Inspire Brands recently announced a new corporate structure, which aligns the organization around three primary operational pillars: Brands, Commercial and Company Restaurants, and Growth. This organizational realignment is designed to enhance focus and coordination within and across these three core business areas, as well as fully leverage the core strategic capabilities provided by Inspire’s data and technology-enabled platform.
“This revised organizational structure positions us for accelerated growth and will further enhance the advantages of our tightly integrated shared services platform,” said Paul Brown, Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer, Inspire Brands. “Ultimately, we believe Inspire’s combination of strong, differentiated brands and its highly innovative business model will continue to drive enhanced value for our franchisees and other stakeholders.”
The changes include promotions and expanded responsibilities for two executives: Scott Murphy, Chief Brand Officer, and Dan Lynn, Chief Commercial and Restaurant Officer. Christian Charnaux will continue in his role as Chief Growth Officer.
Brands
As Chief Brand Officer, Scott Murphy will oversee all brands in the United States with the brand presidents of Arby’s, Buffalo Wild Wings, Dunkin’, Jimmy John’s, and Sonic reporting directly to him, along with the brand head of Baskin-Robbins. The new structure enables each brand to retain its distinctive positioning and dedicated leadership teams, while also facilitating stronger coordination among the brands, as well as Inspire’s shared services platform.
Commercial and Company Restaurants
As Chief Commercial and Restaurant Officer, Dan Lynn’s responsibilities will expand to include Inspire Company Restaurants with nearly 2,200 company-operated restaurants, and Communications. Dan will continue to lead the Commercial Group, which includes Demand Generation, Product Management, Data and Analytics, Customer Marketing, and Digital Retail.
A key benefit to Inspire’s operating model is that as one of the largest owner-operators of company restaurants in the U.S., the company thinks and operates like an owner, ultimately making Inspire a better franchisor. Aligning Company Restaurants with the Commercial Group accelerates the company’s ability to lead from the front by using company restaurants as a testbed for innovation. This translates to faster progress and operational improvements for the benefit of the entire brand in both company and franchise-owned restaurants.
Growth
Christian Charnaux will continue as Chief Growth Officer, responsible for accelerating unit growth domestically and internationally, as well as further unlocking benefits of business integration across the Inspire portfolio. The International, Development, and Supply Chain teams will continue to report to Christian.
The new structure went into effect in mid-November.
