Nadeem Bajwa runs 276 Papa John's restaurants and says it was never a pizza business. He calls it a people business, and that switch is what let it grow.
That is the view of Nadeem Bajwa, billed at Workstream's On the Clock 2026 as Co-Founder and CEO of Bajco Group / Papa John's. He came to the United States from Pakistan at 21, washed dishes, then delivered pizzas. He co-founded Bajco Group with his two brothers in 2002. The group now runs 276 Papa John's restaurants and is the brand's largest franchisee in North America.
I built 720 Sweets from one shop to seven locations, then sold it. At On the Clock 2026 in Atlanta, I hosted the speaker interviews. Nadeem's is the one I keep going back to, because the turning point he describes did not happen at 276 restaurants. It happened at three.
Nadeem was, in his own words, a mediocre student. His father was a doctor. Most of his family went into medicine, and the rest went into banking.
He still collected degrees. One in international commerce overseas, then a triple major in management, marketing and accounting in the United States. Four in total. His line about it is "I am still the least educated in my family."
His first job in America was washing dishes at $4.25 an hour. He had never worked anywhere before. Then came delivery driving and a short spell at another pizza brand. He landed at Papa John's and started reading up on the founder and the brand story.
Corporate America was still in the back of his mind. He had the degrees for it. So he went and applied.
The offers decided it for him. With four degrees on the table, none of them matched what he was already earning as a pizza guy. He stayed.
Ask him how a delivery driver ends up owning the largest Papa John's group on the continent and he does not talk about capital or timing.
"Well, I'll tell you, it's humility and passion."
Nadeem Bajwa
He adds a third thing that most people would not put on a list of strengths: a little insecurity. Not anxiety, which he says causes problems. Just enough fear of failing to keep him careful. Humility keeps you humble, he says, and passion is what makes you win.
Before he owned anything, Nadeem ran Papa John's restaurants as an operating partner. He was doing the owner's job already.
He is clear that owning is not the same job. Something changes in your head when you stop working for someone else and start owning the place. He says plenty of people fail right there, because they think they already know everything.
His own first opening proved it. It was hard. They were not ready and the people were not ready. By the second and third store he was comfortable, and that is when a different problem showed up.
He wanted to get to eight, nine, ten, twelve restaurants. He did not want to run all of them himself. And the thing standing in the way was not sites or money. It was finding people who carried the same passion and humility he did.
So he renamed the business in his own head.
"It's not pizza business, it's people business. I always call it people business."
Nadeem Bajwa
That one line explains everything else he does. He has never called it a pizza business since.
This is the part that surprised me most, and it matters most if you run one or two restaurants today.
The original plan was 10 to 12 restaurants. That was it. His partners are his brothers, and twelve stores would have taken care of the family.
Then he made a decision about hiring. He wanted to build from within, because the young people coming through the stores were the ones already watching how the business ran and already wanting a way up.
Every one of those conversations ended at the same question. He could make someone the manager of one store, or of two stores. Then they would ask him: What is after that?
He had no answer at twelve restaurants. So the number moved.
The plan went from 10 to 12 units to 20, then 50, then 100. Not because a bank or a brand pushed him there. Because the people he had promised a future to needed somewhere to go. Workstream makes the same argument in its piece on an internal hiring strategy.
The result shows up in how long his leaders stay.
"The minimum tenure is 15 years."
Nadeem Bajwa
That is the minimum, not the average, on his field leadership team. He has five leaders in the field today. With 275 restaurants open he can no longer visit the stores the way he used to, so he spends his time with those five leaders instead. He describes the relationship as very comfortable and very respectful at the same time.
You cannot promote people you cannot see. Every hour a manager spends tracking applications and internal moves across spreadsheets is an hour they are not developing the person in front of them. Workstream's hiring platform keeps applications, internal moves and the paperwork behind them in one place, so you know who is ready before they ask. Explore Workstream →
Most operators talk about growth. Nadeem talks about who takes over after him.
He puts it plainly. No owner lasts forever. The organization is the part that can keep going.
"The organization you build should be built to last for generations to come."
Nadeem Bajwa
He is direct about what that asks of him. It is your responsibility as a leader to pay it forward. Help the next group of leaders get into position, so they can carry the vision further with their own passion attached to it.
He applies the same thinking to the people who leave. Nadeem says the most important thing any of us has is family, and that everybody has the right to look after their family first. So when someone on his team finds a better opportunity somewhere else, he does not take it badly. He says you should be excited for people.
That is an unusual thing for an owner to say out loud. It is also why people stay fifteen years.
I asked him how you keep success from changing you, when the business keeps getting bigger and more people start telling you how well you are doing.
Self-reflection is a powerful word, he said. Look at yourself in the mirror. Think at night. Remind yourself more often when things are changing fast.
Then he explained what he watches for. It is not pride. It is distance between himself and other people.
"Once you put that barrier between you and others, you know that the game is over."
Nadeem Bajwa
The reason ego matters to him is practical. Hiring good people is not enough. They have to feel comfortable telling you things, and you have to feel comfortable hearing them. He says his team can give him open feedback about him, and he is proud of that.
The same idea runs through the things he refuses to bend on. Transparency, so people stay truthful with each other when the team makes a mistake. Business fundamentals, because you step away from them and you lose everything. Trust. And loyalty, which he points out is not a one way street.
The line he repeats most came from a mentor in the early days.
"The best thing we can do is surround ourselves with better people," is how he puts it. Nadeem takes that further than most. He does not want a team that agrees with him. In his words, he encourages people disagreeing with him, because a healthy and respectful debate brings out more ideas and makes the business better.
Almost none of this needs a big company. It needs a decision.
Two locations will not give you a leadership team with 15 years behind it this year. That is not the point. The point is that the team starts with the second person you promote. Workstream's notes on leadership for franchise owners make the same case for a small group of restaurants.
It means treating your team as the main limit on growth, ahead of product or sites. Nadeem Bajwa reached that view at two or three restaurants, when he realized he could not open eight or ten on his own. His test for a new person is whether they carry the same passion and humility he does.
Nadeem Bajwa's field leadership team has a minimum tenure of 15 years. He treats that number as the proof that the culture works, rather than as a lucky outcome. His view is that people stay when the business has somewhere for them to go next, which is why his growth plan and his promotion plan are the same plan.
The original plan was 10 to 12 restaurants, because Nadeem Bajwa's partners are his brothers and twelve stores would have supported the family. The number moved to 20, then 50, then 100 only after he committed to promoting from within. Each manager he trained asked what came after running one or two stores, and twelve restaurants gave him no answer.
Promote from within if you want people to stay, which is the route Nadeem Bajwa chose from his first few restaurants. His reasoning is that the young people already in your stores are watching how the business runs and want a path up. The cost of that choice is that you have to keep creating the next job for them to move into, which is what pushed his own plan past 100 units.
Watch for distance rather than pride, and use self-reflection as the tool. Nadeem Bajwa says the moment you put a barrier between yourself and other people, the game is over. His practical version is making sure his team can give him open feedback, and actively encouraging people to disagree with him in a respectful debate.
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About the author. Wilson K Lee built 720 Sweets from one shop to seven locations and sold it. He now runs wilsonklee.com, where he publishes real numbers and playbooks for food and beverage owners, and he hosted the speaker interviews at Workstream's On the Clock 2026.