UnLeadership

40A Leadership Franchise

For 34 years, Allan Hill has been part of Domino’s Pizza in Canada. Starting as a manager in training, he quickly embraced the business, attitudes, and community. Over the years he’s been a manager, franchise operations director, national operations director, and finally franchisee, as the owner of stores in Lindsay, Toronto, Kingston, and Peterborough. Having now divested from all but his three Peterborough locations, Allan is enjoying more time to focus on family and community. His goal is for his customers not only to buy from Domino’s Pizza but Allan Hill’s Domino’s Pizza. His family, team, and local community means everything to him.

(Highlights from our interview, recorded June 2, 2023.)

MY NAME IS ALLAN HILL. Thirty-four years ago, I was hired as a manager in training at a Domino's location I now own. It was the only store in the area then, owned by Ian Toms, who became my mentor and friend. For 10 weeks, I ate and slept at Domino's and took every opportunity to learn from Ian, who taught me things I still use in my work and personal life today. A year later, I was offered a position as operational director. It was intimidating; everyone I met had more experience than me. I learned to lead with curiosity and focus on each store's best practices. When I later became a franchisee myself, the years of traveling store to store gave me a strong foundation to work from.

One of the things I love about being in a franchise is that Domino's has systems ...