If Domino’s can do it, so can ED…We Hope!
So, much is being made of the current Domino’s effort to “turnaround” its pizza. They literally have a website for this campaign, www.pizzaturnaround.com. So, with all the talk on school turnarounds happening, and my last post on this subject (Cash for Clunkers) I’ve again been seeing some connections.
So, Domino’s customers told the headquarters their pizza was HORRIBLE. I don’t want to take away your fun of watching the commercial if you haven’t, but they also get pretty descriptive on how bad it is. Anyway, the point was their pizza was definitely in the bottom 5% of pizza according to the customers and was in DESPERATE need of “turnaround.” And, what did Domino’s do – they STARTED OVER. They didn’t replace JUST THE TOPPINGS, or JUST THE SAUCE, they redid everything from the dough to the cheese to the sauce.
I am sure someone is horrified I have just compared Domino’s turning its pizza around to our nation’s school turnaround efforts, but there is a parallel here. When something is horrible, you don’t tinker around the edges, you don’t make superficial changes, you do systemic change – YOU START NEW SCHOOLS! Domino’s isn’t in the business of making less than profitable pizza and to be profitable, it has to be good! The company realized that it had to “restart” its pizza.
With ESEA reauthorization overdue and legislative ideas being circulated, the recent SIG regulations will start to shine a light on what is possible, but it’s just a start. One area though we have a huge head start on is starting new good charter schools serving children too often left behind. So, ED, I encourage you to take heed of Domino’s (also, order the new pies – they are pretty good) and continue to focus turning around schools BUT NOT just by tinkering around the edges, but BY STARTING NEW GOOD SCHOOLS.
A few other things to recognize too:
Mainly, if you don't like Dominos, you can go to Pizza Hut or Pappa Johns and get better pizza for the same price. The school system is a monopoly in that sense. However, I agree that you must recognize and declare what the problem is before you can fix. I'm interested to see if this will work for Dominos and if this idea will catch on in the school system.
Stephen
Domino's worked quickly and turned out a new, improved product.
The speed and effectiveness of the effort was in large part due to Domino's pizza ingredients not being unionized. There was no Crusts Union donating to political candidates; the National Fair Pepperoni Rights Foundation didn't have an office a block away from Domino's headquarters; Equality for Anchovies wasn't demanding placement for its little swimmers on every purchased pie [regardless of a customer's wishes].
I love what you've said here - I agree with all of it - but we need to recognize that there are significant differences here between Domino's and ed reform:
1) Pizzas don't fight back;
2) The government didn't have a hand in Domino's reform;
3) The ed reform process takes a heck of a lot longer.
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