Leadership means managing staff commitment and motivation

Domino's Pizza IT director Jane Kimberlin

To meet the requirements of an expanding online operation, Domino’s Pizza aims to attract highly skilled technical workers in development, as well as commercially savvy senior IT staff.

E-commerce sales represent nearly a quarter of the firm’s home pizza deliveries, with web income reaching £35m in the first half of 2009.

“After we took more than £500,000 in online sales in a single night, we looked at how well the web site was performing and devised a road map for the future. IT always has to be one step ahead,” said Domino’s Pizza IT director Jane Kimberlin.

“I often tell people that if they like a Monday-to-Friday, nine-to-five job, they will hate working at Domino’s. You have to always be available and I have a team that understands that, so I can call them late at night if I need them.”

According to Kimberlin, the commitment pays off ­ the retailer provides IT staff with training that can be done online, via internal re-skilling or skills transfer from consultants, in addition to degree sponsorship and accredited technical certifications.

“We budget for training carefully and I put up a good fight to make sure that I keep as much of it as I possibly can,” she said.

“We make people more marketable, but we can’t think about that ­ if we did, we would always be trying to hang on to them and that isn’t fair.”

To help IT staff understand the realities of the business, a training programme dubbed “Pizza Prep School” is part of induction and includes training on tills, baking pizza and information on where ingredients are sourced.

“The skill we instil in people is a passion for pizza ­ they are business people first and IT people second. Every one of them will be enthusiastic about the product and that is very important,” said Kimberlin.

“This is something I have always emphasised in my other roles ­ have IT staff work on the business at least once a year. All IT leaders should make sure that happens.”

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Tomorrow's IT Leaders
As part of Computing's Tomorrow's IT Leaders campaign, we talk to the UK's top chief information officers (CIOs) to find out their views on the role of IT leaders and how this will change in the post-recessionary world.

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• Click here to watch part one of our video interview with Jane Kimberlin
• Click here to watch part two of our video interview with Jane Kimberlin