Yum! Brands CEO David Novak isn't just content to "feed the world." He also wants to school the world on how to run a business.
Novak tells USA Today's Kathy Chu:
"We don't want to just be a global company, we want everyone to come to us and say, 'What's the key to your success?'"
Later in the interview, Novak did reveal the secret:
"Our formula for success is very simple: Build people capability. Make that your No. 1 priority. Then you can satisfy more customers and make more money. That's the common sense truism of our business."
It's to find great talent. That's not only the key to growth in emerging markets, as he has hinted at before, but it's simply how you're able to make more money. That's not enough though, he admitted. When you're the CEO of a giant multinational like Yum!, you have to make identify your best opportunities and make big moves too.
"You need to be strategic. We knew that the growth in the U.S. business was going to be slow to moderate over the long term, and that to be a growth company, we needed to strategically make an investment in our international business. We focused our capital in big opportunity markets, like China, India, Russia. France and Germany (also) represent big opportunities.