When you go through trouble and decide not to surrender, that is strength - strength, which is so rare to mankind. And this very strength is the quality that has made Ajay Kaul, CEO of Domino's Pizza India a proverbial troubleshooter. He gets attracted to an organization, which is in trouble and has managed to turn around the company's fortunes after it entered India in 1996.

Prior to joining Domino's, Ajay has had 16 years of experience, spanning diverse industries and different countries. A B.Tech alumnae from IIT Delhi and a post graduate in Management from XLRI Jamshedpur, Kaul started his corporate journey with American Express. Bucked up with such diverse multi-industry experiences, when he joined Domino's, Ajay injected into this organisation a reinforced focus on customer satisfaction, with 'delivery' as a pristine critical success factor by sticking to strengthening the brand positioning as the 'best pizza delivery brand'.

For this leader, there are no trivial decisions as he takes his job and its responsibilities very seriously. When he joined Dominos he had to match pace with its 30 minutes delivery deadline and he knew that sticking to the deadline is a tough one to meet in India. So, in case of planning to expand in any area, he has been known to drive and find out the best location from where Dominos can deliver pizzas to their consumer within 30 minutes and within high traffic. Not keeping you hungry is Kaul's road to success. He correctly explains that when the guy is hungry he cannot wait. And if the food is lousy, he will not order again. Domino's ads have worked towards building this perception, one tactically outstanding reason that has led to Domino's growing at a stupendous growth rate of 50%, leaving rivals way behind.

After two years of tasting and testing, Kaul is showing signs of paying heed to this the need for a sit and dine, learning from the advantage Pizza Hut has been availing so far. He now plans to open as many as 45 such sit-and-dine outlets across India by the end of 2007. To his credit, Kaul has enmeshed within his people a true team spirit and the keenness to achieve impressive growth for the company, without forgetting for a moment the most important 'Indian' cultural angle. Before making any decision, he considers the opinions of his team and they work together at achieving the goals.

With an always-smiling attitude, this buoyant man is now gung ho on making the Indian operations grow beyond an exorbitant Rs.1500 crore by 2008, with 500 stores across the country and with clear-cut footprints in Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, and Nepal. So, next time anyone says "Hungry kya?" and a pizza is there in 30 minutes, you know which guy you have to thank.