Episode description

If you’re wondering how to make sense of that ocean of data your restaurant is trying to wrangle, Darien has answers!

Formerly the CTO at &Pizza, Darien’s new company, Fourtop Solutions, is all about helping restaurants organize and activate their data -- while encouraging humans to do the discovery of data and using technology to automate that discovery.

Top Moments to Listen For: 

• Technology is not a pre-packaged meal, it’s a set of ingredients with overlapping capabilities and core components
• Start by centralizing your data, or you’ll constantly be back-tracking
• Dashboards are where data goes to die - they don’t make good use of data - humans do
• “There are no bad systems, only bad architectures”
• Data is like water and you have an ocean that needs structures and flows
• Let robots be robots (automation) and humans be human (discoverers)
• The value of POS has been largely overlooked; it needs to be a hub to pull in centralized data 
• Hart House is using Fourtop Solutions to deploy its employee-first operations 
• Technology is not a purpose -- it’s a tool to accomplish something; start with your business objectives and then find the right-fit systems to support that. 
• The future of automation and ChatGPT

Related Episodes: 

• Burn it Down & Fail Forward Fast – Justin Keenen of Hart House
• Mastering the Digital Dance – Michael Chachula, CIO, Fat Brands
• Here’s What Innovation Looks Like – Amir Hudda, CEO of Qu
• Trailblazin’ CTO Completes Full Tech Refresh in Under 1 Year – Dawn Gillis Freebirds World Burrito

Resources:

• “Dashboards is where data goes to die” by Darien Bates

Connect with Darien on LinkedIn

Check out Qu's Annual State of Digital for Enterprise QSR & Fast Casual Brands