs)⌠to be now able to apply that to the franchisee side to help run the business. Also, to understand what the franchisor is thinking and understand how to communicate with them. To make sure that itâs a win for the franchisor and the franchisee. And ultimately, most importantly, the guests that come to our restaurant every day.â
Challenges to tackle after the pandemic
âThe one big challenge for us is labor. Itâs a common issue across the country. Minimum wage is a concern from a cost perspective, but we also want to make sure that weâre always doing the right thing for our crew members. And just finding people is always going to be a concern⌠One of the things KBP does a great job of is creating a compelling reason to want to work here, and they create a great story. And weâve got a lot of great longevity with our crew members. But itâs always something you want to look at.â
Heather adds that innovation and technology are equally important to stay ahead of the curve in this industry. The ultimate goal is to make sure that workers are motivated to come to work every day and that restaurants always deliver great service.
Raising your hand and asking for help is important
âFinding mentors is important, finding multiple mentors because each mentor brings something different to the table based on their own experiences. I probably have ten or twelve people I would consider a mentor to me, who I reach out to on a regular basis. We donât know everything, and we canât do everything. So ask for help because nobodyâs going to know youâre struggling unless you raise your hand and speak up.â