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Everyone knows Wendy’s popular tagline, “Quality is our recipe,” but are there new approaches that could improve the fast-food chain’s customer experience?

After grueling late-night brainstorming sessions and extensive research, Brayden Forcier and his teammates had a plan: a series of strategic artificial intelligence-driven recommendations, including a standardized training program for new franchisees to create more consistency for people visiting different Wendy’s locations. They also crafted a concept for digital menu boards customized using AI based on a customer’s purchasing history. That way, customers could build loyalty points and even cash them in for double rewards when ordering food outside peak service hours.

This challenge, in which Forcier’s team emerged as finalists during a Dean’s Mentoring Program Case Competition in New York City, was unlike any he anticipated as a first-year ������ý School of Management student.

“I had to be adaptable; I had to know not just my own pieces of the projects, but those of my teammates as well and vice-versa,” Forcier said. “I’m glad I got this experience, because it gave me more real-life knowledge about how these big-picture concepts can be used to deliver actual results.”

How did Forcier get to this point?

Not surprisingly, the music enthusiast with a knack for solving math problems didn’t immediately consider pursuing a business administration degree with a concentration in finance. Music, as Forcier often says, “is where my heart and passion lie.”

Starting in fourth grade and continuing through high school, Forcier was a fiercely dedicated band and orchestra member. He’s played steel drums, brass and woodwind instruments, even the piano. The French horn is his favorite.

This past year, he performed four concerts with the ������ý Symphony Orchestra.

“There are many ways people get in touch with their emotions; some do it through art, others through music. That’s where it resonates for me,” Forcier said. “Being able to make a really good piece of music come to life, when you’re tuned into every single detail of that song, it’s hard to describe the joy of making that connection. It’s what I enjoy most and why I’ve wanted to keep at it all this time.”

Thanks to ������ý’s supportive faculty and a little parental encouragement, he found plenty of room to balance his musical interests with the legwork needed to earn a business degree. Studying business, he realized, could also allow him to branch out into nearly any area within the workforce.

“I thought I was joining your average ‘run-of-the-mill business school,’” Forcier said, “but we’re quickly thrown into case competitions and other experiences where you have to be quick on your feet. I’m glad that every class at SOM is just so broad that it lets you explore so many aspects of business and discover new areas of interest.”

One of those areas of interest is a concentration in business analytics, which Forcier is also pursuing because he loves the strategy it entails: working within a team to identify problems and craft actionable solutions that would most effectively bring a product to market.

That kind of specialized teamwork factored heavily into the Wendy’s case competition. Even though his team didn’t win, Forcier gained valuable lessons from the opportunity to conduct in-depth market research on customer demographics and use data sets to identify strengths, weaknesses and growth opportunities.

As his academic career continues taking shape, he’s also looking forward to incorporating the discipline he’s honed through his music into future business projects.

“In the music world, everyone’s end goal is to make the best music possible, so people tend to be more comfortable finding a compromise to keep things cohesive. We can definitely use more of that thinking in the business world, where everyone approaches a problem with different experiences behind them,” Forcier said.

“Often, there isn’t an easy solution for the best marketing strategy, products to sell or building customer trust. You have to work as a team to find a solution, have the confidence to see it through and know how to learn from what works and what doesn’t.”