Rick Rosenfield — Co-Founder, California Pizza Kitchen
Published:
They were pushing us, 'You’ve got to come up with a mission statement.' Like, 'Like what?' we said. 'Well, like, to sell more pizzas than anybody in the world.' 'Oh no, no, no, you have Pizza Hut, they can do that. That could be their mission statement.' That wasn’t our mission… So we started, Larry and I, talking as, 'How do we want to define ourselves?' And always to us, it was about defining ourselves in relationship to our team members.
What does Rick Rosenfield say on The Agile Brand podcast?
Rick Rosenfield, Co-Founder, California Pizza Kitchen, says: In this episode, Rick Rosenfield, co-founder of California Pizza Kitchen, describes how building a durable brand requires first building a resilient internal culture. He recounts the shift from celebrating a concept to valuing people, the organic discovery of values (R.O.C.K.), the dangers of cynicism when cost-cutting erodes standards, and the deliberate investment in long-tenured leaders to scale consistent customer experiences across locations.
From: The Agile Brand podcast
Cite as: Rick Rosenfield. (2026). On The Agile Brand podcast. Retrieved from https://research.agilebrandguide.com/insights/rick-rosenfield-they-were-pushing-us-youve-got-to-come-up-with-a-mission