Domino's New CEO Joe Jordan Flattens Leadership, Bets on Innovation

Domino's booked $4.94 billion in total revenue in 2025, up 5% year over year, and its new CEO Joe Jordan intends to run the company with fewer layers between him and its top executives.

Jordan stepped into the CEO role on October 1 after nearly 15 years at the company. He arrived in 2011 as vice president of innovation and moved through marketing, operations and technology roles before reaching the top job. He says he has done nearly every major job at Domino's.

The company disclosed its succession plan in June, promoting Jordan from chief operating officer and president of Domino's U.S. He succeeded Russell Weiner, who has led the company since 2022 and is set to transition to the executive chairman role.

What changes under Jordan?

Jordan told The Wall Street Journal he plans to eliminate a layer of leadership. Rather than appointing a successor to his former job as COO and president of Domino's U.S., he will have the company's top executives report to him directly.

The week before he took the CEO seat, Jordan and his nine direct reports met to define the next chapter. They asked what the team's legacy should be five years from now and how employees across the company should describe its leadership.

Jordan also wants to expand product experimentation. He pointed to the company's new single-serving pizza, released in August, as a model. The personal-size offering targets solo customers with a pizza designed around their own topping choices, rather than a larger pie built for sharing.

What did Jordan say about the job itself?

Many CEOs say the role feels different once they sit in the corner office, no matter how much prior exposure they had, according to the Journal. Jordan said trusted leaders who have held the CEO seat gave him the same warning.

"For how big my job is even right now, there was always someone…who is the step higher and the ultimate arbiter," he told the Journal. "You become the ultimate arbiter that everyone else is looking at."

How strong is the business he inherits?

Jordan takes charge as pizza operators face a more cautious customer. Domino's U.S. same-store sales rose just 0.1% in the second quarter ended June 14 — the slowest domestic comparable-sales growth in five quarters and below analyst expectations.

Executives said consumers were weighed down by difficult macroeconomic conditions, which intensified competition across quick-service restaurants.

The company is still growing. Domino's reported more than $20.6 billion in global retail sales over the four quarters ending June 14 and opened 209 net new stores in the second quarter. The chain attributed its higher 2025 revenue to U.S. franchise advertising and franchise royalties.

Jordan's bet is that a flatter structure and faster product innovation can lift domestic growth out of its five-quarter low while the franchise engine keeps expanding abroad.