Executive Chat – September 2009
With Rebecca Patt, Vice President of Development, Dick Wray Executive Search
Featuring Jim Amos, CEO of Tasti D-lite
The entrepreneurial journey of Jim Amos has taken a turn for the tasty. Amos, whose credits include Chairman Emeritus of Mail Boxes, Etc., past Chairman of the IFA, Vietnam vet, and best-selling author, became CEO of the treat shop chain Tasti D-lite in 2007.
Tasti D-lite’s retail outlets have been a long-time favorite in NYC. To set the record straight, Tasti D-lite’s creamy concoction is neither frozen yogurt nor ice cream.
“It is something entirely unique. It’s a dairy based frozen dessert made with natural ingredients, and it’s a smarter food choice,” explained Amos in our recent wide-ranging chat.
Remarkably, a typical 4 ounce serving has about 70 calories, and the secret recipe comes in 100 different flavors. For anyone like me who has a calorie conscious and an insatiable sweet tooth, this is pretty near miraculous. I’ll take the Chocolate Pudding flavor, please.
For Amos, a Peanut Butter man, the biggest treat of Tasti D-Lite is the opportunity to “create a subcategory of healthy, good for you, good tasting products. That is at the end of the day what sold us on that transaction.”
Bringing in top food scientists to analyze the formulas and validate the science behind the brand claims proved to be the cherry on top of the deal to acquire the company, which had built a following completely on word-of-mouth marketing for 20 years.
“When I knew the science was accurate, that we could prove that it was not only great tasting but good for you, that to me represented a platform we could scale,” Amos said.
Amos has brought in a “dream team” of franchising veterans to help grow Tasti, featuring many folks whose roots with Amos go back to his I Can’t Believe It’s Yogurt Days over 20 years ago.
Hiring the right people is what Amos said is his number one piece of business advice.
“There’s probably nothing more important that you do than to select the right person for every game breaking position that’s out there,” he said.
Amos credits his time in the military with forging him as a business leader. Amos is a highly decorated vet who served as a Lieutenant in the Marine Corps during the height of Vietnam. His experiences as a platoon leader became the focus for his novel, The Memorial.
“The basic tenants of leadership I learned in the eight years I spent in the Marine Corps have really driven my entrepreneurial desire and taught me a lot about what servant leadership means along with the reading that I do, too, particularly on that topic as written about by Robert Greenleaf in his extensive writings.”
To say that Amos is widely read is quite a major understatement. Amos is possibly the most vigorous, passionate bookworm I’ve had the pleasure of encountering. For most of us, it’s enough to just read books. Amos takes to every book with a highlighter and pen in hand. He carefully types and files his highlights and notes and has compiled about 20 years worth of files, serving as inspiration for his own writings.
“I can’t think of anything more exciting than to be confined in some library somewhere with thousands of books,” he said.
His summer reading includes biographies on Samuel Johnson, C.S. Lewis and a rereading of all of Winston Churchill’s six books on World War II, to name a few. Amos rattled off umpteen business books on leadership that are on his bookshelf.
“If you assume the role of leadership, you have to become a lifelong learner, or should, because it’s impossible to give to someone else if you have nothing inside you,” he said.
Amos also penned Focus or Failure: America at the Crossroads about the vital necessity for Americans to regain focus on timeless values such as dreams, goals and family, along with the self-explanatory Complete Idiot’s Guide to Franchising.
He has started work on a fourth book, this time an allegorical tale called The Journey about the lessons learned in life, in combat, and in business.
“Life is not about constant success nor should it be,” he said. “We learn the greatest things from our failures.”
Amos shared an anecdote he learned in the Marine Corps:
“I had an old gunny tell me one time, the difference between a court martial and a medal is razor thin. The reason why is because leadership requires boldness and boldness requires risk and risk means you are going to lose sometimes,” he said.
The risks Amos has taken on his latest venture with Tasti D-lite seems to be a winning endeavor. Since beginning franchising in 2008, the company has grown to 50 locations and has secured commitments to open more than 200 Tasti stores in the coming years. The brand was also named one of the “Top 40 Twitter Brands.” Amos’s vision is to build a global franchise network of 500 stores.
“At the end of the day, your prayer ought to be, I hope I just ought to win a bit more than I lose, and every time you win you should be thankful and grateful for that, and that’s where I’m at in my life,” he said.
Want to have an Executive Chat with Rebecca Patt? Contact her at 612.354.7400 and Rebecca.patt@dickwray.com. Rebecca is Vice President of Development with Dick Wray Executive Search and specializes in helping her clients recruit the top talent available in the restaurant and food service industry.