Josh Goodman Pincetich: KremeWorks manager raises dough the old-fashioned way: by meeting goals, exceeding goals and being creative

Nation's Restaurant News, Jan 26, 2004 by Dave Wolkowitz

As soon as I could drive, I drove myself to work," says Josh Goodman Pincetich, general manager of the Krispy Kreme Doughnuts shop in Clackamas, Ore.

Since his high-school days, Pincetich worked in restaurants doing "just about every type of job." So when he was ready to graduate with a master's degree from the Thunderbird American Graduate School of International Management, a day of reckoning was approaching.

"It became really challenging to find a traditional business industry or discipline that got me excited," Pincetich says. "I thought to myself, 'If I could own any type of business, what would that be?' And that answer was very easy: 'I'd own a restaurant. So why don't I look for the best restaurant company in the country to work for?'"

After sharing his epiphany with a good friend, she suggested he investigate Lettuce Entertain You Enterprises, the renowned, Chicago-based developer of original restaurant concepts. At LEYE he helped open a highly successful full-service restaurant concept, and then moved on to LEYE's sister company, Icon, where he helped to open Joe's Seafood, Prime Steak & Stone Crab as an assistant manager. But he yearned for a general-manager position. His big break came with an Icon affiliate, KremeWorks USA, a franchisee of Krispy Kreme Doughnuts Inc. of Winston-Salem, N.C.

Pincetich's mission as an operations guru was to help open Icon's first Krispy Kreme, located outside of Seattle. By all accounts the mission was a success--the location set a record for first-week Krispy Kreme sales. Soon after that outlet was up and running, Pincetich moved from his Chicago-based operations job to assume his first general-manager position in Clackamas.

Gerard Centioli, Icon's chief executive, explains why Pincetich was the right person to help Icon open its first quick-service restaurant.

"The transition from quick serve to full serve is not easy," Centioli says. "But Josh is very bright, energetic and motivated. He wants to grow and prove himself. It would have been comfortable for him to have stayed with a concept he already knew, but Josh wanted to learn. He asked what he needed to do to grow.

"I told him he first had to learn the Krispy Kreme concept to see if it appealed to him: then he had to help us apply it," Centioli continues. "At the time Icon was composed entirely of full-service people."

Pincetich found Icon and his new opportunity were exactly his cup of tea.

"What's great about Icon is a consistent focus on meeting goals, exceeding goals and [being creative]," he says. "It's an incredibly creative environment. One of the exciting things about being with Icon is that it's a young, growing company. It's a wonderful learning experience. I feel blessed to work in a company that is so creative and entrepreneurial. If you are the GM of an Icon restaurant, you are an entrepreneur. You are responsible for everything."

When Pincetich says he feels responsible for everything, he's not kidding. Jeri Knox, KremeWorks' chief operating officer and managing partner, believes there isn't anything Pincetich wouldn't wrap his hands around.

"He will do whatever we need him to do," Knox says. "He'll work morning or graveyard. He will make doughnuts. He will clean the bathroom. He'll drive the forklift. I really like his hands-on approach."

Kevin Bruzzone, KremeWorks' Oregon market partner, noticed, even before the opening of KremeWork's first Krispy Kreme location, Pincetich's tendencies to immerse himself in the operations.

"I was impressed with how willing he was to partner with local vendors. He did a really nice job of meeting with vendors and helping to select and interview them. He wanted to take the lead, and he did," Bruzzone says. "Our entire market is now benefiting from relationships he helped establish."

Pincetich's hands-on approach stems from his process orientation and meticulous attention to detail, his colleagues suggest.

"For Josh, the stockroom has to be in the exact order in which someone takes inventory," Knox observes.

Obsessive focus on organization is a theme. "The kitchen has to be organized always to put out top-quality product and to help deal with constant demand that must be anticipated," Pincetich says.

The organization of Pincetich's Krispy Kreme is a by-product of his systems-oriented approach to restaurant management, something to which he became accustomed while working in a full-service environment. He points out that full-service and quick-service operations have striking similarities.

"Doughnuts, ironically, are not that different from steaks and fish. Doughnuts, in fact, have a shorter shelf life than a salmon does," Pincetich says. "Krispy Kreme will make a doughnut with a six- to eight-hour window to sell it. If we don't, it's expired and lost. You have to know different dayparts and even hours within dayparts and make a production call accordingly."

Pincetich's supervisors admire his ability to adapt systems used in full-service restaurants for the quick-service environment. For instance, he modified an inventory control system to fit Krispy Kreme's unique circumstances.