When Roberto Denegri was working for the Coca-Cola Co.’s Latin American division, the division president gave him some solid advice: Don’t let yourself be surrounded by incompetence.
“That was the best advice he could ever give me,” Denegri says. “If you have the right team, then you’re going to march right into the things that you need to.”
Now, Denegri serves as president and chief operating officer of Campero USA Corp., the U.S. franchisor and operator of Pollo Campero chicken restaurants. In his position, he’s responsible for overseeing all of the company’s franchises and expansion efforts in the United States, which is part of the $400 million worldwide operations based in Guatemala. Because the U.S. operations are smaller than the worldwide headquarters, he knows that people are even more critical, so he works to get the right people, test them out, and then simplify the plans so people can move forward.
“In a large company, when you change a player, it doesn’t really rock the boat that much, but we have a much smaller operation in the U.S., so to get the people that have all the characteristics that we’re looking for … it’s challenging, but it’s a little trial and error,” Denegri says.
