New Fazoli’s CEO heads straight for the kitchen
Carl Howard has two decades of restaurant experience so he knew where to find Fazoli’s heart and soul.
Within days of arriving in Lexington as the “fast Italian” chain’s new CEO, Howard began reporting for work in the kitchens of local Fazoli’s restaurants.
“I really wanted to get in and get to know how things work,” the 42-year-old Ohio native explained. “I’ve now worked every position in the kitchen and behind the counter” at Fazoli’s.
He’s also done a few more physical things like helping to unload delivery trucks.
Then there’s the paperwork. Howard helped the manager of one restaurant do the end-of-the-month reports that are sent to Fazoli’s headquarters. In that way, “I can see what the general manager has to go through.”
Coming up: Howard has meetings with the owners of Fazoli’s franchise restaurants who may or may not be happy with the company’s policies and performance.
He once owned a restaurant franchise so “I can be very empathetic when it comes to franchises and franchisees.”
Other local companies also put their new executives through the same sort of get-to-know-you process.
For some, the change can be dramatic.
Randall McGee became vice president of operations for Valvoline Instant Oil Change in April after 30 years with fast-food chains.
McGee got to go down in the grease pits to learn how to do oil changes on customers’ cars.
“We’re going to get you dirty,” the Valvoline trainer told him, but the teacher might have underestimated his pupil in this case.
McGee is an amateur mechanic who loves working on cars.
His time in the pits was “a blast,” he said later.
July 4, 2008 at 12:36 pm
Yet another CEO that hopes inspiration can be found in the trenches while doing the dishes. Its been tried (often) before and never with lasting, demonstrable result. Fazolis needs a true commitment to innovation, quality and ROI. Without a solid strategy which mixes marketing, differentiation and expansion, the operation will never realize its potential. The CEO needs to show up every day in the executive office and make sure that everyone else stays in formation too. But maybe its too late anyway. Fazolis was on track to be Chipotle but waves like that usually don’t come twice.