Domino Pizza : PUT LEADERSHIP SKILLS ON NATIONAL CURRICULUM URGES DOMINO’S BOSS

· Leisure, retail and hospitality sectors need to grow their own leaders, post Brexit

· Millennials are ambitious but have more cynical view of leadership than previous generations

· Domino's makes its new 'TeamSkills' leadership programme available for free

Domino's Pizza Group, the UK's leading pizza brand, is calling for team leadership skills like influencing and communication to be incorporated into the National Curriculum as Britain will need more home-grown young people with great leadership skills, post Brexit.

Domino's commissioned research to better understand young people's views on leadership. The findings show young people from lower income backgrounds do not lack ambition but have less exposure to strong leadership role models than those from more privileged circumstances. As a result, school leavers from lower socio-economic backgrounds can be at a disadvantage in the workplace, where they may need to work harder to make progress into leadership positions.

Around 35,000 people work for Domino's across more than 1,000 stores in the UK, and over 80% of managers started life as delivery drivers and pizza makers. Many of the company's most successful franchisees began their careers on the shop floor, often having left school with few qualifications, but lots of ambition.

Domino's plans to open over 600 more stores over the next few years, creating more than 21,000 new jobs, many of which require strong leadership abilities. As the UK faces a likely shortage of workers and with university becoming an increasingly expensive choice for school leavers, Domino's wants to encourage young people to consider team leadership roles within the hospitality sector. So, the company is opening up its in-house 'TeamSkills' online leadership programme to help people learn how to lead a high performing team via corporate.dominos.co.uk/teamskills.

Simon Wallis, COO, said: 'We have ambitious growth plans and believe Domino's is a fun place to work with clear progression opportunities for ambitious school leavers with potential. We'd like to see the National Curriculum developing basic leadership skills, because our research revealed some concerning results with young people saying they're ambitious, but lack exposure to positive role models.'

Interestingly, many young Brits (age 18 to 22) don't consider skills like building consensus and listening to team members as vital. In fact, only half of those surveyed considered high ethical standards or caring about well-being as very important. Counter-intuitively, generations X (age 41 to 52) and Y (age 23 to 40) consistently rated so called softer leadership skills as more important.

Simon Wallis continued: 'Despite recent stereotyping of millennials as 'snowflakes' it seems many young people look to role models like Alan Sugar, and think a no nonsense, upfront approach is the best way to lead a team. We want 'TeamSkills' to provide a role in helping young people develop all round leadership skills, but the Government needs to do its part too. The success of future generations, Britain plc and of course, companies like Domino's depends on our young people being set up for success, regardless of background.'

Winner of the first series of The Apprentice, Tim Campbell MBE said: 'TeamSkills is a great opportunity to provide much needed training materials and insights, so people can upskill and progress their careers.

Domino's is offering an environment for individuals, at all levels, who are ambitious for success. The business has a truly impressive track record of the number of team members who have risen through the ranks to a position of leadership. I commend Domino's for addressing the need to offer on the job training within the hospitality sector, one of the UK's most important sectors.'

RESEARCH

Domino's commissioned research to understand how ideals of good leadership differ across the generations.

· Gen Z workers (aged 16 to 22) place more value on a leader's ability to achieve results (27%) and are less impressed by soft skills like building a consensus (24%) and listening to the team (51%) · 27% of Gen Z workers rated leaders' preparedness to do 'whatever it takes to achieve goals' as Very Important compared with less than a fifth (19%) of Gen X (age 41-52) · Gen Z workers also have lower expectations of their leaders' ethical standards (40%) compared with Gen X (45%) · Less than a third (32%) of Gen Z think mucking in and sharing the workload is important compared to 39% of Gen X 36% of Gen Y (aged 23-40) · Less than a quarter (24%) of Gen Z workers think building consensus in a team is important compared to over a third (35%) of Gen X· Only half (51%) of Gen Z think listening to the opinions of team members is important compared to 59% of Gen X· Four in ten (40%) of Gen Z think that demonstrating high ethical standards is important compared to 45% of Gen X

- ENDS -

NOTES TO EDITORS

Research conducted by Kantar TNS among 1,534 people aged 16 to 52 years, between 24August and 30 August 2017.

For further information, please contact the Domino's team at Maitland:

· dominos@maitland.co.uk · +44 (0)20 7379 5151

About TeamSkills

TeamSkills, created by Domino's, is a leadership programme designed to help people with the team skills and training they need to become a great leader.

At Domino's, we recognise the importance of investing in the next generation of leaders. We want to help people have a better future, which is why we're making our training and development materials available for everyone to learn the lifelong skills needed to become a successful team leader.

Our TeamSkills programme offers people hints and tips for on the job training from Domino's colleagues and third party ambassadors, as well as downloadable workbooks covering the five basic principles we believe contribute to successful leadership:

· Influencing and empowering team members· Creating an ambitious and high performing team· Expert open and transparent communications· Inspiring team members to raise their game· Effective problem solving and decision making

About Domino's Pizza Group

Domino's Pizza Group plc is the UK's leading pizza brand and a major player in the Irish market. We hold the master franchise agreement to own, operate and franchise Domino's stores in the UK, the Republic of Ireland, Switzerland, Luxembourg and Liechtenstein. In addition, we have a controlling stake in the holders of the Domino's master franchise agreements in Iceland, Norway and Sweden, as well as an associate investment in Germany. As at 25 June 2017, we had 1,130 stores across six markets.