Charlie Morrison, known for leading the digitally savvy chain Wingstop for nearly a decade, credited curiosity—and advice from a business school professor—for helping instill in him an appreciation of data and how it can be used to build companies.
Charlie Morrison, left, CEO of Salad and Go, shares his leadership approach during a conversation with Fred LeFranc of Results Thru Strategy on opening day of the Food On Demand Conference in Las Vegas.
“I did actually start my career by slinging code,” said Morrison, now the CEO of Gilbert, Arizona-based Salad and Go, as he explained how as a Kansas State University student with a wife and young child, he learned to code COBOL. That skill opened the door for his first job at Pizza Hut in the early ‘90s, where he wrote thousands of lines of code and became interested in learning about how data can impact businesses.
Morrison was the opening keynote speaker May 3 as the sixth annual Food On Demand Conference kicked off in Las Vegas. FODC runs through May 5 at The Cosmopolitan.
“Asking questions, what’s in it, what does it mean” in those early years continued to drive his interest in innovation and in growing brands. “Be inquisitive, to understand what it is you’re working on, where this information is being utilized,” he said.
Morrison put that intellectual curiosity to work at Wingstop, which he took public in 2015 and helped grow to nearly 2,000 stores in markets around the world before the end of his tenure. In March 2022 he announced his resignation to take the helm at Salad and Go, at the time a 50-unit concept. By next week, Salad and Go will hit 100 stores.
“I love building businesses,” said Morrison, who in a previous interview with FOD Editor Tom Kaiser detailed the small box, big value play at the drive-thru-focused salad chain. Already on Salad and Go’s board, Morrison said he was helping evaluate CEO contenders when his wife, Debbie, suggested he throw his hat in the ring. She told him, “You don’t like any of the candidates for this job,” so maybe it’s time to consider a new challenge.
As the leader of yet another company in growth mode, Morrison said he’s approaching expansion with a focus on ensuring a healthy culture and hiring people who are “humble, hungry and smart.” He encouraged those in the audience to likewise focus on finding people who align with their company’s values.
“Too often, you find people that are just difficult to deal with and leaders have to be decisive,” he said, when it comes to making sure someone is the right fit in the organization—and taking action when they aren’t.
At Salad and Go, people who are the right fit are humble, he said, and want to support others in the company as they work toward the same goals.
“I want them to be hungry, to possess that intellectual curiosity and to want to grow as a team,” he said.
