Posted on 06/10/2011 6:59:26 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
When Pillsbury asked Herman Cain to take over as president of its Godfather’s Pizza chain in 1986, they knew the man could deliver. In 1982, Cain had resigned his post as vice president of corporate systems for the company and taken up a new position as manager of the Philadelphia branch of Burger King (also Pillsbury-owned), which until then had been its lowest-ranking region. Once Cain instituted a set of practical service-related reforms — such as making sure that shift managers were not being overworked — that quickly changed. By the time Cain finished and took up Godfather’s presidency three years later, Burger King’s Philadelphia region consistently placed first or second in performance.
As leader of Godfather’s, Cain brought this same set of strategies, and even some of the same managers, with him to the troubled pizza chain. One such person was Spencer Wiggins, a human-resources manager who started at Kraft Foods and whom Cain had specifically sought out to work for him at Burger King. In an interview with National Review Online, Wiggins recalled his first meeting with Cain and how taken he was by Cain’s charisma. “I walked into the [Burger King regional] office, Herman was there by himself, and he acted like he had known me for ten years. As soon as I walked in he said, ‘Spencer Wiggins, I’ve been trying to get a hold of you, man. Where’ve you been?’ So we sat down, we talked for about two hours, and next thing I knew, I was coming on board with Burger King Corporation.”
After Pillsbury acquired Godfather’s Pizza and put Cain in charge, he set about reforming the chain’s management priorities: Cain wanted to measure success not by the number of Godfather’s units operating, but rather by the average sales of each unit, which Cain saw as more important for long-term success. So he closed unprofitable restaurants, reducing the number of Godfather’s units from 725 at the time of his 1986 takeover to about 525 by 1995. And Cain’s emphasis on quality over quantity proved effective. Nation’s Restaurant News reported that while the system-wide sales of the 725 units totaled approximately $260 million in 1986, by 1995 the much smaller network of 525 Godfather’s restaurants was making $250 million annually.
In 1988, Pillsbury decided not to remain in the pizza business, so Cain and his senior management took over the chain in a $50 million leveraged buyout, and were excited to do so. While Godfather’s had suffered an $8 million net loss in the year prior to Cain’s appointment in 1986, it would boast a $4 million profit by the end of fiscal year 1988. As CEO, Cain maintained the reforms that had gotten Godfather’s cooking again.
Specialty slices of pizza, including dessert slices with fruit filling, were soon added to the menu and proved popular. The company also launched a successful ad campaign featuring the character Spooner Wiggins (named after Spencer Wiggins), a zany radio host who would promote the chain on his “show.” But perhaps the most important change Cain implemented was one from his time at Burger King — adding incentives for managers and limiting the number of hours they worked during the week.
“One of the things the restaurant industry had a bad reputation for was working managers 60, 70, 80 hours a week,” recalls Wiggins. “That created a lot of turnover. So one of the things that we put in place was to make sure that our managers didn’t work any more than 50 hours per week. It [took time] to get regional vice presidents, area directors, and district managers into the mindset. But once we did that, we were able to retain people a lot longer because we gave them a life outside the restaurant industry. They could [now] spend time with their families and do other things, and it made for someone who was more productive.”
Cain’s political premiere came next. In 1994, Cain garnered national attention when he told President Clinton in a televised town-hall meeting that the employee mandates in Clinton’s proposed health-care reform would ultimately hurt businesses and employment by encouraging businesses to lay off employees in order to cover new health costs. Cain was later given credit for helping to defeat the proposed reform. At the time, he was serving as the volunteer chairman and president of the board of the National Restaurant Association, while remaining president of Godfather’s — but once Cain attracted attention from Republican heavyweights such as Jack Kemp (for whom he would serve as an economic advisor during Kemp’s 1996 campaign with Bob Dole), he began to think more about politics.
At the end of 1996, Cain resigned as CEO and president of Godfather’s. While he chose to retain his chairmanship for several more years, he had now become the full-time president and CEO of the National Restaurant Association, and had moved to Washington, D.C. Cain would leave behind an extremely successful business record at Godfather’s, but Wiggins believes that he’d already set his eye on new challenges. “Talking to Herman, I think what he was able to see was that there was something bigger out there. Herman was always the visionary, he’d get us pumped up and excited, and I think once he got out there and started speaking more in a political environment, he saw that there were things that he could do, that he could make a difference.” If his record at Godfather’s is any guide, Herman Cain certainly can.
— Nat Brown is a comments editor at National Review Online.
Herman Cain has done two thing the Obamaloon has never done.
1. He’s had real jobs.
2. He was successful at them.
Bottom line, the pizza still sucked...
uh no, that’s NOT the bottom line. Cain’s job was to turn Godfathers into a profitable business. It was not his job to necessarily change the pizza recipe. He did his job, and did it extremely well.
True, but it was sucky pizza that was profitable.
I like Cain. But his problem as would have been Perot's is that when you're at the top, you tell those in your corporation what to do or you terminate them. You can't terminate Nancy Pelosi is she doesn't do your biding and follow your lead. You can't terminate Sherrod Brown if he doesn't do your biding. You can't terminate Harry Reid if he doesn't do your biding. And obviously people can't discern a great pizza from a sucky one, what makes us think they can discern great leadership?
RE: Bottom line, the pizza still sucked...
I don’t know about you, but I kinda like their TACO Pizza. My kids love their Humble Pizza ( anything but humble ).
RE: 1. He’s had real jobs.
2. He was successful at them.
______________________________________________________________________
Well, the important question is this, with this experience, can he be a good President for this country?
I realize that being a business CEO and being a nation’s CEO have similarities, but the DIFFERENCES ARE HUGE !!!
Yes. Herman's executive experience in the private sector is better than experience in government - which is the only experience McCain, Obama, Giuliani, and other losers have had.
Even more importantly, unlike the other candidates, Herman truly embraces liberty. Are there are any flaws in his positions ?
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Since when did it become a requirement that only career politicians have the ability to "rule" over us? I guess that we just have to continue to go with the "it's his turn" approach that gave us Dole and McCain. That worked really well now didn't it.
Running career politicians has brought us to our current mess so why is hoping that this time we've picked the right one from the ruling class is the way to go?
This is supposed to be a government OF the people, BY the people and FOR the people and I would put the emphasis on of and by the people meaning people who don't have that "executive" and political experience have merit and capabilities to run, represent, and govern. With career politicians it always about "them" first and about the country and the Constitution second or third or...
If my plumber ran I'd vote for him IF he impressed me with his approach and ideas AND adherance to the Constitution and the Republic.
I agree with you and Levin.
But at this stage, rather than debating who can win, I'm focusing on policy issues. Is Cain truly conservative on all the issues ?
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RE: Is Cain truly conservative on all the issues ?
One main beef with Cain made by some FReepers is the fact that he was not enthusiastic about auditing the Fed. Some then have accused him of being a Fed Insider ( since he was at one point, a Chariman of the Fed for his state ).
My question is this -— what do we plan to accomplish by auditing the Fed? What exactly is the goal?
The second beef with Cain is his lack of foreign policy experience. His ignorance of the phrase “right of return” as it applies to the issue of the Palestinians and Israel shows this glaring inadequacy.
Add yours here since this thread is a discussion of his pros and cons.
Call me an isolationist, but while I support Israel, I don't give a crap about Cain's ignorance of "right of return", any more than I care whether he (or W in his day) could name the leaders of various nations.
Our own nation is burning to the ground ( forgive my mindset, I live in Arizona where 400,000 acres are literally burning right now) so we need a President who is not just a strong leader, but most importantly, a strong follower of the Constitution, and whose foreign policy is national defense above everything else.
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The only truly successful businessman we’ve had as president was Hoover and he facilitated the Great Depression by enacting proto-New Deal programs.
The skills of running a gov’t and running a business are not interchangeable. No one would think that a person with their entire work experience in gov’t would make a good CEO of a major corporation.
I like Cain. I just don’t think he has the right skill set and experience for the job.
He also learns very quickly.
Four or five years ago he filled-in as host of the Quinn in the Morning Show. And frankly his performance left a lot to be desired.
But today he is one of the more entertaining radio hosts out there, certainly in the Atlanta market.
I could not disagree more!
I have listened to the man a long time and firmly believe he would be a good president.
“I like Cain. I just don’t think he has the right skill set and experience for the job.”
OK, four questions:
1) What are the right skills?
2) What attributes are needed other than skills?
3) Which experiences are required?
4) Who has them all?
If no one has them all, please prioritize.
From all reports, Cain is extremely good at getting people to go along with what he wants.
What his resume lacks is a demonstration that he can get good legislation passed. It’s very different to master the legislative process as opposed to being an effective CEO. Ike was the only successful president we ever had that had with no prior elected experience and even he had to get used to the fact that he couldn’t just pick up the phone and order something done like he did in the Army.
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