Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

What was Herman Cain like as CEO?
CBS News ^ | October 21, 2011 | Laura Strickler

Posted on 10/22/2011 9:51:37 AM PDT by MitchellC

Herman Cain's former employees at Godfather's Pizza recall him as an energetic and dynamic leader. They say he listened to new ideas and went out of his way to remember everyone's name and wanted his team to do the same.

Four times a year, Godfather's executives would hold corporate meetings with all 300 employees in the company's auditorium in its Omaha headquarters. According to two former employees, at each meeting, Cain would pick one executive at random and call them onto the stage to identify each employee by name. If the executive missed any names, they would be required to take that person to lunch.

Cain himself took the "employee of the quarter" to lunch personally and was known for cheerleading his staff. One former employee, Jolene Jeffries, said she can't recall ever seeing Cain angry. She said, instead, he would rally employees by saying things like, "We can do better than this." One employee told CBS News he recalled a day when he and his colleagues went into Cain's office expecting a stern talking to, only to be shocked when he surprised them with bonus checks.

Employees concede that Cain downsized Godfather's after the company was bought from Pillsbury in the mid 1980's but one said, "It was mostly through attrition." One employee said stores were also closed to "stop the bleeding" so the company could become more profitable.

During the downsizing, one employee surprised Cain by offering to eliminate his own job. Bruce Newharth who is now the President and COO of Arrow Stagelines in Norfolk, Nebraska says he helped Cain develop his first "100 day strategy" to turn the company around after it was bought from Pillsbury.

Newharth, who worked as the head of Godfather's training at the time, said when he looked at the restructuring that needed to happen he concluded that his own job was no longer necessary. He says he presented this to Cain saying this move would be "true to Godfather's and to himself". Weeks later Newharth was downsized but he says Cain helped him land a job in worldwide training at Burger King.

Former employees say Cain would regularly solicit and implement ideas from junior employees, even teenagers who worked at the chain's stores.

In the mid 1990's Cain was personally featured in Godfather's TV ads and as a result the company received threatening racist phone calls directed at Cain from the Pacific Northwest according to two former employees. One employee who golfed regularly with Cain, told CBS News that the CEO also faced threats in the South. Because of this, the employee said, Cain would fly from city to city instead of driving due to safety concerns. Former employees said Cain appeared to easily shake off the threats. A campaign spokesman did not respond to a request for comment for this story.


TOPICS: Extended News; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: cain; cainbio; ceo; godfathers; hermancain
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041-6061-71 next last
To: lonevoice
My guess would be from among the Earth First terrorists in Portland; then there's the Democrat party in Seattle ~ I've heard they are into this stuff.

Frankly, I doubt the guys in Boundary County would want to pay the long distance phone charges.

41 posted on 10/22/2011 11:22:07 AM PDT by muawiyah
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 20 | View Replies]

To: MitchellC
The more I read about Cain's business career, the more I like him. Sounds like he was a motivating leader who challenged his subordinates to excel (rather than beating them down as many executives in that industry tend to do).

Imagine having somebody in the White House who actually spent most of his life in the real world? Imagine a President who was not born into privilege - who actually pulled himself up by his own bootstraps and succeeded on his own merit? One who knows what it is like to sweep a floor or clean a toilet. One who has had to overcome adversity such as racism and cancer. One who has achieved so much in so many different fields (academics, business, banking, media) and one who does not see "public service" as a career.

Well, we have an opportunity to put such a man in the White House in Herman Cain. If elected, this will be a president who is not beholden to anybody but the American people. Only a true outsider like Herman Cain can shake up the federal government.

Along with a Tea Party Congress, President Cain will truly advance the conservative cause and help bring the American people together.

42 posted on 10/22/2011 11:23:27 AM PDT by SamAdams76 (Herman Cain 2012)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Kahuna
I like your post♥ haircutter~~PA.
43 posted on 10/22/2011 11:29:43 AM PDT by haircutter
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 25 | View Replies]

To: SamAdams76

AMEN


44 posted on 10/22/2011 11:30:44 AM PDT by haircutter
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 42 | View Replies]

To: comebacknewt
Are they aiming to become the new Fox News?

FOX {Greta} had that fat faced pimp Rove on the other night and he was so negative about Herman, if you didn't know better, you'd have thought that it was Herman that got 4% instead of the 31% that he got in the Nevada straw poll {after the debates}.

BTW, it was ricky {you got some splaining to do} perry, that got the 4%.

Rove is so high on mittens I fully expect to see him offer a lewinsky to mitty on national TV.

45 posted on 10/22/2011 11:34:53 AM PDT by USS Alaska
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 6 | View Replies]

To: USS Alaska

This time it’s OUR TURN to shove it in the GOP establishments faces. How about WE get to pick the candidate of our choice.
Dream the impossible dream.....vote Cain.


46 posted on 10/22/2011 11:45:35 AM PDT by tflabo (Restore the Republic)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 45 | View Replies]

To: DirtyDawg

Exactly. And leaders are born, not made.


47 posted on 10/22/2011 11:48:47 AM PDT by Matchett-PI (Obamageddon, Barackalypse Now! Bam is "Debt Man Walking" in 2012 - Rush Limbaugh)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 22 | View Replies]

To: tflabo

Absolutely!!!

Also so tired of hearing how it’s a horse race in terms of amount of cash raised. Sometime tells me our Founding Father would be appalled at that notion.

So, who cares how many rich friends someone has. It’s just influence buying, plain and simple.

I want a leader who can influence my HEART and who motivates others by his leadership, not his ability to grant favors and create winners and losers, or divide and conquer.


48 posted on 10/22/2011 11:53:27 AM PDT by LibsRJerks
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 46 | View Replies]

To: MitchellC

Cain is a leader of men. A stark contrast with Obama.


49 posted on 10/22/2011 11:53:47 AM PDT by jwalsh07 (t)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: LibsRJerks

He knows how to lead, how make the hard choices and he doesn’t crush people to do it he actually elevates them.

******
The sign of a successful and beloved leader. There are leaders, and then there are leaders. Too many out there just want to climb over the smashed fingers of others in their way. Really makes you wonder about their character.


50 posted on 10/22/2011 11:55:45 AM PDT by LibsRJerks
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 48 | View Replies]

To: MitchellC

I’ll bet Herman Cain knows his wife’s name and knows that it isn’t 2008.


51 posted on 10/22/2011 12:22:20 PM PDT by hattend (If I wanted you dead, you'd be dead. - Cameron Connor)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: MitchellC

BTW: Since Sarah Palin decided to wait 2012 out, I’m standing on the platform waiting for the Cain Train.

Anybody but Romney at this point but Cain is the man.


52 posted on 10/22/2011 12:24:13 PM PDT by hattend (If I wanted you dead, you'd be dead. - Cameron Connor)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: EQAndyBuzz
Hey SeeBS, run that story on Tuesday morning.

BUMP!

53 posted on 10/22/2011 12:26:17 PM PDT by hattend (If I wanted you dead, you'd be dead. - Cameron Connor)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 7 | View Replies]

To: BenKenobi

This is the picture link for your red x

http://www.freerepublic.com/

There is no picture link...need a jpg or gif


54 posted on 10/22/2011 12:28:56 PM PDT by hattend (If I wanted you dead, you'd be dead. - Cameron Connor)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 14 | View Replies]

To: hattend

Yeah, there should be only one picture call. There’s a problem with the html.


55 posted on 10/22/2011 12:33:56 PM PDT by BenKenobi (Honkeys for Herman! 10 percent is enough for God; 9 percent is enough for government)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 54 | View Replies]

To: mkmensinger

Because they already knew but did not want to make matters worse for “The One.”

It’s called “selective journalism.”


56 posted on 10/22/2011 12:33:56 PM PDT by DennisR (Look around - God gives countless, indisputable clues that He does, indeed, exist.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: MitchellC

What a horrible MONSTER!!!!


57 posted on 10/22/2011 12:37:20 PM PDT by The_Freemason
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: mkmensinger
So why didn’t SeeBS ask what Obama was like as a teacher or a student, or a committee chairman? Where was ths kind of research when Zero was running?

Indeed. Why didn't we hear more about 0bama the ice cream worker who gave away product to his friends at that Baskin Robbins in Honolulu?

Was 0bama using that Connecticut Social Security Number while scooping ice cream for his pals? What was he like, and who was his boss and the owner of the franchise? What were their comments?

"CRICKETS CHIRPING"
58 posted on 10/22/2011 1:46:02 PM PDT by mkjessup (Is Herman Cain the best conservative candidate? If you say "no", then tell me who IS!!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: MitchellC

Cannot believe CBS had anything positive to say about a republican, especially one that left the democrat plantation and had the guts to say so...


59 posted on 10/22/2011 1:48:23 PM PDT by goat granny
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: goat granny

CBS may be sniffing the Dem wipeout that is gonna take place in Nov 2012 and be putting at least a few bets on the other side.


60 posted on 10/22/2011 1:50:16 PM PDT by nascarnation (DEFEAT BARAQ 2012 DEPORT BARAQ 2013)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 59 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041-6061-71 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson