When seasoned senior executive John Dillon launched HMS Growth Partners in early 2024, he set out with a clear mission: to revitalize brands, drive results, and help people. Dillon is one of the top business executives in the world and an award-winning leader. He focuses on driving revenue growth, profitability, customer engagement, innovation, and overall business success for brands ranging from emerging to legacy.
HMS Growth Partners is a strategic consulting and advisory firm headquartered in Dallas-Fort Worth that is dedicated to achieving these goals.
"The HMS stands for 'heart, mind, and soul,' emphasizing that growth for businesses, brands, and leaders can be achieved by understanding how to connect their business to the customer’s heart, mind, and soul," Dillon shares. "That’s where true sustained growth comes from and it’s what I’ve been good at doing in my career for multiple brands. At this point in my career, I’m now privileged to and focused on sharing the wisdom I have gained from a 30-year career and my ability to translate emotional connections into business results.”
A New Era of Innovation and Growth
Dillon is a strategic brand-builder renowned for his pragmatic approach, innovative marketing style, and ability to lead thousands of people and franchise owners. As the former President, Chief Brand Officer, and Chief Marketing Officer of Denny's Corporation (NASDAQ: DENN), he held key leadership roles during his 16-year tenure at the international $2.9 billion revenue company. Now, he leverages his skills to propel clients worldwide to new heights.
John Dillon is proud of the achievements of the teams he has led, such as elevating guest experience metrics, defining and amplifying brand positionings, launching innovative products and services, leading digital transformation, partnering with operators and franchisees for multiple critical growth initiatives, and championing impactful community and social impact initiatives.
These successes are a testament to Dillon's leadership, as evidenced by his tenure at Denny's and his impactful roles at other major companies and brands, including the NBA's Houston Rockets, Yum! Brands, Pizza Hut, Omnicom, and Fidelity Investments.
Outside of founding HMS, Dillon currently serves as an Executive in Residence at Baylor University’s Hankamer School of Business. In this role, he imparts his extensive knowledge and experience to the next generation of business leaders.
Most recently, Dillon has focused on business and societal impact by joining Ivybrook Academy, a growing franchisor of preschools across the country. As president of the brand, he is leveraging his strategic growth abilities to guide Ivybrook through its next stage of development. Dillon was also recently named to the board of directors for the Dallas chapter of Breakthrough T1D, formerly JDRF, motivated by the personal impact of Type 1 diabetes within his family and his commitment to raising awareness and advocating for additional resources for families affected by T1D in his community.
Recently, John sat down for an interview to share his keys to success as HMS Growth Partners flourishes.
What do you believe are the most crucial qualities or skills a leader should possess, and how do you embody these qualities?
A great leader must prioritize others and understand that serving others is the key to achieving the best results—the classic definition of servant leadership. A leader needs to set a simple, clear, but powerful vision and motivate the team to follow. The leader must know how to delegate effectively and adopt a “trust but verify” approach. Additionally, simplifying complex challenges into achievable, aspirational goals is critical, along with the ability to take calculated risks and pivot quickly if things go off track.
Understanding the importance of culture in an organization and living out the “why” purpose of the brand every day is essential to driving results. This is how I have built my leadership style over the years, mirroring the formula of the leaders I respect most—those who have driven the greatest results and had the greatest impact on the people they lead.
What is your superpower? How do you use that power to succeed at work?
I’ve been told throughout my career that I’m a dot connector, simplifier, and storyteller. My background in consumer insights allows me to sift through information to understand what the consumer thinks or feels and connect that to how a brand can grow their business. It takes both data and intuition to read this correctly. Understanding the true motivators of both businesses and consumers helps connect the dots to actionable insights. Then, telling the story to either the consumer or the business/brand gets the results needed for a win-win. This powerful combination of skills drives real results.
How do you stay inspired and motivated during challenging times?
Great question. I’ve experienced many highs in my career, motivated by the impact I have had and the work I’ve done. I’ve also faced periods of intense burnout. Through those stages, I’ve definitely learned that maintaining balance is critical. Remembering what’s truly important keeps me grounded. Staying balanced professionally, socially, spiritually, and physically is essential. Taking time for faith, family, and health, in addition to work, has kept me motivated and centered even in tough times.
What’s one trend that really excites you?
Throughout the shift to technology, there’s an increasing call for humanism, authenticity, and staying real, so people can continue making connections in a tech-heavy world. This excites me because it aligns with what I’m doing in my career and what I’m good at. At this stage in my career, I find the most value in helping both people and brands find their purpose and leverage it authentically to drive results. That’s exciting.
What is one strategy that has helped you grow your business or advance in your career?
Always be a simplifier. A former leader early in my career said there are two types of people in the world: simplifiers and complicators. Always be a simplifier. This person also told me I was a simplifier and to never lose that strength. I took that to heart and amplified it throughout my career.
What are some of the keys to effective decision-making?
This ties into simplifying. Understand the key aspects of the problem or decision, gather viewpoints from those you need to hear from and whose counsel you value, role-play some “what if” scenarios, then make and share your decision. Importantly, don’t just issue an edict; share the “why” behind your decision to ensure alignment and understanding. From there, it’s execution and “trust but verify” mode.
How do you build and maintain strong professional relationships with colleagues and mentors?
Focus on what you can do for others, not just what they can do for you. It’s easy to forget this, and candidly in hindsight, I have been at different stages of my career. But I’ve learned how critical it is to offer help to pay it forward and to have an impact on people professionally and personally.
Where do you think your industry/profession will be in 5 or 10 years?
In five or ten years, hospitality and consumer brands will continue to exist and thrive. People will increasingly seek deep connections. Whether it’s restaurants, hotels, sporting events, experiential retail brands, or similar, brands need to evolve to push for breakthrough and authentic consumer experiences. The great brands will do this. Human connections will be more important than ever, so building authentic connections will be critical. Understanding how to connect the hearts, minds and souls of team members and consumers to business results will be more and more critical to drive personal growth and business results.
What advice would you give to someone seeking a career in your industry?
Go for it! Make sure it’s what you want to do and have a passion for, then go all in. If you have passion, you’ll have fun. And if you have fun, you’ll love your job and have an impact. Don’t think you can’t have fun at work—you absolutely can and should. If you’re not, you’re either in the wrong line of work or need to figure out how to make it fun.
If you were to start again, what would you do differently?
Every step in my journey has been preordained for a reason. I’ve made mistakes, but even the painful ones were temporary and provided incredible learning that shaped me into who I am today. I will use that learning to impact people’s lives and make a better society.
What single project or task would you consider your most significant career accomplishment?
I’m extremely proud of each stop in my career, from Fidelity Investments to Pizza Hut and the Houston Rockets, and my 16-year tenure at Denny’s. The work our leadership team did to turn the brand around was a key highlight.
Leading the consumer work to recognize Denny’s as America’s Diner gave us a clear direction for driving traffic, sales, and profits. Identifying our authentic brand purpose of feeding people—bodies, minds, and souls—provided clarity and motivation for our team. The Denny’s Mobile Relief Diner, a 53-foot truck with a working kitchen deployed to natural disasters, became a significant part of our brand.
It was driven by knowing our “why,” being creative, taking calculated risks, and garnering buy-in for execution.
Please share a quote that you have found particularly meaningful or inspiring.
Albert Schweitzer said, “I don’t know what your destiny will be, but one thing I know: the only ones among you who will be really happy are those who have sought and found how to serve.”
I found this quote through an organization I was part of in college, and it has stuck with me ever since. The times I’ve lost focus correlate to when I tried to do too much by myself and for myself; contrast that with my times of success when I focused on others and their needs. There’s a reason this works, and I’ve re-centered around this very thought, which is essentially the essence of servant leadership.
John Dillon Is Excited about the Future of HMS Growth Partners
As the founder of HMS Growth Partners, John Dillon partners with multiple companies and leaders across various industries, including retail, restaurants, hospitality, consumer goods, sports and entertainment, education, health and beauty, franchising, and private equity. His approach is rooted in extensive and successful multi-brand C-suite experience.
John believes that delivering next-level revenue, operational excellence, customer satisfaction, and profit growth comes from understanding and forging authentically differentiated B2C and C2B connections with customers and internal teams. Dillon emphasizes that when executed well, these connections accelerate legendary customer loyalty, employee satisfaction, and business performance.
Dillon says he always tells people to make sure they’re centered on what race they are running and why.
"Faith and family should always come first,” Dillon explains. “It's so easy to get trapped in the things of this world, into power and prestige, and climbing the ladder of success. I have been fortunate enough professionally to do some great things and rise to the top of the ladder in many ways. But the biggest success I point to in my career is the impact that I've had on others, and more importantly now the impact that I have the opportunity to have in the future."
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