Despite the recent challenges faced by Domino’s, the company remains bullish about its future. Part of its growth strategy involves a new type of delivery that goes beyond pizza. The company has been working with crowd-sourced designers to create and test vehicles that can deliver other foods — like sandwiches and salads — while still being safe for drivers to drive.
Domino’s has long been a pioneer in bringing new innovations to the marketplace. The chain’s World Resource Center, in Ann Arbor, Michigan, is a center for research and development. The organization also has a Domino’s Innovation Garage, where employees can work on and develop ideas to take the business to the next level.
A domino is a small rectangular block made of wood or plastic, with either a blank surface or one marked by pips resembling those on dice. A domino is used as the basis for a number of games. One of the most common uses is for positional games, in which players place dominoes edge to edge against each other so that their ends match up with those at one end of a line already completed. The value of a domino may be determined by its number of pips, by its rank or weight, which is based on its size and shape, and by its power, which is the number of dots it can make before it falls.
Lily Hevesh has been playing with dominoes since she was 9. Her grandparents had a classic 28-piece set, which she’d play over and over again. “I loved the kinetic energy of it,” she says. “You flicked the first domino and it just rolled down, one after another.”
When Hevesh sets up her mind-blowing creations, she follows a version of the engineering-design process. She considers the theme or purpose of her design, brainstorms images or words that might go with it, and then starts to build it. Her goal is to create a pattern that will repeat and flow, much like a musical piece or an artwork.
The most basic game of domino requires two players and a double-six set. The dominoes are placed face down in a pile, called the boneyard, or stock. Then each player chooses seven dominoes. They’re played by placing them side by side so that their ends match those of the dominoes already laid down. The second player then places a domino in the same spot, so that its ends have the same number of pips as one of the ends of the previously-played domino.
The first player to get all of their dominoes on the table wins the game. More complicated games involve blocking your opponent’s play, counting pips, and scoring points. Some games, such as bergen and muggins, even help students learn to count and improve their math skills. Other games, such as saxon, require players to play all of their dominoes. Some games are a race to finish the line, while others are scored by divisions of five or three, which are called “factors” or “scores.” Regardless of the game, dominoes can teach kids to be patient, work in teams and have fun with numbers.