Building a better casual-dining CEOBuilding a better casual-dining CEO

Steve

Right now fantasy football players are managing the teams they carefully assembled, tallying up their stats and working to earn bragging rights around the water cooler.


I have a different fantasy sport. Instead of a dream team, I think about creating a dream casual-dining chief executive who could help the segment regain its past glory as a growth powerhouse.


Any discussion of great casual-dining CEOs has to start with the late Norman Brinker. Brinker founded Steak and Ale and Bennigan’s and bought Chili’s Grill & Bar shortly before its initial public offering. Under his leadership the company, renamed Brinker International in his honor, became one of the largest casual-dining companies in the country.


During the 15 years I followed Chili’s and Brinker International — and the firm for which I worked, Alex. Brown & Sons, helped raise the company’s public equity capital — I got to know Brinker very well.


He had two qualities of my dream CEO. The first was his ability to identify and attract outstanding people. Many of Brinker’s protégées went on to found or lead other successful companies such as Applebee’s, Houston’s and T.G.I. Friday’s.


Brinker also could get people to do what he wanted them to do and have them think it was their idea. As a result, they grew more confident and were able to make better decisions and achieve at higher levels, contributing to stronger, more successful and more profitable companies.


Chris Sullivan was among those who worked with Brinker and then founded his own company. Sullivan and two other S&A alumni, Bob Basham and Tim Gannon, started Outback Steakhouse. I met Sullivan prior to Outback’s IPO, which Alex. Brown & Sons also was involved with.


One of the keys to Outback’s success was its managing-partner program, which was developed by Sullivan to motivate store-level and field management by treating them as owners. While not an entirely new idea — does anyone remember Sambo’s? — Sullivan used the program to attract outstanding people who required less management oversight because they were working for themselves.


Other CEOs have tried to imitate the Outback plan, but they have lacked Sullivan’s partner-oriented attitude. They wanted to gain more of the profits or retain more control, so none was able to launch a similarly successful program.


Sandy Beall, the founder and CEO of Ruby Tuesday, who I worked with for two years, has the ability to make decisions and stick with them. During the difficult years of 2008 and 2009, Beall made tough decisions that helped Ruby Tuesday’s business stabilize and then grow market share.


One controversial decision was to reposition the Ruby Tuesday brand as more upscale. While the wisdom of that repositioning is still to be determined, had it not been made, I believe Ruby Tuesday would be a far weaker concept than it is. Another admirable leader is Joe Lee, who stepped down as CEO of Darden Restaurants Inc. in December 2004 and retired as chairman a year later. By the time Lee announced his succession plan, Darden operated 1,300 restaurants and had annual sales of $5 billion. Lee’s accomplishments speak for themselves.


My dream CEO would have Brinker’s ability to identify and attract high-achieving people, as well as the ability to lead them in a way that raises their confidence; Sullivan’s belief that his colleagues are partners; and Beall’s decisiveness and the courage to follow his convictions.


Steve Rockwell has 30 years of experience in the restaurant industry, including as a restaurant analyst, finance executive, investor and consultant. He is a partner in Results Thru Strategy, a consulting firm based in Charlotte, N.C., and can be reached at [email protected].