ABA selects Domino's Pizza as Stevie Award winner
ANN ARBOR, Mich. – May 7, 2003 – Domino's Pizza, the recognized leader in pizza delivery, won a Stevie Award for Best Human Resources Team in the first-ever American Business Awards, sponsored by Forbes.com and Business Talk Radio.
The four-person Human Resources Team was nominated for serving as the driving force behind the 2002 implementation of Domino's Pizza Prep School, an innovative company-wide training program.
During the four-day, 42-hour intense training, Domino's office members don uniforms, split into four-person teams and immerse themselves into every detail of store culture. Team members learn about store operations and procedures during morning classroom sessions and travel to local stores in the afternoon to learn order taking, pizza making, oven tending, pizza routing and store closing procedures. The training culminates with a written exam and a timed pizza-making test. Team members then have the opportunity to put their knowledge into action as they work a Friday night dinner rush in a store. Over the past 18 months, more than 275 team members have completed the rigorous course, including all of the company's top executives and the company CEO.
"We are very proud of Domino's Pizza Prep School and our many exceptional graduates," said David A. Brandon, Chairman and CEO, Domino's Pizza. "It is wonderful for Domino's to receive such positive recognition for this truly unique training program. Domino's Pizza Prep School allows us the opportunity to demonstrate the importance of operational excellence and to provide all of our team members with a better understanding and deeper appreciation for the heart of our business, Domino's Pizza stores."
Patti Wilmot, Executive Vice President of People First, accepted the Stevie on behalf of the team at a nationally-broadcast show in New York City. "Domino's Pizza Prep School has emerged as the standard for training programs in the QSR industry," said Wilmot. "The team did an excellent job of seamlessly implementing Domino's Pizza Prep School and helping to make it a reality for our team members. In the end, we believe that Pizza Prep School will be the competitive edge that will make Domino's the employer of choice."
Hailed as "the business world's own Oscars" by the New York Post, The American Business Awards are the first national, all-encompassing business awards program honoring great performances in the workplace.
Members of the Awards' Board of Distinguished Judges & Advisors and their staffs selected Stevie winners from among the finalists. The Board includes business luminaries such as Rich Karlgaard, publisher of Forbes; Bruce Nelson, chairman & CEO of Office Depot; marketing gurus Don Peppers and Martha Rogers; Anthony Robbins, Chairman & CEO of The Anthony Robbins Companies; Drew Schutte, publisher of Wired Magazine; Jeffrey Tarr, chairman & CEO of Hoover's Inc.; and Donald Trump, chairman, president and CEO of The Trump Organization. Finalists were selected by business professionals nationwide during February and March.
The elegant Stevie trophy was designed by R. S. Owens, the same company that makes the Oscar and the Emmy Awards.
"With the Stevie Awards, business people now have the opportunity to win the same sort of positive attention that up until now only entertainment celebrities could get," said Michael Gallagher, founder and president of The Stevie Awards, the organization that runs The American Business Awards. "With these awards, we took a giant leap forward in recognizing companies and the people who work for them for their positive efforts, accomplishments, and contributions to both their communities and our nation."
About Domino's Pizza
Founded in 1960, Domino's Pizza operates a network of 7,253 Company-owned and franchised stores in the United States and more than 50 countries, and is the recognized leader in pizza delivery. Domino's Pizza had systemwide sales of nearly $4 billion in 2002. Domino's Pizza was named "Chain of the Year" for 2003 by Pizza Today magazine, the leading publication of the pizza industry.
About The American Business Awards
A celebration of great performances in the workplace, The American Business Awards are the first national, all-encompassing business awards program. Honoring companies of all types and sizes and the people behind them, the Awards recognize outstanding leadership, innovation, perseverance, creativity, teamwork, and integrity through more than 40 categories. The first American Business Awards – nicknamed The SteviesTM from the Greek word for "crowned" - were presented at an awards show in New York City on April 30.