Tom Johnson
Director of Consumer Insights – Strategic Leadership at Del Taco- Claim this Profile
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Bio
Maya Kantak
Tom is a gifted leader with a rare combination of empathy, creativity, and research skills. I’m lucky to have worked with Tom, a leader who’s not only interested in the company’s bottom line, but also in his employees’ professional growth. Under his guidance at Del Taco, the team made significant cross-functional impact on the organization as Tom led research for groundbreaking product launches, region-wide restaurant upgrades, and the internal company culture. He also inspired work on innovative research methods to accomplish these goals, some our team even received industry recognition for. Tom is a true asset to any research team, particularly those looking for innovative research solutions and passionate direction, and he comes with my heartfelt recommendation.
LinkedIn User
It is rare to come across as great a boss as Tom. I directly reported to Tom for 2+ years at Del Taco. It has been a great pleasure working with him. Tom is an experienced market researcher, a strategic thinker, and a great mentor. He never loses sight of the big picture when managing the day-to-day of the Consumer Insights department. He is constantly thinking about new ways to bring value to the organization. As a boss, he sincerely cares about his reports. He is happy to share and teach. Tom has encouraged and supported my professional and personal development a great deal in our time working together. Tom would be an asset to any team, and any employee would be lucky to have him as a manager.
Maya Kantak
Tom is a gifted leader with a rare combination of empathy, creativity, and research skills. I’m lucky to have worked with Tom, a leader who’s not only interested in the company’s bottom line, but also in his employees’ professional growth. Under his guidance at Del Taco, the team made significant cross-functional impact on the organization as Tom led research for groundbreaking product launches, region-wide restaurant upgrades, and the internal company culture. He also inspired work on innovative research methods to accomplish these goals, some our team even received industry recognition for. Tom is a true asset to any research team, particularly those looking for innovative research solutions and passionate direction, and he comes with my heartfelt recommendation.
LinkedIn User
It is rare to come across as great a boss as Tom. I directly reported to Tom for 2+ years at Del Taco. It has been a great pleasure working with him. Tom is an experienced market researcher, a strategic thinker, and a great mentor. He never loses sight of the big picture when managing the day-to-day of the Consumer Insights department. He is constantly thinking about new ways to bring value to the organization. As a boss, he sincerely cares about his reports. He is happy to share and teach. Tom has encouraged and supported my professional and personal development a great deal in our time working together. Tom would be an asset to any team, and any employee would be lucky to have him as a manager.
Maya Kantak
Tom is a gifted leader with a rare combination of empathy, creativity, and research skills. I’m lucky to have worked with Tom, a leader who’s not only interested in the company’s bottom line, but also in his employees’ professional growth. Under his guidance at Del Taco, the team made significant cross-functional impact on the organization as Tom led research for groundbreaking product launches, region-wide restaurant upgrades, and the internal company culture. He also inspired work on innovative research methods to accomplish these goals, some our team even received industry recognition for. Tom is a true asset to any research team, particularly those looking for innovative research solutions and passionate direction, and he comes with my heartfelt recommendation.
LinkedIn User
It is rare to come across as great a boss as Tom. I directly reported to Tom for 2+ years at Del Taco. It has been a great pleasure working with him. Tom is an experienced market researcher, a strategic thinker, and a great mentor. He never loses sight of the big picture when managing the day-to-day of the Consumer Insights department. He is constantly thinking about new ways to bring value to the organization. As a boss, he sincerely cares about his reports. He is happy to share and teach. Tom has encouraged and supported my professional and personal development a great deal in our time working together. Tom would be an asset to any team, and any employee would be lucky to have him as a manager.
Maya Kantak
Tom is a gifted leader with a rare combination of empathy, creativity, and research skills. I’m lucky to have worked with Tom, a leader who’s not only interested in the company’s bottom line, but also in his employees’ professional growth. Under his guidance at Del Taco, the team made significant cross-functional impact on the organization as Tom led research for groundbreaking product launches, region-wide restaurant upgrades, and the internal company culture. He also inspired work on innovative research methods to accomplish these goals, some our team even received industry recognition for. Tom is a true asset to any research team, particularly those looking for innovative research solutions and passionate direction, and he comes with my heartfelt recommendation.
LinkedIn User
It is rare to come across as great a boss as Tom. I directly reported to Tom for 2+ years at Del Taco. It has been a great pleasure working with him. Tom is an experienced market researcher, a strategic thinker, and a great mentor. He never loses sight of the big picture when managing the day-to-day of the Consumer Insights department. He is constantly thinking about new ways to bring value to the organization. As a boss, he sincerely cares about his reports. He is happy to share and teach. Tom has encouraged and supported my professional and personal development a great deal in our time working together. Tom would be an asset to any team, and any employee would be lucky to have him as a manager.
Experience
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Del Taco Restaurants Inc.
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United States
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Restaurants
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400 - 500 Employee
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Director of Consumer Insights – Strategic Leadership
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2017 - Present
✔ Directed first Employee Experience measurement program, leading to culture change that reduced General Manager turnover to half of the industry standard and surged “likelihood to recommend workplace” metric to 74% above industry standard.✔ Managed $550K annual research budget while overseeing additional $700K in annual funds.✔ Originated employee engagement program with 28,000 FTEs across 600 locations, transforming training processes and rewards program.✔ Strongly contributed to digital transformation, optimizing a proprietary mobile app with 250K registered users and building CRM database to drive customer visit frequency boost via targeted offers.✔ Instrumental in catapulting overall satisfaction scores to 78% in one year for a 54% improvement.✔ Authored 2-day collaborative workshop to establish core values and best practices.✔ Contributed to $1.5M/unit goal attainment.✔ Helped turnaround brand perception, securing profitability impact with new product launch.
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Del Taco Restaurants Inc.
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United States
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Restaurants
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400 - 500 Employee
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Director of Consumer Insights – Organization-wide
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2012 - 2016
✔ Awarded for efforts in “Combined Solutions” initiative that grew annual unit sales by an incremental 27% while enhancing profit margins by 13%.✔ Sparked 26 consecutive quarters of sales growth.✔ Guided prototype development research that led to site “Ambiance Shakeup” initiative, providing targeted onsite facelifts at 25% of full remodeling costs.✔ Developed an award-winning “Brand Purpose & Culture” leadership program.✔ Spearheaded industry-leading optimization study with an unheard of 70% profit margin.✔ Incepted and rolled out the “Guest Experience Measurement” program that strengthened guest satisfaction for 6 consecutive years.✔ Diminished problem orders by 46%.✔ Provided go-to-market strategic insights that aided in opening 25 new site locations across 10 states in one year with 25 sites targeted for the next year.
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Del Taco Restaurants Inc.
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United States
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Restaurants
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400 - 500 Employee
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Director of Consumer Insights – Marketing Department
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2008 - 2011
✔ As Company’s Inaugural Director of Consumer Insights, devised and established entire strategic insights framework from scratch.✔ Championed initiative to ensure that 80% of innovation research was conducted in-house, slashing over $500K per year in vendor expenses. ✔ As Company’s Inaugural Director of Consumer Insights, devised and established entire strategic insights framework from scratch.✔ Championed initiative to ensure that 80% of innovation research was conducted in-house, slashing over $500K per year in vendor expenses.
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LRW: Now Material
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United States
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Market Research
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1 - 100 Employee
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Assistant General Manager
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1998 - 2008
✔ Integral in spurring business unit growth to $4M+ in annual sales over 5-year period, while skyrocketing team by 366%.✔ Rapidly promoted 4 times in 7 years, becoming youngest Assistant GM in company history.✔ Launched a new company branch, expanding the office staff 4-fold across multiple teams.✔ Stewarded multiple large-scale research projects while steering P&L and all financial reporting.Manage, train and mentor a research staff of 11 analysts and project managers across multiple offices while monitoring research quality, ensuring value-add contributions to all client deliverables, and maintaining client relationships. Personally manage several large strategic research projects, manage team financial reports including P&L as well as assist the General Manager and Account Managers with business development including skinning and responding to client requests, developing research designs and methods for proposals. Additionally, assist HR in the development and management of LRW's Orange County office including day-to-day operations.
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Education
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California State University, Fullerton
Bachelor of Arts, Bussiness Administration, Marketing Concentration
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