Philip Woods, VP IT and CISO at Sbarro

WHAT WE DO:  

“Established in 1956 and celebrating a proven 60 year track record, Sbarro is the worlds’ sixth largest quick service pizza restaurant chain, operating or franchising more than 800 locations in 39 states and 21 countries. Sbarro is the only QSR pizza restaurant that serves authentic New York Pizza. We hand-make all pizzas from scratch with high-quality ingredients and bake them fresh in a traditional stone oven, all based on a strong family history.

Sbarro has been well-known for its XL New York Pizza by the Slice and has recently expanded its brand to Cucinova, a pizza, pasta and salads made-to-order concept. There are four in Columbus and one Cucinova in the Kenwood area in Cincinnati. Sbarro is being taken off-mall as well, which has been a heavy focus for me from an IT perspective, because we have introduced online ordering, delivery capabilities and kitchen store systems to support that approach. That has been a challenge and a lot of fun for me.

The company moved its headquarters and data center from New York a couple years ago and is now in Columbus. I joined a year later and have been responsible for helping to establish priorities for the business, gain their alignment and determine how we are reshape to advance the new initiatives.”

Do you view business as a customer or a partner of IT?

“I might be old-school, but I believe that the business is our customer and our job is to help ensure that the business is successful. In that regard, there is that customer-supplier relationship, but ultimately it is a partnership because there are limited resources; whether time, skill or money, the ability to marshal and focus those where most important, requires an alignment with the business to make those decisions. You can’t do everything and you certainly can’t do it all at once. You need a roadmap, a plan and the business and IT together at the table with the right leadership to help establish those priorities.”