Kevin Hochman’s Pizza Hut playbook had grown to eight pages of notes. Yes, the system needed to evolve from a dine-in, “red roof” footprint to one with more carryout, delivery friendly “delco” stores.

Pizza Hut U.S. president David Graves has worked with a handful of concepts he would describe as a heritage brand, his current company being among them. That equity has been a goldmine for the chain ...