What 6 Executives Learned From Going On 'Undercover Boss'
Undercover Hooters CEO Coby Brooks watched as manager "Jimbo" made his employees eat beans with no hands, competing to see who could go home from work early.
After the episode, Brooks embarked on a mission to improve management, fired "Jimbo," and started programs to ensure those problems didn't reappear.
After changes “the morale was heightened, and everyone felt more of a sense of family ... we've never considered ourselves a ['Breast-urant'],” Brooks said.
Kat Cole, now President of Cinnabon, actually got her start at Hooters, and was the youngest boss ever to go on the show.
One employee she met on the show, Myra, worked so hard and bossed her around so much that she brought her into corporate as a trainer.
"She could be in my chair one day," Cole said.
And after Cole heard about Myra's mother's struggles with breast cancer, she started a fundraising effort and put her in charge.
Stephen J. Cloobeck, chairman of Diamond Resorts International, gave away more than $2 million to team members he met.
But after being the first CEO to go on the show twice, he realized that he couldn't single a few people out, and started a company-wide crisis fund for people in trouble.
Cloobeck said that he learned "it's important to take care of as many people as possible" without going undercover. He put $1 million in the fund, and his company matched.
One employee named Jesse told Subway Chief Development Officer Don Fertman that she would never get a chance to talk to corporate.
When pushing Fertman to work faster, she coined a phrase that made its way to corporate: "there's no such thing as a 5 minute sandwich."
After his episode, Fertman started putting his sandwich artists at restaurants across the country through a market evaluation that allows them to create their own sandwiches for testing.
Rick Silva, President and CEO of Checkers, shut down one of his restaurant locations during filming when he realized employees weren't being trained and the manager told him he "could take him outside and beat him up."
Silva has since reopened the location with new management that actually trains its employees and breeds an environment of mutual respect.
On his thoughts about the changes at Checkers: "I love the feeling of teamwork...there's always more we can do to help our employees."
In the two years since filming, Kendall-Jackson Wine Estates CEO Rick Tigner has implemented a new company code of conduct and rules and regulations for drivers.
Tigner’s “aha” moment was being unable to communicate with his Spanish-speaking employees. He has enforced language training classes ever since.
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