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81 January : February 2014 — CommerCial ConstruCtion & renovation »CCRS 2014 SponSoR • CirCle No. 35 Get to know Tony Gioia Most rewarding part of your job I love to eat, so eating our food is pretty rewarding for me. And I would say that seeing our franchisees succeed is very important and rewarding. Best advice you ever received Everyone wants to go fast today, you hear that phrase, "Go slow to go fast." But it's about being methodical and prudent. "Don't let striding to be great effect being good." Best thing a client ever said to you I have franchisees tell us how much they appreciate the support we give them. Three strongest traits any leader should have Being a good listener; having a strong point of view on what's right without being arrogant; and time – time is everything. Favorite vacation spot Arizona Down time I'm a runner. I run three or four times a week. It helps build my energy and it helps me to think. » Tony Gioia Chairman & CEO • Togo's Holdings new design, we are looking to take our design to the next level. The next gener- ation of our work with WD Partners from a store design perspective will have more elements of sustainability. Right now, we're using energy efficient lighting and a lot of our flooring material is sustainable. We have more work to do in that area. What trends are you seeing out there? Because the economy is starting to pick up, it's getting more challenging to find good real estate. It's also becoming more of a challenge to find good general contractors and architects, so we are focused on controlling these processes as the franchisor. That's an important design process, so we have to get that right. We work these areas in each local market, vetting out the companies in this area. On the equipment side, we have two to three vendors that we've vetted out that gives us the best quality and cost. We are very competitive on the bid side, which keeps everybody honest. One of the biggest challenges we have is permitting – it's an arduous process and getting more and more diffcult. CK CCR-JanFeb.14_48-.indd 81 2/7/14 2:26 PM